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Today I decided it was time for a serious try at baguette and epi.

Baguette and Epi

I made a straightforward french dough (68% hydration) and did not knead, but used the stretch and fold approach, both to develop the dough, and part way through bulk fermentation. I made two demi-baguettes and one epi. Unlike all my previous baking, today I used the convection mode which gave a very even browning of the bread (also used baking stone and steam of course). The crust was crackling, which was also a first for me. Way cool to hear that. It all resulted in a very thin but crispy crust and a very tender inside with nice crumb and decent holes.

Baguette and Epi crumb 

See my My Bread Adventures in pictures 

These small baguettes are made with semolina flour. They weren't supposed to have pine nuts but I ran out of currants and had to improvise. It turns out the pine nuts were pretty good.

The recipe for the bread is here.

susanfnp

As many of you know, I've been questing for a tasty, open crumb, 100% whole grain hearth bread for a long, long time now.

This weekend, I finally achieved my goal.



Nice open crumb, creamy texture, tangy and flavorful crumb, appealing slashes, crunchy crust.

Here's how I made it, and, to be truthful, it was mostly on a whim. The day before, I'd made some whole wheat sourdough sandwich bread, and had about 80 grams of starter left over. I didn't have time, really, to feed it, so I popped it in the fridge figuring I'd do something with it later.

The next evening, as I was thinking about what to cook for a visit from my folks (they'd come all the way from Atlanta, so I wanted something nice), I thought, "Why not try something akin to CrumbBum's miche?"

So here's what I did:

• 40 grams of whole wheat starter at 60% hydration (Use 50 grams if at 100% hydration)
• 375 grams water
• 10 grams salt
• 300 grams whole wheat flour
• 150 grams whole spelt flour
• 50 grams whole rye flour

I love apples, and, at the Corvallis farmer's market, apples have been abundant lately. Everything from relatively new varieties like Liberty, to old varieties like Spitzenburg, to unusual European apples that are rarely seen in the U.S. like Calville Blanc, a very old French apple best suited for pies.

I decided that the height of the apple season deserved an apple-themed meal, whose centerpiece, of course, would be Normandy Apple Bread, a recipe from Jeffrey Hammelman's Bread that I've been eyeing for quite some time. The recipe is fairly simple. It's mostly white flour, with a bit of whole wheat, uses sourdough, substitutes half the water with apple cider and adds a healthy amount of dried apples. It also includes yeast, but I decided to omit it and let the starter work all alone.

I can heartily recommend it, based on my results:



And here's a picture of the crumb:.

The baked bread tasted almost like an apple pie, with the sourdough tartness substituting for the lemon juice I often add to a pie.

The rest of the meal included butternut squash stuffed with chicken sausage and apples, spinach salad with pecans and apples, apple cider and, of course ...

APPLE PIE. This is the "Best Apple Pie" recipe from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion, but, instead of a traditional top crust, I decided to do a simple crumb topping. My daughter, Iris, is in the background, finishing off a slice of apple bread. She's had some fun with face paints earlier in the day, as you can see.

After reading so much about Artisan Baking Across America I decided I had to take a look and ordered it through my wonderful local library. To my amazement I recognized it - I must have borrowed it from another library way back when, before I made "real" bread. I particularly remembered the pandoro, and thinking that the baker must be out of his mind. Has anyone here attempted to make it? So now at least I know what you are talking about when you mention Thom Leonard's country French bread, Tom Cat's semolina filone and Essential's Columbia, and I think I know how to convert my starter to a firm one if I so desire. A very interesting book but way too big to read with a cat on my lap and a pug on the arm of my chair! A.

I just pulled my Quinoa Struan out of the oven a little while ago, and I'm rather pleased with the results.

I used reinhart's multigrain struan formula and used 6ozs of cooked quinoa in the overnight soaker. I also used Heartland Mill Golden Buffalo flour, which I'm playing aroudn with. I've used "Gold 'n' White" flour before (a high-extraction flour, meaning the coarse bran sifted out of whole wheat flour), and I was pleased with it, so I ordered 25 lbs of this to see how it performed. So far so good i think. Since it called for a substantial amount of yeast to be added for the final proof, I think it rose rather quickly, and was probably ready before I made it back home. I had to reform it and considered letting it proof a second time, but I thought it might become a mess if the yeasts were given too much free reign.

I haven't tasted this loaf yet (it wasn't done cooling), but it smells great. It looks like it would be great for sandwiches or toast. I was intrigued when it called for milk in the soaker, and I wonder how that will impact the bread.

• Susan's recipe for Tortas de Aceite (Olive Oil Wafers)
• My take on the recipe for Tortas de Aceite

I have been baking larger (2# ) loaves of rustic Italian formula free form recently. I decided to double the mix and drag out the large linen basket and try one more time to get the proofing right. Usually I over proof and the dough falls with a thud as I approach the slashing table with bare blades. I have been following Mariana's procedure for crusty Italian and my handling of the dough has been more on the gentle side with a strict 1 hour limit on the bulk ferment.

I had just watched a video of a french baker demonstrating how he shapes, slashes and handles his large boules. He bounced the boule out of the basket and onto the peel, slashed with confidence and into the oven. Very inspirational with little care of over handling. So I dumped the proofed dough out and slashed like I knew what I was doing and--well it worked out pretty well.
4# Crusty Boule

Crumb

I am trying a new WW recipe from Peter Reinhart's new book. It calls for a very stiff starter and a mash. The 1st attempt my dough was very slack and not too much spring in the oven. Came out very tight grained and not much volume. My dough for this after my 1st rise felt good and springy. My 2nd attempt was not too good either. My mash was still warm (could that have an effect) but my dought was very lifeles after my 1st rise. It cooked off with not much spring and tight crumb. Any ideas. I feel like it could use more water? The 2nd dough was like a big dead lump!!

My wife loves pumpkin and so I'd been having this idea of making some kind of pumpkin bread, but I wasn't sure what recipe. Yesterday I happened to pick up Maggie Glezer's "A Blessing of Bread" and found, on page 178 the recipe for "Pan de Calabaza", a sephardic pumpkin bread. Looked good so I decided to make that. After thinking for a while what shape I would make it (3-braid, 4-braid, loaf etc.) I decided to try something different.

Double Pumpkin Bread

I call it "Double" pumpkin bread because it contains pumpkin, and looks like one.

Recipe (as computed from the original using my spreadsheet:

• Bread Flour: 100%, 3 1/8 C, 506 g
  
• Water: 28%, 5/8 C, 142 g
  
• Salt: 1.6%, 1 3.4 t, 8.1 g
  
• Instant Dry Yeast: 1.17%, 1 3/4 t, 5.9 g
  
• Pumpkin Puree: 23%, 6 1/2 T. 110 g
  
• Cardamom, ground: 0.19%, 1/2 t, 912 mg
  
• Ginger, ground: 0.18%, 1/2 t, 859 mg
  
• Sugar, granulated: 14%, 5 1/4 T, 52.8 g
  
• Vegetable Oil: 11%, 3 3/4 T, 47.4 g
  
• Egg: 9.88%, 1 large, 47.4 g

This makes 2 pounds of a 44.45% hydration dough, although I found myself adding just a teeny bit of water. Makes a large loaf, two small to medium loaves, or 1 loaf and a few rolls.

1. Mix ingredients until incorporated (if using mixer, use the paddle).
   
2. Knead or use dough hook on mixer until good development. Dough will "just" clear the bowl, and should be smooth, silky and pass window pane test.
   
3. Transfer to oiled container and let rise until almost tripled in size. You can do this in a fairly warm place as the flavor of the bread is determined by the ingredients, and not much by fermentation, so no need for slow fermentation.
   
4. Degas gently and shape into a ball. Give it a 15 minute bench rest before proceeding.
   
5. Shape as desired. Challah type braid is traditional but it is up to you (see above!)
   
6. Let rise until, again at least doubled and the dough does not come back when you push a finger into it.
   
7. Brush with glaze of one egg and a pinch of salt.
8. Bake, in a preheated 350F oven for approximately 35 minutes. Internal temperature 197-202F. If it is getting to dark, tent with aluminum foil.

The taste was delicious, with the spices noticeable, but subtle. Fine textured crumb, soft crust and very moist inside. Worked well with pumpkin soup and everybody at our Halloween party loved it (and the three pizza's I made!) In case you are wondering: I kept the teeth light by covering them with an aluminum foil cutout after about 10 minutes of baking.