I've been working on my ciabattas lately and I think I'm finally getting the knack. Let me know what you guys think of my efforts - I truly appreciate your feedback, it helps me improve my skills. This is a poolish ciabatta, loosely based on the recipe seen in this video from Kingdom Bread. I cut his volume by half, giving me 4 fairly large loaves.. As you can plainly see by my crumb shots, this was a high hydration bake. I guess I should admit that I broke a couple of rules along the way. First of all, I mixed the poolish at about 11AM today...but I didn't wait 24hrs. I didn't wait 18hrs, or 12 or even 8. I mixed the final dough at 5PM, using a barely 6hr old preferment, which had almost tripled in volume. It had a beautiful dome, smelled great, so I figured "Why Not?". Since I was mixing entirely by hand, I worked the dough strenuously using the Bertinet method, slapping it on the bench for almost 20 minutes. I built what seemed like some fairly strong gluten strength and put it in the bowl. Kingdom Bread's method called for 3 stretch and folds on the bench at 45 min intervals. I had to run out of the kitchen on a mission of mercy (my wife desperately needed me to bring her a coffee), and I didn't get back for 90 minutes. When I did, the dough had already expanded, and was pushing the lid up. I gave it an immediate S&F and set the timer for 45 mins. At that point the bulk fermentation was done, in my opinion, The mass had doubled, and there was lots of bubbles pushing up thru the surface. I gently pulled it into a rectangle and cut 4 slices, transferring to a well dusted couche. I proofed for 1 hr, as the oven pre-heated. As you can see, I allowed the loaves to cook very well, in the Forkish style. Tastes absolutely fantastic!!!
Saw this made in one of those French bakery videos and thought, wait a minute, even I can do that!! I made a relatively small batch of baguette dough and voila!!
Haven't posted anything lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been baking!! Baguettes galore, Ciabattas, and crazy different fruit and nut sourdough breads including Blueberry Pecan and Apricot Walnut! On tonight's menu, one of my favorite "treats", the erstwhile New York style Bialy topped with everything mix and onions! I prepared a Pâte Fermentée in advance and refrigerated overnight, which definitely added some extra nice flavor to the finished product. Fairly typical preparation, bake in a 500F oven for approx 12 - 14 minutes.
Ingredients: Pâte Fermentée • 120 g water plus 1 teaspoon • 180 g bread flour plus 1 tablespoon • 2/3 teaspoon instant dry yeast • 1 tsp table salt
Main Dough • 320 g water • 465 g bread flour • 150 g pâte fermentée • 3/4 tsp instant dried yeast • 18 g table salt
I'm definitely starting to get into a regular baking routine. Is this even normal behavior? 🤣 I started a batch of Pane Francese on Friday, cold fermented a half dozen demi baguettes overnight and baked early Sat AM.
I've been salivating over producing this delicacy that hearkens back to my NYC youth for quite sometime. I cannot tell a lie - this is NOT my first attempt. I tried, and failed spectacularly, about a month ago. The doomed pair literally came out of the oven like a chocolate boat anchor - heavier, even!! The big difference between this Yotam Ottolenghi (Jerusalem Cookbook) Babka and a NY style babka is the citrus inclusion in the dough, and the overnight cold retard. This is also known in Israel as a chocolate Krantz Cake. This baked up beautifully, and oh my my, so incredibly moist and delicious!!! You can find Giulia Mule's recipe here:
Because my wife and I just cannot seem to get enough of this fantastic flavor! Shoutout, as usual, to everyones friend Benito for the initial inspiration. This is my 4th time baking this knockout sourdough, and I've tried different formulations each go round. I substituted dark rye for the whole wheat, and used Giusto's La Parisienne for the bread flour along with 50 g KA all purpose for good measure. Also added 15 grams of Giusto's All-Natural Barley Malt, which has been giving me outstanding results. As for the purple sweet potato, I added 150 g at the beginning of bulk ferment instead of Benny's lamination technique. As you can see, it's really well incorporated!
Here's my attempt at baking the "No-Fail Baguette" from the NY Bakers website. See the recipe HERE I switched the recipe up just slightly. I mixed 400 grams of NYBakers Craft Flour Type 550 (which is equivalent to French Type 55 flour) and 100 grams of Bobs Red Mill Organic Whole Wheat. Instead of fresh yeast, I substituted SAF red label instant yeast and I also added about 20 grams of bakers malt powder. As you can see, the results are stupendous and the bread is simply delicious! I'm starting to gain a lot more confidence as my skillset expands. Thanks so much to the Freshloaf community for all of the awesome inspiration!!
This is very loosely based on the recipe from Modernist Cuisine. I found myself searching for variations and I was pleasantly surprised to find a few solid contenders, including a great looking Chocolate Sourdough Noir on the Clever Carrot website. One of the websites copied Modernists recipe, almost getting it right except for one pretty major goof. Instead of 1/8 tsp of active dry yeast, the writer listed 8 grams - a heaping tsp. And dummy that I am, that was the recipe I used. I recently purchased a block of fresh yeast, so any recipe that calls for dry yeast I just convert the amount to compensate. Imagine, if you will, what my kitchen smelled like when I added approximately 20 grams of fresh yeast to the mix!! 🤣 I was mortally afraid I had screwed the pooch - but much to my amazement the bread came out just fantastic!! Ingredients:
• .39 grams instant dry yeast • 185 grams warm water • 230 grams liquid sourdough starter • 10 grams diastatic malt powder • 200 grams bread flour - General Mills All-Trumps High-Gluten Flour • 40 grams Organic Spelt flour • 30 grams Hershey's sp. dark cocoa powder • 15 grams espresso • 7 grams fine salt • 80 grams dark chocolate chips • 80 grams Nestle espresso chips • 160 grams canned tart cherries
I've decided to pursue the Ken Forkish Walnut Levain recipe a bit further. This weekends bake consisted of a combo of Giusto's La Parisienne Flour (https://nybakers.com), KA Organic Whole Wheat Flour, and my own rye based levain. I substituted the active dry yeast with Fleischmann's Fresh Active Yeast. I roasted 150 grams of walnuts for the inclusion, and added 150 grams of a dried cherry/blueberry/cranberry mix that I soaked in water for 2 hours before draining. I should note that the La Parisienne flour made a HUGE difference in my preparation. I noticed an almost immediate extensibility and my total rise time from initial mix was just shy of 3 hours. I refrigerated the bannetons overnight and baked the loaves this morning. Delicious!!!
Baked this earlier in the week. Pain De Campagne sourdough, using NYBakers Farine De Campagne flour. Came out GREAT! Lots of rise, and the crumb was amazing.
