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Today's bake: Madras Curry and Raisin Loaf

Based on - Bake Magazine - Chef Julien Otto, faculty instructor at The Fresh Pastry School

This bread is made from a majority of  bread flour, some 100% Stone Ground Organic Durum 100% Extract and a bit of whole rye which is in the culture. The Madras Curry and Raisins add-ins really dominate the flavor of this bread with the durum flour mostly contributing to the crumb texture.

This is my 1st attempt making this bread and I am still trying to dial-in the following:

1. Optimal scoring - mostly depth to maximize opening

I  like this bread but will probably increase the Madras Curry percentage a little when I bake it again.

Tasting Notes

Crumb - Sweet/Dairy with notes of milk

Crust - Raisin - due to the raisins - really nice and not to sweet

Grain Character - moderate with a taste of cooked spaghetti

Recipe and Process are below for those that are interested.

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We are back in Toronto and I’ve just gotten a couple of feeds in and the starter is looking good.  However, I needed to get these rolls done for our family dinner at my sister’s quickly.  So using IDY I made these rolls.  Since my partner is from Newfoundland and they have Newfoundland savory as their local herb that is widely used in stuffing I decided to give him a taste of home by using Newfoundland savory in my mashed potatoes that I’ve added along with black pepper to these milk rolls.

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For 13 x 9” pan 24 rolls 

egg wash: 1 yolk, 1 tbsp milk and a pinch of salt, beaten…

Cook Tangzhong mixing flour and milk constantly until it becomes a thick roux.  Let cool before adding to final dough.  Or add to cold milk and egg to cool it down.

Blend room temperature butter and flour together and set aside to incorporate after the dough is well developed.

Whisk together dry ingredients flour salt and yeast. 

To mix by hand, add the salt and yeast to the wet ingredients (milk, tangzhong and egg) to dissolve.  Next add the flour and mix with a silicone spatula until no dry flour remains.  Rest 10-20 mins.  Next perform French folds until the dough is well developed.  Smear the blended butter/flour onto the dough and then fold to incorporate and then perform further French folds until well developed.  Gradually add the mashed potato and knead to incorporate it well into the dough.  Form into a tight ball and place in a bowl covered with plastic or a damp cloth and place in a warm place until doubled (about 1hr 30 mins).  Alternatively, you could mix the mashed potato and butter and then add the mixture to the developed dough until well incorporated.

Butter a large baking pan.  Punch the dough down and then divide into 12 equal portions.  Form each into tight boules.  Place in the buttered baking pan seem side down.  Cover them and allow them to fully proof about 1 hour to 1 hour and 20-30 mins, they should pass the poke test.

After about 30 mins of proofing time, whisk your remaining egg and milk and then brush the small boules.

About 30 mins prior to end of final proof preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Immediately prior to baking brush the dough again with the egg and milk mixture.

Bake the rolls uncovered for 30-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Cover if your rolls get brown early in the baking process.

Remove the bread from the oven but not the pans, brush the tops with butter while hot, and then let cool for 10 minutes before pulling the bread from the pans. You may need to slide a butter knife down the sides of the pan to loosen the bread, but I have found parchment paper to be unnecessary.  Sprinkle with fleur de sel if you wish after brushing with butter. 

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Merry Christmas TFL Bakers!

Ok, it isn’t all bread, but bread is prominently featured. My husband has been talking up my baking to his family so I couldn’t disappoint them. Most of this is now packed up in a suitcase on its way to Bangalore. Fingers crossed there is something left other than crumbs!

Breads, left to right:

Ginger plum loaf from the Rye Baker with triple the ginger and 1.5x the prunes

Spelt, rye, and whole wheat loaf from Perfect Loaf (https://www.theperfectloaf.com/spelt-rye-and-whole-wheat-sourdough-bread/)

Latgalian rye from the Rye Baker website, broken into 2 small loaves (http://theryebaker.com/latgalian-rye/)

Cookies, clockwise from bottom left:

Alfajores with goat’s milk caramel from Stella Parks (https://www.seriouseats.com/alfajores-vanilla-shortbread-milk-toffee-caramel-recipe)

Screaming ginger cookies from Alice Medrich (https://www.jamesbeard.org/recipes/my-ginger-cookies)

Christmas biscotti from Tish Boyle (http://tishboyle.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-biscotti.html?m=1)

Licorice brownie cookies from Jesse Szewczyk (https://food52.com/recipes/77735-salty-black-licorice-brownie-cookies)

Italian rainbow cookies from Smitten Kitchen (https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/12/seven-layer-cookies/)

Ginger crunch from David Lebovitz (https://www.davidlebovitz.com/ginger-slice-crunch-shortbread-recipe/)

I own all five books written by Chef Grégoire Michaud, the owner and founder of Bakehouse in Hong Kong, but I didn't have his autograph. So when travel restrictions in Hong Kong are relaxed, I return to Hong Kong around Thanksgiving to visit family and ask Chef Michaud to sign my book.

I made several types of bread from his books, and they all turned out great.  I am so excited to finally meet him (and his wife, Vianna)! We have a pleasant conversation about his family, his bakeries, how he connects his business to the local communities to sustain them, and his plans to expand it to Mainland. His dedication to maintaining high-quality baked goods and his enthusiasm for developing new products is admirable. He is such a nice guy that he invites us to the central bakehouse, his "playground" in Chai Wan, where his team prepares the dough and his pet starter, Roger, is kept.  It is an eye-opening experience to see the entire production workflow - how the dough is prepared, fermented, baked, and dispatched.  How I wish I could have some of the high-tech toys there! Did you know that some of the mega walk-in freezers there can freeze a human being to the core in under 30 minutes？ "Horrifying" deep freezers like these enable his team to flash-freeze shaped and proved croissant dough and deliver it to his bakeries, where bakers thaw and bake it fresh multiple times during business hours. As a result, customers can enjoy fresh croissants throughout the day. 

In addition to Chef Michaud's central bakehouse, we visit his bakeries at various locations and have a romantic lunch "date" at the Wanchai location. Our visit to Chef Michaud's bakeries in Hong Kong is inspiring and much more enjoyable than the upsetting experience at a local Bay Area bakery I told you about last year. The fond memories of meeting Chef Michaud, one of my favorite bakers, will last a lifetime!

I look forward to having another date at Chef Michaud's bakery next time in Hong Kong!

The first course of a meal - desserts!!!

Bakehouse's best-selling items - SOURDOUGH EGG TART and CROISSANT

It's that time of the year again - panettone time!

Stunning night view of Victoria Harbour

Best time to visit Hong Kong: around Thanksgiving

My must-visit authentic Hong Kong eateries: 

Sheng Kee Porridge & Noodles - famous for its wonton noodles

on the Kowloon side

G/F, 11 Parkes Street, Jordan

MTR Jordan Station, C2 exit, ~ 2-minute walk

Tel: 23513018

Master Low-key Food Shop - famous for its bubble egg waffles

on the Hong Kong side

Shop B3, G/F, 76A Shau Kei Wan Main Street East, Shau Kei Wan

MTR Shau Kei Wan Station, B1 exit, ~ 2-minute walk

Tel: 69868500

When I'm not in Hong Kong and craving authentic Hong Kong desserts and cafe-style fare, I usually follow Jerry and Maggie's recipes to make my own. 

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The following channels have done a much better job introducing Chef Michaud than I do:

Bakehouse Wanchai, where we have our lunch date, and the central bakehouse, where we meet Roger, the starter

https://youtu.be/JNSb5gOECqU

Bakehouse Soho

https://youtu.be/iwd0QnoXiKY

Bakehouse Causeway Bay, where we try the November special - Tiramisu danish

https://youtu.be/dSoa0TT8x7I

Bakehouse Tsim Sha Tsui

https://youtu.be/3MGpnFhyjlk

Bakehouse Stanley

https://youtu.be/T3gVFMwOiFg

Bakehouse outreach 1 - making bread in an old-fashioned Hong Kong bakery

https://youtu.be/iNc7MgaHJiY

Bakehouse outreach 2 - making moon cake

https://youtu.be/Sc7Q_TXd8xM

Today's bake: Hazelnut and Fig Levain

Bread - A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes - Jeffery Hamelman 2nd Ed.

This bread is made from a majority of  bread flour, some 100% Stone Ground Whole Wheat Flour and a bit of whole rye which is in the culture. The Hazelnut, Fig, and Anise add-ins really dominate the flavor of this bread.

This is my second attempt making this bread and I am still trying to dial-in the following:

1. Correct amount of steam for my little gas oven
2. Dough shaping
3. Optimal scoring

I really like this bread and will definitely bake it again.

Tasting Notes

Crumb - Sour/Dairy with notes of plain yogurt

Crust - Fruity - probably as a result of the fig add-in

Grain Character - moderate with a taste of cooked spaghetti

Recipe and Process are below for those that are interested.

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All - just wanted to thank this site for the great information - have been referencing this as I worked through a method on making baguettes that are crowd pleasers at my home:

Although my overall baking activity is less than it used to be, I have made some breads recently.

First up, cranberry-orange cream cheese braids. These were donated to a fundraising cookie walk that our local Friends of the Library held.

I also baked some small sweet vanilla challot yesterday that will be gifted to friends:

Paul

I need some lard for baking. Instead of buying hydrogenated lard at the supermarket, I air fry strips of (lightly seasoned) pork fat @ 200°C x 13 minutes to render lard. Re-fry the strips @ 200°C until crispy and use them in soup noodles, fry rice, or eat them as is as a snack.

Porky fries Some say it goes well with beer!

Noodles with cracklins （🐷)油渣麵 - an authentic Hong Kong street food.  I followed Jerry's recipe. 

Also made a whole-spelt noodle version, but I forgot to add the cracklins to the broth!

A whole-durum noodle version. This time I made sure I didn't leave out the cracklins!

I could have lowered the frying temperature to make it more "snowy-white",  but I think it's not bad for a first try.

I've tried making a single baguette a few different times.  Each time was a different recipe and each time it was a last minute "Let's throw this together and make a baguette" approach.  Got really lucky the first time with nice spring and an open crumb.  Told myself that baguettes were easy.  The next couple of tries had no spring at all and turned out dense enough to be used as dowel rods.  This is the first time I went into it with a plan.  I based the approach off Boubasa's recipe, but I used a flour blend that I had recent success with on a regular yeasted loaf that contains 30% semolina.

I used a small preferment (7.5%), a small amount of yeast in the overall formula (0.15%) with a 24 hour cold bulk after gluten development, and 72% hydration.  Due to timing, I did a relatively short preferment (4 hours) by using more yeast than I typically would.  The semolina was re-milled using my Mock Mill and given a 1 hour autolyse prior to mixing.  For the next bake, I will go bake to the 12 hour poolish fermentation to help with flavor development.  Baked on stone that was preheated to 490 deg F with steam for 12 minutes and then at 450 deg F with convection for 10 minutes.

Happy with the crumb,  Soft and moist and the flavor was not too bad.  I will increase the ferment time on the poolish next time.  Jury is still out on the crust.  Good flavor but quite chewy.  I've never had a baguette before, so I'm not really sure what the target is for the bread.  Is a baguette crust typically really chewy?  How do you store your baguettes after they're baked?

Haven't posted anything for a while, thought to rectify with this quick and easy recipe for sourdough deli rye bread.

Here is the formula: https://fgbc.dk/2rfu

Process is simple. Refresh a rye starter, so you have enough (I keep mine in the fridge, and I fed it in the morning with warm water and it was ready in the afternoon), keep it at 28C. Just before going to sleep, make a somewhat stiff rye preferment with all of the rye flour for the bake, keep at 28C for around 8-9 hours - it should grow significantly, get spongy, acquire prominent sour smell. In the morning mix the final dough, using warm water. I used a mix of 1:1 Ruchmehl (Swiss very high extraction flour) and white bread flour for the non-rye portion. It should be on the stiffer side, around 70% hydration in my case. Keep the dough warm (28-30C), for me bulk was done in under 2 hours! It grows quite a lot and quite quickly. I gave it a couple of sets of folds in that time to strengthen the dough.

Turn out the dough, divide into portions, preshape. Leave for 20 min, then shape. The dough doesn't handle very tight shaping, the prettier of the two breads was just shaped by flattening of the preshaped boule, folding and then rolling like baguettes to give a nice tapered shape.

Final proof on a couche, time would depend on the temperature, I gave them around 1 hr and then baked the first one with steam (20 with, then until done without), while the second one was moved to the balcony with around 0C there. I think the second one was proofed a little better, so perhaps I jumped the gun with the first one somewhat. Not sure baking with steam was the right choice, but that's up to the baker. I also applied a cornstarch glaze when taking them out of the oven.

I am no expert on what deli rye bread tastes like, but this is the taste I remember from the community bake a couple of years ago, and from my few encounters with this style of bread "in the wild" - except the crust, I guess it shouldn't be baked with steam?

Anyway, a very quick recipe (bread can be ready for lunch, just need to start the preferment) with convenient easy to use and remember gram measurements!