MANNA's blog

Here is my first bake from The French Baker by Sébastien Boudet. Came out very nice. I had to retard the final rise overnight in the fridge. Sleep was in need. Next morning I took it out and let it finish rising at room temp for a few hours. Has rye in it and that contributes to the flavor of the loaf. The family and I liked the loaf very much. The recipe says it makes one loaf. It was to big for my cast-iron cooker so I split it into two loafs. Came out fine.

I have been busy baking. Not all bread. Been working on my pastry and cakes. Wanted to share some pics for your amusement and inspiration.

First up is my experimentation with the Tzang method, focaccia.

And here it is out of the oven.

After getting my levain into some warmer temps it has finally gotten strong enough to bake with and the acetone smell is gone. I mixed it 70% hydration and let it ferment for 12 hours then made a loaf. Loaf is 1 kilo at 65% hydration, 20% levain and 2% kosher salt. I did not account for the levain hydration in the final dough total hydration. Just go with it. Results were great.

CAKE

-----------------dry stuff--------------------

240 / 2 C AP-Flour

85 / 1 C Coco Powder

8 / 1-1/2 tsp Baking Soda

2 / 1/2 tsp Salt

-----------------wet stuff---------------------

353 / 1-1/2 C Buttermilk

8 / 1 tsp vanilla

-----------------creamy stuff---------------

115 / 1 stick Butter, unsalted

305 / 1-1/2 C Sugar

----------------eggie stuff-----------------

150 / 3 Lg eggs

---------------technical stuff-------------

Combine dry in its own bowl

I enjoy this bread. We usually make it for general eating around the house. Its a straight dough but it disappears before it has a chance to stale. We will make this sometimes to turn into croutons or bread crumbs too. Here are my issues with this though. The flavor has always seemed a little flat to me. And the dough can be slack and not develop good tension. I have solved some of the problems and very happy with the results. The recipe given is not the same as Jeff's and that's why I'm posting it. Please check out his book for the original recipe.

287g   Flour, White

I wanted to make some hand-pies. We harvested the last of our peaches for the year and have lots of homemade jam. This came out great. The dough was easy to work with. The taste was great and was tender and flaky. I have had problems in the past with overworking the dough and getting tuff pastry but this was great. I brushed the tops with egg wash and sprinkled with sugar. Next time I need to try getting more uniform coating. I like the ones better that I didnt open up the pattern on top. You could even make these and freeze. Then bake from frozen for an instant pie fix.

Got some fresh blueberries this past week and decided to make fruit tarts. Finally got back to the Bouchon book. Made the pate sucree and pastry creme. The pate sucree came out great. Was easy to make and handle during the roll-out. The pastry creme was flawed. The book says to use 83g of custard powder for the small batch, DONT! I did some research and feel they transposed the numbers wrong. Use 38g for a small batch and 46g for a large batch. I have not tried the chocolate pastry creme yet. Not sure if the numbers are right.

I have a wonerful levain, its just not tangy. So, I read and left a loaf out for 24 hours to develop its sour flavor. Alas even after that I didnt get a tangy loaf. So, I read. Call KAF and ask for Jeff. Read more and more. Funny how even some posts here that say other posts are wrong are just as wrong about developing sour. So, the last 3 days I put my new knoweledge to the test and build my levain. Tonight I baked a high percentage rye and dam'it I hope its got a sour tang. There was so little gluten that you couldnt really shape it. The surface would just tear.

I have been writing down lots of brain-storming ideas sice doing the macarons out of Bouchon Bakery. Tonight was my first attempt at one of my ideas, a s'more macaron. The recipe needs some adjusting. I'm really happy with the result. I will post more as the project continues.

This bread was nice. It doesnt have a picture so I read the directions twice. Pretty much mix and let bulk ferment. Turn out and rough shape into a rectangle handling it gently so not to overly degas. It has olive oil in it that helps the crumb texture. I once again used my cast iron cooker to bake with. You can see the edges of the dough turned up becase of the round cooker. I am working on getting a steaming setup, just need to work it into the budget. This dough would be great for pizza or top with whatever and bake it.