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I have finally developed a great formula for a naturally leavened sourdough. They are slow rising, but they come up very nicely. The problem is that when I slash them, they deflate. I tried to make a more shallow slash, but then I don't get a nice looking slash after final baking. Maybe I am proofing too long I guess, but I don;t get the nice open holed texture I like if I don't proof it to that point. I am using a very sharp lame each time so I know that isnt the problem either. Any ideas?

chefryan

"Cheese Bread" is a rather drab description of this strongly flavored bread, so I decided to give it the name of the cheese I used.  

The overall formula (which includes a stiff levain) is:

Bread flour - 100%

Water - 60%

Olive oil -  5%

Salt -  1.5%

Yeast -  1% (or half that amount if you plan to retard the bread overnight)

Parmesan cheese -  20%

Half the cheese is cubed and half grated, then added to the dough after it has been mixed to moderate gluten development.

I was unable to retard the dough overnight because of lack of refrigerator space.  

The bread was wonderful lightly toasted and served with a breakfast egg.  It would be a terrific accompaniment with spaghetti, as well as broiled with a bit of garlic, olive oil, sliced tomatoes, and maybe a dash of fresh mozzarella.  

Am betting it will also make excellent croutons and bread crumbs.

This is a great recipe for a special occasion and the quality of the cheese you use will have a major effect on the result.  

Only one caveat:  it will make one very lousy PB&J!

A few weeks ago I asked around at TFL if I could freeze my starter. Thanks for the all the tips: I turned half of the starter into ice cubes, left the other half in the fridge. The result: the icecubed starter needed some awakening (feeding for 2-3 days). It has a stronger taste then the starter I put in the fridge. Both as still very useable.

A first result with the icecubed yeast: spelt-honey-SF style (and extra honey on top). It all looks a bit pale, but that is not yeast related. Great sauer taste, a bit stronger that the mother-starter (which just needs more time to get tastier, eg. overnight).

A first result with the started I saved in the fridge, with 'line seed'? Flax?. Saved in a typical breadbox.

On this SF style bread you don't need any butter, just this 'stroop' (like solid apple syrup).

We have been away on a holiday to Sweden. No need to bake bread there... Look up baker Flink when you make it to Enkoping. Great bread.

Greatest surprise when we got to our cottage: it had a real wooden oven in the garden.
No time for that during the holiday. If you ever need a baking vacation!

That's what I would call happy baking!

Cheers,
Jw.

Being a new member in this cool informative site, i would like to share my newest attempt to bake a Mild Rye loaf (50% AP). Pictures attached will do the talking. However, the crumb was gilatinous and rubbery, beacuse the dough was very hydrated. The end result, had a bland taste rubbery crumb, though airy and somewhat spongy. I'll reduce hydration next time.

I don't have any vital gluten, so i kneaded the dough in runnung water to get rid of some starch.

Iam learning as i go..

I made another batch of the baguettes described previously in http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11925/baguette-surprise-and-challenge.

The only significant changes in the procedure were:1) I did not add the salt until after a 50 minute autolyse, 2) I was more meticulous in gently pre-shaping and shaping and 3) I let the loaves proof more fully. 4) I also poured about twice as much water over the pre-heated lava rocks to steam the oven.

Well, there's good news and bad news: The bad news is that I seem to have over-proofed the baguettes a bit, resulting in my scoring not opening up real well. The good news is, first, the flavor of this batch is equal to the first. I'm ready to conclude this recipe is reproducible in my hands. Second, the crumb is significantly more open. And third, I have finally achieved the crackley (rather than crunchy) crust I have been seeking on my baguettes! I am really delighted.

The crust is thin and it sang loudly for a long time while cooling. Cracks developed in the crust. It breaks off in thin, sharp-edged flakes when you bite it! Woo Hoo! I am pretty sure the cause was the extra steam created by the combination of lava rocks and extra water.

Now, I have to test the steaming enhancement with other baguette formulas.

David

Firstly, thanks to those who welcomed me to TFL!

Recently, I inherited some rather large loaf tins - 12" x 5". At the time, the person that passed them on said "I wouldn't even bother using them, I just can't get a loaf baked in the middle!" to which I scoffed a little. Hah! I am quite the baker now! I won't have those problems!

Now, these tins look big. You could drop the Grand Canyon in one of them. Well, compared to the cute little 9x5, that is. And I now have four. What to bake first?

Ah, my old favourite, Multigrain Extraorinaire, from BBA. with some minor tweaks - formula below. I cut the sugar in the recipe in half, as for my taste the original amount makes almost a sweet dessert bread. I also increased the flour - this is probably more due to my flour compared to someone elses, however I did increase it by almost 10% which seems quite a lot just to account to regional differences.

I've made this recipe a number of times - it's my standard loaf, I make one or two every weekend. So it was no big deal making the dough, shape it, dump into the new tin. Pause. I've done something wrong here, the loaf looks like a little sausage in the bottom of this tin. It must just be perspective, this being a big tin and all... leave to rise - not as much rising as I'd expect. What's wrong? Ah, I split the dough (as always) into two one pounders. This is a huge tin! I won't post the photo of the final result - it was a relatively flat loaf, and extremely embarassing!

Here's the formula I used for to make two one pound loaves (as posted in another thread, based on Multigrain Extraordinaire in BBA):

Final dough (amount ingredient / bakers %)

449g Bread Flour / 100%
105g multigrain soaker / 23.5% (below)
26g brown rice / 5.9%
18g brown sugar / 4.1%
10g salt / 2.2%
9g yeast / 1.9%
105g buttermilk / 23.5%
26g honey / 5.9%
158g water / 35.3%

Multigrain soaker: (amount ingredient / bakers %)

25g polenta / 50%
19g rolled oats / 37.5%
12g wheat bran / 25%
50g water / 100%

which works really nicely.

However, every time I scaled it up to make one three pound loaf, I would get big holes in the middle. Insufficient mixing, not enough gluten development? Not enough cooking time? I'm not sure. Anyhow, I thought this weekend, "I will make this big loaf one more time and if it doesn't work, it's back to nice easy small loaves." To be sure of the gluten part, after I used my dough hook for 6 minutes, I then did 3 stretch'n'folds in the course of an hour, then left it to rise to double. Shaped, left to rise again and baked at 190C (~375F) for around 30-40 minutes.

My "San Joaquin Soudough" formula grew out of explorations of the technique used by Anis Bouabsa for his prize-winning baguettes. I have discussed this in detail in earlier blog entries on TFL. This remains one of my favorite breads, but I'm always looking for ways to improve on it.

Last week, I made some straight dough baguettes that had a wonderful flavor. I used 90% Guisto's Baker's Choice and 10% KAF White Whole Wheat in that batch. I wondered how this flour mix would work in the SJ SD. I made this as before, but slightly drier than I usually do when adding whole wheat - 70% hydration.

This was a very nice bread, as usual. The flavor of the flour mix used was not a noticeable improvement over the AP/Rye or AP/Rye/WW mixes I've used before.

I plan to make another batch of baguettes with this flour mix tomorrow, with a few minor tweaks to the procedure. I'm eager to see if last week's flavor is reproducible.

David

Hamelman's 5-grain Levain and Seeded sourdough from "Bread" have been among my favorites for some time, but his 5-grain Sourdough Rye somehow had escaped my attention, in spite of several posts by others, until LindyD recently made it. At first, I was not clear that this was a different bread from the 5-grain Levain, but I eventually caught on. When I looked at the formula, I knew I would love it, and I do.

Thanks, Lindy! This is a wonderful bread.

David

David Snyder's thread on these baguettes seems to be closed so I will post this in my blog instead. Here is his recipe, in case you missed it the first time around.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/11925/baguette-surprise-and-challenge

I just got around to making these baguettes today, as I have been concentrating on something else lately. I made a couple of substitutions, using King Arthur Artisan flour instead of Guisto's (hard to get on the East Coast) and kosher salt instead of sea salt. Other than that I followed his recipe to the letter.

David, they were great, and I will make them again. they went down real well with some "almost bouiliabaise" I threw together. My other half ate even more of them than I did, and since he is not much of a bread eater, that's a compliment.

We didn't take pictures; my camera is on the blink, I don't know how to use Howard's, and he was out in the garage lying on his back under the lawn tractor trying to re-attach the blade. I didn't dare ask him for help.

I've been quiet for quite a while -- that doesn't mean I'm not baking nor does it mean I'm not reading TFL. As I say, my head has been elsewhere of late. But I couldn't pass up this opportunity to thank David for this easy recipe that has such good results.

I found a vintage waffle maker by Munsey at the thrift store this morning, and of course there was no manual included. I have never owned a waffle maker of any type but plan on making sourdough waffles when the grandgirls spend the night. Does any member own a Munsey, Model BW-4, and what are the basic rules for making waffles? Apart from not putting in too much batter, that is. There is no light so how will I know when it is ready? Maybe I'll stick to pancakes... A.