In my last couple of blog posts, I had some questions and difficulties. People were very helpful with suggestions, and this week's baking was much more successful. Thank you!
This past weekend my wife and I visited one of our favorite supermarkets, Fairway Market which has a great selection of cheeses, fresh sour pickles, grains, meats etc. I picked up some pearled barley and this great tasting cheddar like cheese called Double Gloucester which they were doing a free sampling. I had some left-over mashed potatoes and caramelized onions, so naturally these needed to be incorporated into a bread. Who doesn't like potatoes, cheese and onions?
We always have frozen walnut, basil, parmesan and olive oil pesto in the freezer - perfect for putting into anything like Italian bread. Lucy hasn’t made a pizza like this before so we were a little leery but it smelled so good baking we knew it would be rewarded.
I decided to try the rye bread from the Tartine Bread book. This is the fourth formula I have more or less followed from the Book. I've made the Basic Country Loaf numerous times, the Walnut Country Loaf once (my favorite bread so far), the Whole Wheat country loaf, and now the rye.
I only had 500 gram so AP flour in the house, so I made up the rest with home-milled hard red winter wheat berries. And the rye flour called for in the formula was also home milled.
And then look: you see the grain-fields down yonder? I do not eat bread. Wheat is of no use to me. The wheat fields have nothing to say to me. And that is sad. But you have hair that is the colour of gold. Think how wonderful that will be when you have tamed me! The grain, which is also golden, will bring me back the thought of you. And I shall love to listen to the wind in the wheat..."
The Fox to the Little Prince from The Little Prince - A. de St Exupery
This is very similar to the transitional wholewheat bread that I baked last week.
Only 2 changes:
1) I used my own sprouted wheat berries and grind them using the vita-mix blender after drying them in the oven at 80C (lowest temp my oven can go).
2) I reduce the amount of commercial yeast to 2g.
I find that the gluten network is not as supportive (holding its shape) but still extensible, most probably due to the sprouted berries. That's why I baked it in a loaf tin instead of free form.
The first bake in my new oven! After weeks of no baking I have been craving something hearty, so I went to Hamelman’s Bread and opened it to a bread I had had bookmarked for a long time. This has got to be one of the most cumbersome and prosaic bread names ever: 70 Percent Rye with a Rye Soaker and Whole Wheat Flour. It feels like it should be a “Something-German Bauernbrot” but I can’t come up with anything better either so I will leave it alone for the moment.
This is close to last Friday’s bake that got mooshed and mangled (M&M’ed) coming out of the Romertopf clay baker. Not wanting to end that bake on a bad note and not wanting to bake the same recipe twice Lucy decided to double the sprouted whole grain flour, drop the non sprouted whole grain flour, up the VWG and honey, dropping the boiled potato slightly and lowering the hydration slightly.
Karin (hanseata) invited me to her Götz-Brot challenge, an interesting one that leaves lots of room for imagination.
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/38938/challenge-fellow-bakers-bread-knight-iron-hand
Here is my take:
My idea for this Götz bread was to create something that
- could easily be made in a hotel kitchen
- uses a straightforward and flexible process
- uses ingredients that grow locally
…triticale croissants.
Who didn’t see this coming? Hands? Ah, well.
Triticale is my baking nemesis, my bête noir, and unfortunately my favorite grain. A cross between wheat and rye, it is very high in protein, but its gluten is of low quality. If you have ever heard a discussion about milling, you will hear that the protein content of wheat is higher as you get to the outside of the endosperm, but higher in ash and lower in quality. What does this really mean?
