Foodzeit's blog

Bread baked in the "dutch oven" (?)

A while ago all the food bloggers suddenly started to bake bread in a roasting pot. The baking result was being compared with the bread that is being baked in the Manz oven (semi-professional bread baking oven for the ambitious amateur with humidity function). The bread made in the pot received very good reviews on all sides, but I was sure of myself and my advanced baking skills so I told myself that I am resistant against this phenomena, my crust and my crumb are near to perfection, I don’t need all of this. But that was yesterday.
Tonight I slept badly and most likley some tse-tse fly must have slipped under my moskito net. She must have happily devoured my blood as a great thank you she left me with an infection. When I woke up this morning to pop my retarded bread in the pot, little did I know that about 50 minutes later I will be having the pot bread fever. Even if the bread got a little burnt on the outside (I will put some work on finding the right timing and the temperatures). But anyhow, it already is decided that I will abuse my roaster more often in the future to bake bread in it.
So I am happy and I want to thank Zorra from the kochtopf.me blog and Sandra from Snuggs kitchen, who are organizing the bread baking day and who had the great idea to ask for bread that is made in a roaster. Without them I would have not been infected; an infection that I would not miss for anything in the world. Now I am curious who else got infected with the same infection after this BBD.
Here now the recipe of my specially created bread for this bbd. I decided to go with a rye bread mixed with some whole wheat flour, featuring walnuts and some grated Pran Padano cheese, which I left in the fridge overnight for some retarded fermentation in order to intensify the flavors.

Finished bread in the breadbasket

• Sourdough
• Rye Flour 153.33 g
• Water 153.33 g
• Sourdough starter 15.33 g

• Walnuts 50 g
• Rum 50 g

• Sourdough 322.00 g
• Nut piece 100.00 g
• grated gran padano cheese 50.00 g
• Rye Flour 357.78 g
• Whole wheat flour 127.78 g
• Water 307.78 g
• Salt 12.78 g
• Dried yeast 2.46 g 

• Mixing bread ingredients (not the salt and the sourdough) 0:30 h
• Mix ingredients + salt + sourdough. First rise (stretch and fold every 40 minutes). 2:00 h – 2:30 h
• Pre shaping the bread and resting 0:30 h
• Final shaping the bread + proofing (rise to a double) 1:00 h
• Pop everything in the fermentation basket and pop it in the fridge for overnight retarding 12:00 h
• Pre heat the oven and the roasting pot inside at 260 degrees Celsius
• Pop the bread in the preheated roast, close the lid
• Lower the temperature every 15 minutes for 10 degrees Celsius
• After 30 minutes, open the lid of the pot
• After 20 more minutes of baking, take the bread out and let it cool down

Bread slices cut open with crumb view

I nearly missed out that you guys are celebrating thanksgiving today. So for this occasion, and also because I had to bake something for the bread baking day, organized by www.kochtopf.me, here is my focaccia that we had today. A perfect autumn food that went well with our tomato soup tonight. 

The recipe features whey, an overnight fermentation and some beautiful olives and sun dried tomatoes with some Grand Padano on top. Delicious stuff that focaccia i have to say. Enjoy your festival :)

So, only for you, I was making yet another Wasabi onion bread - without Wasabi :). Only thing that's not so nice is that the bread went a bit flat on my while scoring it.

I have to admit that I also added a cooking piece with barley grains to keep the bread nice and moist AND I tried another stencil design on my bread. Still not perfect I have to admit, but slowly getting there. Here is the bread in all it's "beauty".

So, after promising a few times, here finally is my Wasabi bread. I added 2 spoons of Wasabi and some fried onion pieces to the 1500 g of sourdough.The result is tasty, fluffy, light and got a wonderful crust. A very successful attempt I have to say. I bought myself some cheese and some cooked ham for this occasion. With a slice of tomato and some fresh spinach leave, what a tasty evening snack :). 

The crumb is a full success but unfortunately my stencil technique wasn't I wanted to stencil a skull on the bread to warn for the spiciness. But just where I had put the flour the bread surface cracked open and destroyed the skull. But at least you can still see the bones of the skull :). Have to find out how to bake without the surface cracking open for my next bake.

So, after my last try to make bread with an overnight retarded fermentation (which I REALLY want to succeed in because it will intensify the flavors of the bread enormously) I made a new attempt. With the help of dabrownman I discussed my last experiment of making a wheat bread with overnight fermentation. The wheat bread was a great success, taste wise, but I had problem with a very compact crumb. Following his advice I switched my method to grow my sourdough yeast bacteria base from the single stage sourdough (which I used to do before this day) to the three stages sourdough methods (which I will use from now on). The difference is just worlds apart and I got the crumb that I could only dream of before. Now I got it all. I am using the overnight fermentation in the fridge for improved flavor and I am using the three stages sourdough in order to improve the crust and I will always try to make the dough as wet as possible for an improved crumb. The result of my specially created wheat bread with oregano made this way was so successful, after putting it in the bread form it more than doubled in size so that the bread grew “over board’ and I got a funny wave form after baking it. I can live with it and now I know it for next time, so I will be portioning it more wisely.

Last time I made my own Feta cheese and had a lot of left over whey from this time. This whey found its way in my bread and I simply love the special taste not that it gave my bread.

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Zorra is celebrating her world bread day on her blog. Come and see all the wonderful breads being baked over here: Kochtopf.me. This is my contribution to this event 

Bread fresh from the oven

Today is world bread day. It is strange how unimportant this important day actually is. Except us hobby bakers maybe nobody on the street would even know about this very important day, because bread is still such an important staple all over the world. But nobody seems to care any more these days. If I only remember how many bakeries from my youth, that made awesome artisan bread, disappeared because they lost the fight with the supermarket chains that offer cheap bread from the dispenser. Anyhow, something to think about while I as baking this fresh kind of bread that contains yogurt and some summer herbs for a light and fresh taste. To celebrate the world bread day, I wanted to bake bread that is fresh and light and that creates the right kind of light mood for the world bread day celebration. As this is maybe the last summer bread, I wanted to bake wheat based bread and leave rye flour for my next autumn bread. In either case it also will taste very delicious, even if it’s not world bread day any more. Anyway, here is the recipe of my bread
Sourdough

• 160 g wheat flour
• 130 g water
• 16 g sourdough starter

Mix everything together to smooth dough without any clumps inside and let it rest in a covered bowl at 24-28°C for 14 – 20 hours. After your sourdough is ready, don't forget to take some starter away and keep it in the fridge for your next bread.

Soaking piece

• 70 g roasted oatmeal flakes
• 200 g boiling water

Put the flakes in a bowl. Pour the boiling water over them. Let everything rest for 12 – 16 hours

Maindough

• Sourdough
• Soaking piece
• 400 g wheat flour
• 185 g yogurt
• 1 g dried yeast
• 14 g Salt
• 2 Tbsp of cumin, oregano and thyme mix

Put all ingredients in the mixing bowl and mix them well together and knead them for about 5 – 7 minutes until the gluten in the dough is set free, the dough is a bit soft and gluey. Let the dough rest for 40 minutes. During this, stretch and fold the thrice.
Now I formed two breads from the dough mass. If you are not sure how to form / shape bread, please follow my link on "bread baking basics + know how". This is another one of my free formed bread and so, it has to rest in a form in order to not run flat on you. So normally you would put in a bread fermentation basket it you have one. This is a basket that bakers will let their breads ferment in for a while to get in form while fermenting. As I don't have a special basket for this, I am just taking a normal high bowl (I am still using the same on that I used when I made this bread) with a round bottom that gives my bread more or less the form that I desire for the bread. I flour the bowl well before I add the dough, this way later it won't stick to it. Now I add the formed dough bottom side up into the bowl. Let the bread ferment another 45 - 60 minutes (actually there is a finger test to check if the bread is ready for the oven or not. I will post this method another time because it’s really helpful at this stage).
Once the breads have been fermented, I drop them upside down from their bread baskets on my permanent Teflon baking foil on which I already sprinkled a bed of flour. I also cut the bread and sprinkle a layer of flour on top of the bread before putting in the oven. The oven should be pre heated on 250°C. Now pour a cup of hot water in the oven (if you do not have this inbuilt steaming program in your oven at home), pop the bread in the oven and also place a cup of water on the floor of the oven to give some additional steam later on. Quickly close the door so the hot steam will be caught within the oven. Having all that steam in the oven is, like mentioned many times before, extremely important for a scrumptious crust and a great consistency of the bread.
Bake the breads for 10 - 15 minutes like this until it reached the right brown color that you are looking for in a bread crust, then open up the door, let the steam out, lower the heat on 200°C and continue to bake the bread for another 35 - 40 minutes. Now switch off the heat, keep the door open and let the bread cool down slowly. I always spray a bit of water on top of the fresh loaf when it's still hot. It gives a nice and shiny surface the fresh baked crust.

Grilled slice of fresh bread with some garlic butter

This month, Karen from the “brot and bread” blog was asking bakers on “the fresh loaf” to come together and try to recreate a special kind of multi grain artisanal bread that she has fallen in love with during her holidays in Germany. The sourdough bread was a very moist type of whole wheat bread with plenty of goodies inside. I immediately thought about participating, but being in lack of many of the required grains for this bread, I thought about another bread that was on my list of “homemade rye breads to bake” for a very long time, a wonderful grain based bread that is healthy and full of good stuff is this bread that I baked, following Marla's recipe from over here.

I liked to bake this bread today because I like barley, which is used in the bread as a main ingredient, which is a wonderful and healthy grain that has a lot of fibers as well as iron contents. Also being one of the main ingredients of beer, what could go wrong if put it in my bread as well? So here with go with this great tasting whole grain bread.

Sourdough:

• 100 g rye flour
• 100 g water
• 10 g rye sourdough starter

Mix everything together to smooth dough without any clumps inside and let it rest in a covered bowl at 24-28°C for 14 – 20 hours. After your sourdough is ready, don't forget to take some starter away and keep it in the fridge for your next bread.

Sponge:

• 100 g wheat flour
• 80 g water
• 1 g fresh yeast

Mix everything and let it rest for about 12 hours at room temperature

Scald:

• 110 g cracked barley seeds
• 50 g roasted sunflower seeds
• 40 g linseeds
• 10 g black sesame seeds
• 12 g salt
• 300 g hot water

Mix everything and pour the hot water over it and let it rest for 12 hours at least

Saaten mix - grain mix

Main dough:

• Sourdough
• Scald
• Sponge
• 140 g wheat flour
• 50 g rye flour
• 10 g sesame oil 
• 50 g grated apple
• 6 g fresh yeast

Ingredients - Zutaten

Mix everything well together and knead for about 10 minutes, cover the bowl up, put it in a warm place and let it rest for 30 - 40 minutes. After that, fold the dough 3 times in the bowl. I am making 2 loafs out of the dough. So I split the dough in two equal portions and I shape the dough into the shape of the inside of the bread baking forms so it looks a bit like a big sausage. In the meantime butter the bread baking forms with butter and pop the dough in the forms. Cover it up and let the form rest in a warm place for another 60 minutes. At the end of those 60 minutes the yeast of the sourdough was working and increasing the volume of the bread but maximum two times.

Dough in the bread baking form - Teig in der Brotbackform

Before popping it in the oven, I am using the finger probing technique to see if the breads are ready to be baked now. Then I am taking a water sprayer to spray some water on top of the breads. Then I add oatflakes on the loafs and I cut both breads once in the middle.
In the meantime preheat the oven to 250 degrees Celsius. Then pop the bread form in the oven and pour a cup of water in the bottom of the oven. Actually, you can put a baking tray in the oven when you preheat it. This way you can pour the water in the tray instead of the bottom of the oven, it’s less messy. Anyhow the effect is the same, what you want is the hot steam. Now you bake the bread in the hot steam for 10 minutes. Then you open the oven, let the steam out (eventually take the baking tray out) and reduce the heat of the oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Continue baking the bread for another 35 – 40 minutes. Then pop the breads out of the form and spray some water on the bottom and the side of the bread. It the bottom and the top of the bread are still too pale, you can put the bread back in the oven and bake for another 5 minutes.

(The following bread recipe can also be found on my blog, over here.)

A local ingredient, which we can find in most Chinese dishes, is the spring onions (and that not only in spring). The freshness of the spring onion always makes me think of the kind of fresh cheese with herbs that I love to spread on a slice of fresh bread and enjoy with some tomato as a topping, it’s a perfect light spring / summer kind of a spread. So in order to incorporate the spring onion into my bread I wanted to make a lighter kind of bread. So rye flour is out of the question this time. So I am creating a recipe for a sourdough based loaf of artisan bread, which has a higher percentage of wheat flour in it. So as homage to the spring onion I am presenting my light and fluffy home-made spring onion wheat bread.
Sourdough

• Rye Flour 62 g
• Water 62 g
• Rye Flour starter 6.2 g

Mix everything together to smooth dough without any clumps inside and let it rest in a covered bowl at 24-28°C for 14 – 20 hours. After your sourdough is ready, don't forget to take some starter away and keep it in the fridge for your next bread.

Yeast sponge

• Whole wheat flour 75 g
• Water 75 g
• Yeast 3.0 g

Mix ingredients until smooth. Then let dough rest for about 12 - 14 hours, 22–25°C.

Swollen piece

• Roasted pumpkin seeds 45 g
• Linseeds 20 g
• Water 65 g
• Salt 13.3 g

Immerse everything in the lukewarm water, cover it up and let them swell for 12 to 14 hours at room temperature.

Main dough

• Rye Sourdough flour 130 g
• Sponge 153 g
• Swollen piece 216 g
• Rye Flour 186 g
• Whole wheat flour 342 g
• Water 250 g
• Dried yeast 2.4 g
• Spring onion 13.3 g
• 1 Tbsp honey

Put all ingredients in the mixing bowl

and mix them well together and knead them for about 5 – 7 minutes until the gluten in the dough is set free, the dough is a bit soft and gluey. Let the dough rest for 30 – 45 minutes. During this, stretch and fold the dough once or twice.
We now form two breads out of the dough mass. If you are not sure how to form / shape bread, please follow my link on "bread baking basics + know how". This is another one of my free formed bread and so, it has to rest in a form in order to not run flat on you. So normally you would put in a bread fermentation basket it you have one. This is a basket that bakers will let their breads ferment in for a while to get in form while fermenting. As I don't have a special basket for this, I am just taking a normal high bowl (I am still using the same on that I used when I made this bread) with a round bottom that gives my bread more or less the form that I desire for the bread. I flour the bowl well before I add the dough, this way later it won't stick to it. Now I add the formed dough bottom side up into the bowl. Let the bread ferment another 45 - 60 minutes (actually there is a finger test to check if the bread is ready for the oven or not. I will post this method another time because it’s really helpful at this stage).
Once the breads have been fermented, I drop them upside down from their bread baskets on my permanent Teflon baking foil on which I already sprinkled a bed of flour. Also sprinkle a layer of flour on top of the bread before putting in the oven. The oven should be pre heated on 250°C. Now pour a cup of hot water in the oven (if you do not have this inbuilt steaming program in your oven at home), pop the bread in the oven and also place a cup of water on the floor of the oven to give some additional steam later on. Quickly close the door so the hot steam will be caught within the oven. Having all that steam in the oven is, like mentioned many times before, extremely important for a scrumptious crust and a great consistency of the bread.
Bake the breads for 10 - 15 minutes like this until it reached the right brown color that you are looking for in a bread crust, then open up the door, let the steam out, lower the heat on 200°C and continue to bake the bread for another 45 - 50 minutes. Now switch off the heat, keep the door open and let the bread cool down slowly. I always spray a bit of water on top of the fresh loaf when it's still hot. It gives a nice and shiny surface the fresh baked crust.
So, after baking this nice bread, it's time for me to head off to my holidays. Enjoy all and happy baking to you as well.