Obviously, a lot of us are baking or will be baking bread for the upcoming U.S. Thanksgiving. I decided to do a "double" on Ken Forkish's Overnight Country Brown, using a mixture of Red and White wheat berries for the whole grain portion fo the formula.
Took the starter out of the fridge Friday evening, and fed it. Saturday morning, I mixed the levain. Six or so hours later, it looked ready to go, so I autolysed the remaining flour and water for an hour, then mixed in the levain and salt. It came up to the 2 liter mark on my container, meaning it was supposed to get to 6 liters before it was ready for shaping.
I was in a bit of a dilema because it was early afternoon when I mixed the dough and I was afraid it would be over-fermented if I left it out at room temperature. So, into the "butler's pantry" it went. Our pantry is in an uninsulated part of the kitchen and is quite cold in winter and quite warm in the summer. By the following morning the dough had risen to the 3 litre mark, so I took it out and put it in the stove with the light on. A few hours later, we were at 5 litres plus, and I decided that it was time to bake because the dough was looking more ripe than I like.
I scraped the dough out with my flexible scraper and it came out pretty much all in one piece. Being it was a double batch for four loaves, I had cleared off my entire kitchen counter removing the blender, coffee maker and other sundries. I floured an "+" in the dough and cut 1/4 at a time to shape it into a boule. The dough was too sticky for my nerves, still more like fly paper than dough, but I quickly folded and shaped it and popped it into the baskets which were "dusted" with sesame seeds and rolled oats.
Proofed for a couple of hours and then baked. Two of the loaves released cleanly from the basket, which was more than I coudl hope for. Two stuck a bit, one of them tore a little.
I am eating the bread this morning and it is delicious. Moist, with a crisp crust. Made a peanutbutter sandwich with it, and took some fresh blackberries, mashed them with a fork and spred them on the peanutbutter. It is delicious.
I wrapped two of the loaves this morning and put them in the freezer. I will take them out Wednesday night and let them thaw, wrapped for Thursday's festivities.
- David Esq.'s Blog
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You have some fine bread for dressing too! It is wise to get the bread baking out of the way so there is less to do on Thanksgiving day. Well done and
Happy Baking
Those look wonderful, nice crumb, beautiful rustic crust and they must be full-flavored with Forkish's long fermentation. Wish I had a slice now with peanut butter and blackberries :) Happy Thanksgiving!
Julie
Happy Thanksgiving to you too! I expect there will be fine breads at all our tables this year.
Lovely boules of bread, David. Truly worthy of the upcoming festivities.
Happy thanksgiving,
Khalid
Now, the only thing to do is make sure I remember to get them into the car with everything and everybody else!
Pane straordinario, alveolatura magnifica ed una crosta invitante.
BRAVO!!!
David, ho visto sul tuo blog che sei imolto bravo anche nel produrre dell'ottima pizza, complimenti.
A presto, Anna
I do enjoy baking both bread and pizza!
what lovely loaves you made, just right in every way and great crumb! You must be really pleased with these, a very Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
In addition to the four loaves, I also baked two Tartine Country Loaves with Sesame seeds, which came out pretty good, though, I think a coup of seeds is a bit too much.
I also baked two more Country Browns this afternoon. I will give one to a neighbor tomorrow.
Very nice loaves David. Crumb looks perfect!
Happy baking.
John
I'm getting pretty good at the break baking at home bit. Someone asked how long I have been baking bread, and I said a year. She then said to me that everybody she knows gets rid of their bread machine within a year. I said that I don't use a machine, and she asked, "then how do you make bread?".
Keep in mind, she was over 70 years old.... so she should have known better. But I answered, "Believe it or not, before the 1980s no home baker owned a bread machine!"
You're right. When I first started baking bread, I used my bread machine once from mix to bake, then after that I only used it to mix the dough and I kneaded and baked it, and within a year I stopped using it entirely. Nothing beats artisan bread.
John