Ladies and gentlemen, I present you, high hydration stiff dough paradox!
I chose to postpone my quest for soybean baguettes for awhile, turned out it's a bit frustrating trying to get good enough results using flour so fatty. I love the flavor though. Might make ones again as batards with chocolate chips.
So I had too many sweet potatoes on hand, I decided to make baguettes.
I had beef with my outlandish complainer neighbor about me practicing flute, I forgot adding salt lol.
I apologise for the messy and hasty post, I had plenty of things on my plate (still have!), but I found something interesting, I thought it might be worth sharing
Mixer and food processor are mandatory. Dough is too stiff and sticky to be worked by hand.
Summary:
Fine bran starter (bran:sugar:water 8:1:3), all sweet potato puree levain, 14% protein bread flour, 23% sweet potato by dry weight (assuming sweet potato is 79% water), gas deck oven, plyboard & parchment, electric water spray, couche, 12 hours levain, 23% prefermented flour, windowpane, spiral mixer, cold bulk, 3 stages levain, steamed and pureed sweet potatoes, autolyse
Tasting and Verdict
The bread is surprisingly sweet, just like eating crispy leavened potato, and the absence of salt makes the sweetness really shine. Oh, and they're sooooo soft. The Asians will love them.
Will I make them again? I personally don't like baguettes that bend after cooled down like they're having erectile dysfunction. I feel 70% hydration is the limit before baguettes start to bend. Maybe I'll try reducing the potato next time to achieve lower hydration.
Regards,
Jay
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The list of tantalizing details here offer a delicious accretion of meaning, Jay. So much so that they kind-of constitute a short story: an oafish neighbor complaining about the the flute ... pausing the use of fatty flour ... too many sweet potatos ... the preference for rigidity ... I mean, there are just so many intriguing things going on.
Your baguettes look great, but the flop must be hilarious. I assume you used orange sweets. Next time (if you've consumed your current surfeit), maybe try white sweets, which are a bit starchier and less sweet. I might be tempted also to up the %age of bread flour, as a bit more gluten would likely help the poor baggies withstand gravity.
Cheers!
Rob
Ha!
I have bipolar disorder, and have harnessed hypomanic episodes to increase productivity without crashing :D
About baguettes with erectile dysfunction, I noticed that with other flours too. 70% is really the limit of my preference where baguettes don't bend.
I feel soft crust is worse than stale bread
And I don't know much about sweet potatoes, but this variety I love for it's honey-like flavor and melt-in-mouth quality
Jay
Love the orange crumb color. I still have some sweet potatoes that I baked, pureed, spread onto parchment and dried in the oven last year. I have used the flour (made from blitzing the dried flakes in the FP) in blondies before, but now I'm ready to try it in sandwich bread after reading about your experience. Thank you for the inspiration :)
Hope you still remember me! I feel honored knowing this messy writing inspired you in some way!
I have a tested sweet potato milk loaf formula, it involves 15% sweet potato dry weight (of total flour, using puree), 80% hydration, 10% fat, and 7% brown sugar. Perfect for sandwich, but too wet for cinnamon rolls.
I would feel honored if you give the formula a try
Jay
Thanks Jay,
Yes, I do remember you, but I've forgotten what we conversed about. It was a while ago.
15% sweet potato flour sounds like a good place to start, but I still have a few weeks worth of bread in the freezer to use up first.
Thank you for the formula, and happy baking!
dw
It was about levain. I had black rice starter, now it's low hydration bran starter with a touch of sugar to make it a bit more osmotolerant
Since our last conversation, I have tried levain made of pure mungbean, adzuki beans, oat, soybeans, black rice, rice bran, peanuts, and many others. Turned out, we don't really have to be consistent with the substrates, not even have to use starchy flour!
Regards
Jay