dabrownman's blog

Boule and crumb.

We are continuing to discover a better method of summer baking in the Cuisinart mini oven.  This time we tried Sylvia’s steaming method by using a 1 cup Pyrex measuring  cup half full of water with a dish rag rolled up inside and microwaving it before putting it onto the preheated 500 F mini oven.

 No stone was used.  We think this steaming method is a good as covering the boule with a stainless mixing bowl and that both would be better with a stone.

 Even though the loaf was not slashed, since we managed forget to do so, I though for sure it would split somewhere but it only cracked down one side.  There wasn’t much spring - about an inch.  It browned up nicely though.  We love the color that durum brings to bread inside and out and about 50% of this bread was durum with the other 50% whole grains of various varieties with wheat germ and the flax ground.  The whole grains overpowered the yellow color of the durum with barn on the inside though.  This bread is much more about being a hearty multi-grain variety.

 The only slightly unique addition to this bread was using Vietnamese 902 Green Jasmine Tea for the liquid.  I just love Vietnamese jasmine tea and used one that is especially fragrant with jasmine blossoms. 

Boule crumb

 The crust was nicely browned and chewy after coming out of the oven very crusty.  The crumb was very moist and light and tastes very sour. It made a fine sammy and it was delicious as toast or plain.   I have noticed that, if YW and SD starters are mixed from the beginning of the levain build, the bread is less sour.  The boule sprang more than the loaf and the crumb was a little more open.

Loaf crumb

 This bread didn’t have the usual sprouts and pumpkin or sunflower seeds (since I also forgot to put the pumpkin seeds in) we like so well, but it is a very hearty and satisfying bread to munch on – until it is gone!  Formula and method follow:

Method

 The YW and SD levains were built separately this time and used 3 builds.  The first 2 builds for each were 4 hours apart and the levains were refrigerated overnight at the 8 hour mark right after the 3rd build as each had already doubled. 

 All mixing was done by hand.  The flours, ground flax seeds, wheat germ, chia seeds, salt and green tea with the salt were autolysed for 1 hour before the levains were added the next morning.   After mixing the levains in completely the dough was allowed to rest for 20 minutes.

 4 sets of S&F’s were done every 15 minutes.  The first 2 were done on a floured surface the last 2 in a well oiled, bowl.  The dough was rested in a plastic covered oiled bowl between the S & F’s.  The dough was allowed to ferment and develop on the counter for 1 ½ hours before retarding in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

 The dough doubled in the refrigerator overnight. The next morning the dough was divided in half and half returned to the refrigerator since it would be baked one hour after the first half.  The other half was allowed to come to room temperature for 1 hour and then pre-shaped into a loaf rested 10 minutes and final shaped into a loaf and placed into a Pyrex loaf tin and allowed to proof.  The other half of the dough went through the same process but shaped into a boule and placed into a rice floured basket to proof.

 After an hour and half the loaf had doubled, passed the poke test and ready to bake .  Sylvia’s steaming method was used with a wash rag heated in a half full Pyrex 1 cup measure in the microwave and the placed in the back of a 500 F preheated Cuisinart Mini Oven.  No stone was used.  The loaf was not slashed but was steamed  for 12 minutes and then the steam removed and the temperature turned down to 425 F convection this time.

 The bread was then rotated every 5 minutes until if reached 205 F internal and then was removed to the cooling rack with no extra crisping in an off oven.  After the first 5 minutes of convection baking the loaf was removed from the Pyrex loaf pan and baked directly on the rack. 

 A similar process was used for the boule except it was slashed and steamed on parchment paper on the top cover of the broiling pan for the first 12 minutes and then baked at 425 F directly on the rack.  The loaf took about 30 minutes of total baking time and the boule 3 minutes less.

It's almost been a week since the last sandwich for lunch post and some of us are getting hungry.

grilled 50% whole grain with sprouts seeds and nuts,  Amish Swiss cheese with Italian salami with Brownman pickles and pico.

A dinner snuck in there with herbed and seeded ciabatta bun for the hammy, caramelized onion and mushrooms with some baked mini oven wedge fries.

Ciabatta salami and cheese, cantaloupe, grilled pineapple and some grilled pico.

got some more of those nice apricots - not for jam this time.

Dinner salad with cold steamed veggies (broccoli, summer squash, corn ,green bean), carrot, mushroom, green onion, red and green pepper, celery and 2 kinds of lettuce.

the 50% whole grain bread with orange home grown tomato and grilled smoked sausage with pepperjack cheese.

Grilled chicken and cheese with strawberry stuffed apricots, pickles, jicama, tomato salad and mango - the world's most eaten fruit!

How did that get in here...and who pinched the e topping twice?  Apprentices are suspect!

Another interloper, this time a salad for 2.

90% whole grain, spouts, nuts and seeds used for grilled salami and cheese with pickles, green chili verde, berries and mango.

After this in 100 F heat...

You need this for lunch ...Amish Swiss, tomato, grilled chicken sandwich on 90% whole grain with celery and carrot, cold steamed veg, pickle, berries, apricot and guacamole on tomato. 

We took 100 g of our last bake:  The SD / YW Chacon Revisited – 90% Whole Grain, Multigrain Sprouts, Walnut and Sage Paste, and Pumpkin Seeds and used that as the starter for the pizza and pide dough.  It was weird having nuts, seeds and sprouts in the final dough but sure made forming the crusts fun and interesting with these add-ins tearing holes when ever they were encountered :-)

To this starter we added 100 g of whole soft white wheat we ground in the Krups grinder and 150 g of AP flour with 180 g of water.  The hydration ended up being around 75% since the starter was at 90% hydration.

We ground up some dried rosemary from the back yard and added this to the pizza dough after it was formed into a pie and the Mojo de Ajo brushed on the top.  The pies and pide were pre-baked a 500 F on a stone for 3 minutes before the rest of the toppings were added.  Instead of rosemary, the pide was sprinkled with dried Greek oregano after the  Mojo de Ajo was brushed on. 

My daughter said is was the best pizza to date even through she and my wife preferred our standard Focaccia Romana with garlic, fresh rosemary and sun dried tomatoes in the dough.  I'm not sure how this squares with being the best?

The pizzas had the usual toppings, home made Italian sausage, pepperoni, 5 peppers; red, green, poblano, Serrano and jalapeno peppers, caramelized onion and mushrooms,  3 cheeses; mozzarella, pecorino and Parmesan with fresh basil and garlic chives for garnish - after they came out of the oven.

Since this dough didn't have any olive oil in it, it baked up thin and very crisp and stayed that way even when wrapped up for the freezer an hour later.  It didn't bend even when loaded with all the toppings. A crunchy delight that wasn't too much because it was so thin. Very tasty too.

I liked the pide the best because of the toppings.  The oregano and Mojo de Ajo base, green olives stuffed with pimentos cut in half, sun dried tomato and garlic Feta, caramelized onion and mushrooms, the 5 peppers, thinly sliced Swiss chard with a hint of pecorino on top.  The little extra dough on the ends and side was also nice.  I'm sure the next bake will use the standard Focaccia Romana dough but the change this time was nice.  Next time, we have to bake it longer to get those dark, dark spots on the crust that makes Sylvia's look and taste so good.

After having such a nice loaf turn out from the last Chacon bake, we thought we would do everything we could to mess it up – and we did mess up more than half of it without much difficulty at all.  These things happen when you try new things.  Not to worry when we can learn from near disasters.

 We took a more difficult but very nice 90% whole grain formula and decided to try it out in the Cuisinart mini convection oven  we want to use for summer baking.   The problem is that space is limited, steaming is harder and keeping the steam in difficult.

 So we decided to try baking this loaf 2 different ways with steam and see which one performed better.

One was using the broiling pan that came with the oven, putting water below and baking the bread on the perforated cover.  The other way was to bake the bread on the broiler pan bottom and put a stainless steel mixing bowl over the top.

The spare tire.

 We also wanted to try out some different patterns for the Chacon as well as try out a new shaping method that would help in spring.   We did two folds and crimps (like shaping baguette) for the outside ring instead of one.

The loaf steamed with the full broiler pan and the water below, we decorated with flax seeds and bran stuck to the loaf with egg white.  One the other round loaf we used 3 smaller knotted rolls instead of one in the middle and left it undecorated under its steel steaming lid that acted like a cloche.

The winner was unmistakable.  The cloche, steel lidded loaf, performed much better as far as spring goes.   But, after removing the steaming lid my apprentice forgot to move the loaf up a rack level and burned the bottom of it.  OOPPPSSS!   The other loaf didn’t have any spring at all - but was not burnt.  Between the two, we got zero decent bread but would if you could cut the good bottom one of them and switch it to the other better sprung and looking top.

 Now we know that the mini oven will work fine in the summer to make bread when plugged in outside by using the cloche and the apprentice has learned her lesson.

The method for this bread was the 3 day process and similar to this bake:   http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28806/hanseata%E2%80%99s-wild-rice-sd-w-yeast-water-multi-seeds-prunes-beer-and-sprouts#comments

3 stage levain YW and SD combo starter, overnight retard of the starter, 24 hour autolyse for the flour and the liquid using whey water from yogurt making this time, 1 1/2 hour ferment/development followed by overnight retard for the dough with final proof the next day in rice floured baskets in a trash bag.

We also used walnut oil and crushed walnuts for a separate paste like Phil did for his Walnut and Sage bread and put walnuts and pumpkin seeds in the bread too with the sprouts.  – Thanks Phil!  We preheated to 500 F regular bake and then did a regressive temperature baking profile.  After 2 minutes 450 F.  After 15 minutes, remove steam or cloche and turn oven down to 400 F convection.  Turn loaf 180 degrees every 5 minutes until done about more 20 minutes or 35 minutes total until temp hits 205   the center of the loaf.   Leave in oven to crisp for 10 minutes with oven off and door ajar.

See how the purple color comes out under inside artificial lighting - The walnut oil paste finally shows itself. 

As you can see the crumb is nice and airy even with 90% whole grains in this loaf.  The power of YW shows.  The crumb was moist.  The crust stayed crisp and crunchy even hours later.  Tuns out the dark crust came from reusing the parchment paper from the Croissant bake - butter transferring to the crust and turning dark. It didn't taste bad nor was it tough or hard to cut - just dark - and extra tasty.  The Chacon curse was partially lifted.  This is one great tasting bread too.  We love all the whole grains, add ins, nuts and sprouts.   The whey water makes this breadhave a deep SD flavor that builds over time.  The Chacon has it's new formula now too. 

As a final note we did pinch of 100 g of fermented dough right before it went into the fridge to use as a starter for a pizza and pide for tonight’s dinner - turned out very well.  We will make that a separate post though.

The formula follows the pix and we won’t have crumb shots for 24 hours.

With the freezer full of half loaves of recent bread bakes we had time to do some other cooking and grilling.  We ran across these great apricots.  Never seen anything like them - just beautiful color - inside and out.  Almost too good to eat!

So some apricot, nectarine and ginger jam was soon to follow.

A nice salad with 3 kinds of lettuce, green onion, criminis, carrot, queso fresco, tomatoe, corn, brocolli, squash, red pepper...

Indian Chicken with grilled, eggplant, grey squash and pak choy.

My daughter said this is her favorite of all the bread we have made.  Her tastes have come a long way.  50% whole grain SD combo with sprouts, scald and 2 nuts found here  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28591/multigrain-sd-w-multi-sprouts-2-nuts-and-seeds-somewhere

A smoked sausage, green onion, red pepper, chipotle aioli and queso fresco sammy.

With berries, grey squash, corn, brocolli, salad Thai red chili mac and cheese and pickles.

Apple granola crisp with bourbon, sans dried fruit.

Grilled peppers, grey squash, onions for some; chickan tacos, Pico de Brownman, Mexican green dirty rice and some 3 beans Baja style with pork jowl.

Tequila, Mojo de Ajo, multi dried peppers and lime Baja Chicken.

Is that a piece of chocolate pudding cake hiding under the ice cream w/ chocolate sauce and Apple Granola Crisp? 

A tuckered out apprentice chillin' in her favorite spot on the back of the sofa.  Do you think she is getting a little cubby?

This 40% whole grain bread is a combination YW and SD starter, seeded, multi-grain that does not have sprouts or a scald.  The hydration of 79% is not too much for a bread with so much whole Rye, WW, spelt and WWW.  There is also semolina in the starter and the dough as well.  There is a little potato flake, red and white rye malt, wheat germ and 6 kinds of seeds.  Sunflower-25 g, anise-3g, hemp-10g, coriander-2g and fennel-3g with only the flax seeds ground into a flour.  Since the bread was not retarded to bring out additional SD flavor it had a slight tang but the aromatic seeds really came through nicely.

Marking the fold lines.

Folded with knot roll added.

It’s not often we get to work on a new bread shape but one was needed for the 6 sided basket requiring the new shape.  Thomas Chacon came up with the unique way to fold the 6 flaps to the center so the bread could be loaded into the basket and this bread is named after him - he deserves it.  I added the knotted roll in the center to complete the loaf.  The hard part was flipping the whole thing into the basket after the shaping.  Instead of flipping I should have folded the bread on the peel with parchment under the dough, added the knotted roll, placed the same shaped basket on top and turned the whole thing over causing no damage to the Chacon shape.- Next time!

Flipped into teh basket.

Risen nicely. Can you find the poke test?

Since the skin couldn't be tightened like a normal loaf, and was just folded like an Altamura ‘Priests Hat’, we didn't know how the loaf would perform in holding in the gas and generating spring.  It proofed up nicely though and was amazing how well it filled in all the space from the end of the fold to the knot.  Spring wasn't what we had hoped but a different folding method could possibly cure some of that problem.  All in all it was a fun experiment that resulted in a nice looking loaf of bread.  It smelled great when it finished baking and was crisping on the stone with the oven off and door ajar.

The Chacon is nice looker even before baked.

The crust was deeply cracked (since there was no scoring) brown, and crisp - and it stayed crisp after cooling.  The basket left some nice flour marks too.  The Chacon was very nice looking overall on the outside but the spring would have been better if the loaf wasn't over proofed by an estimated 30 - 40 minutes.  When it passed the first poke test the oven was still cold – not a good thing and shows you need to be testing earlier than 2 hours after start of proof.  It is summer time and every bit of 112 F outside today.  A/C keeps it 80 F inside though.

Nicely cracked and we like what the knot roll did for the baked looks.

The crumb was nicely open for the amount of whole grains and the manhandling it took.  I'm still impressed with what the YW   can bring to a loaf of bread when it comes to moist and soft crumb - amazing really.  The bread tasted like a seeded rye loaf that had more rye than this did.  Maybe this was because of the seeds though.  I would be tempted to put some caraway in the seed mix next time.  This Chacon is hearty, tasty and visually stimulating.  Method and formula follow the Pix’s

The Chacon made a very nice taasting grilled chicken, queso fresco sandwich witha plate full of fruits and veggies. 

The Chacon Method

 The SD and YW levains were built over 3 stages of 4 hours each. The next stage is added to the previous one and all of the eventual 320g of levain is used in the final dough. After the 3rd stage was built, the levain went into the fridge for a 6 hour retard.  In the morning when the levain came out of the fridge to warm up the flours, malts, VWG and slalt were autolysed with the water for 2 hours on the counter.  The seeds and levain were the only things held out of the autolyse.

After 2 hours on the counter, the autolyse and Levin were mixed on KA 2 for 4 minutes and KA 3 for 2 minutes.  The dough was transferred to a well oiled bowl and allowed to rest covered with plastic wrap for 15 minutes

4 S&F’s were performed at 15 minute intervals in the bowl.  The 5th S& F was performed on a floured counter where the seeds were incorporated.  After the 6 S&F the dough was allowed to ferment and develop in the bowl for 1 ½ hours.   

The dough was then placed on a floured work surface, a small ball removed for the eventual knotted center. The remainder of the dough was gently jostled  into a1”thick circle that was 12 “ across –2”wider than the widest part of the Chacon 6 sided basket.   The basket was used to mark the dough to establish the 6 fold lines.  The dough was then folded to the center at the lines, leaving a 4” diameter open circle in the center.   The knotted roll is placed in the center of the Chacon to complete the loaf.  The entire loaf was then flipped over into the well rice floured 6 sided Chacon basket and allowed to final proof on the counter for 2 hours in a plastic bag where it doubled and passed the poke test.  Don't do this flip into the basket though.  Put some parchment on a peel, press out the circle of dough 1" past each of the points of the basket, mark the fold lines with the inverted basket, make the six folds, add the knotted roll and place the basket over the dough. Then just turn the whole assembly over removing the peel and parchment.

At 2 hours the oven was preheated at 500 F for 45 minutes with stone steam in place. Overturn basket onto parchment on a peel. No slashing is required for the Chacon.

Slide bread into the oven.  After 2 minutes, turn oven down to 450 F.  After 13 more minutes, remove steam and turn down oven to 4oo F convection this time. Turn Chacon 90 degrees every 5 minutes and bake until temperature in the middle of the bread is 205 F. Turn off oven and crack the door to allow the crust to crisp for 12 more minutes. Remove bread from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.

Some recent bread made into lunches , the last bloom of the jackaranda and a blueberry, blackberry, chocolate cheese cake.

Sweet Tader Toast with caramelized minneola marmelade

Here is a sample of what the darker side of bread baking will reveal if you don't keep you apprentice on a short leash.  I wish that was all of them but these are just the ones I found in the garage.  More good deals like these and my apprentice will be broke :-)  She said we have to use the 6 sided one next but wonder how you have to shape for that!

She looks pretty guilty don't you think?

We always seem to have smoked and BBQ ribs for many holidays. This Memorial Day was no exception.  In KCMO where I grew up, the ribs are famous and are always served with Wonder Bread.  I was looking for a different bread when I saw Floyd’s Sweet Potato Rolls in the home page.   I though this might make a great bread to go with ribs.

 Quite unlike my wayward and undisciplined apprentice, I try to stay as close to recipes as I can but, in this case I don’t stock any commercial yeast, so I hope Floyd doesn’t mind that I subbed a SD and YW starter and converted the rolls to a bread - boule style.   I think my apprentice threw in some rye and WWW while I wasn’t looking too!   Other than that, we were true to Floyd’s intentions – pretty much.

 To commemorate Ian’s first home page cover for his Semolina, Toasted Almond Multi-Grain Bread, I used his signature T-Rex slash for this bread and for once it was near perfect – a real first for me.  Ian must finally be rubbing off on me.

 The beauty of this bread is unmistakable.  Sweet taters give this bread a lovely orange cast inside and out.  The color is what drew me to it in Floyd’s post.  I was so glad it didn’t stick to my cheap basket. 

 It also smelled great while baking from the cinnamon and nutmeg light spice in the dough.   My wife was asking what that smell was?  If it’s not Thanksgiving, I guess it is harder to pin down.

 The crust went soft as it cooled and we cannot wait to have it for dinner in about 2 hours.  Crumb shots after that.

 Method

 The levain was built over 3 stages of 4 hours each and the YW and SD were mixed together from the beginning as has been the usual lately.  After 12 hours the levain had more than doubled and into the fridge it went for an overnight stay.

We micro waved two small sweet potato and mashed the with a fork to get the ¾ of C required.

In the morning I mixed everything together in the mixing bowl (including the salt so I don’t forget it), except the levain and let it sit for 30 minutes to autolyse.  Then the levain went in and we mixed it on KA 2 for 6 minutes and the KA 3 for 2 more minutes. The dough was then transferred to a plastic covered, oiled bowl to rest for 15 minutes.

4 sets of  S&F’s were done 15 minutes apart each time on a slightly floured work surface  and then the dough was allowed to rest on an oiled bowl and ferment / develop for an hour. 

After an hour rest, 1 more set of S&F’s were done to help shape the dough into a boule.  The dough was dragged across a non-floured surface to make sure the skin was taught.  It was flipped over and the bottom seam was completely pinched off and sealed.  Then the boule was flipped over and dragged again to stretch the skin tight.   It was placed upside down in a rice floured basket to double in a plastic bag on the counter.  It rose ½” above the top of the basket in 2 ¾ hours and passed the poke test.

After 2 hours the oven was readied by preheating to 500 F with steam and stone in place.  I use 2 of Sylvia’s towel in a baking pan method for steam now.  In 45 minutes the oven was ready.  The boule was un-molded by putting parchment on the top, a peel on top of that and then the whole shebang overturned.

 Into the oven it went and the temperature was turned down to 425 F.  after 15 minutes of steaming the steam was removed and the temperature was turned down to375 Fconvection this time.  The boule was turned every 5 minutes and after a total of 38 minutes it was deemed done.   The bread was not allowed to crisp in the off oven with the door ajar as usual but was immediately moved to a cooling rack since we wanted the crust soft like Wonder Bread.

Note : 1/2 tsp of cinnamon and 1/4 tsp of fresh grated nutmeg are added with autolyse.

A real Brown Plate Special with 2 different tamals, chipoltle sauce, red curry mac & cheese, brown and black re-fried beans, corn tortilla chips, Baja grilled chicken and a touch of guacamole. Plus this weeks amber ale and our take on Hanseata's Wild Rice brown bread.

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