dabrownman's blog

Lucy loves naan more than she loves Indian food but she really loves Indian food the best of all. So when she found out we were going to make Fusion Chicken Curry for dinner at 10 AM she was a little put off since she likes her naan to snea a long cold nap in the fridge just like pizza dough.

But, she thought she had enough time to at least get a poolosh going to increase the flavor a little bit, even though that might be a myth, when the poolish is only 5 hours old. She mixed a pinch of ADY with 60g each of milk and AP to make it 20% of the total and put it on the heating pad at 82 F for it to do its thing. The recipe for 5 naan is:

350 g of flour 100%

250 g of milk 71 %

7 g of salt

pinch of ADY

Some folks would throw some about a T of sugar in there but we don’t like sugar around here very much. The key is to have a wet dough that isn’t sticky. After 5 hours of poolishing we did enough slap and folds to get the dough smooth, non sticky and have little blisters under the skin – about 6 minutes for this little bit of dough. Then we let it sit on the heating pad for 3 hours when it puffed itself up nicely after 1 S&F at the one hour mark.

We fired up Big Old Betsy to 500 F and moved the top and bottom stones a little closer together but leaving them far enough apart to get the naan between them without burning ourselves too much. For 3 of us we divided the dough into 5 pieces and rolled the out several times to get it as thin as we could. We don’t like thick naan.

We cooked them 2 at a time, 2 minutes a side by putting the first one in for 2 minutes and then turning it as we put the 2nd one in, then pulling the first one after another 2 minutes while turning the 2md one and putting the 3rd one in. The naan were brushed with Mojo de Ajo as they came out of the oven.

Lucy say's not to forget the salad. The naan were pretty tasty and held the Indian / Asian curry perfectly. Fusion Curry has the normal Indian suspects in it using coconut milk to make the sauce and with the addition of broccoli, pea pods and tofu. Breakfast and lunch were pretty good too ..using Friday's 50% whole grain 10 grain bread for a P&J with the usual fixings.

April 4, 2014 - 2:11pm

dabrownman

50 Percent Whole Grain 10 Grain Sourdough – One with Cranberries and Seeds

This was festive around here this week. Our daughter turned 23 yesterday so a more festive bread was in order. We decided to go back to baking two smaller loaves instead of one larger one. That way we could get two different breads, one plain and one festive, out of the same dough and one bake. The festive one would be packed with fruit and seeds which Lucy says is way more festive than a plain loaf…. even if neither was a pumpernickel

No sprouts or scalds this week either. We also dropped our usual hidden inclusion of ground flax and sesame seeds too. But we did up the number of whole grains used to 10 and got the janetcook inspired whole corn back in there for the extra flavor it provides. Lucy was going to go with a 9 grain bread but at the last minute decided to toss in some semolina she found somewhere lurking in her pantry.

We kept the hydration in the 85-86% range that we like for a 50% whole grain bread but this one turned out more slack than usual slack dough due to more lower or no gluten whole flours being used in higher percentages in the mix. The sloppy mess finally stopped sticking to the counter for the most part at the end of first slap and fold session.

Another change we made was to cut the levain amount down to around 10% to make sure that the dough would not fully proof in the fridge after 10 hours so that we could let the dough warm up on the counter and not have to bake it right out of the fridge to see if the crumb and sour not would change for the better.

We did our usual 3 stage levain build from out multigrain stiff starter that has been refrigerated for 3 weeks now. The entire counter time for the levain build was 12 hours but it was refrigerated for 24 hours one hour after the 3rd build to help bring out the sour and fit our baking schedule.

Once the levain came out of the fridge for its warm up and doubling to ensure it is at it peak before use, this gave us about 3 hours to autolyse the everything else except the levain, salt, cranberries and seeds. We had soaked the cranberries earlier to plump them up and made sure there was some extra soaker water available to use as part of the dough liquid in the autolyse. We did sprinkle the salt on top of the autolyse ball of dough s we wouldn’t forget it later.

Once the salt was finally mixed in we added the levain mixing it in with a spoon before turning it out on the counter fir 3 sessions if slap and folds of 8, 1 and 1 minute on 12 minute intervals followed by 3 sets of stretch and folds on 30 minute intervals. The dough was divided before the 2nd set if S & F’s to separate out the 762 g plain loaf from the festive one.

We incorporated the cranberries, pumpkin and sunflower seeds into the festive loaf on the 2nd set of S&F’s and they were thoroughly distributed by the end if the 3rd set. The 11% shown on the formula for these add ins is really twice as high since the formula is for the combined loaves and these festive add ins only went into one of the them. That loaf was packed with fruit and seeds otherwise, as Lucy said, it wouldn’t be festive enough.

We pre-shaped and then shaped this still pretty slack but no longer horribly sticky dough into a small boule and oval, plopping them into right sized rice floured baskets. We bagged them and let them sit in the counter for an hour before refrigerating them for 10 1/2 hours.

After the dough came out of the fridge we let it warm upon the counter and finish proofing for 1 1/2 hours before removing them from the baskets onto parchment and peel at the same time. After a quick slashing and sliding them into the hot oven preheated to 550 F regular bake on the lower of 2 stones as the temperature was lowered to 500 F.

The Birthday Girl's Breakfast Fritatta has two sausages, 3 cheeses, 4 peppers with red and green onion.

Mega steam was supplied for 14 minutes with 2 of Sylvia’s steaming pans and one of David Snyder’s lava rock pans – all half full of water. 2 minutes into the steam the temperature was lowered to 475 F for the final 10 minutes of steam. Once the steam came out we lowered the temperature to 425 F – convection setting this time. In a total of 25 minutes the plain bread read 2058 F on the inside and the festive one came in at 203. So we baked them both a couple of minutes more until the seeded bread read 205 F.

They both browned up pretty well, with the plain one having small blisters and the festive on a little darker. The plain one spread more than it sprang which was the opposite of the festive bread but both bloomed OK. I think the hydration should have been a couple, or even 3, points lower for the plain version. We will have to wait on the crumb shot til after lunch.

The crumb of the pain bread was much more open than the festive one as expected. Th festive one was nuttier, seedier,sweeter and moister because of the fruit - also expected. Both are Delicious in their own way. Toasted and buttered the fruity, seedy one is perfect for breakfast or brunch with no jam required at all. The plain 50% whole grain version made for one of the best melted cheese and corned beef sandwiches of al time - for lunch. It is seriously hearty, healthy and flavorful bread. The festive one is just like it and possibly even more healthy with the nutrition of the seeds and cranberries. We like both of these breads very much. Lucy is taking a victory lap chasimng after the birds in the back yard intent on eating the tomatoes and unharvested grain.

We love grilled yet nearly raw Ahi Tuna.

Formula

This apple, pear, blackberry and srawberry crisp has a blueberry and almond granola top.

These two loaves together cost $4.70 to make including energy costs.

SD Starter	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
RyeSD Starter	5	0	0	5	0.68%
Whole Oat	1	2	4	7	1.09%
Whole Buckwheat	1	2	4	7	1.09%
Whole Corn	1	2	4	7	1.09%
Whole Farro	1	2	4	7	1.09%
Whole Rye	1	2	4	7	1.09%
Semolina	1	2	4	7	1.09%
Whole Kamut	1	2	4	7	1.09%
Whole Wheat	1	2	4	7	1.09%
Whole Barley	1	2	4	7	1.09%
Whole Spelt	1	2	4	7	1.09%
Water	10	20	40	70	10.90%
Total	25	40	80	145	22.59%

SD Levain Totals		%
Flour	72.5	11.29%
Water	72.5	11.29%
Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total	10.55%

Dough Flour		%
AP	375	58.41%
Mixed Whole Grain	267	41.59%
Dough Flour	642	100.00%

Salt	12	1.87%
Water 383, Cranberry Water	570	88.79%
Dough Hydration	88.79%

Total Flour	732.5
Cranberry Water 125. Water	642.5
T. Dough Hydration wih Starter	87.71%
Whole Grain %	51.81%

Hydration w/ Adds	86.41%
Total Weight	1,579

Add - Ins		%
Red Rye Malt	3	0.47%
White Rye Malt	3	0.47%
VW Gluten	12	1.87%
Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds	75	11.68%
Cranberries	75	11.68%
Toadies	12	1.87%
Honey	12	1.87%
Total	192	29.91%

Cranberries, Pumpkin & Sunflower Seeds were in one loaf only
The plain loaf weighed 762 g and the cranberry weight is pre-soak weight

Lucy is doing what she does best, resting while trying to think up next Friday's bake and she never forgets the salad

Read more about 50 Percent Whole Grain 10 Grain Sourdough – One with Cranberries and Seeds
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April 1, 2014 - 7:59am

dabrownman

Lucy’s Dominoes

Since we have about 15 minutes worth of levain work to do on Wednesdays, this leaves Lucy and I with lots of spare time to spend on our favorite Wednesday pastime – Dominoes! But it’s not any old Dominoes game either. If you know of some of Lucy’s wild bread recipes you can imagine what her version of dominoes is like…or maybe not since it so weird.

This version requires the players to slam their pieces down on the table with a loud wooden crack while saying something special about the other player’s mother and incorporating the number being played. Now so far, this isn’t anything special were I come from.

But, if any of what the player doing the slamming says about the other player’s mother is lewd, risqué, profane or just plain nasty, then they have to say that part in a language that starts with an S and also in one the other player does not understand - at all. Before the game starts, you have to declare what S languages you speak.

It is only right that, when you are insulting someone’s mother, that you do it in a way which won’t make them mad or... bring them to a point they want to slit your throat - especially if you are playing with Lucy. Now don’t get me wrong, Lucy is every bit a gentle and lovable creature in every way but, she comes from suspect lineage on her mother’s side and it is prudent to be careful when playing dominoes with her.

Her mother, Gretchen.Von Sniggle-Fritz, was quite well known in professional domino circles for being a good player but also as a great knife fighter. The knife fighting part is the main reason we insult, while playing dominoes, in S languages that the other player can’t understand today. In the old days, Gretchen would get all upset about the other player making fun of her mother - even if it was good nurtured and just trash talking. Most of the time she had no good reason to be put off - but not always..

Eventually as the game progressed, she just couldn’t take it anymore and would jump up from the table on her two hind legs when you least expected it…..drawing a scoring knife in each paw from who knows where since she was short hair Doxie. She would slash the other player thigh high, quickly bringing them down to her level where she could get at their throats fast and easy. Being a small but determined German also helped her no doubt and she could slash a loaf like no one's business.

You would think, with her penchant for thigh and throat slashing her domino opponents to death, that she would have had a hard time finding someone to play with but, the opposite was the fact. People would come from far and wide and pay to see Gretchen play and she got part of that gate. Domino players, who fancied themselves decent knife fighters and in her league, also sought her out like gunfighter’s did during the Wild, Wild West. They actually paid her to die, fair and square, during a dominoes game where S languages weren’t required for insults as this was a top notch professional league.

Gretchen made a fantastic living by taking on all comers for nearly a dozen years and left quite a fortune to Lucy who really needs it today. I mean, she is only a 2nd Rate Baking Apprentice and doesn't shop at Goodwill like I do. At least she has room and board paid for even though she is not nearly as talented on the slashing side of things as we know all too well from the photos on TFL.

Gretchen was getting up there in years and her blades had slowed down a touch but ....she just couldn’t say no. She also couldn’t see through the domino table when her latest opponent, a twin peg legged, Swedish, swearing sailor, who’s ancestors had really discovered America, was seated. Little did he know that Gretchen spoke perfect Swedish - being European bred.

The game had barely begun when the Swede said something about Lucy’s grandmother to Gretchen that only a salty sailor could come up with…. and in perfect Swedish too. The next thing you know, Gretchen is growling something Swedish under her breath as she leaped to her hind legs and drew her blades from who knows where.

She slashed and hacked like the pro she was but got nothing but wood chips for all her efforts. The Swedish sailor laughed heartily and quickly laid her low by doing beautiful 'artisan scrimshaw' on her noggin faster that you could say Pain Levain. His mother would have been proud.

Our domino playing today isn’t nearly as violent as it was in Lucy’s mother’s day but it is nearly as fun anyway. I specialize in Spanish and Slovak and Lucy uses the Swedish from her youth and Swiss. I tell her that there is no such thing as a Swiss language but she has told me other things about the Swiss few seem to know..... that are definitely true.

Like the fact that, the Swiss don’t brush their teeth for fear of removing those huge chunks of chocolate stuck in them and that the Swiss love time pieces so much they wear coo coo clocks on their feet for shoes. See, i told you Lucy knows some really weird, true stuff few others know.

Lucy also says that it is totally impolite to reach out and grabs a chunk of chocolate from between their teeth when they smile at you too – which is pretty often and making it pretty tough. You also need to know that every Swiss family is armed to the teeth, military trained and just spoiling for a fight most of the time like Gretchen. It is best to keep your fingers to yourself if you want to keep them .....and just yodel instead.

Still, it must be unnerving and a little frightening to be talking to any normal Swiss person on the street and have a couple of coo coos shoot up from way below from the clocks they wear on top of their toes. These birds get in your face, 6 feet from the ground and scream at you “it’s 8 o’clock you $#@*&)%^%$#@,”

The last part was in Swiss so that no one, even Lucy being fluent in Swiss and the Swiss themselves, can’t understand. a lick of the last part. It would definitely be too scary for me and other children and,,,,, plenty enough reason to skip Switzerland on our or your next European Grand Tour …. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t keep my fingers to myself with chunks of chocolate just sitting there for the taking either. That should be illegal. Back to our current dominoes game…

For example when Lucy wants to play off of my open 2 on the table, she would slap down her mate and say Dabrownman’s mother wears tube tank tops two sized too…..and the rest would be in Swedish or Swiss. No harm no foul.

Combinations are really interesting and more complex. They are sort of like a rye bread with double chocolate Swiss stout, a scald, prunes and walnuts vs. white bread. Let’s say Lucy has left an open 4 on the table. I might slam my 4 down and say Lucy’s mother had 4 big old *#(@!)&^%$ in Pigeon Spanish, on her hairless belly that made her look like a *&^%#@#))(&^ in Slovak.

Pigeon Spanish is just like Pigeon English except the pigeons aren’t from Trafalgar Square and speak Spanish instead of English - easy enough. Some say they taste better too like how Spanish olive oil tastes better than English olive oil - which hardly anyone disagrees with.

We wouldn’t know about that though since we haven’t had any English pigeons but, we do like wild Spanish pigeons better than the French ones and they are certainly better than the farm raised American squabs which are just too fatty. Lucy keeps trying to order some wild English pigeons from Trafalgar Square online but, so far, no luck. But that is another story.

So, if you are a little bored while waiting for your no knead bread to rise and have a baking apprentice, you might want to give Lucy’s Dominoes a go. Who knows? It might even help your slashing like it did Lucy’s mother if you mess it up!. To be honest, I fell pretty darn lucky just to be alive having played dominoes with Lucy every Wednesday all these years. No wonder my slashing is so poor....

Happy baking……

March 27, 2014 - 11:05am

dabrownman

107% Whole Grain 8 Grain Sourdough

Lucy finally got back to her bread and butter with a high percent whole grain multi-grain bread. It has been a while but this one may prove she hasn’t lost her touch - if she ever had one.

I'm always amazed how much the acid in the levain leaches out the color becoming almost white compared to the autolyse which has exactly the same grain in the same proportions at nearly the same hydration..

The whole grains were a mix of rye, spelt, buckwheat, oat, farro, wheat, Kamut and barley with a hydration of 95%. The add ins were red and white malt, honey, Toadies, almond meal and VWG. The non aromatic seeds included: sesame, flax, poppy and chia. The aromatic seeds included: fennel, anise, caraway and coriander.

The levain was built our usual 3 stage way using our 66% hydration rye starter that has been refrigerated weeks. The levain doubled after the 2nd 4 hour build but we only did a 16 hour retard after the levain had risen 25% after the 3rd feeding.

When we got the levain out of the fridge the next day to finish its 3rd stage doubling, we started the 3 hour autolyse of the dough flour and water, (including all the add ns except the aromatic seeds) with the salt sprinkled on top so we didn’t forget it.

Once the levain was mixed into the autolyse we did 3 sets of slap and folds of 7, 2 and 1 minute on 20 minute intervals followed by 3 sets of stretch and folds, stretching from the 4 cardinal compass points, on 20 minute intervals where the aromatic seeds were added on the first set.

Once the S&F’s were done we immediately pre-shaped and then shaped the dough into a boule and placed it into a rice floured basket, bagged it and placed it in the fridge for a 10 hour retard. This is about 2 hours less than put normal retard but after last weeks over proof we would try to under proof this one and bake it right out of the fridge.

We fired up Big Old Betsy to 550 F regular bake and put the Mega Steam Apparatus on the bottom rack when BOB hit 525 F. When she got to 550 F 15 minutes later the steam was billowing and the stones were at 525 F.

How did that apple Crisp get in there?

We upended the basket onto parchment paper and a peel, slashed it quickly and slid it on the bottom stone with another stone above for 15 minutes if steam .As soon as the oven door closed we turned the oven down to 500 F and 3 minutes later down to 475 F.

This fine tasting bread made for a fine lunch.

At he 15 minute mark, the steam came out and the oven was turned down to convection 425 F and baked another 25 minutes until the bread read 203 F when the oven was shut off. When the bread read 205 F we took it out and put it n the rack too cool.

The bread browned well and had tiny blisters but didn’t spring or bloom much. I think it was just too cold coming straight out of the fridge. At the 25 minute mark, it only read 135 F about 35 F lower than normal. Maybe it was the whole grains and high hydration that kept the dough cooler than normal and stopped the spring from really getting started.

Few things taste better than home grown cherry tomato bruschetta on toasted SD white bread.

We will see what the crumb looks like for lunch but it sure smalls great cooling in the rack. The wait for lunch is over and the crumb came out soft, moist and fairly open for a 107% whole grain bread, but it is the taste that really stands out and why we love these breads so much. The deep color of the crust and crumb is due mostly to the whole grains and honey as is the flavor. The add ins on the flavor side really stand out and make this bread exceptional.

And don't forget that healthy and tasty salad!

Formula

SD Starter	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
RyeSD Starter	10	0	0	10	1.85%
Whole Rye	1	2	3	6	1.29%
Whole Kamut	2	3	10	15	3.22%
Whole Buckwheat, Oat, Farro	1	2	4	7	1.50%
Whole Wheat	2	5	8	15	3.22%
Whole Barley	2	4	9	15	3.22%
Whole Spelt	1	2	3	6	1.29%
Water	10	20	40	70	15.02%
Total	30	40	80	150	32.19%

SD Levain Totals		%
Flour	75	16.09%
Water	75	16.09%
Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total	12.40%

Dough Flour		%
Mixed Whole Grain	466	100.00%

Salt	8	1.72%
Water	450	96.57%
Dough Hydration	96.57%

Total Flour	541
Water	525
T. Dough Hydration wih Starter	97.04%
Whole Grain %	107.02%

Hydration w/ Adds	95.20%
Total Weight	1,210

Add - Ins		%
Red Rye Malt	3	0.64%
White Rye Malt	3	0.64%
VW Gluten	15	3.22%
Poppy, Sesame, Chia & Flax	50	10.73%
Almond Meal	15	3.22%
Toadies	15	3.22%
Aromatic Seeds	15	3.22%
Honey	20	4.29%
Total	136	29.18%

Read more about 107% Whole Grain 8 Grain Sourdough
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March 21, 2014 - 12:51pm

dabrownman

Too Pooped To Pop - 56.5 Percent Whole Multigrain Sourdough

This would sort of be our everyday sandwich bread if we had one t least one with a crumb that doesn’t have bits of seeds, nuts and fruits in it. We do like bits of stuff in the crumb a lot but we have been working on improving the tastes of Lucy’s take on Josh’s more whole grain version of Pain Maggione.

So now we are up to near 60% whole grains with spelt, wheat, rye, barley and Kamut as the whole grains. We also included our favorite flavor enhancers including; Toadies, ground; sesame and flax seeds, a bit of honey, some red and white malt and, on the liquid side, some grain berry and dried fig soaker waters…. to pump the taste volume of the crust and crumb.

Sadly since we changed our counter ferment after shaping from none to 1 hour, our normal 12 hour retard of the shaped loaves was about 1 hour too long but we didn’t get around to balking the bread until the 14 hour mark.

Because we are old, got busy dong something else and forget to bake it at the 12 hour mark, when it was 92.37% proofed, it was easily well over 100% proofed when we finally baked it - instead of the 85% that we like. So, it was too pooped to pop and we just got a little bloom during steaming. But, on the bright side it didn’t collapse either… so the crumb should hopefully be OK.

One of the other things we changed is that we scheduled the 3 stage levain build (from our 66% hydration multigrain starter that has been in the fridge for a week) to only end up with a 6 hour retard after the 3rd stage had risen 100% on the counter as opposed to our usual retard of 24 hours after the 3rd stage has risen 25%.

We also changed the development to 5 minutes of slap and folds flowed by 1 set of 12 slaps and 1 set of 8 slaps all on 12 minute increments. We then only did 2 sets of stretch and folds on 15 minute increments before pre-shaping and shaping the dough into an oval.

This dough was great to work with even though it was 85% hydration. It never stuck to the counter and likely could have taken on a few more grams of liquid. Getting the skin tight was no problem at all.

After the hour on the counter, which we will not do next time, into the fridge it went for its scheduled 12 hour retard that should have been 10 but ended up being 14, counting the hour it set in the cold waiting for the oven to get ready.

We really put the spurs to the MAGA Steam by using (2) of Sylvia’s pans with rolled up kitchen towels and one larger laa rock an ala David Snyder, all half full of water. The steam went in at the 525 F mark as Big Old Betsy heated up. By the time BOB beeped, saying she was at 550 F 15 minutes later, the steam was billowing and the top and bottom baking stones were caught up with the oven temperature.

We upended the basket on parchment paper on a peel, slashed the dough gently so not to cause a collapse and slid the dough onto the bottom stone, closed the oven door and turned the oven down to 500 F. After 2 minutes we turned the oven down to 475 F remembering that BOB always thinks she is 25 F more than she really is.

After 14 minutes the steam was removed and the oven turned down to 425 F - convection this time. The bread baked for another 12 minutes and it read 203 F when the oven was turned off. 2 minutes later is was 205 F when the oven door was cracked ajar and 3 minute later it read 207 F when it was removed to the cooling rack.

How did that flan get in there?

Once again, because of the whole grains, the blisters everywhere but were on the small side, unlike white bread where the blisters are gigantic. The fig soaker water really put the mahogany color on this crust like dried fruit soaker waters used as dough liquids seem to do most always.

Don't ever forget that great salad.

This crust was nice and crisp when it came out of the oven and the bread smelled terrific too. Can’t wait to cut into it later and see how it holds up to the bruschetta we have planned for dinner, with the mix seafood ceviche, crab cake and sausage sliders with flan for desert.

Yep.....It's and Irish Ruben with homemade mustard adn Dubliner Kerrygold cheese

The crumb came out great; open, moist and soft. The crust went softer as it cooled, was chewy as well as tasty. This is a fine tastung bread that is hearty and healty not to metion perfect for bruschetta. We had a fine dinner but forgot to take pictures - everything was so good we didn't want to get slowed down with pictures. The flan was the show stopper.

Formula

Nothing like a home made winter squash pie to bring on the summer!

SD Starter	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
RyeSD Starter	10	0	0	10	1.80%
Whole Rye	2	0	12	18	3.91%
Whole Kamut	2	4	12	18	3.91%
Whole Wheat	2	4	12	18	3.91%
Whole Barley	2	4	12	18	3.91%
Whole Spelt	2	4	12	18	3.91%
Water	10	20	40	70	15.22%
Total	30	40	100	170	36.96%

SD Levain Totals		%
Flour	95	20.65%
Water	75	16.30%
Hydration	78.95%
Levain % of Total	15.48%

Dough Flour		%
Mixed Whole Grain	185	40.22%

Salt	8	1.74%
Water	402	87.39%
Dough Hydration	87.39%

Total Flour	555
Wheat Soaker Water 208, Fig Water 125. Water	477
T. Dough Hydration wih Starter	85.95%
Whole Grain %	56.58%

Hydration w/ Adds	84.89%
Total Weight	1,098

Add - Ins		%
Red Rye Malt	2	0.43%
White Rye Malt	2	0.43%
VW Gluten	10	2.17%
Ground Sesame & Flax seeds	20	4.35%
Toadies	12	2.61%
Honey	12	2.61%
Total	58	12.61%

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March 14, 2014 - 12:09pm

dabrownman

St Paddy’s Day Challenge YW Shamrock on a !00% Whole Wheat SD Chacon

This year we decided to update our Ballymaloe 100% whole wheat bake from last year by including a 100 % white shamrock on top of the 100 % whole wheat base. We cut the scald by 25% and used Young’s Double Chocolate Stout for the liquid in the while wheat portion.

I know what you are saying and I jumped on Lucy for not using Guinness instead of an English stout but she was ready for me. The YW white bread, that used the soaker liquid from the wheat berry scald, has chocolate covered pepitas in the mix as its add in and Guinness doesn’t come in a double chocolate flavor and chocolate was the uniting thread in this 100% whole grain brown and 100% white bread.

The SD version had a 2 stage 6 hour levain build and the YW version had a 1 stage 12 hour build where it was stirred down at the 4 and 8 hour marks. All the leavin building was done on the heating pad at 82 F. Both the SD 66% hydration seed and the YW came out of the fridge with the SD in there a week and the YW in there at least a month. Once both 100% hydration levains had doubled they went in the fridge for 24 hours.

Both of the dough went though the same process, autolyse (no salt or levain) of 3 hours for the WW and 1 hour for the YW version. Once the salt and levain were added we did (2) sets of slap and folds of 5 and 1 minutes for both and then 3 sets of S&F’s on 20 minute intervals. Both deveoped gluten well.

The add ins were incorporated on the first set of S&F’s and they were evenly distributed by the end of the third set. Since the kitchen was 76-78 F during most of the hand work, we didn’t get out the heating pad to keep the dough warm.

We found a hot cross bun in the freezer this morning and made it into a shamrock for breakfast. It has been in the freezer for almost a year and it tasted just as good as the original - amazing!

We shaped the YW white dough into a circle and then used the dough knife to cut it into the shape of a 4 petal shamrock with a stem and tried to place it in the bottom of the basket but it just wouldn’t go in as a shamrock and looked like a misshapen round alien thing instead.

If we would have shaped each petal separately and placed them that way, like we normally do, it would have been way easier and actually looked like a shamrock in the end – so don’t do like we did so you don’t have to slash a shamrock on the top of the bread before baking like we did – which turned out to be another fiasco.

The much larger WW SD brown portion was air shaped into a huge bialy and placed on top of the white blob in the basket. At this point, the dough was retarded for 12 hours in the fridge.

At the 12 hour mark we removed the dough from the fridge to warm on the counter as we pre-heated Big Old Betsy to 550 F. Once BOB was at 550 F we placed 2 of Sylvia’s steaming pans and one large pan of steaming lava rocks in the bottom of the oven and let them get to billowing steam speed which took 15 more minute allowing the 2 lagging stones to get to get to 550 F too.

Weun-molded he dough onto parchment on a peel, crudely scored a shamrock on the white portion of the dough and slid it into the oven for a 15 minute steam at 475 F. We then took out the steam and baked the bread at 425 F for 25 more minutes until the inside hit 205 F.

It sprang and bloomed pretty well under the steam and heat and browned up boldly too. The white YW shamrock portion also got some blisters as we hoped it would to set itself apart from the WW brown part,which had small blisters - quite a contrast.. It smelled wonderful as it baked. We will wait on the crumb shots until after lunch.

The crumb for the 100% WW SD portion was as open as one could expect and the crumb for the YW white portion was not as open as it could have been if we didn't overwork it so much getting it shaped and plopping it in the basket and then trying to make it look like a shamrock:-) Both were tasty, especially the SD WW portion but the chocolate Pumpkin seeds were a treat too.

How did that smoked chicken and ribs get in there?

The crumb was soft, glossy and moist while the crust stayed a little bit crisp as it cooled. It sure ended up being a nice looking bread on the inside and out and Lucy is especially happy the shamrock scoring came though, to sort of actually look like one, if you are half blind! This bread should hold up well against the corned beef and cabbage to served on St Patrick's Day the world over.

This bread cost $4.25 cents to make, including electricity, but $2 of that was the double chocolate stout:-) In contrast, our normal white SD bread, weighing in at pound and half baked, comes in at 99 cents a loaf.

SD Brown Bread with WW Scald & Double Chocolate Stout

SD Starter	Build 1	Build 2	Total	%
RyeSD Starter	15	0	15	3.02%
Whole Wheat	30	60	90	22.50%
Water	30	60	90	22.50%
Total	75	120	195	48.75%

SD Levain Totals		%
Flour	97.5	24.38%
Water	97.5	24.38%
Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total	18.16%

Dough Flour		%
Whole Wheat	400	100.00%

Salt	8	2.00%
Double Chocolaate Stout	334	83.50%
Dough Hydration	83.50%

Total Flour	497.5
D. Chocolate Stout & SD Starter Water	431.5
T. Dough Hydration with Starter	86.73%
Whole Grain %	101.21%

Hydration w/ Adds	85.65%
Total Weight	1,074

Add - Ins		%
Red Rye Malt	3	0.75%
White Rye Malt	3	0.75%
VW Gluten	12	3.00%
Ground Sesame & Flax seeds	24	6.00%
Molasses	20	5.00%
Total	62	15.50%

Scald		%
WW Berries	75	18.75%

White YW Shamrock

SD Starter	Build 1	%
AP	82	32.80%
Yeast Water	82	32.80%
Total	164	65.60%
Levain % of Total	26.07%

Dough Flour		%
AP	250	100.00%

Salt	5	2.00%
Wheat Soaker Water	160	64.00%
Dough Hydration	64.00%

Total Flour	332
Wheat Soaker Water	242
T. Dough Hydration wih Starter	72.89%
Total Weight	629

Chocolate Pepitas	50	20.00%

Lucy was pretty tuckered out after this one but she looks satisfied that it turned out all right in the end. Happy St Patrick's Day to all.

Read more about St Paddy’s Day Challenge YW Shamrock on a !00% Whole Wheat SD Chacon
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March 7, 2014 - 12:36pm

dabrownman

White SD Bread

The girls really liked this week’s YW Italian bread we baked using a take in the poolish calzone recipe by replacing the poolish with YW. That will be a tough bread to beat but We though we would give it a go at using nearly the same recipe and replacing the YW with SD this time.

We dropped the herbs, sun dried tomato and olive oil and added in a bit of red and white malt and upped the hydration from 76% to 78% which really made the dough a slack one. We kept to the rough 17% whole grains with all of it being in the SD preferment. This is about as white a bread as we want make for health reasons.

We stuck to the same procedure; 12 hour 1 stage levain build with a 1 hour autolyse of the flour and dough water and the salt sprinkled in top. Once everything came together we did a with mix with a spoon and 5 minutes of slap and folds before resting 15 minutes and doing another 1minute set before stopping when the dough no longer stuck to the counter.

We then did 4 sets of stretch and folds from the compass points on 30 minute intervals. The dough was then pre-shaped and then shaped into a boule and placed into a rice floured basket, bagged and placed in the fridge for a cold 12 hour retarded proof.

The bread proofed to 85% in the fridge so we Fired up Big Old Betsy to the 550 F pre heat and go (2) of Sylvia’s steaming pans ready for the mega steam. Sylvia’s pans went in when the temperature hit 500 F and when the temperature hit 550 F the steam was billowing and the stones at least up to 500 F.

We took the dough out of the fridge, upended the basket onto parchment on a peel, scored it diamond style, slid it onto the bottom stone, closed the door and turned the oven down to 475 F for 12 minutes of uninterrupted steam.

When the steam came out, we turned the oven down to 425 F, convection this time and baked the bread till it hit 207 in the inside when we turned off the oven while allowing the bread to sit on the stone till it hit 210 F when it was removed to the cooling rack.

The bread browned, cracked, blistered, sprang and bloomed well but, the blisters were not as big as the YW bread earlier in the week. This one was not over proofed as the YW seemed to be - even though it sprang and bloomed as well as this one.

We will have to wait on the crumb and tasting till after lunch but it smells fine cooling on the rack. This crumb is almost as open as the YW one, just as soft and moist but the taste is where this version of white bread shines - the YW can't compare if you love SD like I do. But, if you don't like SD then the YW version is for you. The crust stayed a little more crisp on this one but once gain it's all in the SD taste.

This bread reminds me of SFSD but little more tasty due to the whole grains and red malt. We had a great pepper jack, smoked pulled pork sandwich for lunch with the usual veggies, salad and fruits. This bread is the perfect white bread for smoked meats. I wish the BBQ joints in KCMO would serve it instead of Wonder Bread:-)

Formula

Multigrain SD Levain	Build 1	Total	%
RyeSD Starter	10	10	2.13%
Whole Rye	25	25	5.32%
Whole Wheat	25	25	5.32%
Whole Spelt	25	25	5.32%
Water	75	75	15.96%
Total	160	160	34.04%

Levain Totals		%
Whole; Rye, Spelt and Wheat	80	17.02%
Water	80	17.02%
Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour & Water	19.05%

Dough Flour		%
AP Dough Flour	390	82.98%

Salt	9	1.91%
Red Rye Malt	2	0.43%
White Malt	2	0.43%
Dough Hydration	74.36%

Total Flour	470
Water	370
Hydration with Levain	78.72%
Whole Grain %	16.81%
Total Weight	853

And don't forget that fantastic blue cheese, cherry tomato and home grown greens in that salad!

March 5, 2014 - 2:33pm

dabrownman

Poolish Calzones and Yeast Water Italian Bread

It seems ever since Sylvia posted her fine calzones we haven’t had pizza night but have calzone night instead. We like both my daughter loves seasoned ricotta and that is a calzone ingredient if there ever was one. You could say that our calzones are a cross between lasagna and pizza.

We made a simple poolish white dough sized for 4 calzones loosely based on our favorite pizza dough that is really a less hydrated Focaccia Romana, at 72% hydration, that has fresh rosemary and sun dried tomato in it. Then I thought some friends of my daughter might show up as they can when something like home made pizza or calzones are on tap.

So we quickly whipped up another version of pizza dough, this time a yeast water one since we haven’t used the poor thing in weeks and it was pretty useless just sitting in the fridge doing nothing. We used whole; rye, spelt and wheat in the YW levain to give it some extra flavor at 17% whole grains, upped the hydration 4% to account for the whole grains and subbed basil for the fresh herb instead of using the rosemary.

Then we found out that the other girls wouldn’t be coming after all and we had double the calzone dough needed for the 3 of us. So I shaped the 2nd yeast water version into a boule, put it in a rice floured basket and chucked it into the fridge for a 15 hour retard even though it was nearly fully proofed for calzones.

We are starting a test on doing less slap and folds (1) set at 5 minutes instead of our usual (3) sets totaling 10 minutes and increasing from 3 to 4 sets of stretch and folds and increasing the time between them from 20 minutes to 30 minutes to see if we could tell a difference in the crumb.

The poolish was a 12 hour counter affair before it was incorporated into the rest of the mix, the dough developed, the herbs and sun dried tomato added on the first S&F and then fermented for 30 minutes before being bulk retarded in the fridge for 24 hours.

When the poolish dough went into the fridge we started the YW levain which also took 12 hours on the counter, overnight this time. The next morning we developed the dough with slap and folds and incorporated the herbs and sun dried tomato the same as before but, instead of bulk retarding this time, we let the dough bulk ferment on the counter to hopefully let it catch up to the poolish dough in the fridge now going on 18 hours.

We took the fully risen poolish dough out of the fridge 3 hours before we wanted to use it to let it get to room temperature. In 3 hours both batches if dough were ready to go and fully proofed. This is when we shaped the YW one, put it in a a basket and retarded it.

The calzone filling included the seasoned ricotta with an egg mixed into it and the other 4 cheeses included; Monterrey jack, mozzarella, pecorino and parmesan. Hot Italian sausage and pepperoni were the meats. The veggies included caramelized crimini and button mushrooms, caramelized red onions, red bell pepper and green onion.

The calzones were baked at 425 F for 10 minutes with steam and then at 425 F convection for 15 minutes until browned and bubbly. There were even some small blisters on the folded edges.

Last night’s calzone dinner was delicious and the huge house salad was hardly touched as each of us went for maximum calzone intake. We checked the YW bread in eh fridge before going to bed last night after it had been in he fridge for 6 hours and it looked like it was 100% proofed – not a good sign for dough that had another 8 hours to go.

The calzone even looks good frozen!

Sure enough this morning the dough had given up 15% of its fridge proof the night before and was back to the 85% mark. I figured the worse case it would continue to fall in the oven and bake up like a Frisbee. So we got Big Old Betsy fired up to 525 F as fast as possible and put (2) of Sylvia’s steaming pans on the bottom rack at the 475 F mark.

We got the cold dough out of the fridge, dumped it out of the basket onto parchment on a peel. Lucy was heartened that when we scored it with a single edge razor the dough didn’t deflate further. We slid it onto the bottom stone, threw 1/2 C of water onto the bottom of the oven for instant steam, closed the door and turned the oven down to 475 F for 12 minutes of steam.

When we pulled Sylvia’s steaming pans out we switched to convection at 425 F and noticed that the bread had surprisingly sprung and bloomed well. But the huge blisters were also a welcome sign that this bread had resurrected itself from near collapse and death. It hit 210 F before we could catch it at the 26 minute mark and by then the bread was a pleasant brown.

Let's not forget breakfast.

After cooling we sliced it t find the crust was still a little crisp and the crumb very open, soft and still moist. It tasted like a really good poolish baguette that had been retarded - possibly a little sweeter? My daughter loved it and the girls who prefer a non sour bread will eat this up in no time. I wish it was a SD! Can’t taste the basil at all but every once and while you get a taste of sun dried tomato.

A hamburger slider dinner.

This is a very nice bread if you like white non sourdough bread and makes due as fine sandwich bread that the kids will love for their lunches. I have to say I really liked today’s lunch sandwich of Monterrey jack cheese, some mayo and peppered Italian salami.

Donlt overlook a great salad even if you don't eat it with calzones like you shouls!

The sides included a salad with cherry tomatoes, a knob of grilled salmon and a slice of brie. A half a pear and Minneola, half an avocado, red pepper, carrot elongated coins, a slice f fresh jalapeno, a couple of strawberries and small pile of tortilla chips with Dabrownman’s chili, tomatillo, salsa verde and killer habanero hot sauce. All of it was just delicious.

My wife's triple birthday cake. One a raspberry and white chocolate cream delight, a traditional carrot cake and the last a triple death by chocolate chunk. Delicious!

If you or yours want fine tasting 80% white sandwich bread that isn’t sour, you can’t go wrong with this one.

Formulas

Poolish White Calzone - Makes 4 Large Calzones

Poolish with a Pinch of ADY	Build 1	Total	%
AP	75	75	16.67%
Water	75	75	16.67%
Total	150	150	33.33%

Poolish Totals		%
Whole Multigrain Flour	75	16.67%
Water	75	16.67%
Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour & Water	19.35%

Dough Flour		%
AP	375	83.33%
Salt	9	2.00%
Olive Oil	10	2.22%
Dough Hydration	66.67%

Total Flour	450
Water	325
Hydration with Levain	72.22%
Total Weight	794
2 tsp of sun dried tomato
1 tsp of fresh rosemary

Yeast Water Italian Bread

Yeast Water levain	Build 1	Total	%
Whole Rye	25	25	5.88%
Whole Wheat	25	25	5.88%
Whole Spelt	25	25	5.88%
Yeast Water	75	75	17.65%
Total	150	150	35.29%

Levain Totals		%
Whole; Rye, Spelt and Wheat	75	17.65%
Water	75	17.65%
Hydration	100.00%
Levain % of Total Flour & Water	20.00%

Dough Flour		%
AP	350	82.35%
Dough Flour	350	82.35%
Salt	8	1.88%
Olive Oil	10	2.35%
Dough Hydration	71.43%

Total Flour	425
Water	325
Hydration with Levain	76.47%
Whole Grain %	17.65%
Total Weight	768
2 tsp of sun dried tomato
1 tsp of fresh basil

Read more about Poolish Calzones and Yeast Water Italian Bread
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February 28, 2014 - 10:32am

dabrownman

Un-Smoked Spelt Sprouter with Turkish Figs, Seeds, Aromatics & Some Nuts

We have wanted to smoke some flour ever since we saw Evon from Malaysia using it in her breads that seemed always have interesting and unique combinations of ingredients. Why we haven’t gotten around to it till now is a mystery but it finally got to the top of Lucy’s formula list.

Trying to get our heads around what smoked flour might be like in bread is sort of like trying to understand our normal Wednesday routine. We always start out early in the morning building the SD levain for our usual Friday bake.

This usually takes about 9-10 hours but, before we get it going, Lucy has to decide what the bake will be so we can get the levain going in the right direction. We only use whole grains in the levain or the sifted out hard bits from a 78% extraction.

Sometimes, but not this time, these are the only whole grains in the mix so we feel it is best to get them wet for as long as possible. We usually do 3 progressively larger builds at 100% hydration that will eventually total around 20% of the total flour and water weight of the dough. We let it double after the 2nd build and than let it rise 25% after the 3rd feeding before refrigerating it for 24 hours.

On Wednesday we also grind any other whole grains that might be going into the dough flour, in this case 140 g of equal amounts of whole; spelt, barley and wheat. We also get any sprouts or scald going that might be in the bake on Friday. In this case, 100g of whole spelt berries were soaked for 3 hours before being spread out on wet paper towels and covered with more damp paper towels and plastic wrap so that they could chit in 30 hours.

On Thursday the rest of the ingredients are assembled mis en place and the autolyse started - in this case for 4 hours. We got some frozen prune soaking water out of the freezer for this bake to add to the left over spelt soaker water and water to make up the dough liquid. At the last minute we decided no to smoke the spelt berries since this bread was too expensive to do experiments that might ruin it.

The salt was sprinkled n top of the autolyse dough ball so we wouldn’t forget it. Then we got the levain put of the fridge to warm up and we stirred it down to give the wee beasties a little bit more to eat.

Both the autolyse and the levain went onto the heating pad. We thought that 81% hydration would be OK for this 58% whole grain bread once the wet Turkish figs fruits were folded into the final dough.

Once everything came together, less the spices, ground seeds, sprouts, nuts and figs we did 3 sets of slap and folds of 5, 2 and 1 minute each and 15 minutes apart. We followed them up with 3 sets of stretch and folds from the 4 compass points on 15 minute intervals. All the intervals were done on the heating pad.

Then we let it rest for 30 minutes before pre shaping and then shaping into a boule that was placed seam side up in a rice floured basket, bagged and placed in the fridge for a 12 hour retard.

This morning we checked the bagged boule and saw that it had proofed 84.7% in the fridge so we got it out to warm up as we fired up Big Old Betsy to 550 F. We readied the large Pyrex pan with lava rocks half full of water along with 1 of Sylvia’s steaming pans for extra mega steam.

Once Betsy beeped she was at temperature, we inserted both steamers and set the timer for 12 minutes which would allow the top and bottom stones to get to temperature and long enough for the steam to be billowing.

We un-mold the bread onto parchment paper on a peel, slash it twice, if you don’t count the first or last one, and slid it onto the bottom stone with the steam burning out face. To pay Betsy back for the face burn we threw a half cup of water onto her bottom out of spite and for extra immediate steam.

After 2 minutes we turned the oven down to 500 F and 2 minutes later we turned it down to 475 F where it stayed until then steaming phase was done - at the 14 minute mark. We removed the steam and turned the oven down to 425 F with convection heat this time.

We rotated the bread 180 degrees every 8 minutes until it read 203 F on the inside when the oven was turned off and bread left on the stone till it hit 205 F and was removed to the cooling rack.

One is an orange and the other a Minneola but the Minneola is more orange than the orange!

The boule sprang, bloomed and blistered OK under the mega steam and browned well after the steam came out up. It took on that prune juice inspired beautiful mahogany color we love so much.

How did that smoked beef cheek get in there - unctuous is the word that fits.

We will have to wait on the crumb shots till after lunch. Well it si after lunch and crumb came out about as open as we suspected for such a high whole grains bread with tons of add ins. The crumb is soft and moist and the crust stayed a little crunchy. What we were not ready for was the fine flavor of this bread. It's nutty for sure, but the whole grains give it a deep flavor too. The sesame and flax seeds add to the nutrition while the aromatic fennel, anise, caraway and coriander are subtly there adding their fragrance. Then out of the blue, you get the sudden sweetness of the figs coming to the forefront when you bite into one. This is one hearty, healthy, nutritious and fine tasting bread. Lucy is pretty proud of herself even though she doesn't get any of this fine bread.

The winter wheat crop is starting to turn brown as the volunteer spring daisies are starting to bloom.

Formula

Rye Sour Levain	Build 1	Build 2	Build 3	Total	%
RyeSD Starter	6	0	0	6	1.35%
Whole Wheat	4	7	0	11	2.48%
Whole Spelt	4	7	0	11	2.48%
Whole Barley	3	8	0	11	2.48%
Whole Rye	0	0	44	44	9.91%
Water	11	22	44	77	17.34%
Total	28	44	88	160	36.04%

Levain Totals		%
Whole Multigrain Flour	80	18.02%
Water	80	18.02%
Hydration	100.00%

Levain % of Total Flour & Water	19.37%

Dough Flour		%
Whole Wheat	47	10.59%
Whole Barley	47	10.59%
Whole Spelt	46	10.36%
AP	224	50.45%
Dough Flour	364	81.98%

Salt	8	1.80%
Dough Hydration	82.97%

Total Flour	444	100.00%
Prune Water 110, Spelt Soaker 68. Water	382
Hydration with Levain	86.04%
Whole Grain %	58.33%
Hydration w/ Adds	80.93%

Total Weight	1,134

Sprouts		%
Whole Spelt Sprouts	50	11.26%	Dry

Add - Ins		%
Figs	100	22.52%	Dry
Red Rye Malt	3	0.68%
VW Gluten	11	2.48%
White Malt	3	0.68%
Bread Spice	11	2.48%
Toadies	11	2.48%
Ground Sesame & Flax Seeds	11	2.48%
Pecan, Walnut, Hazelnut, Brazil	100	22.52%
Total	250	56.31%

And don.t forget the salad

Read more about Un-Smoked Spelt Sprouter with Turkish Figs, Seeds, Aromatics & Some Nuts
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