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Hello all. I'm a newbie home-baker. I crave the breads from back home that are not available in NA. So I am trying to create them here. I made these naan breads that are unique to Mumbai city and available in 2-3 bakeries primarily found in one particular Muslim neighborhood. The naans are available in 3-4 sizes (diameter). They are usually eaten with meat dishes having gravy as they soak up all the goodness.

Here's my handiwork:

Watch these naans sold at local bakeries in Mumbai here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0PP2_Ou6bx8

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Hokkaido milk bread base, traditional dark chocolate+ cocoa filling with a hint of cinnamon 

I think I'm done baking till Christmas!

Durum-Quanah (Whole Wheat) Grits Bread

   I recently purchased a new (old) ancient grain from Barton Springs Mill called Quanha.  You can get more information by pressing on the link if you are interested.  I milled this to a high extraction sifting and milling twice and added this to high extraction freshly milled Durum flour.

I’ve used grits in breads several times and always like the texture and flavor it adds.  I cooked the grits with water and added some butter and a little grated cheddar.  Make sure to let the grits cool down before adding it to the dough.

A double build was used for the levain but you could easily just do one build if you desire.

I was happy with the final outcome on this one.  The Quanha flour combined with the durum was very tasty and the crumb was moderately open.  I made some nice grilled bread brushed with some good EVO and topped with some Vermont aged cheddar.

Formula

Levain Directions Build 1

Mix all the levain ingredients for build one (including the seed starter) together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 6-7 hours or until the starter has almost doubled.  I used my proofer set at 76 degrees so it took around 5 hours for me.

Levain Directions Build 2

Add in the flour and water as indicated and mix until incorporated by hand.  Cover and let sit another 3-5 hours until doubled and you should see plenty of activity.

Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flour and water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes.  After 30 minutes or so  add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces),  olive oil, honey, grits, and mix on low for 5 minutes.   Note: If you are using the Ankarsrum mixer like I do, add your water to the bowl first then add in the flour and grits.  After your autolyse add in the starter, salt, honey  and olive oil and mix on low to medium low for 15-20 minutes.

Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 1.5 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours or if using a proofer set at 80 degrees for one hour.  Remove the dough and shape as desired and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap Sprayed with cooking spray and let rise at room temperature for 1 1/2 – 2 hours.  (I use my proofer set at 80 F and it takes about 1 hour to 1.5 hours).

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for around 35 minutes or until the breads are nice and brown and have an internal temperature around 200-210 F. 

Take the bread(s) out of the oven when done and let them cool on a bakers rack for as long as you can resist. 

Today's bake - Orange & Vanilla Sourdough

This bread is a mix of fresh milled hard winter red wheat and white whole wheat flour and AP flour combined with some orange zest I had in the freezer and vanilla extract. I was going for a mild orange/creamy flavor profile that I think I've achieved.

Tasting Notes

Crumb - Sweet/Dairy with notes of milk, orange, and vanilla

Crust - Resinous with notes of french roast coffee beans and vanilla bean

Grain Character - moderate with a slight taste of cooked oatmeal

Recipe and Process are below for those that are interested.

Happy almost Thanksgiving!

I'm in charge of bread this year, I had a lot of fun making this. 

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The stub was made of a piece of cracker dough I saved the other day, it was supposed to be a stem with a tail, but it was too fragile it broke. Well I don't have any more cracker dough left so I'll stick with a stub!

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And also an einkorn pan loaf for myself! Nothing fancy, the steam was created by the giant pot of soup I got going in my oven, turned out being pretty sufficient for the bloom, got a nice spring out of it. 

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Tomorrow is Babka day!

What's on everybody's menu this year?

Two fun bakes this weekend...  A Lithuanian Black Rye recipe that I found on IG, and my 40% Whole Grain (Emmer and Einkorn).  All the whole grain flours in both breads are fresh milled using berries from Janie's Mill.

LITHUANIAN BLACK RYE

Rye Sour
100g   Whole Rye flour
100g   Water
30g     Starter
1)   Combine ingredients and ferment at 76 deg F for 8-10 hours

Scald
20g    Fermented Red Rye Malt (Solod)
30g    Whole Rye Flour
10g    Caraway Seed
4g      Coriander Powder
48g    Molasses (Blackstrap)
130g  Water (boiling)
1)   Combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Add boiling water and stir until no dry ingredients present.
2)   Cover and cool on countertop for 1-2 hours

Final Dough
200g   Whole Rye Flour
150g   Whole Wheat Flour
170g   Water
10g     Salt
30g     Honey
1)   Combine flours and salt in a mixing bowl.  Whisk together and create a well.
2)   Combine water, honey, scald, and rye sour in flour well and mix to combine.
3)   Mix in flour salt blend until all flour is wet.
4)   Hand mix/knead for 20 minutes.  Dough is sticky.  Use wet hands to minimize stickiness.
5)   Place in oiled bowl and bulk ferment for 4 hours at 76 deg F
6)   Roughly shape dough and place in loaf pan.  Press dough evenly into pan with wetted spatula.  Smooth top.
7)   Final proof for 1-2 hours at 76 deg F.  Let dough roughly double in size until first few pin holes present in surface
8)   Preheat oven to 465 deg F.  Lightly mist dough surface.  Bake at 465 deg F for 40-50 minutes.

This bake went very smoothly until the very end.  I didn't quite oil my pan enough and the loaf stuck all the way around the very top edge.  It easily released when I ran a knife along it.  Made a "glossy" edge around the top perimeter, but it softened as the loaf matured overnight.  Really happy with how open the crumb is on this bread!

NOTE:  No beer was used in the recipe.  I just thought a Russian Imperial Stout was the perfect "celebratory" beverage for this bake.  :-) 

40% WHOLE GRAIN (EMMER AND EINKORN)

Levain
45g  Bread Flour
54g  Water
9g    Starter
1)   Combine all ingredients and ferment at 70 deg F for 12 hours

Blueberry Yeast Water Poolish
45g  Bread Flour
54g  Blueberry Yeast Water
1)   Combine ingredients and ferment at 76 deg F for 12 hours

Whole Grain Autolyse
90g   Whole Grain Emmer
90g   Whole Grain Einkorn
126g Water
1)   Combine ingredients and mix until all four is wet.  Cover and rest on counter for 60 minutes before final mix.

Final Dough
67.5g    All Purpose Flour
112.5g  Bread Flour
58.5g    Blueberry Yeast Water
9g         Salt
1)   Combine final dough ingredients except salt with the levain and poolish.  Mix until flours wetted.
2)   Fermentolyse 15 minutes
3)   Laminate the whole grain autolyse, final dough fermentolyse, and salt.  Thoroughly mix with pinch and squeeze.
4)   Rest 15 minutes
5)   4 sets of bowl kneading with 10 minute rests.  Bassinage an additional 2-3% water if needed.
6)   Bulk ferment at 76 deg F.  Folds at 45 minute intervals until dough is "puffy".  Roughly 3-3.5 hours.  Allow dough to bulk roughly 75%.
7)   Preshape and bench rest 30 minutes
8)   Final shape and proof at 76 deg F.  I proofed for 75 minutes and then refrigerated for 2.5 hours while we made and ate dinner.
9)   Preheat oven to 465 deg F and set for steaming.  Bake at 465 deg F (2 minutes); 400 deg F (18 minutes); vent oven; 440 deg F (20-25 minutes) until a hollow thump.

Really happy with how this loaf turned out.  Great oven spring and crumb for a 40% whole grain loaf with Emmer and Einkorn.

Looking for a tasty bread that would be good for sandwiches. Tried out dmsnyder's recipe https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/42511/sourdough-italian-baguettes

I made a few changes, some intentional, some by mistake. I used honey instead of sugar. I spaced the night before and just fed my starter and didn't make a levain so i just used 100g of that in final dough so no rye of WW in my levain.

Was not going to divide dough so I shaped after bulk fermentation and retarded overnight in banneton.

Procedures

1. Autolyse. Mixed the flours and water and let it sit for 45min. dmsnyder recipe added levain to autolyse

2. Add levain,honey and EVOO and mix in KA for 6min on #2 speed. Dough was not totally pulling away from bowl so I added 2 tsp AP flour

3. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, and cover the bowl.

4. After 30 minutes, did coil folds. Did 3 sets at 30 minute intervals.

5. Bulk fermented for another 90 minutes, 

6. For me I was keeping the whole amount as a single loaf so I went ahead and pre shaped and bench rested for 25min

7. Shaped the dough. Sprayed top with water and rolled in sesame seed and put in oblong banneton seam side up.

8. Covered and put in fridge for 18hrs

9. Removed from fridge and left on counter while I pre heated oven

10. Pre-heat the oven and my clay oblong cloche to 475ºF 

11. Transfer the loaf, on the parchment, to a peel. Score. Transfer into cloche and cover

12. Cooked covered in cloche for 18 minutes. Turned oven temp down to 430deg on convection and removed cover of cloche. Cooked for another 23min tuning after 15min

13. Transfer the loaf to a cooling rack. 

     

I think this turned out great. Super tasty with a great nuttiness from the sesame seeds. Very tender crumb.

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This is my second bake from the book.  They refer to the recipe as White French Pullman aka Pain de Mie.

I'm enjoying the book so far.  A good read, and the author does a good job with telling the history of the bakers and the bakery and how they have developed and grown.  Likewise, they do a pretty good job of explaining their methods and how their methods are used in each of the bread and pastry recipes in the book.  What I do like is that while their methods are familiar, they're different enough from what I do that I've learned from both recipes (first was a banana bread).

Three facets of this bake were new to me...  a long, refrigerated fermentation for the poolish, no folding or gluten development (only punching down the dough), and a really strong bake for a dark, flavorful crust (and I didn't go as long or as hot as called for).  The result...  Not my prettiest work.  My shaping for pan loaves is out of practice and was a lumpy mess to begin with.  And...  Learned that I either need a new razor or need to lubricate it with a little oil before trying to score a warm, fragile dough.  It stuck and pulled more than it sliced and my diamond pattern turned into...  well....   something not diamond shaped.  :-)

All the good news though...  The dark crust did smell great out of the oven.  Not sure I could have gone for 40 minutes at 500 deg, but I will push it a little harder next time.  The crumb is custardy and creamy.  It's tender, but not at all shreddable.  I would say the exact opposite.  It's firm.  I've made toast and a grilled sandwich with it.  The exterior becomes nice and crunchy but the interior stays "creamy".  A fun bake for something with only white flour, water, salt, and ADY.

Poolish
43.2g    All Purpose Flour
43.2g    Bread Flour
86.4g    Water
0.3g      Active Dry Yeast
1)  Disperse yeast in the water.  Mix in flour until completely mixed with no dry flour clumps.  Target temp = 75 deg F
2)  Ferment at 75 deg F for 2 hours.  Refrigerate for 13-14 hours.
** Poolish should be at least double in size, have some bubbles on surface, and pass the float test.**

Final Dough
156.8g   All Purpose Flour
156.8g   Bread Flour
173.7g   Water
9.4g       Salt
0.7g       Active Dry Yeast
1)   Disperse yeast in the water.
2)   When yeast is completely dispersed, mix in poolish until completely and evenly mixed
3)   Add flour and gently mix until all flours are fully wetted.  Shouldn't take more than 3-4 minutes.
4)   Fermentolyse for 30 minutes
5)   Add salt slowly and mix in using pinch and squeeze until completely and evenly mixed.
6)   Bulk ferment at 75 deg F for 4 hours.  Thoroughly punch down dough to degas after 2 hours and then again after 3 hours.
7)  Preshape into a round using a bench scraper
8)  Bench rest 20 minutes
9)  Final shape for a Pullman pan.  Gently pat down to evenly distribute the dough.
10)  Final proof at 75 deg F for 3-5 hours.
11)  Preheat oven to 500 deg F.  Quickly score the dough and place in the oven.  Throw 4 ice cubes in the oven for steam (one in each corner) and bake for 40 minutes. 
11a) I was too chicken to go that hot for that long.  I went with 450 deg F for 20 minutes with steam, vented oven, 10 minutes at 350 deg F; remove loaf from pan; 350 deg F for 5 minutes to fully set the crust (not sure this was needed though)

Next time, I will go for the full 500 deg F for 40 minutes with just a few ice cubes instead of my full steam set up.

I recently baked the Vermont Whole Wheat Oatmeal Honey Bread by King Arthur. It was a delicious flop. It tore horribly during kneading even with lots of resting time. I subbed oat flour for the rolled oats, so I essentially lowered the gluten and possibly the water as well. It also didn't call for an autolyse for the whole wheat portion. I had previously used Floyd's Honey Whole Wheat on here and didn't have those issues. But my kids don't like that much whole wheat (as I found out when I made the Approachable Loaf). So the first pictures are of my failed Vermont Honey Oatmeal loaf that looks like it exploded in slow motion and if it hadn't cooked it might have ended up all over my oven.

Tonight I made Floyd's Honey Whole Wheat Loaf, I changed it a little bit to match my kid's preferences. I halved the ingredients to make one loaf. So instead of 8oz of whole wheat and 4oz of bread flour, I used 4 oz of whole wheat, 4 oz of bread flour, and 4oz of all purpose flour. I and my kids like the softness of an all purpose flour, the bread flour is too chewey. I used half-half creamer instead of the evaporated milk and added 1 tablespoon of olive oil. for the Honey, I  used half honey and half maple syrup (I had a some left in a jug) Other than that I pretty much made the recipe like it was. It came out much nicer than the Vermont loaf. It was easier to work with and no tearing!

It's probably weird to say that I like the shine on the loaf. It's like a tiny victory. I brushed some my of half-half creamer on top. My husband is not as enthusiastic as I am about there being a shine, but he did bring back pictures of what the recent rocket launch did to the launch pad. It's pretty entertaining seeing all the stuff that got blown off this time around. :D

Edit: I was going to go buy store bread but asked my kid if he wanted me to buy a loaf or make one. He said he would rather me make this again! (happy dance time!). So I made two more loaves tonight (11/19) since we had two slices left. Now to figure out why it's crumbly compared to the store bought. The crumbly part was my husband's complaint, other than it not being pre-sliced.

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Fermentolyse overlapse with levain building, save time and allow flour to hydrate. Bulk ferment was proof to maximum before cold retard. Dough was handled while cold with no need for further proofing. All it takes after shaping was to relax them for 1 hour for maximum oven spring. I still hate scoring baguette because I'm pretty bad at it. Do you use a curved lame or just the blade?

Formula:

Levain:
67g ww starter @peak
160g water
80g kamut
80g rye
1.5 hour at a very warm spot

Mix in:
300g water(use 280g and reserve 20g as needed)
13g salt
150g ap flour
260 bread flour
7g diastatic malt
7g vital wheat gluten
total bulk 8 hours(the 1.5 hour above included)

Fermentolyse 1 hour> s/f +slap and fold 50 times, add reserved water as you go> rest 30 mins letter fold> transfer to a lightly greased pyrex> 4 sets of coil foil over the next 2.5 hours> last 2 hours untouched, dough should be doubled >straight to the fridge for 16 hours



Next day:
Tip dough on a floured surface> rest 10 mins> divide dough and preshape into 4 cylinders>rest 30mins> shape 4 baguettes> rest 1 hour on a couche > tip baguettes onto parchment > score and bake@500f for 12 mins with steam> remove parchment and steam tray and bake @450 for 18mins