Benito's blog

Third in my series of polenta breads each different from the previous.  This third loaf instead of either cooked polenta or saccharified polenta, I used cooled cooked polenta and then held it at 135-140°F after being mixed with koji rice for 14 hours.  I’ve made regular amazake before but this was my first time trying it with something other than cooked rice.  So to understand what amazake is you need to know what koji rice is.  Koji rice is rice that has been inoculated with aspergillus oryzae.  This incredible mold has so many food related uses.

This is a bread recipe from a local baker here in Toronto who teaches baking Centennial College, Matthew James Duffy.  I made minor changes to it and put it into the spreadsheet.  This is my first run at this, and probably won’t be the last if it tastes as good as it smell. Based on the cracks on the sides of the loaf I suspect this is under fermented a bit.  We’ll see tomorrow when I slice it, given the amount of rye I suspect it will benefit for at least an overnight rest.

Anis Bouabsa baguettes have been very popular on TFL over the years and I realized that I’ve only baked them three times so far.  Only once plain, another time with a sesame seed coat and then a third time with chocolate (this was so good).  Since there’s been chatter about Bouabsa baguettes recently I thought I’d try a fourth bake.  I so seldom bake with IDY I was very anxious about over proofing.  I don’t think they are over proofed but I do think my scores were a touch shallow.

I’ve done swirled, flavored milk breads before but they were based on another baker’s formula. This is my first time doing a swirled milk bread based on my 25% whole wheat Hokkaido milk bread recipe. If you look closely at the formula I’ve greatly increased the percent pre-fermented flour. The reason for this is that this dough is even more enriched than usual. Both the matcha paste and cocoa have extra sugar added to them. Without the extra fermentation from the larger amount of levain, there is a great risk that the dough would ferment extremely slowly.

We frequently get questions around here about how to take care of your starter.  I thought I’d share what I do which is simple and waste free so long as you plan your bakes a bit ahead of time.

There has been some interest in using pH to help guide fermentation of our dough.  Before purchasing a pH meter I used percent rise to guide fermentation and make decisions, however, there are times when it doesn’t seem to be very accurate.  If you’re interested in learning how to use an Aliquot jar then have a look at this post I made a while ago.  By posting this I am not claiming to be a master at using pH, I am simply sharing what I do now based on trial and error.

A recent blog post about grain mash is awesome if you haven’t read it yet. Reading it motivated me to apply saccharification to the polenta porridge thinking it might enhance the flavour of the polenta. As you know saccharification of the polenta brings out its sweetness that is hidden in the starches in the polenta.

Having friends over and wanted to offer fresh bread with our meal. I wanted something that could be easily timed to be ready this morning that I could quickly warm up at dinner time. In order to reduce the work to do today I prepared the levain Thursday night, Friday morning it was ready and I placed it into the fridge. Friday afternoon I prepared the dough and did bulk and placed the dough in the fridge overnight for the cold retard. I don’t usually cold retard these milk breads because I don’t want them to be sour.

This is another variation on my 100% whole wheat SD Hokkaido Milk Bread which has become my favourite sandwich bread.  It is so soft and fluffy for a 100% whole grain bread and keeps so well because of the tangzhong. In this variation, I use the classic 1:5 ratio of grain to milk for the tangzhong but instead of flour I used an organic steel cut seven grain blend of wheat, barley, rye, oats, flax, millet and buckwheat and cook it as I would the tangzhong until it is nicely thickened.  The rest of the procedure is the same as my other SD Hokkaido Milk Breads.

I’ve never made a tart with a chocolate pastry before so decided it was time to try.  The first recipe I tried must have had a typo in it as it was more like a loose batter than pastry dough.  After tossing that attempt in the bin I decided to modify the pâté sucrée recipe that I’ve had success with by adding cocoa powder and a bit of vanilla.  It certainly baked up well so let’s hope it tastes good too.