odinraider's blog

Usually, when I bake, I bake. A lot. The more bulk in my fermentation, the better. This weekend, however, I only did two small bakes; some demi baguettes and a couple sandwich loaves. I feel incomplete...

We all love to bake, right? Well, what are we doing with all the breads we make? I know a lot of times I will just eat it, plain or with butter or cheese, maybe a little meat sandwiched between a couple slices, maybe a bit of tomato. Maybe dipped in olive oil. Sure, that's good, but historically bread is accompanied by various foods. So shouldn't we give some indications of foods we would / do eat with the breads we make? Like chefs do when they recommend wines to go with their dishes. I submit these from the last week:

Forgive the bad photos; they were taken at 5 a.m. with my cell phone. I wanted some pictures before I devoured the stuff. This is a rustic course wheat loaf. It is easy to make, and packed full of great wheaty flavor.

Here is my recipe for anyone who wants to try it:

Bread / all purpose flour: 400 grams

Whole wheat flour: 50 grams

Cracked wheat berries: 30 grams

Finally, I have made the videos I have been promising. I hope these will illustrate my process, and help those who have not yet been able to make this dough work for them. I have simplified the process, and made it easier on your beloved mixers!

First, to build the dough, you will need both your paddle attachment and your hook attachment. Here is the ingerdients list:

Flour: 450 grams (100%)

Water - at room temperature: 360 grams (80%)

Salt: 9 grams (2%)

Yeast: 8 grams (1.75%)

I took the trip to the Amish store, and I brought back two types of bread flour, some high gluten flour, wheat gluten, whet germ, oat bran, and spelt. I wanted to try the spelt to make something hearty, something chewy and rich and full of old world flavor. The first thing I made was pasta. Talk about good! We usually use bread flour because I don't have any semolina to buy nearby. It is always good, but the spelt I put in changed it from good to ridiculously amazing.

Here is the white sandwich bread from Julia Child's Baking with Master Chefs. I made one pan loaf and one small round. It is a great white bread that my girls love. It does not have the integrity of the Jamaican hard do, but it is rich in flavor and texture.

Over the weekend I made some more baguettes as well as some Pane Toscano. In addition, I began development on a honey white wheat sourdough sandwich bread. More on that later.

Experimentation with baguettes never seems to end. Today I decided to try a one day sponge instead of my usual poolish. In addition, I let the rest of the flour and water (that not being occupied fermenting in the sponge) have a one and one half hour autolyse. I then did a double bulk ferment, the first in the fridge for two hours, the second at room temperature for another hour after folding the dough.