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TFL'er bake list #4 this week, and this weekend's bake was Danni's Oat Porridge Bread.

A fun bake, and I learned a new technique by making a porridge.  The bread came out really good and has great flavor!  The crumb is nice and soft without being sticky.  Will definitely keep this one on the list.

Another savoury loaf, this time with a wild rice/exotic rice blend and dehydrated onions and a touch of honey. 

When I was mixing up the dough I noticed it was extremely soft. This was probably because I didn’t cook the rice the night before as per the recipe and that was probably a mistake as the rice ended up more hydrated than it should have. I added an extra 50 grams of flour to soak up some of the hydration. So word to the wise, make the rice the night before. 

Recipe 

Makes 3 loaves

700 g strong bakers unbleached flour + 50g

200 g fresh milled Spelt 

100 g fresh milled Selkirk wheat

85 g dry Lundberg Wild Blend Rice (~270 g cooked)

20 g dehydrated onions flakes

700 g water

30 g yogurt 

50 g honey

24 g salt

250 g of 3 stage 100% hydration levain (procedure below)

Wholegrain flour and unbleached flour to feed the levain

The afternoon before:

1. Take 2 g of refrigerated starter and feed it 18 g of filtered water and 18 g of wholegrain flour. Let sit at cool room temperature for the day. 

The night before:

1. I use homemilled flour so if you are doing the same, measure out the stated amount for each type of flour in berries or grain, and mill it on the finest setting of your home mill. If buying flour, get the freshest that you can and try to ensure that it is wholegrain. 

2. Place the required amounts of the wholegrain flours in a tub and add the unbleached flour to it. 

3. Cover and set aside.

4. Cook the rice in plenty of boiling water until tender. Drain, add the dehydrated onions, mix well, and refrigerate overnight.

5.  Feed the levain 20 g of water and 20 g of wholegrain flour. Let that rise at cool room temperature for the night. 

Dough making day:

1. When you get up, feed the levain 100 g of filtered water and 50 g each of strong baker’s flour and wholegrain four.  Let rise until doubled (about 5 hours). 

2. Take the rice  out of the fridge to warm up before being used in the dough.

3. About two hours before the levain is ready, using a stand mixer, mix the water with the flour, and mix on speed 1 until all the flour has been hydrated. Let this autolyse for a couple of hours. 

4. Once the autolyse is done and the levain is ready, add the salt, the yogurt, the honey, the rice mixture, and the levain to the bowl. Mix on speed one for a minute to integrate everything, then mix on speed 2 for 9 minutes.   

5. Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and place in a lightly oiled covered tub. Let rest 30 minutes in a warm spot (oven with light on). 

6. Do 2 sets of coil folds at 30 minute intervals and then more 2 sets at 45 minute intervals, and then let the dough rise to about 30%. It should have irregular bubbles visible through the sides of the container and  bubbles on top as well. 

7. Tip the dough out on a bare counter, sprinkle the top with flour and divide into portions of ~800 g. Round out the portions into rounds with a dough scraper and let rest 30 minutes on the counter. 

8. Do a final shape by flouring the top of the rounds and flipping the rounds over on a lightly floured counter. Gently stretch the dough out into a circle. Pull and fold the third of the dough closest to you over the middle. Pull the right side and fold over the middle and do the same to the left. Fold the top end to the center patting out any cavities. Finally stretch the two top corners and fold over each other in the middle. Roll the bottom of the dough away from you until the seam is underneath the dough. Cup your hands around the dough and pull towards you, doing this on all sides of the dough to round it off. Finally spin the dough to make a nice tight boule.

9. Sprinkle a  mix of rice and all purpose flour in the bannetons. Place the dough seam side down in the bannetons. Let rest for a few minutes on the counter and then put to bed in a cold (38F) fridge overnight. 

Baking Day

1. The next morning, heat the oven to 475F with the Dutch ovens inside for 45 minutes to an hour. Turn out the dough seam side up onto a cornmeal sprinkled counter. Place rounds of parchment paper in the bottom of the pots, and carefully but quickly place the dough seam side up inside. 

2. Cover the pots and bake the loaves at 450 F for 25 minutes, remove the lids, and bake for another 22 minutes at 425 F. Internal temperature should be 205 F or more.

Discovered the whole wheat flour I've wanted to try for a long time available in a shop last week, and decided to use it in one of my typical recipes, with approximately 40% of this flour, and rest strong bread flour (and rye starter). Formula: https://fgbc.dk/1l1g

Mixed all but a little reserve water and salt, left for around 30 min for fermentolyse. Then kneaded a bit to incorporate salt with remaining water, and did slap and folds until some development. Left to ferment warm, and did some folds a couple of times, then moved to a straight sided container, doing another fold for that. Left to fermented until about 50% rise, then gently preshaped, and then shaped. Retarded overnight. Unusually, it seemed like it actually grew a little in the fridge. Maybe it started warmer than usual? And this landrace flour is probably more fresh than a typical flour I get (milling date just about a month ago), could contribute too I guess.

In the morning baked. After scoring it started flattening a bit - and basically completely pancaked in the oven that two loaves even touched - but the oven spring surprisingly nicely saved it. Not the tallest loaves, but nothing embarrassing about them either.

Tastes really nice! Soft and slightly moist crumb, clear but not overpowering tang. On the edge when just starting to cut it was very open, but further in it was more even and not very open (the pictures are from the transition area, so most of the bread is a little less open than what you see here).

This week, I made an olive and cheese loaf, Queen Elizabeth cake (twice), and non-baked breads: steamed flower buns and horseshoe fritters (these are fried). 

For the loaf, I wanted a soft bread that stays soft until the last slice. I used pepper-stuffed olives - these gave specks of red together with the orange bits of old fort and marbled cheddar. I wasn’t sure if my starter was strong enough for this bake since I used it passed its peak.

Starter
15g starter (100% hydration)
45g water
80g all purpose flour

Tangzhong
100g milk
20g all purpose flour

Dough
all of the starter
all of the TZ
260g all purpose flour 
40g whole wheat flour 
5g salt (reduce if using more filling)
160g milk
15g light olive oil 
60g pitted olives and sliced/chopped
60g grated cheese (100g would be better?)
Butter - to brush on loaf after the bake

After baking 4 carrot swirl loaves for people, I finally found time to learn how to make the Queen Elizabeth cake. The recipe I used as a reference is here: https://urbancottagelife.com/queen-elizabeth-cake/amp/

I was tempted to make a small cake but it was my husband’s birthday so I made the recipe as is. Be warned, the original recipe has a ridiculous amount of sugar. So, after that cake is over and done, I decided to make it again as a mini sheet cake (mini as in a 1/8th sheet pan) and with a lazier, no mixer required way of mixing (I like easy mixings!)

Dates
60g dates, pitted and chopped
80g water
1/2 tsp baking soda

Cake
110g all-purpose flour, sifted
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda 
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg/allspice 
50g unsalted butter, soft
10g light olive oil
40g coconut/brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract 
40g heavy cream

Coconut Frosting 
50g brown sugar
40g butter
50g shredded unsweetened coconut
40g heavy cream 
Optional: 1/4 cup toasted walnuts, chopped 

Cook dates and water over medium heat until it begins to boil. Reduce to a simmer for 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat and add baking soda. Stir the dates and place the pot over low heat until the mixture boils again. Continue stirring and let the mixture boil for 5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Preheat oven to 180°C. Butter and line a 1/8th sheet pan with parchment paper. 
Whisk flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and nutmeg in a bowl. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, mix butter, oil and sugar until the mixture is pale - 2-3 minutes. Then, mix in the egg and vanilla extract.
Then, alternate adding flour mixture and cream into the egg mixture. Fold in with each addition until just combined.

Fold in cooled dates and then transfer to prepare pan. 
Bake at 180°C 15 - 20 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from the oven and let it cool for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, turn on the broiler. 
While the cake is baking, prepare the coconut frosting. Melt butter with coconut, brown sugar and cream in a saucepan. Stir until sugar and butter are melted, then bring the mixture to a gentle boil for 3 minutes. 
Remove from the heat and stir in the nuts if using. 
Poke holes all over the warm cake and then spread the frosting all over the cake. Return the pan to the oven and broil the frosting for 2 minutes until the topping is golden brown. Be sure to watch the cake during the broil. Remove the cake and let it cool completely before slicing. This cake can also be cooled completely in the fridge. 

I let the frosting caramelize for a full 2 minutes leaving a light crunchy topping. 
The other two: steamed flower buns (hua juan) and horseshoe fritters (ma kiok) are two kinds snacks I enjoy back home. 

I’ve had my eye on this method of shaping a milk bread for sometime when I first saw this on my IG feed.  This bake is inspired by Chiew See of Autumn Kitchen, she used a similar method of shaping a matcha milk bread last summer and I’ve wanted to try it ever since and finally got around to doing it this long weekend. 

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Overnight levain build

14 g starter + 86 g cold water + 86 g bread flour left to ferment at 74ºF overnight.

Take butter out when build levain.

For the Black sesame powder

Grind 86 g of toasted black sesame seeds (I used a coffee grinder) then combine with 18 g of sugar.  Cover and set aside until the morning.

To prepare the purple sweet potato I used the instant pot to steam them, then removed the meat from the skins and mashed them until smooth.  I have found that you can freeze the mashed sweet potato so you can make a fair amount and freeze them in small portions for future use.

The next morning mix the following except for the butter.

312 g bread flour (282 g if using 30 g to premix with the softened butter)

1 large egg

30 g sugar

126 g milk

6 g salt

180 g levain 

Total flour = 402 g

30 g room temperature butter. Take out first thing in the morning.

After butter is softened mix it with 30 g of flour (so subtract 30 g flour from the dough above) because this will make the butter far easier to incorporate.

This time I didn’t use the standmixer, I am gradually killing my KA mixer by making pizza doughs and milk breads.  I’ve decided I will try to handmix these doughs from now on to extend the life of my mixer.  

In a bowl, mix the egg, milk, sugar, salt and levain until well blended.  Then add the flour and mix until no dry flour remains, rest for 5-10 mins.  The slap and fold until you have a strong smooth dough with a full windowpane.  

Mix your 30 g of room temperature butter with 30 g of bread flour until smooth.  The add this to your dough in thirds slapping and folding each time until well incorporated and fully developed.  Rest for 5-10 mins then divide the dough into thirds, it is fine if they aren’t the same size since two of the portions will have inclusions.

Take the smallest third and combine with the black sesame powder and knead by hand until the black sesame powder is well incorporated.  Shape into a boule and set aside under a tea towel.

Finally take the third dough ball and gradually combine with the mashed purple sweet potato smearing it on the surface and folding it in.  Knead until the dough is a uniform colour and smooth.  Shape into a boule and place under a tea towel to rest for 5 mins.

Lightly flour a work surface and the plain dough boule.  Roll out to at least 12” in length and almost as wide as the length of your pan, set aside.  Continue to do the same with the other two balls next rolling the black sesame dough out to 12” and placing that on top of the plain rolled out dough.  Finally rolling the anko dough out again to 12” and finally placing that on top of the black sesame dough.

Roll the laminated three doughs out to about 16-18” in length.  Next using a ruler and a pizza cutting wheel, cut the dough into strips lengthwise about 1.5-2 cm wide but leaving the last 2-4 cm of dough uncut at one end.  Finally when all the strips are cut twist each strip in alternating directions.  See my photos below.  Once all the strips are twisted next roll the dough into a log starting with the uncut dough, roll tightly, again see the photos for the final appearance of the dough.  I actually found transferring the dough into the pullman pan to be the most challenging part of the whole formula.   Place the log in your prepared Pullman pan with the seam side down (I like to line it with parchment so it is easy to remove from the pan).  Place in the proofing box set to 82-84ºF to proof until the dough comes to approximately 1 cm below the edge of the Pullman pan.  This takes about 8-8.5 hours at 82ºF, the yeast isn’t likely to be osmotolerant so it will take longer than you would normally expect.

At about 30 mins before you think your dough will be at 1 cm below the edge of the pan, preheat your oven to 355ºF with a rack or baking steel/stone on the lowest rack.  At this time prepare an egg wash and gently brush it on the top of the dough.  When the oven is ready 30 mins later, brush the top of the dough again with the egg wash.  Bake for 45 mins turning once halfway through.  Keep an eye on the top crust and be prepared to shield it with either aluminum foil or a cookie tray above if it is getting dark too soon.  After 45 mins remove from the pan to check for doneness.  Place the bread back in the oven for another 5 minutes to ensure that the crust on the sides is fully set and baked.

Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool completely before slicing.

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I won’t bother posting the formula as it is the same as previously posted.  For this loaf I added toasted black sesame, pumpkin and sunflower seeds during lamination.  Bulk went to  60% rise in the aliquot jar and then final bench warm proof to 110% at which time it went into the fridge for a cold retard.  Based on the slight spreading that this loaf had either it is a bit overproofed or over hydrated.

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Hi guys. My name's Jordie aka The Crusty Oaf. Must admit I'm fairly new to this whole blogging thing so bare with me while I find my feet in this world. But what better way to document my progress on my way to becoming a professional bread baker. 

A little bit about me first I guess. 

I'm called Jordie, 28, I live in Suffolk UK in a busy seaside town. I have 4 children so finding the time to bake with this hectic life is a challenge in itself 😂

I started my journey to artisan bread pro probably late last year maybe November 2020. Although I've always enjoyed baking. Who doesn't like a cheeky home made treat every now and then? 

Anyways. It all started with a simple white loaf recipe I found on BBC good food. Using bakers yeast. I got quite good at that and needed a challenge. I googled sourdough and it spiralled from there. I currently have 3 different starters going 😣 a white a rye and a wholemeal. I've had varied success with then all. Although family claim that my rye loaf (will have to find the recipe I've used and link it here when I remember to credit the author) is the best they've ever tried. But somehow find that hard to believe lmao even though they keep coming back for more. Must be doing something right ey?

So here I am. Sitting here taking 2 our of 4 to bed typing out my first blog on my phone listening to some jazz fusion (snarky puppy culcha vulcha album for anyone interested) not knowing what to write or where I can go from here. But I guess the point is to document my progress to see myself improve.

My current goal I guess is to be good enough to join the forces of my local artisan bakery to become a bread baker. I know that may seem a long way off and for someone from a tech world it's a massive change in careers but it's making me happy for a change. I don't find it tedious like websites. There's always something for me to improve on or experiment with a different technique or try making my own recipe. The world of baking seems so huge and I've only just touched the surface on such a fun and interesting journey and can't wait to share it with like minded people where I can bounce ideas off and get some great feedback on my bread. Although tasting is half the experience I can at least show you what I've done and improve on that. 

Look forward to keeping this going. I think it is going to be a challenge in itself to remember to update on a regular basis but once I get into the habit of it, I'm sure it will become second nature. 

That's it from me for now. Hope you've enjoyed reading my ramble of words on a page and look forward to seeing you all really soon 

Jordie 

I have long been a fan of the Semolina version of Jason’s Quick Coccodrillo Ciabatta, which may have been my first TFL recipe attempt. @alfanso’s recent post on 80% PFF Ciabatta got me thinking it had been too long since I’d investigated alternative versions. Thinking back on the Durum community bake, I decided to apply Alfanso’s method to a hybrid ciabatta and I think it worked out ok.

Modifications
Increased Jason's semolina portion from 30% to 50% and used the finer Semola Rimacinata
Reduced Jason's salt percentage from 3% to 2.5%, splitting the difference with Alfanso
Upped Alfanso's hydration to 83% (including the oil portion)
Retained Jason's 1.3% yeast...twas a lively dough indeed
Pre-fermented flour at 35%

Ingredients
Semola Flour 535 g
Bread Flour 162 g
AP Flour (374 g (all from levain and poolish)

ADY 27 g
Salt 27g
Olive Oil 32 g
Water 857 g (374 g from levain and poolish)

Process (mostly per Alfanso)
Prep ~350 g levain over 3 generations
Prep ~400 g poolish
Mix poolish, levain and 95% of additional water, add yeast, rest 10
Add remaining flour, mix to shaggy, rest 10
3 minutes with hook at 4, rest 10
3 minutes with hook at 6, rest 10
Add oil, salt & remaining water
Mix high speed 8 minutes
Bulk Ferment ~2 hours until 3x (lively dough!)
30 minute folds
Divide, "shape" and rest 45 minutes
Preheat oven to 550
Flip, stretch
Bake 10 minutes @475with steam, then 10 minutes @450 no steam

2 kg batch produced excellent bread. Lovely airy crumb. Crust had that pahoehoe ropy lava texture thing going. Made a second 3 kg batch with similar results, though the one 500 g batch of dough I held in refrigerator overnight did not get quite the loft of the unrefrigerated dough.

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This project leaves me with one rumination. Why do ciabatta recipes insist on Biga instead of poolish? I know...Italian tradition, but poolish is so much more straightforward and the math is easier. Does anyone have any objective observations about qualitative differences between doughs resulting from the two pre-ferments. As with Hammelman's 125% poolish, the difference is interesting but I can't tease out a great reason to go there...

Sunbeam, model 5833.

Free online manual:
https://www.manualslib.com/manual/324027/Sunbeam-Expressbake-5833.html

(For future reference.)

1: Basic program:

• 3:00 - 2:50. Mix.  10 min.
• 2:50 - 2:30. Rest. 20 min.
• 2:30 - 2:15. Knead. 15 min.
• 2:15 - 1:55. Rise. 20 min.
• 1:55 - 1:55. Deflate.
• 1:55 - 1:00. Rise. 55 min.
• 1:00 - 0:00. Bake. 60 min.

2: Whole wheat program:.

• 3:40 - 3:30. Mix. 10 min.
• 3:30 - 3:05. Rest. 25 min.
• 3:05 - 2:45. Knead. 20 min.
• 2:45 - 2:15. Rise. 30 min.
• 2:15 - 2:15. Deflate.
• 2:15 - 1:05. Rise. 70 min.
• 1:05 - 0:00. Bake. 65 min.

With my daughter that's gluten sensitive back from college, I decided to see if I could come up with a sourdough GF loaf.

I started by creating a brown rice starter.  I cheated though and used scrapings from my AP/WW starter.  My first mix was the scrapings left over from a refresh of the AP/WW.  Best guess is there was less than 1 gram left in the jar.  To that, I added 25g of brown rice flour and 25g of water.  After 24 hours, it was quite bubbly and showing at least 50% expansion.  So far for me, the rice starter doesn't go much beyond that for expansion no matter how long I leave it.  Subsequent feedings were 1:5 (water:flour) at 90% hydration.  After the 4th feeding, the wheat flour in the starter was below the limit for a 1kg loaf to be determined GF.  On all subsequent refreshes, the mature starter has a wonderful aroma that's somewhere between fruity and buttery.  It is a sweet smell that doesn't remind me of sour at all.

This recipe uses two GF flour blends.  Why...  I had both brands in the pantry and wanted to use up one before opening the other the first time I tried it.  Had reasonable success and didn't want to mess with it.  :-)   The hardest part is getting the consistency right.  My guess is this will work just fine with other GF flour blend brands.  You'll just have to play with the hydration until you get that heavy cake/brownie batter consistency.

I'm not sure how long you can safely ferment a dough with egg whites in it, so I've been adding a bit of ADY to the final mix to make sure the final proof moves along.  I't been getting done in 2-3 hours.  Need to do some digging to see if the ADY can be dropped further and extend ferment/proofing out to 3-4 hours.

Levain:

142.5g Domata 1-for-1 GF flour blend

178.1g Water

20g brown rice flour starter culture

Ferment 12-16 hours at 70-72 deg F

Final Dough:

285g KAF GF flour blend

47.5g Bob's Red Mill GF Oat Flour

239.9g Water

9.5g Pink Himalayan Salt

26.1g Salted Butter (room temp)

60-65g Egg Whites (2 large eggs) (room temp)

1.2g Active Dry Yeast

16.6g Honey

Method:

Combine final fours and salt then mix with a whisk

Rub room temperature butter into the fours using a fork until butter is evenly distributed.  (Flour will get something like a coarse sand look to it.)

Combine final water and honey.  Warm to 80-85 deg F and then activate the ADY in that mixture.  Set aside for 5-10 minutes to let ADY wake up.

Whip room temp egg whites slightly until they get a little aerated and bubbly on top.  I haven't been going all the way to fully whipped.

Create a well in the center of the flour/butter blend.

Add activated ADY/water/honey mixture to the levain and mix thoroughly.  Pour mixture into well and add whipped egg whites.  Slowly stir mixture with a spoon and gradually incorporate flour to it.  Thoroughly mix and make sure any lumps are broken and batter is smooth  It should have the consistency of a very heavy cake or brownie batter.

Spoon batter into a buttered/GF floured loaf pan and smooth top with a wetted spatula.

Put loaf pan in a sealed bag (I use a large clear plastic bread bag I got from Amazon) and put in final proof at 81 deg F.  Let rise until center of the loaf is approximately 1" above the pan rim.

Approximately 30 mins prior to final proof finishing, pre-heat oven to 350 deg.

When dough has finished rising, GENTLY spread melted butter on top of loaf.  (I use a silicone bristle BBQ brush)

Oven set-up: Cookie sheet on very top rack shielding upper element.  Cookie sheet on very bottom rack shielding bottom element.  Pizza stone on rack one slot above bottom rack. 

Bake for 30 minutes at 350 deg F with steam (I put in GW roaster pan) and then 30 minutes without steam.  After the 60 minutes, I remove the loaf from the pan and place it directly on the baking stone for another 15 minutes.  Final internal temp is usually about 210 deg F.  

Turn off oven and leave loaf in the oven with the door cracked for another 10 minutes.  Let loaf fully cool on a wire rack at room temp before putting in a bag.

Egg whites

Levain/Water/Honey/ADY/Egg Whites combined in flour well before mixing

After removing lid.  Good oven spring!