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A Yudane Demi-Baguette

I was curious about yudane, a scalding method whereby you take 20% of the flour of your bread and treat it to equal weight of the water from your recipe at boiling temperature and let it gelatinize overnight.

This blog describes my experience doing it. I was very pleased with the results of using a freshly-milled whole wheat kernel yudane in a sourdough baguette. Crispy crust, fluffy crumb, creamy almost buttered flavour and texture with a mellow wheat flavour.

Recipe Source

I've made my own pale imitation of Maurizio Leo's sourdough baguettes weekly for a few months now. I use a 100% hydration dark rye starter. I had to tone down the dough hydration to make it manageable for me (reduced levain from 140 to 115g; reduced added water from 100g to 40g). To enhance flavour I used a 10% rye, 90% AP + gluten. Last week I also did a 10% atta durum blend in addition to the rye.

Hard Wheat Kernels Inspiration

This week, I found hard wheat kernels on sale at Bulk Barn and I bought a kilo to play with. I decided to use a yudane method to handle the fresh milled kernels and all their bran. Part of using yudane method includes increasing hydration to make up for the water locked into the gelatinized dough. So I boosted my levain up to 130g and my added water back to 100g. Since I was using a yudane, I eliminated the added gluten as well.

Grinding Kernels By Hand

Here's 100g of kernels or so in my Porlex coffee grinder. It wasn't too bad grinding out 200g of kernels while watching some TV. It didn't feel that long to me and I certainly wouldn't buy an electric mill for this amount.

Here's the flour post grind... lots of bran.

Making Yudane With Boiling Water

I added 200g boiling water to the 200g of whole grain flour to make a firm paste.

I covered the paste and left it on the counter overnight... a key yudane step. Next morning it was a dark, firm paste. 

Adding Yudane to the Baguette Dough

Making the baguettes I autolyse flour and water for 30 mins then add the salt and levain. In this case the autolyse was all AP.

I cut up the yudane paste and added it to the autolyzed flour and water + salt and levain from the recipe. Cutting it up probably didn't help. It took quite a beating to integrate it with the dough. Here's the dough after kneading with the dough hook on a Kitchenaid Pro (5 mins, 15 min rest, 5 mins, 15 min rest, 5 mins). 

Retarded Bulk Overnight in Fridge

I did a retarded bulk in the fridge overnight and turned out the dough. It puffed up quite a bit overnight. I divided into 6 x 318g portions and shaped and proofed on pieces of parchment with all the loaves tucked up against each other in a pan.

Baking and Cooling

Preheated the oven to 500f with the baking pan in. Slashed and sprayed dough and loaded 3 onto the pan and turned down to 475 for 25min bake. Kept second set in the fridge, then did them afterward. 

RESULTS: Loaves, Crumb Shots, Taste and Texture

The loaves look the same as the past despite having 20% whole wheat with all the bran, no gluten added this time, and hydration increased.

Crumb shot... looks similar to usual for past loaves. The texture was moist almost creamy with a nice soft chew to it that I like, and which is an improvement. Lightly crisp crust which is also an improvement. And the flavour... it's almost tasting like it's buttered. There's a nice whole wheat flavour but it's rounded and mellow. 

Conclusion and Future Direction

I like this version a lot! 

I think I might try a buckwheat yudane as well (lots of flour) and fresh-milled farro (kernels also at Bulk Barn). 

EDIT: next day, thawed a loaf and toasted thin slices for open faced sandwiches, My favorite bread ever... taste and texture, wow. I am a total convert to yudane.

-- David

Oct. 15, 2021.

Goal: 90% WW, no Sharbati this time, 3/8 tsp ADY, 90+ g old dough.

--

A: 9:15 am, mixed 108 g Patel SG WW durum, 81 g H2O, 93 g old dough from previous batch.

B: 10:25 am, mixed 252 g BRM SG WW, 189 g H2O.

108 + 252 = 360 g WW

C: 10:31 am, mixed/kneaded-together A + B.

11:35 am: mixed 50 g H2O + 6 g powdered milk, and kneaded it into C.

Kneaded in 3/8 tsp active dry yeast.

11:50 am: kneaded in 8 g salt, then kneaded in 40 g organic AP flour (Arrowhead Mills.)

Total flour (not counting old dough): 360 + 40 = 400g. 

360 / 400 = 90% WW. 

Total water (not counting old dough) 81 + 189 + 50 = 320g. 

Hydration (not counting old dough): 320 / 400 = 80%.

12:06 pm: kneaded in 5 g grapeseed oil. Let sit in container at room temp.

12:50 pm: put container of dough in fridge.

--

Gosh. Kicking myself that I hadn't tried out parmesan in my breads before. This bread had a great combination of inclusions: 41g of parmesan cheese, grated from a frozen block. Fresh zest of one lemon, about 3 tsp worth. 2 tsp of dried origanum (marjoram). And 45g of Kalamata olives (13 ea). Incredible smell when it was out of the oven. I couldn't wait the two hours for it to cool. Was cutting into it after 40 minutes, sometimes it is the guilty pleasure of hot steamy crusty bread that is the most enjoyable.

This bread is, once again, a raisin water yeast bread, and once again using the Hamelman recipe from the community bake as the base. For this one though I didn't have time to do a double build. So there was only a single build made using 153g active and fizzy raisin yeast water straight from the fridge, with 169g strong bread flour and 57g atta, other than that (and the different inclusions) it was faithful to the community bake recipe.

The build was used 9 hours later in the final dough, which was mixed all-in-one together with the salt. Had more trouble than usual getting the stand mixer to run 'clean' which is my normal guide to good gluten development. Previously, with the same flours I've done an all-in-one mix with this recipe and had good gluten development after about 8 minutes but this bread ended up getting a whopping 27 minutes of mix time (in 10 minute intervals with some rest between) before I was satisfied. Next time I will pay closer attention as to the order of adding items to the mix, and might do an autolyse or delay the addition of the salt (which is a great tool to tighten the gluten if the dough isn't developing satisfactorily). 27 minutes of mix time is not typical for me, but it certainly built a nice enough crumb!

A lamination was done shortly after the mix and all the inclusions were added in then. There was no opportunity for a coil fold, as bulk fermentation was in a proofer set to 27°C (80°F) and fermentation proceeded quickly. The dough was final shaped 2 hours after the initial mix, and then had an additional 1.5 hours of proof time in the proofer followed by 30 minutes in the fridge whilst the oven completed heating. The final volume increase of the aliquot jar was 200% (in other words, the dough was three times the original volume). I've been pushing the volume increase of these yeast water breads to see what I can get away with lately.

I tried out "Danni's banneton method" where the shaped dough is placed into the banneton seam side down. I like how the dough grew in the banneton after the shaping. The reason why I was trying out this technique was that I've been finding it difficult to score the room temperature dough, especially when it is soft and 'jiggly' as this one was. So the attraction for me of the method is that the bread does not need to be scored with the expectation that it should open up at the seams on the top during the bake. The seams didn't really open on this one very much though. The exterior wasn't exactly ugly, but it also wasn't what I would call charming! At least the bread did not flatten out.

The interior of the bread was lovely. Could taste all of the various flavours and the parmesan and lemon flavours dominated. I might use less lemon next time as it was perhaps a little too strong. There was an interesting layering of the crust at the base of the bread and the crust had that enjoyable glassy brittleness. Not sure if that was from the seam side up method or from the long mix time the dough had.

10/12/2021.  62nd  bake/batch.

The changes here, from the previous bake, are a slight increase in the Sharbati, decreasing the white flour, and less old dough; and I ran out of fresh milk, so I had to use some powdered milk.

• 326 g bottled spring water.
• 9 g powdered/instantized fat-free milk, Kroger brand.
• 3/8 tsp active dry yeast.
• 65 g old dough from bake #61.
• 200 g Bob's Red Mill stone-ground (red) whole wheat.
• 100 g Patel brand stone-ground WW durum.
• 50 g Swad brand Sharbati Gold.
• 7 g 50/50 blend of Himalayan pink salt, and standard US iodized table salt.
• 25 g AP flour, Arrowhead Mills.
• 25 g bread flour, General Mills.

--

• Started mixing at 12:30p.
• Finished mix/knead at 1:19p. Includes rest/soak time for the WW BRM/Patel flour before salt and other flours were added.
• 1:42 p - Stretch and fold.
• 2:21 p - put in fridge,
• 2:50 p - For some reason I thought it needed more time at room temp and took out of fridge.
• 3:35 p - put back in fridge.

It then quickly rose a lot in fridge, so that extra time at room temp was not needed.

Lots of firsts in this loaf, so not sure any conclusions can be drawn from any one part of it, but overall, the combination produced a really nice loaf (for me anyway).

- New recipe

- New shaping technique

- New DIY baking steel

- New starter (not really done yet, but I got impatient)

Recipe

Something simple with toasted sesame seeds.  Developed gluten like I normally do, but this time I left the inclusions out until I had decent gluten development instead of adding to the initial mix.  Tried folding them in as part of my final sets of kneading.  It worked OK, but in hind sight I should have laminated them in.  I did two or three extra S&F in the first 90 minutes of bulk to try and further distribute the seeds.  In the end, I think lamination would have been faster and definitely would have produced a more even distribution.

Shaping

I've had trouble recently with the seam opening on my boules.  For this one, I abandoned what I was doing and followed Danni's description on her technique.  Love the look of her natural scored loaves and decided to see if I could duplicate it.  I think it went well.  I only had one seam open, but I'm guessing each loaf will look a little different if I continue using this method.  Regardless, the shaping technique worked well, so will continue to use it whether I proof seam side up or down.

DIY Baking Steel

Picked up a piece of 1/4" plate from a local machine shop.  Had them cut it 15" x 20", which fills one of my oven trays with about a 1.5" air gap on either side.  I filed down any sharp/rough edges and sanded off any corrosion products.  Applied a thin film of canola oil and baked it at 400 deg F for 1 hour.  For my oven set up, I have a large cookie sheet to act as a heat shield/steam tray on the bottom shelf, the baking steel two spots above that, and another large cookie sheet as a heat shield on the top tray.  1 cup of boiling water goes into the steam tray at the start of the bake.

Starter

Working on a new starter that you can read about here.  Wanted to try out the new baking steel, so decided to use some of the new starter as it's developing.

Loaf turned out great!  I'm pretty sure it's the tallest hearth loaf I've ever made, and it is definitely the tallest round loaf.  First slice was right down the middle, and it looks like I trapped a big bubble either during final shaping or with one of the S&F.  The next slice into the loaf is the crumb I like to see, so overall happy with how the loaf turned out.  Too many firsts for me to say any one item had a certain effect, but hoping I can reproduce the overall result on the next bakes.  The low whole grain flour content  probably helped in the loaf height department too.  :-)

My starters are usually fed a variety of flours depending on what I fancy. During rye+ap week, I made these orange-y loaves with the last of the flours I had.

I prefer the swirly loaf more than just a plain one with more rye, probably because it’s more fun to make, easier to handle, tastier and prettier. The other one had more rye (50-60% I believe) and was a bit more dense. We used these as sandwiches and for dipping in tikka masala gravy and soups.

Swirly rye and Kamut loaf
Tangzhong
20g all purpose flour
100g milk

Dough
All of the Tangzhong
270g starter (50% hydration rye+ap)
85g milk
1 large egg*
20g sugar
3g orange zest (or more!)
90g rye flour
68g Kamut
87g all purpose flour
5g vital wheat gluten
8g salt
10g light olive oil
30g unsalted butter

Mocha dough
To 40% of the dough: Make a paste of 1g espresso powder, 5g cocoa powder and 1 tsp water. Add 2g caraway seeds into the paste. Mix into dough.

*wasn’t quite sure why I added this. Just more milk would've been ok :D




Last week, I made my espresso cinnamon buns into mini rolls with coffee cookie topping, no lamination. I should've used a simpler method to shape these bite-sized buns for a more uniformed appearance. Either way, they disappeared quick thanks to their tiny size.

Mini espresso cinnamon buns with coffee cookie topping
- 34 mini rolls

Tangzhong
20g all purpose flour
100g milk

Dough
All of the Tangzhong
95g soured milk
10g sugar
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
200g all purpose flour
120g Kamut flour
6g salt
5g instant yeast
40g unsalted butter
10g light olive oil

Filling
20g unsalted butter, melted
50g brown sugar
15g all purpose flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp espresso powder

Coffee cookie topping
- whip wet ingredients with sugar, then fold in dry ingredients

80g unsalted butter
1 large egg
60g sugar
3 tsp espresso powder dissolved in 2 tsp warm water
70g all purpose flour
10g cornstarch
1/4 tsp baking powder



20-30g dough per bun: Roll out, fill, shape into rolls/buns. Pipe cookie topping over each roll/bun (a specific pattern would be enough, but I went overboard with the piping, it's a tasty topping after all!). Bake at 180°C for 15 minutes until edges are golden brown and the internal temperature is at least 88°C. Turn off the oven, leave the oven door slightly ajar and leave the buns to continue baking in the cooling oven for 5 to 10 minutes. Then, remove the buns from the oven and let them cool completely on a cooling rack.




The next bake were kimmichers, idea from a post: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/68901/kimmicher and adapted from https://www.ploetzblog.de/2020/12/05/kimmicher/

Kimmicher with sourdough and instant yeast
The last of my rye flour went into the first batch of these tasty rolls. And I used 35°C water since it was 19-20°C in the mornings when I was preparing the doughs. Each were 25-26°C after mixing.

makes 4 x 150+g or 3x 200+g rolls
Version 1
240g sourdough starter (100% hydration 1:1: rye:atta)
100g all purpose flour
50g spelt flour
80g atta flour
115g water (35°C)
7g salt
1g instant yeast
15g light olive oil
5g caraway seeds

Version 2
240g sourdough starter (100% hydration 1:1 spelt:AP)
45g all purpose flour
115g spelt flour
70g atta flour
115g water (35°C)
7g salt
1g instant yeast
15g light olive oil
5g caraway seeds

230°C 20 minutes with steam, 5 to 10 minutes without. Each roll was sprayed with a thin mist of water right out of the oven and left to cool. The rolls took on a light matte shine once cooled.



Since my tiramisu attempt in the last post, I decided make it again with lesser eggs, using pastry cream, whipping cream, mascarpone, sponge cake and coffee syrup. I'm not sure about the fats in this version (why on earth would I count...) but there's surely less eggs - 3 eggs in the sponge and one in the pastry cream :D On second thought, the pastry cream can be omitted for a lighter filling.

Tiramisu roll cake
Mascarpone cream
100g pastry cream (if skipping this, add 20g confectioner's sugar, or to taste)
100g whipping/heavy cream
150g mascarpone (I made a batch from 450g cream)
1 tbsp Frangelico

Vanilla sponge
- adapted from https://www.womanscribbles.net/vanilla-swiss-roll/
- half sheet pan, 180°C/350°F 9-12 minutes

20g sugar
80g buttermilk
30g light olive oil
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
70g all purpose flour
10g cornstarch
1 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
3 egg yolks
3 egg whites
40g sugar
1/2 tsp lemon juice

Easy pastry cream
- heat 2/3 the milk and sugar, then temper with remaining milk-egg-cornstarch and salt mixture.
- cook the mixture until 93°C/200°F and let it linger around this temperature for least 1 minute
- stir in vanilla and butter. Cool completely before use.

220g milk, divided
50g sugar
1 large egg
25g cornstarch
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
15g unsalted butter, room temperature

Coffee syrup
100g espresso
50g sugar
1 tbsp Kahlua

Once the sponge is baked, trip the edges for smooth sides - the trimmed edges were used in a mini tiramisu cake.
Dust it with sugar (confectioner's) and roll it up in parchment paper while hot.
Once cooled, brush the sponge cake with coffee syrup - 2 to 3 times. Spread cream and lightly dust with cocoa powder before rolling up the cake. Pipe cream over the rolled cake and draw designs on it or leave it smooth. Dust with cocoa powder before letting the cake chill for at least 4 hours before serving.

After many attempts, I finally achieved a light, (fairly) lofty seeded loaf, while utilizing a pretty high percentage of non-white flour.  The first experiments were tasty but pretty dense.  However, I will be cutting back on total volume next time as this dough literally filled the clay baker from edge to edge, resulting in...a torpedo!  The texture of the crumb is divine...soft and springy without being gummy.  I may have gotten even a little more loft if I had scored a little deeper--I think the crumb structure looks a little tight at the top.  I never quite know how to score the longer loaves.  Parallel slashes always result in broken bands across the top.  Any advice on the best way to score this type of loaf would be appreciated--I may just let it do its thing next time and go for a 'natural' score.  I used a long, thin clay baker, rather than a traditional batard or boule, in an attempt to make a more toaster-friendly bake.

Ingredients:

1:2:2 starter fed in the early morning (to double/triple in about 4 hours...will need 150 g fed starter for the dough)...I maintain a 60/30/10 starter mix of WW/AP/Rye respectively

365 g warm water (I used to use bottle spring water, but our tap water here is great quality, and I haven't noticed any change in my bakes since switching to tap)

300 g strong bread flour

135 g sifted/bolted Hard Red Winter Wheat (aka Golden Buffalo from Heartland Mills)

50 g duram flour

15 g dark rye flour (I used freshly ground since I had some berries on hand)

--total of 500 g flour with a 300/200 ratio

30 g honey

12 g salt

140 g mix of seeds (I used an eyeballed mixture of pumpkin, sunflower, sesame, poppy, flax and millet)

Enough boiling water to cover seed mixture by at least one inch

Day 1: Feed starter in the early morning (as noted above)

Around noon, mix the Autolyse ingredients (flour, water and honey), making sure no dry flour is visible, and let sit, covered, for 1 hour.  

Immediately after mixing flour/water/honey, place the seed mixture in a bowl and pour boiling water over to generously cover and allow for absorption.  Cover and set aside.

After one hour, spread 150 g of starter over the top of the autolyse mixture, and pinch into the top layer of the dough, then work in further by pulling small sections of the dough from the edge up and over the top, moving the bowl around in a circular motion.  Continue this action (essentially mini stretch and folds) for approximately 5 minutes, to fully incorporate the starter; cover.

Rest 15 minutes.

Sprinkle 12 g salt over the top of the autolysed dough, and with wet hands, pinch in and then repeat the working in method from above, pulling small sections of dough from the edge over the center.  Continue to work in for 5 minutes to fully incorporate the salt; cover.

Rest 15 minutes.

Complete 2 stretch and folds 20-30 minutes apart.  After the 2nd S&F, rest 20-30 minutes.

Drain the seeds over a bowl, immediately after the last S&F, which allows excess moisture to drain out in time for the next step.

Complete a lamination of the dough on a lightly dampened counter top, using wet hands, stretching out the dough fairly thin without tearing.  Spread about 2/3 to 3/4 of the seed mixture over the top of the dough, careful to not tear the dough.  The mixture will be a little slimy from the flax seeds.  Letter fold each side of the dough (right and left) so that all the exposed seeds are covered.  Spread the remaining seeds over the thin strip of dough, then fold up the top and bottom over the exposed seeds.  Cut away a small knob of dough, place in a fermentation jar (I use an old spice jar) flatten and mark the level.  Gently lift the remaining 'package' of dough into a lightly greased 8X8 or 10X10 square, glass dish and cover.  (Alternatively, I have also had some success just working in the seeds over the top of the dough while still in the bowl.  The dough will kind of 'break' but will come back together with numerous stretch and folds.  For me, the lamination method works better.)

Rest 45 minutes.  Complete a series of 2-4 coil folds every 30-45 minutes, or until the dough feels strong and supple, then let rest undisturbed.  The dough in the fermentation jar should rise around 30%-50%, which can be tricky to judge with so small a portion.  Essentially, I try to make sure it doesn't double, in either the jar or the main dough.  Under proofed is better than over with this dough.  (In a 70-degree kitchen, I'm usually ready to shape around 6-7 hours after starting the autolyse.)

Sprinkle some flour around the edges of the dough in the dish, loosen edges slightly with a flexible dough scraper, and gently tip out onto a lightly floured surface.  Gently shape as desired, careful not to deflate, and place into rice/flour-dusted banneton.  Place the banneton and dough in the freezer for 15 minutes, then switch to the fridge for a cold 12-hour retard.

Day 2:

12 hours later, pre-heat oven and DO of choice (I use clay bakers) to 500F for at least one hour.  Remove dough from the banneton onto a piece of parchment paper, score and bake at 500 for 25 minutes covered, reduce heat to 450 and remove lid and bake for a further 20 minutes.  Turn the oven off and leave the bread in the DO for an additional 10 minutes.  Remove to a cooling rack and cool completely, at least half a day.

So made the Forkish Walnut Levain bread which produces two loaves but now want to substitute cranberries for the walnuts. The recipe calls for 225g of walnuts. What about the cranberry amount and is there anything I need to do to the cranberries before adding them to the final mix. The image posted is of the walnut levain. Not bad but would like to try cranberries or something else. 

Paul 

This is the same recipe as the recently posted 50% whole wheat Hokkaido sourdough milk bread except that the total dough weight was reduced to make 8 buns in a 9” cake pan. These are going to my sister’s house for our Canadian Thanksgiving dinner tonight, the first time having a family dinner since the pandemic started.

 8 rolls in a 9” round pan or

9 rolls in a 8” square pan

Ingredients

Sweet Stiff Starter 

• 45g bread flour 
• 20g water
• 15g lbrown sugar 
• 15g sourdough starter ~100% hydration 

Tangzhong 

• 85g milk 
• 15g whole wheat (stoneground not sprouted)

Final Dough 

• 141g bread flour
• 164g whole wheat flour (same as above)
• 50g sugar (used 40 g)
• 6g salt 
• 124g milk 
• 1 eggs
• 57g unsalted butter 

Pre-bake Wash 

• 1 egg beaten
• 1 Tbsp milk

Post-bake Wash 

• 1/2 Tbsp butter
• Fleur de sel 

Instructions

Starter 

Mix the starter ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 50% growth.

Press down with your knuckles to create a uniform surface and to push out air.

At room temperature, it typically takes 7-9 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, briefly whisk the dry dough ingredients, and then add the sweet stiff starter, separating it into 5-6 portions as you add it to the bowl.

Now pour/scrape in all the wet ingredients (including the tangzhong), with the melted butter last. With the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed for a minute, scrape down the sides, and then mix on medium speed for 15-20 minutes. The dough will seem very soft, but as you approach the 15-20 minute mark, it should not stick to your hands and should pass the windowpane test.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, form it into a ball, flip it smooth side up, cover and let rise for 6-12 hours depending on room temperature. You can place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours or retard overnight, this makes rolling the dough easier.

Prepare your pan by greasing them or line with parchment paper.

Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. Lightly flour the bench. Press the dough into a rectangle and divide it into 8 or 9 portions. Shape each tightly into a boule, place into a greased or parchment lined pan.

Cover and let proof for 2-4 hours (more if you put the dough in the refrigerator).  Mine took 5 hours to complete final proof at 82ºF.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.

Bake the rolls for 30-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot and sprinkle with flaked salt.  I didn’t have fleur de sel so sprinkled a bit of pink salt on after brushing with butter.

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I was very taken with HungryShots/Denisa's recent blog post on her 40% spelt SD loaf and her excellent description of the evolution of her Mk IV version.

So when I found a bag of Doves Farm white spelt flour in a local shop, I thought it was time to give it a try.

Denisa had done all the hard work, so I changed very little:

• 10% stiff levain
• 35% white spelt/5% wholemeal spelt
• hearth baked batardes insead of dutch oven boules
• 4 folds - I skipped the lamination - too intricate for me! In fact 4 folds is 3 more than I usually do.
• no preshape and stitch shaped

For pH watchers, pHs were once again much higher than the "norms" - 4.60 at the end of bulk (70% rise) and 4.20 at bake. Dough pH continues to be problematic for me as a determinant.

I'm happy with the end result - good rise, good ears and very tasty bread! Thank you Denisa!

Lance