Lemon Rosemary Formula
A while back I bought a lemon rosemary boule from Della Fattoria Bakery in Petaluma. I took one little piece at the edge of the crust and then I made the mistake of sharing it with a herd of locusts my office mates.
They tell me it was wonderful! There was little lemon rosemary flavor at the edge of the crust and none of the coarse salt which they tell me really brings out the flavor. So I didn't really get a good taste of the bread, and it's not really practical for me to go there and get another loaf just for me this time (though I've been trying hard to come up with the proper excuse).
So I'd like to try my own lemon rosemary bread with coarse salt on top. I don't harbor any illusions that my skills equal Della Fattoria, but I can certainly make a decent artisan style home made loaf.
The rosemary is easy, but how about the lemon? I have lemon infused olive oil, and I know the original is an olive oil dough. Will it be enough to simply use the lemon olive oil in the dough? Should I add zest? How much? Lemon juice? Should I make a straight dough, or would it be best with my wild yeast culture?
If anyone has a formula or ideas on how to create a tasty lemon rosemary bread, let me know.
...I'd probably start with a couple tablespoons of fresh rosemary and some lemon zest in the dough. This may be a good sourdough loaf, but I couldn't experiment with that until next weekend.
Right now, my entire house smells of lemons. I'm making lemon bars for my maternal grandmother's family reunion. My uncle loves them.
If I get some time (which, as a mom, never seems to happen enough anymore!) I'll try this out. It sounds interesting to me, too, really.
Thanks for your suggestions, Stephanie. WHEN it cools down enough to permit oven use again, and after I've caught up with the family bread needs (may not be until FALL!!!), here's my plan:
I found a formula for olive oil rosemary bread on Wild Yeast's blog (the bread has barley, too). I plan to replace the olive oil with lemon infused olive oil, then add 2 tsp of finely chopped lemon zest and replace 14 ml. of water with lemon juice.
My internet search turned up a host of no knead lemon rosemary breads, some actually made in a crock pot (hmmmmm, that won't warm the kitchen too much!). All those recipes do is add 2 tsp of lemon zest to a basic no knead recipe. So adding lemon juice and infused oil should really pep it up.
I may have to try that while it's too warm to heat the oven. I might even put the crock pot outside--we have an electrical outlet on the front porch! I'm not expecting artisan style results, but it might taste good anyway.
I have a recipe I used many times when I lived in Tucson where beautiful lemons rot on the ground due to the volume a full size tree can produce. Unfortunately my recipes are packed for the pending move this week. I do know my recipe calls for a fair amount of lemon zest, like 1/3 cup chopped fine and I use a small amount of pure lemon oil by Boyajian, maybe a tablespoon of fresh chopped rosemary and skinned hazelnuts. As for lemon infused olive oil I have been buying blood orange avocado oil out of California and just ordered a bottle of their lemon avocado oil so I will have to try it in this bread. I love to use the toasted nut oils in my breads so this one got toasted, or is it roasted, Hazelnut oil. I could not bake enough of this one when I worked at the Univ of AZ, my co-workers bought all I could bake and bring into work. So the recipe I created makes 4 -1.5# loaves. Once I get settled I will post the recipe and maybe I will even make a couple loaves for all to see. I do want to learn the gram conversion rather the cups and ounces all my recipes currently use.
An aside regarding the blood orange avocado oil. I tried it in my husband's favorite buckwheat waffles and now that is the only oil I can use. Even got my Dad hooked so his wife emailed me when she realized the bottle was almost empty so she could order more.
Wish I could be baking right now rather than packing and cleaning!
Melody in Santa Fe
I hope your move goes smoothly and I'm looking forward to your posting the recipe!
This sounds like a great bread. I bought a lemon yesterday and have rosemary growing in the yard. The sourdough starter is fermenting away and I'll mix the dough up tonight. I also have some Lemon Peper infused olive oil to put in the bread. It will be a couple of days before I will be able to report my results but if it is any good I will post the formula.
The formula for the bread I made is here.
I tried the formula LeadDog posted here and I must say this was a wonderful loaf!
I got amazing oven spring and some nice gringe. The flavor was fantastic--the lemon and rosemary were definitely present but neither was overpowering. The salt on the crust really enhanced the lemon flavor, so that it was more distinct near the crust, but never unpleasant.
The crumb was moist and tender, but . . .
Perhaps a little over-proofed??? (PERHAPS!)
I was a bit surprised by that because it didn't appear to be overproofed at all when I put it in the oven. I wasn't sure it was proofed enough, actually. I have overproofed other breads and they were bubbly and shook like a bowl full of jello when they went past the point of no return. This bread was not like that in the least. Unfortunately, I didn't keep notes on the time or temperature of the proofing, so it will be guesswork again. I'm going to have to work on the final proofing part of it next time I make this bread.
Otherwise, it was a joy to make. I never cease to be amazed that a little thimble full of my wild yeast culture that I birthed myself from a bit of flour and juice can leaven and flavor a loaf of this size.
LeadDog made a nice formula, although I had quesitons for him about how long each stage should be (I don't know how long it takes to grind whole wheat and rye flours). I replaced the lemon pepper infused oil with lovely designer lemon olive oil my husband got in trade for wine (yay!). But otherwise I followed LeadDog's formula faithfully, and it was well worth the time and effort.
Thanks, LeadDog! Now I'm looking forward to Melody's formula with hazelnuts to try as well.
Looking at the cut expansion I whould have to say that there is a greater chance that you underproofed the dough or maybe hit spot on. However I can not understad wjhat the large irregularities inside the boule are. My guess is that when shaping you did not push out enough gas from the dough so those cavernous holes where left and expanded even more during proofing.
If you know the percentage of starter there is a spreadsheet somewhere on this site giving approximate rise times, that could be something to check out?
My what big holes you have. :) There is a local sourdough comapany that makes bread with big holes like that so I would say it is fine. Mine also did an amazing expansion. There were large hole in it here and there not as much as yours though. Time was one of the most frustrating things when I first started baking because I would try to follow what the formula said in the book. A long time ago I just quit using a clock but went to the next step when the dough was ready. It doesn't take long to grind that amount of flour maybe 10 minutes for both. I'll try to answer the other question you posted to my blog but the bread turned out fine without my answers.
Melody, I keep hoping you'll post your recipe here - hope your unpacking is done and you can find it and post sometime at your convenience. It sounds delicious and I'd love to try it.
Meanwhile, I did something that may be considered sacrilege here at TFL:
I experimented with a lemon rosemary loaf using Artisan Bread in 5 techniques. I simply used their olive oil dough recipe and replaced the plain olive oil with lemon infused olive oil. I added a tablespoon each of fresh chopped rosemary and lemon zest when I mixed up the dough, and I made a boule with coarse salt on top.
I have to say it was WONDERFUL! The crumb was beautiful and just slightly moist, the flavor was awesome, and it had a beautiful crust. It was an easy, no hassle way to have a delicious bread.
I still want to try other formulas that are more challenging techniquewise than ABin5, but so many people knock ABin5 when the truth is you can really produce some very good breads. It doesn't hold a candle to the Della Fattoria loaf, but it was a very respectable loaf and much enjoyed by all who got to try some.
Bunsofsteel and Janknitz,
Hopefully this weekend I can pull out my starter and do some baking. The house is mostly done and we are settling in. I have just been really busy with my other passion which is quilt making and a much needed trip to visit friends. I had to cave in and buy bread from one of our local bakeries:-( I will pull out the recipe and work on converting it to a formula like most of you use and post it both ways. I would say Jan's version sounds real close to what I do though I do not have the olive oil recipe you started with. I love the idea of the coarse salt on top so have to try that. We have fresh rosemary growing here at the office so I will cut some on my way home today and pick up a few lemons at the new Sunflower Market that just opened.
I love reading the posts from this group which I do almost as soon as the email arrives in my inbox. I have learned so much and I am more inspired each time same as when I read posts from my various quilters groups. So many wonderful things to do and still only 24 hours in a day:-)
thanks all and recipe to follow soon!
Melody in Santa Fe (where the nights are cooling down perfectly)
Inspite of a hectic weekend I had get this one going. The biggest challenge for me is converting what I have in volume measurements to the formulas most of you use. I want to learn this as I go along though it is happening slowly. Mine was created to make 4 - 1# loaves and I stayed with those measurements to make two larger loaves. I have a large round one in the oven and the other is in a stoneware loaf pan in the refrigerator to bake tomorrow after work. I want to see how they both perform. One thing I find here is that the dough rises a lot faster than I am used to and it seems to be the higher altitude of Santa Fe versus Tucson. The large loaf looked ready for the oven after only an hour and it seems to have nice oven spring at this point.
For this larger formula I did use 30g (3T) lemon infused Avocado oil, 150g (5.5oz) toasted hazelnuts, 25g (1/3 C) finely chopped organic lemon zest, and 5g (1T) fresh finely chopped rosemary. It is mostly AP flour with 7oz (2C) of sprouted spelt flour and 5g of vital wheat gluten. I will add more details and the full recipe later. I want to see what each loaf weighs after baking.
I learned to use wild cultures by using Ed Wood's books and the cultures he sells. His method of feeding and using these is so different from what I see on this forum and that is where my confusion comes in. All his recipes call for 1 to 2C of active culture where as most of the formulas here seem to use a lot less. I keep two quart jars about 1/2 to 2/3rds full, feed one once and then take out the 1 or 2C my recipes call for and I have had very good experience with these. I would love some help moving beyond this method. I do have many of the bread books mentioned by many of you and my preference is wild yeast over commercial yeast when I bake. Any guidance you folks have to offer is greatly appreciated.
I will rewrite the formula the best I can and add it a bit later. We did a tandem ride into town this morning so I could get fresh rosemary as well as organic canned pumpkin for my husband's before school snack. We need to look at a rack and panniers to fit our tandem so we can do this more often. He has a good set up on his bike that he rides to work. Now I am going to work on the quilt I have started while this loaf bakes. More later!
Wait, I just looked through the oven window and it has almost tripled after maybe 10 minutes. I cannot wait to cut into this one.
Melody in Santa Fe smelling the lemon!
Congratulations on your future loaf! How did the lemon zest work out?
There are many ways to maintain a starter, choose the one that fits your needs.
I've not used Ed Wood's method but the topic has come up often. Search under Ed Wood in the site search box and something is bound to pop up. like:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/8435/recipe-try-ed-wood039s-quotclassic-sourdoughsquot
Before you rewrite the above recipe, do you have this in grams?
"It is mostly AP flour with 7oz (2C) of sprouted spelt flour"
Mini O
So, here are some pictures of the monster loaf. Much to learn about scoring these since it sprung from the sides but that oven spring sure surprised me! Will add another picture after it cools and we cut into it. Melody in Santa Fe
Here it is sliced. I think it may have needed a little more time in the oven as it is fairly moist. It was 195 degrees - should I have left it until it reached 200+?? It tastes wonderful and the second loaf that was in the refrigerator had proofed so much I decided I better bake it tonight. It is in the oven now.
Comments and suggestions encouraged and formula hopefully tomorrow night.
Melody in Santa Fe
What type of pan did you use for the bread in the first photograph?
I saw a photo of your rosemary bread and I am wondering what kind of pan you used for baking it.
Diana
Diana, I am so far behind here and have not been baking for some time now. Work and quilting have taken up most all of my time and I really miss my baking. I have round baking dishes made by Sassafras that I bought probably 6 years ago. It is possible these can be found at Pampered Chef since they are selling the loaf pan and a few other items from this SuperStone material. I love using it when I bake breads.
Melody in Santa Fe
Melody,
Does this look like the baking pan that you used?
http://www.sassafrasstore.com/product.asp?lt=d&deptid=5680&sec=food&pfid=SAS00074
Diana
I have that one but this bread was baked in one that was maybe 3" deep and I don't see it listed anywhere. I think the deep dish pizza would work but until I unpack the box I have mine in I can't tell you any more right now. I will see what it says on the bottom of the dish as well as measurements. Melody
I really like the lemon zest in this bread and that is what I have always used along with either lemon infused oil or toasted hazel nut oil and lemon oil. When I lived in Tucson I could get all the lemons I wanted which I would them zest, scrap all the pulp and juice and freeze for use year round.
I ended up baking the smaller loaf last night as it was rising fast even in my 40 degree refrigerator. My co-worker grabbed it this morning before I could slice and it said she was buying this one:-) I still might slice it open so I can get a couple pictures of the crumb.
I do plan to convert everything to grams and I have most of that handwritten on my sheet. I have an older Salter scale that lets me switch between oz and grams.
Thanks for the tip on Ed Wood and I will do a search to see how others have worked with his cultures. I have found them all to work beautifully and they withstand long periods of negect quite well.
Thanks, Melody in Santa Fe
thanks Melody! Looks delicious!
I know you're working on the formula, but do you know about how much water you put / approx % hydration?