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Jan. 6 - 7, 2022.  78th bake.  RYE!  

This will be my first attempt at a 100% rye. I'm kind of following Denisa's post here: 
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67054/100-whole-grain-rye-sourdough-bread

The goal is to divide her formula by 3 and make one loaf of about 835 g.

My first change, due to the fact that I did not plan ahead, and wanted to get started tonight, was that I did not prepare a fully fermented seed. I had a 100% whole rye starter (fully fermented, then put in fridge) going, but yesterday I added enough whole rye (no water) to the cold starter to make it stiff, and put it immediately back in the fridge, so the added flour was/has not fermented.

I intend to make up for that by using 20 g of under-developed stiff starter instead of 16.7 (50 / 3) g of ripe 100% hydration starter. That's just a guess.

I'm also not going to be able to maintain room temp (21 C, 70 F) over-night in the stove with the light on. So, I will need to extend the pre-ferment beyond the 10 hours specified in her formula, and hopefully look for the same development as shown in her video.

Here's the stone-ground whole rye flour that I used for both the pre-ferment and the final dough:
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/69305/

The pre-ferment, at 7:45 pm: 
    20 g stiff, not fully-developed, rye starter.  (would have been 50/3 = 16.7 g of 100% hydration rye seed/chef/starter.)
  148 g water.  420 / 3, plus extra to bring stiff starter to 100% hydration.
  140 g whole rye flour, stone-ground, Malsena brand.  420 / 3 = 140 g. 

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Her timings and temperatures: 

• Pre-ferment: 10 hours at 21 C / 70 F. Should see bubbles through glass container.
• Mix. 
• First rise (bulk ferment), 1 hour at 29 C / 84 F. 
• Pan the dough, 2nd rise (proof), 1.5 hours at 29 C / 84 F.  Look for small cracks and pinholes.
• Bake with steam, 15 minutes, at 260 C / 500 F. 
• Remove steam, bake 45 minutes at 200 C / 390 F. 
• Remove from oven, wrap in towels for 24 hours, or a minimum 5 hours.

Jan. 7, 2022.

5:45 am. Checked oven. It was 70 F after all, and the pre-ferment was now at the 2.5 cups mark, and well aerated, so I put it in the fridge.

6:45 am. Took pre-terment out of fridge, now at 2 cups level. Warmed some water and began mixing. 

Final dough: 
  all the pre-ferment. 
  warm water:  725 / 3 = 241 g. 
  whole rye flour: 825 / 3 = 275 g. 
  salt: 15 / 3 = 5 g. 
  honey (or barley malt syrup): 50 / 3 = 16 g. 

7:00 am. Finished mixing. Dough temp = 69.9 F.  Bulk ferment (first rise) in oven, about 29 C / 84 F.

8:00 am. Greased a loaf pan with Crisco shortening (out of butter) and lightly floured it, as per video. (Video specified butter.)

8:07 am. Finished panning the dough. Back in oven, aiming for 84 F air temp.

8:52 am. Start oven pre-heat to 260 C / 500 F.  Hope to be ready by 9:37 am. Yes, I took the proofing dough out of the oven before starting the pre-heat. ;-)

Start bake:

I forgot to take a photo. Top of loaf has some pin-holes. Mostly toward edges. Not as many holes as in Denisa's video, but decided a slight under-fermentation was better than risking a collapse.

9:43 am.  Put loaf in oven. Poured 3/4 cup boiling water in steam pan. Oven thermostat set to 500 F, the highest it goes, but this oven is always low by 25 degrees, according to an oven thermometer, so it's only 475 F.  I'll give it 2 extra minutes to compensate, before lowering temp.

10:00 am. Lower temp to 200 C / 390 F. (415 F setting on my oven.)

Looking for a 95 C / 203 F internal temp according to the video.

10:43 am.  Take out. Internal temp 208.9 F.  The loaf collapsed evenly, and is at least 1/2" lower than when it went in the oven.

Let it sit out about 2 hours to cool. And then put in a plastic bag.

5:15 pm. I couldn't wait, and I cut it open. Crumb is nice, but a little moist. I should have wrapped it in a kitchen towel like Denisa said to in the video.

Crust is thick. Taste is good. I can smell and taste the honey.  I miss the caraway and coriander, so I'll include bread spice next time.

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Pre-ferment starter at 1 cup level:

 

Top of pre-ferment, right after mixing:

 

Cold pre-preferment, it shrunk from 2.5 cups to 2 cups while in fridge:

 

Top:

 

Bottom:

 

Side:

 

Two loafs:420g APF, 80g whole wheat, 375g water/red wine 10g salt, 90g starter. (Boule) 175 g APF, 75g bread flour, 60g starter, 5g salt, 190g water/redwine infused with rosemary 175 g APF, 75g bread flour, 60g starter, 5g salt, 190g redwine infused with rosemary (tinloaf) Both baked in a gas oven 1hr.The marbled loaf had a great aroma, the rosemary was nice and dominant, the wine, only a tiny bit. I cooked the fresh rosemary twig in the wine for about 20mins.Definitely will play around with wine&herbs more ;O)

Summer here where I live. Family favourite; Base is Neapolitan pizza dough. 

Jan 4, 2022.

This is a remake of #71, scaled for 3 clay pots (4" diameter at top), but will be baked in regular sized muffin cups.

Soaker: 

• 15 g old fashioned rolled oats. 
• 15 g quick oats. Not instant. 
• 12 g whole chia seeds. 
• 7 g ground flax seeds. (ran out of poppy seeds.) 
• 15 g yellow corn meal. 
• 20 g shredded coconut, unsweetened. 
• 1 tsp whole fennel seeds. 
• 33.3 g powdered instant fat-free milk, Kroger brand. 1/3rd cup.
• 254 g spring water. 

The rest: 

• 50 g WW durum. Roller-milled, Sher Brar Fiber Wala. 
• 110 g Bob's Red Mill stone-ground WW. 
• 50 g Arrowhead Mills organic AP. 
• 30 g almond flour, blanched. 
• 5 g salt. 
• 1-1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice, Kroger brand. Could have used a tiny bit more. 
• 3/4 tsp ground ginger. 
• 2-1/2 tsp baking powder. 
• Mixed well. Baking powder still clumped a little bit. Should have sifted it. 
• 101 g water. 
• 45 g honey. Should have used more. Used 53 g in #71.
• 20 g peanut oil. 
• 11 g grapeseed oil. 

Used paper cup liners in a 12 cup muffin tin. Filled each paper liner about 75-85% full.

Pre-heated oven to 400 F, with a baking stone on next to lowest rack.

Baked on a rack one space  above the stone (so that the muffin pan did not get direct radiant heat from the lower heating element), at 375 F for 26 min. Internal temp 205 F, and the thermometer probe came out clean.

The dark moist areas did not appear on other mufffins that were cut open after further cooling several hours later. The uneven holes lead me to believe that the baking powder was not evenly distributed.

Crumb looks better the next day:

Happy New Year everyone. I'm back in Switzerland after holidays and baked my first bread with the local Ruchmehl flour - a Swiss version of high extraction flour. I followed a very simple recipe from https://www.homebaking.at/ruchbrot/

It includes a white flour levain build over a few hours and then exclusively Ruchmehl in the main dough, with high hydration (80%). The main flour is autolysed for 3 hours before mixing in the salt and levain as well. After just a little hand kneading using just firm folding and Rubaud-style the dough was well developed, and a couple more stretch and folds later made a strong, although stretchy dough. After bulk the dough was preshaped and then final shaped. I proofed in a floured towel in a tray placed on the balcony overnight, with night temperature going down to 4°C - just like in the fridge.

Baked with steam on a tray at 230°C. I discovered the oven here has a special mode for "humid baking" - it doesn't let out steam this way (audibly noticeable that the fan doesn't come on, unlike the regular baking mode even without convection), and it's the recommended setting for baking bread. So I used that, and seemed to work. While the shaping wasn't very tight and in proofing the bread spread out quite a bit lengthwise, oven spring was really good, however the slash didn't open very nicely. Maybe I didn't have to score it at all? Interesting.

The crumb is amazingly open, custardy, soft and a little moist - just like in the pictures on the recipe page! It's very tasty, without very strong wheaty/grassy notes like in whole grain bread, but very flavourful.

Overall, very happy with this bake, and pleasantly surprised with the flour!

And just now after baking noticed that there is an English version of the recipe available, and I didn't have to resort to Google translate :)

So, I got this gorgeous new pan but was at a bit of a loss as to what to do as I had no recipe for it. I found this recipe here https://myloveofbaking.com/sourdough-sandwich-bread-pullman/ and it looks and tastes great!

I will be making it again! 

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It is time for another two pizza nights as it had been some time since our last pizzas.  If you haven’t tried tuna on pizza you owe it to yourself to try it.  Make sure you buy good Italian tuna in olive oil, not the North American canned tuna because the Italian tuna is so much better.  Since trying it several years ago I just can’t eat other canned tuna anymore, they are just lacking something in both texture and flavour.

For 4 9” pizzas NY style thin crust 200 g each 

Levain Build 100% hydration 35 g needed 

Baked in 9-10” cast iron skillet 

433 g 00 flour

43 g Whole grain flour (50:50 whole spelt:whole wheat)

4.76 g Diastatic malt 1%

252 g water and

41 g water hold out

8.43 g salt 1.71%

2.5 g sugar 0.5%

4.8 g olive oil 1.0%

Total flour 493.5

Total water 310.5 

63% hydration water only

64% including olive oil

(1) In your mixer bowl(or by hand) dissolve the Starter in all of the Final Dough Water except the HOLD OUT Water.  (Add diastatic malt too)

(2) Mix in the flours until well hydrated 

(3) Allow to fermentolyse for 1hr 

(4) Mix in the remaining HOLD OUT Water, salt, and sugar mix until well-incorporated. 

(5) Slowly drizzle in the oil until well combined. 

(6) Beat or knead by hand until dough is moderately developed. The dough will be sticky and elastic. If kneading by hand, use slightly wet hands and avoid adding more flour. 

(6a) Allow to ferment for 1 hour before proceeding to (7)

(7) Oil your hands and a suitable container. 

(8) Shape into a tight ball.  I divide the ball into four smaller ones each for one 9” pizza at this point.  Each goes into a small oiled bowl and allowed to proof for 1 hour before starting cold fermentation.

(9) Cold ferment in the refrigerator for 48-96hrs. 

(10) Remove to warm up to room temp for at 3-6hr or so before use at room temperature, or you can ferment 2-3 hours at 80ºF.  One hour before the dough is ready, pre-heat your oven to roast at 550°F or as high as it will go.

(11) Stretch the balls into your desired size.  Top your pizzas, brush the cornicione with water then roast at 550F (as high as your oven will go) until the crust is browned and the cheese has melted. Spin the pie at least once to avoid burning due to oven hot spots. 

(12) I bake in a preheat cast iron skillet that heats in the oven while it is pre-heating.  I set the oven to roast and bake the pizzas in the cast iron skillet on my baking steel so that the skillet is quite close to the top of the oven.  It only takes 6 mins to fully bake my pizzas.

I like to top with grated low moisture mozzarella cheese, then top with the marinated mix vegetables.  I used a combination of artichoke hearts, sun dried tomatoes, roasted red peppers, hot banana peppers and Kalamata olives.  I tossed these in a bowl with some cracked peppercorns and a little red wine vinegar and make sure I give each handful a squeeze to rid them of excess liquid before putting them on the pizza.  The tuna which has been drained and loosened in a bowl is placed on the pizzas last in small clumps prior to baking.  I had some left over parsley that I sprinkled on the pizza prior to slicing.  I often like to put something on the pizza that isn’t baked for some contrast.

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So I found this volume measurement-based Cream cheese bun recipe. I set out to just covert the formula to mass measurements, However, I was slightly uncomfortable with the statement, "more flour may be needed." At that point, I set out to determine the baker percentage and hydration. At this point, it became crystal clear why the formula might need "more flour." I determined (if my mathematics and assumptions are correct) over 90% hydration. I tweaked this on the front side for a more manageable 61% hydration. Seeing as the recipe called for a yield of 30 buns. I am pretty sure the blogger (momsdish) was adding at least the same 2 1/2 cups of flour that I added. This yielded a respectable 57g size bun. There you have it, my riff, and now a replicable formula for Russian Cream Cheese Vatrushka Buns! 

 The buds are very good. Albite the pastry could do with a nice slow overnight ferment to add some depth of flavor. For the filling I used what I had on hand. one 8oz. package of cream cheese passed its best by date and a fresh 15oz. container of ricotta cheese. I am very happy with both the texture and flavor. Next time I will try the farmers' cheese recommended in the original recipe. 

Felila posted a link to an article in the Washington Post newspaper on baking with a newly developed flour, Kernza.  During the summer I visited with a friend in Vermont who was gifted a small bag of Kernza flour, apparently promotional as the one pound bag has no markings on it other than the Land Institute logo and "Kernza Perennial Grain Flour".  Not even the weight of the contents.  And handed it over to me.  The bag was placed on the back burner, but Felila's posting had me commit to baking with it.

 Kernza is a very low gluten flour, and so requires a high protein flour to keep the final product from likely pancaking out.  I still had some King Arthur Bread Flour at 12.7% protein.  Enough to make the two levains and the first dough.  After that I relied on Gold Medal Bread Flour at a slightly lower protein, 12% for the final dough mix of the second bake.

I used the published formula, mostly, and it is a very wet 80.5% overall hydration dough.  The dough was quite "flabby", slack and unruly during the French Folds and subsequent Letter Folds due to it's hydration, and was initially sticky, the way rye flour can be, I wasn’t so pleased at handling it.  But over the course of a few hours it more or less settled down before being placed in retard for the night.  A morning divide and shape proved to be modestly less challenging, and I was pretty unsure as to how it would eventually bake up.  It turns out fine, but the flaccid nature of this dough, at least for hand mixing and then baguette shaping, is not all that pleasurable.

So I did it again today, the next day.  But this time I dropped the hydration down to 75%, which still made for a wet dough, but much more manageable.  And again, had a fine bake.

Changes I made to the published formula were to bump the pre fermented flour to 20%, and then to mostly ignore the author's steps, following my own compass instead.

Apparently the grain is quite expensive, and it tasted like nothing more than a similar profile Whole Wheat bread, maybe a tad sweeter.  So for right now I’d classify this as a boutique type of grain.  Whether it gains traction and becomes more accessible and affordable, we shall see.

The formula normalized for 1000g of flour

Both doughs were scaled out at 1200g.  All things being equal, I  don't see much difference in the final product, but I'd stay with the lower hydration version for ease of manipulation.

These are from the first, 80.5% hydration bake

And from the 75% hydration bake

Ok, so it took me WAY too long to make this after salivating over all of Benny's iterations of his lovely Hokkaido loaves, but I finally did it.  Thanks to Benny's very detailed and clear instructions, my first Hokkaido loaf was a success (though I need to get some of his super yeast so I can replicate the explosive rise he gets!)

I just finished my first two slices of this loaf, and it is delicious! A nice, soft crumb with just a bit of sweetness.  Toasts up perfectly, and was just wonderful with a light spread of raspberry jam.  Looking forward to a sandwich for lunch!

Anyway, here's my version of Benny's 50% Hokkaido Milk Loaf.......

NOTES:

My bread flour was KA

My WW flour was freshly home milled white winter wheat from Central Milling

My bulk and proof temps were 82F (4.5 hours bulk, 6.25 hours final), and I did chill the dough prior to rolling

I will now shamelessly copy all of Benny's lovely bread photo angles....... :). THANKS BENNY!