la grignela mie

Some pics from the latest baguette test batch. I'm still finalising the recipe and trying to weigh up the pros and cons of various fermentation strategies but I feel it's finally getting there....

Hopefully a full post soon. 

FP 

Ready to Bake 

Ever since I got a new baking pan (about a month ago), I've been meaning to try my hand at focaccia. So I finally gave it a go today using sourdough starter and tipo 00 flour. The recipe was improvised using a high proportion of starter (100% hydration) to make a slack 73% hydration dough enriched with olive oil.  Bulk fermentation only took 2 hours followed by another 45 minutes in the pan. Not having any fresh herbs to hand, I made do with some pesto and dried herbs. 

This is the second time I've made focaccia (the first time was a commercial-yeast version I made several years ago)...and I think it turned out OK. It's a shame the bottom crust didn't get as coloured as the top. In retrospect I think I should have used a slightly lower heat and not lined the pan with baking parchment. 

Cheers,

FP 

Well I prepared a semolina starter yesterday all ready for baking some semolina-based bread today. Unfortunately I ran out of semolina for the final mix (bought cornmeal by mistake!) so I mixed the semolina starter into a rich sweet dough using lots of egg yolks (5), sugar, milk and butter (25ish percent).  The result was not unlike the milk loaf I made a few weeks ago only much richer. The crumb has nice colour from the semolina and egg yolks. The texture was probably the most  soft and tender that I've ever had in a bread (sourdough or commercial yeast).

The recipe as best as I can recall...

Starter:

200g Semolina 
200g Water
50g Active Starter

Final Dough:

400g Semolina Starter
450g-500g Bread Flour (I actually used some spare Tipo 00 left over from pizza making - it is roughly 11% protein)
200g Milk
150g Butter (softened at room temperature)
100g Sugar
5 Egg Yolks
5g Salt

Glaze:

2tbsp Butter (melted)
1tbsp Honey

The night before, mix together the semolina starter and leave until it reaches peak activity (it should roughly double in volume) - about 12 hours.

The following day, mix the egg yolks, sugar, milk and starter together.  Stir in the flour until you have a slack dough and leave to autolyse for 30 minutes. 

Using a mixer or frissage, gradually incorporate the butter into the dough.

Knead/mix the dough for a further couple of minutes until you obtain a smooth consistency (it will still be quite slack and sticky)

Refrigerate the dough for about 20 minutes if the butter got too warm.

Bulk ferment at room temperature for 2 hours with stretch-and-fold every half hour (very important).

Divide the dough and shape on a well floured into two loaves and leave to proof for a further 2-3 hours.

Brush the top of each loaf with milk before baking at 375F for 30-40 minutes (until a skewer comes out clean and the top is nicely browned).

After removing the loaf from the oven, brush the top with the butter/honey glaze and allow to cool completely.

Cheers

FP

I had some fun making pizza today using a refrigerated dough (all natural leavening).

The dough was mixed roughly by hand without precise measurements (have not replaced my defunct digital scale yet). I used an intermediate build made from my 100% hydration AP starter, Tipo 00 and water. The final dough was around 60% hydration - I'm guessing. Again I used an organic italian tipo 00 flour (around 11% protein - not like the usual low gluten 00 flour which doesn't work nearly as well). After a short session of 'french folding', the dough was bulk fermented for 2 hours at room temperature with stretch-and-folds at 1/2 hour intervals. Divided the dough and shaped into balls for overnight refrigeration. The next day I simply let them come up to room temperature (about 2 hours) before shaping the pizzas. 

Each pizza was baked on a pizza stone at about 500F (with some help from the broiler) for about 3-4 minutes each. It falls outside of the 700+F, <2 minute napoletana rules...and I didn't use San Marzano tomatoes etc.  but at least it's nice to know that you can make reasonable pizza at home without resorting to oven modifications, wood fired ovens etc. etc.

Basic Margherita-style Pizza. As you can see the basil was sprinkled after baking..something I've seen in pictures of pizza from the reknowned DiFaras. Nothing worse than burnt basil imo.

'Upskirt' shot (apparently that's pizza-speak for under-side) The other pizzas were actually a little better charred than this one...but pizza-covered fingers and cameras do not mix well!

Fennel Sausage Pizza 

Pizza 'crumb' 

Oops! The pizza stretched beyond the stone as I was transfering from the baking sheet to the stone so I had to fold it back over or risk pizza all over the oven floor. Oops! Tasted good though! :) 

FP 

makes: 1 loaf

This makes a very soft and fairly rich sourdough milk loaf. I've included 50g sugar in the recipe which reflects my sweet tooth more than anything (adjust according to taste).  The large amount of preferment gives a very quick rise although as you can see from the pictures I underproofed mine a little (late night baking).

First Build

125g AP Flour
125g Water
12g Active Starter 

Final Dough

375g AP Flour (use a stronger flour if you want a slightly more open crumb)
250g First Build
210g Milk (+1 tbsp for brushing)
50g Melted Butter
50g Sugar (adjust according to taste. I like mine on the sweet side)
5g Salt (add more if using unsalted butter)

Prepare the first build the day before baking and allow to mature for 12-18 hours until it reaches peak activity. 

Mix all of the first build, sugar, salt, milk and melted butter in a bowl.

Add the flour and stir until the mixture is fairly evenly mixed.

Leave the dough to autolyse for 20 minutes

Knead the dough using your preferred method to obtain medium gluten development (about 5 minutes by french fold). The dough will be quite slack - this is normal. 

Bulk ferment for 2 hours (with 2 stretch and folds at 40 minute intervals)

Turn out the dough onto a floured surface and shape into a loaf.

Proof the loaf in it's tin until the dough has nearly doubled in height (about 1 1/2 hours)

Brush the top of the loaf with milk and score as desired.

Bake at 400F for 10 minutes followed by a further 25-30 minutes at 350F until done (internal temperature 200F). If the crust starts getting brown too quickly, cover it with foil and continue baking.

Allow the loaf to cool for at least one hour before slicing (ok so I didn't actually follow my own instructions here!) 

As an extra indulgence you could brush the top with butter while it cools.

Enjoy!

FP

Some pics of the fruits from a week long (and ongoing) experiment:

Pleased as punch with the result. With less hurried and more careful handling, I could have pushed for a more open crumb  but the dough was so active it was leaving the confines of the container.  I literally plonked the entire thing on a baking sheet and straight into a less-than-ready oven.

For me, the crumb texture is spot on, between chewy and fluffy.  The flavour is great and I suspect will be even better tomorrow.  The crust was making wonderful crackling/popping noises as I took it out of the oven.  

Despite several of my starters being rather 'touch and go' recently (I've been trimming down on how much starter I maintain), I've learned a lot through this last week which has significantly changed my understanding and approach to sourdough and bread-making in general.

Cheers for now, 

FP

Recipe to follow.

FP 

With all the panic surrounding grain and food prices, it seems a crime these days to have flour hanging around in the kitchen unused for long periods of time.  This, I confess, is one of my guilty secrets. See, there was this bag of flour I bought on a whim and has been languishing in the darker recesses of the kitchen cupboards for the last few months (Oh OK half a year!)  I'd been meaning to use it, truly I had.  I'd even posted these honest intentions on the TFL forums...but alas, I was weak.  So easily, I was distracted by the many floury temptations along the way (ok, some might call them obsessions) Baguettes, miches, spelt, old starters requiring TLC, new starters etc. etc. have all played their part in my flour-hoarding sins. Oh, excuses, excuses!  

Well I finally put things right today.  Having excavated said historical artifact from the cupboard, I decided to put it to good use (by which I mean something to fill my stomach!).  On exposure to daylight, I was surprised to find that rather than having bought 'malthouse' flour (from 'Dove Farms' flour range) as I erroneously recalled,  the flour in question was in fact called 'Country Grain'. The flour comes from Allinson (a well known uk brand) and can be found in most  british supermarkets. The flour is clearly inspired (read: copied) from that most british of flours/breads: Granary.  As has been discussed previously in the TFL forums, the bakery giant Hovis own the trademark to the name 'Granary' and hence other flour manufacturers have to name their similar products with fancy titles such as 'malthouse' or 'country grain'. 

OK enough of the legal stuff, what IS it? The flour itself is a mixture of wheat flour (I'm guessing about 85% extraction), malted wheat flakes and a combination of rye, barley and wheat malt. Even in raw form, it has a distinct, nutty aroma. I was a bit apprehensive about all the 'bits' in the flour and how it would handle when hydrated but I had a whole load of mature WW starter which was begging for some action, so I took the plunge.

Here's a really simple recipe:

Granary Cob (makes 1 large loaf)

500g Allinson Country Grain Flour (or whatever 'Granary'esque equivalent you can find) 
200g Mature WW or White Starter (100% hydration)
300g Water
11g Salt
Mix salt, starter and water.
Stir in flour and mix roughly.
Autolyse for 20 to 30 minutes
Knead for 10 minutes (don't expect to pass the windowpane test!).
Bulk ferment in a warm place (75-80F) for 3 hours (stretch and fold 3 times at 40 minute intervals).
Shape gently into a boule and proof in a banneton or linen-lined bowl.
Score with four slash marks forming a cross shape on the top.
Bake at 450F with steam for 10 minutes followed by a further 35 minutes at 375F.

I must say, the dough seemed unpromising at first.  The ample wheat flakes mixed in with the flour seemed sure to tear the gluten structure to shreds. However, after a number of stretch and folds during bulk ferment, the dough became more manageable and um...doughlike!  Perhaps in the future, making a soaker from at least part of the flour would be a better strategy.

Thanks presumably to the malt (which gives the dough and final bread an awesome rich, brown colour), the bulk ferment was a pretty rapid process (3 hours) and after 45 minutes of proofing the dough was threatening to rise too high out of the proofing bowl. For the shaping, I went for a traditional cob (coburg) style loaf.  It would have been served equally well by shaping into a sandwich loaf or perhaps smaller rolls (sprinkled with seeds) I must say, the dough felt fairly slack for  67% hydration. Scoring posed no particular challenge although I could have scored a little deeper for a more authentic coburg look. The baking process was straightforward.

So how does it taste? The taste is great!...earthy, nutty, malty...yummy!  I've never eaten a sourdough version of this bread before (most versions you'll see in british bakeries use commercial yeast)  but I've got to say it's a winner.  Of course, it's the texture is what gives granary its reputation - those toothsome grain flakes are wonderful little nuggets of nutty flavour which are balanced by a soft crumb (not overly chewy thanks to the relatively short proofing).  There were no big rustic holes in evidence which came as no surprise given the nature of the flour. The crumb was plenty moist without being 'uberdense' (ie not a brick)  A little longer baking at a lower temperature might have improved the crust (which is still substantial even if the photo doesn't seem to show)

Will I make it again?  Definitely! Future baking may include the addition of some honey or oil for a sandwich loaf and perhaps a longer ferment to see whether the flavour can be further developed.

Cheers for now and enjoy!

FP

Today's baking included my first ever semolina bread. I used a combination of 00 flour and semolina (not semolina/durum flour but the slightly grainier but still quite finely ground semolina used for making pasta etc.)  While things came out OK, the semolina dough took a long time to rise and there were still some fairly dense patches in the final bread. 

I also improvised an olive sourdough bread from white starter, AP flour, whole spelt and whole rye (and olives of course!)  It came out surprisingly well. 

--FP 

This is my take on 'Pain de Campagne'.  It differs from a number of recipes I've read since it uses a natural yeast levain, not commercial yeast. For the rye constituent, I've chosen to use a rye levain rather than adding rye flour in the final mix. If you have a favourite rye starter then please do use it in lieu of the first build. If you have a stiff starter (<100% hydration) then you'll have to adjust the amount of water in the final mix as well as mixing procedure (autolyse the flour, water and salt first, before mixing in the starter)

I find the fragrance and taste to be sweet and almost fruity when eaten fresh (1 hour out of the oven).  This gives way to an earthier taste on the next day. Sourwise you shouldn't notice much (or any) sour at all. It is quite mild but nonetheless I hope you'll find it quite tasty. The crumb should be fairly light and fluffy (compared to other 'rustic' breads).

This bread has become one of my staples partly because it's so convenient. It's easy to make, relatively quick to rise and also fits perfectly with my starter maintenance routine (refreshing the rye starter daily) 

As you can see from the photographs, I attempted to shape the bread as a 'bowtie' variation on a classic tabatiere; an idea which I took from 'Advanced Bread and Pastry'.  The attempt  didn't work as well as I hoped but it made a nice change from the usual boule.  

First Build (Day 1)

10g active starter
75g rye flour (I use whole rye but substitute light or medium according to taste)
75g Water
Mix and allow to mature over a 12 to 24 hour period (very much depends on temperature, activity of starter etc.) It's mature when it has peaked (at least 2 x volume) and should smell fruity (raisins) and yeasty.
I included this first build stage here for anyone who does not keep a rye starter. If you have your own favourite rye starter, please do use it instead. To give some idea of my routine, my starter currently consists of 15g old starter and 200g each of water and rye flour and takes 20-24 hours to mature.

Final Mix (Day 2) 

(makes 1 large boule or other shape or 2 small batards)

500g AP flour
300g Water
9g Salt (more or less according to taste)
150g First Build 
Dissolve the salt in the water along and whisk in the rye build from the previous day.
Add the flour to the liquid mix and allow to autolyse or 20 minutes.
Knead until you have at least medium gluten development.
Bulk ferment for 3 hours (be vigilant as this dough has a tendency to rise fast thanks to the rye starter)
Apply stretch and fold 2 times at 40 minute intervals during bulk ferment if you did not reach full windowpane after kneading.
After bulk ferment, divide and shape as desired.
Proof for another 45-60 minutes (in a couche or banneton depending on shape)
Bake with steam at 450 for 10 minutes reducing to 375 for a further 20-30 minutes (until internal temperature reaches 200F)

Enjoy! 

FP

Note: if you want a quicker rise and even lighter bread, try making up 200g of first build / rye starter rather than the 150g stated. You could also alter the hydration of the starter to favour yeast reproduction (similar to the first stage of the detmold process)