July 2018 baking, to date, aka waste not
It's been a while since I have blogged here, but I have been baking. In the past couple weeks, I have actually baked some new stuff that I think is worth sharing.
First, I am still stuck on Ken Forkish's "Field Blend #2." This is a mixed grain sourdough with about 40% whole grains. I have been home-milling the whole grains since I got my MockMill and appreciating the results. Forkish's formula calls for some whole wheat and more whole rye. I love this particular mix, but I have substituted Kamut for some or all of the rye at times. All the breads have been good. So far, I like the original blend best. Here is one of the most recent bakes:
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At the end of last month, I had made a 90% rye bread. I had rye sour left over, and I hadn't made Jewish Sour Rye for a while, so I did. I think they came out well.
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I have been sharing some loaves with neighbors and with a committee I am on that meets weekly. The loaves I keep for my wife and myself may not get completely consumed before they get a bit dry. We have a number of favorite uses for dry bread. One of them is Salmon Cakes that my wife makes. They are super-delish, both hot out of the pan and cold out of the fridge the next day.
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I have been wanting to make pizza for weeks, but it just wasn't happening. One morning, I decided I had to "just do it." I had been making sourdough pizza crust with varying results for the past few years. This time, I decided to go in somewhat the opposite direction. I made the dough using Ken Forkish's "Same Day" pizza dough from FWSY. I used 25% Caputo 00 and 75% "Bread flour." Okay ... I am passionate about sourdough baking, but, I must say, this made one of the best pizzas I've had not made in a wood-fired oven.
The toppings were our current favorite combination: Tomato sauce with garlic and oregano, mozzarella, caramelized red onions finished with balsamic vinegar, Italian sausage and mushrooms. Parmesan, fresh basil leaves, pepper flakes and EVOO after baking.
I made enough dough for 4 pizzas. My wife and I ate one. Another was frozen for future lunches. The other two dough balls sat in the fridge for a couple day, just growing and growing. So, I made a focaccia with fresh rosemary and garlic and coarse sea salt. It was awfully good for white bread and made a nice sandwich with Adell's smoked chicken/apple sausage.
Although I have been home milling at least some of the flour in almost all of my baking for the past few months, I had yet to make a bread with the majority of the flour fresh-milled until today. Today's baked was, again, from FWSY - a 75% whole wheat levain. Now, many of the FWSY breads I like call for spiking with instant yeast. I typically leave it out. For this bake, the formula called for just a tiny bit of instant yeast, and I thought "why not?" Well, even with no proofing except at 40ºF in the fridge, the loaves over-proofed. So oven spring and bloom were modest. The crumb structure remained good, and the flavor is lovely. I'll be making this bread again, but leave out the IY next time for sure!
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That's what I've been baking for the past few days. We're planning to spend most of the rest of July - the hottest month of the year where we live - in cooler climes. (Bach Festival in Carmel and Giant's games in San Francisco.) Hope you all are coping well with the weather where you live!
Happy baking!
David
Comments
I love the garlic and rosemary focaccia especially. It must smell heavenly out of the oven.
Your 75% whole wheat leaven looks moist and chewy so it had to taste fantastic even though it was slightly over-proofed. My 100% whole grain bread over-proofed too even when I gave it 15 minutes room temp proof only, so I should retard directly. Your bread would definitely come out perfect next time if you nix the instant yeast.
It's really hot in my area (approaching 32 ℃ if it's not raining) so the yeast is acting wildly!
yours looks great as does that focaccia! lovely food David!
Leslie
create all that lovely bread and food it beyond me! Beautiful! I really like in particular the first loaf but then the focaccia and the pizza and......! I have to admit the one that you overproofed at 40F in the fridge reminds me too much of many of my loaves at the moment with a wonderful crumb but that glazed over ear......and wondering how to better my process... it all looks great and my son keeps asking me to make SD focaccia and pizza! Kat
What a treat for us! Thanks for posting. It's the pizza that caught my eye and I really want to taste.
David
I think most of us our age kind grew up on canned salmon cakes Mom made and I'm not saying they were bad but they weren't very good either;-) We all groand when we saw the pink Salmon can on the counter knowing we were in for a a salmon horror show! I can tell by looking your wife didn't learn her salmon cakes from my Mom!.
That Jewish Deli Rye really looks grand and has to taste just as good. That pizza is killer! We have some Kamut dough in the fridge for Pizza too - had a craving like you and another one for Naan with 5 grains. You have to be loving the mill! Makes such a difference in taste - makes really good bread great!
Have a fun time in the cooler climes and happy baking David
I am quite omnivorous. I love food. Growing up, the one, single, unique food I could not stand to eat was my mother's salmon latkes made with canned pink salmon. What an awful taste! So, she wasn't the only one who inflicted that abomination on her children? That is somehow comforting.
My wife has made her salmon cakes with "Atlantic" salmon, Coho and Sockeye. (Wild, fresh King Salmon is too good to cover up with other flavors.) These were made with Sockeye. Really yummy.
Not many years ago, WFM had fresh "Pink Salmon" for sale. It looked good. You know, it tasted just like the canned stuff! As Jimmy Durante used to say, "Revoltin'!"
I am loving the MockMill and am enjoying the possibilities of freshly milled ancient grains.
David
Hi there,
Been some years since I have been here and was happy to see a familiar baker name. I always relished your posts.
My new Mockmill just arrived. Can you give any tips on how I would use it to make Field Blend 2?
Without stirring up controversy, are #30 & #50 sieves useful?
Loved seeing all that deliciousness! And that pizza...to die for.
cheers,
anne
I am away from home and my cookbooks, but I believe I use 85 g of Whole Wheat flour and 175 g of whole rye flour out of 1000 g total flour (total of 800 g in the final dough). So, I mill those weights of wheat and rye berries and mix with the AP flour before autolysing. I also mill fresh whole wheat for the levain.
I have bought a sieve, but have not used it yet.
Thanks for the kind words.
David
dmsnyder,
I'd just like to thank you for being such an innovative and willing-to share member of TFL, you've contributed SO MANY fantastic recipes and baking insider tips, You are a great role model and inspiration and I aspire to be as accomplished a baker as you some day!
Thanks for the kind words.
In my opinion, the last few TFL members who said stuff like that passed me up within a very few years. So, nurture those aspirations and happy baking!
David
Hi there,
Anne here again. I touched something and accidentally “archived” your message but the Google Gods have failed me tonight and I am unable to retrieve it ?. Could you re-send your musings on Mockmill grain blends once more?
Right now I am experimenting with sourdough rye/wheat versus BF/rye plus mockmill blends. Early in the milling game, starting with red wheat berries.
I am using organic grains, West coast sourced for most items. Have a variety of grains here waiting to be mockmilled ( do think that should be a legitamate verb). Will share here when have more results to evaluate and compare.
Thanks for generously sharing your process and impressions.
Cheers,
Anne
Is this what you are looking for?
Flour blend @ Anne
David