occidental's blog

I've been attempting to improve my baguette making skills over the past few weeks.  This weekend I came up with my own formula based on a few of the things I learned from my last effort's with Pat's (proth5's) baguette formula.  Most notably I wanted to come up with a relatively low hydration formula using AP flour.  I also wanted to get a bit of whole wheat flour in the mix as well, and come up with enough dough to make two decent sized baguettes .  With that in mind I came up with the following formula which I calculate to be at 66% total hydration:

• 100 g starter (60% hydration)
• 280 g AP flour
• 30 g ww flour
• 210 g water
• 12 g salt

I followed the steps below:

• Refresh starter the night before
• Mix all ingredients in a bowl to a shaggy mass, allow to autolyse 30 minutes
• Fold in bowl, about 20 strokes two times at 30 minute intervals
• Remove from bowl, stretch and fold then place in container and bulk ferment approximately 3 hours
• Divide dough and shape two baguettes, allow to rise approximately 2 hours
• Bake in a preheated oven at 475

All went well, including shaping, which I always struggle with when making baguettes.  At this hydration scoring goes better for me than if I am working with a higher hydration dough.  Here is a visual of what I came up with:

I was pretty pleased with crust and crumb and went to the taste test and that is where the disappointment set in.  This was the flattest tasting, most flavorless bread I can recall tasting.  I sat and thought "What went wrong?"  The solution didn't come to me right away, but later in the afternoon I remembered I didn't ever add the salt!  I've forgotten the salt before but I've always remembered at some point and have been able to get it worked in before baking.  Well, I guess it's another lesson learned.  I finished up the first loaf with the help of lots of honey and jam.  I took the second loaf and did with it what I have been doing with a lot of my leftover baguettes:  sliced, added butter and garlic salt, wrapped it in foil and placed it in a ziplock in the freezer.  I come home from work and throw the foil wrapped frozen loaf in the oven for about 30 minutes at 325 and you have great tasting garlic bread to accompany your dinner.   Hopefully using it as garlic bread will help the flat taste!

It's been a long while since I posted.  Summer came and bread baking was put on the back burner.  With fall comes colder temps and more time around the house, so back to bread baking I go.  I've actually baked quite a few loaves in the past weeks but have not posted them.  Anyway, I won't attempt to catch up but will post today's bake at least!

The last couple weekends I've been making a batch of sourdough baguettes.  After running across David's post on PRoth's baguettes I decided to give them a try.  This is a fairly low hydration dough that results in a open crumb and actually uses AP flour.  I was pleased with the results.

Crust:

Crumb:

It's always good to have a little homemade soup  with your fresh bread!

Link to David's post:  Pat's (proth5) Baguettes

Today I made Ciabatta Rolls from the formula found in "Local Breads".  This is of course a very wet dough but since there isn't really shaping involved it's pretty fun to work with.  Instead of loaves I stretched the dough out and used a pizza cutter to make rolls. 

I placed these on parchment and let rise for about 30 minutes, until they start to get 'pillowy' - yes a very technical state of dough.

Pop them in the oven and in a few minutes you have great rolls.

Sorry, no crumb shots, these are for a potluck tomorrow.  They are really light though so I'm pretty sure the crumb is as you would expect, open and chewy.

Recently I baked Oatmeal Cinnamon Rasin bread form Hammelman's "Bread".   There are a few good write ups on this bread on this site, just do a search... I adapted the formula somewhat so I'll give you the details.  First of all, the home version makes 3 loaves and that was too much for me so I resized everything to make two 1.5 pound loaves, and while converting I converted everything to grams as I find using grams is more precise.  Also, instead of using just rasins I had a mix of dried canberries, currants, cherries and pomegranates that I substituted for half of the rasins.  Here is what I came up with for a formula:

Formula:

• 456 grams bread flour
• 152 grams whole wheat flour
• 100 grams rolled oats
• 380 grams water
• 66 grams milk
• 45 grams honey
• 45 grams oil
• 13 grams salt
• 7 grams yeast
• 10 grams cinnamon
• 100 grams rasins
• 100 grams dried cranberry blend

Mixing:

Soak oats in the warm water used for the formula for 20-30 minutes

Soak rasin mix in enough water to cover (this is advised to avoid burning the rasins while cooking)

Mix all ingredients except the rasins together and mix for 3-4 minutes once ingredients come together 

Drain rasin mix and add to dough, mixing an additional minute.  I did not pat the rasin mix dry and the consistency of the dough went from being very stiff to one that was sticky and loose.

Bulk ferment:

I placed in a covered container and let rise for a total of approximately 2.5 hours.  During that time I performed 2 stretch and folds since the dough was feeling rather sticky and I wanted to build up the strength.  Hammelman says that this dough can be bulk fermented overnight, which may be a good option for those looking for a warm breakfast loaf. 

Shaping and final ferment:

I divided into two loaves and shaped as you would a sandwich loaf, rolled the top of the loaves on a wet towel and then pressing them in some dry rolled oats for decoration then placed them in a standard 1.5 pound loaf pan.  I covered and let rise until the dough started to top the pan, 1.5 to 2 hours (I wasn't really watching the clock).

Baking:

I baked at 450 F for the first 15 minutes and then lowered the heat to 425 until the internal temperature reached about 200 F.  I did not steam the oven.  Total bake time was about 40 minutes...sorry I'm not much of a clock watcher.

Results:

This bread has a great well balanced flavor, it is not overpoweringly sweet nor does it have a really strong cinnamon taste, the flavor of the wheat is still there.  For me what probably made this bread one that I would make again is the mix of dried fruits I substituted for half of the rasins.  I've never been a huge fan of rasin breads but the varying flavors of all the other fruits really give this bread a unique flavor.  I imagine you could substitute many different variations of dried fruits, I just happened to look in the cupboard and added these on a whim.  This bread is great toasted, give it a try if you are looking for a good breakfast bread.

A few days ago I made Lavash Crackers from Reinhart's Bread Bakers Apprentice.

Anyone that owns this book has likely paged past the photos of these great crackers and has felt compelled to make them.  I've made them a few times before and always enjoy them as they make a great snack or tool for dipping into a variety of items.  Common toppings I use are sesame seeds, poppy seeds, chili powder and caraway.  I've tried both breaking these into pieces and cutting them before cooking as I did this time around.  I've typically brushed these with an egg wash before applying the toppings though this time I followed Reinharts direction and brushed with water.  I decided I prefer the egg wash as it provides a better looking deep golden finished look.  You can make these easily in an evening and try a lot of different toppings.  Consider giving them a try if you haven't yet!

Inspired by Susan's post on her sesame sourdough I recently made my own attempt. I admit it isn't as pretty as hers but the taste is great and the crumb is also to my liking. Follow the above link to Susan's blog for details if you are interested in the formula.  I followed her formula pretty closely.  My ferment was approximately 20 hours.  The only other thing is that I am in so much of a habit of creating steam by adding ice to the cast iron lid on my lower oven rack I completely forgot I was going to try the 'magic bowl' method until I took the loaf out of the oven and noticed the bowl sitting on the counter, ready to be used.  So much for mise en place! Here are a couple pics of my version:

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I've been reading David's many posts on his blog about San Joaquin Sourdough, a formula he developed that was inspired by a long bulk ferment Janedo wrote about after a visit with Anis Bouabsa.  David had tried enough variations of this formula I had to do some reading before I settled on the approach I was going to take for my first attempt. 

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I started with a 65% hydration starter that I refereshed and let mature for approximately 6 hours.  It had definitely started to grow but had not reached the peak of it's activity when i proceeded to the next step.  I then incoorporated 100 grams of the 65% levain with:

• 370 g water
• 450 g bread flour
• 10 g dark rye flour
• 40 g whole wheat flour

I mixed and let autolyze for approximately 30 minutes.  I then added:

• 1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
• 10 g sea salt

I proceeded to fold this mixture 3 times in the bowl, for approximately 15 folds each time, spaced about 20 minutes apart.  I intended on 20 folds but the dough seemed to have enough, or maybe too much strength after 15 turns so I stopped when the dough told me to.

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After mixing and kneading (folding) I placed the dough in the fridge overnight.  Instead of keeping the dough in the fridge until just prior to shaping as David suggests I removed it and placed in a cool room (~55 degrees F) to encourage a little more growth.  I have found that placing the dough my fridge may retard it a bit too much and I desired a little growth before dividing and shaping.  The time in the fridge was about 15 hours, followed by about 5 hours in the cooler (50 degree) room.  I then divided the dough into 2 pieces and pre-shaped, and let sit for approximately 1 hour.  I then did the final shape and let sit again for approximately 45 minutes.  During the time in between shapings there is not much growth to the dough, you are expecting most of your rise once the loaf hits the oven.  I pre-heated my oven to 500 degrees F, about 1 hour prior to baking.  I scored the loaves I added some steam once I added the loaves.  About ten minutes into the bake I was pleased to look into the oven and see that the loaves were getting a nice oven spring and my score was going to result in a nice 'ear', which was pretty exciting since this doesn't happen just every day for me....so I had to get a pic:

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I baked the loaves about 40 minutes, reducing the temp from 500 to 460 once the loaves were in the oven.

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As for the crumb, it is very open, has great flecks of whole wheat and rye, although that is not very evident from these photos, and flavor is out of this world!

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As David has done, I envision experimenting around more with these methods and the ingredients, learning from them and creating my own favorite formula....

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By the way, this bread was a great compliment to the strawberry jalapeno glazed ribs that came off the grill not long after this bread cooled....

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I recently baked Pain au Levain from Hammelman's book 'Bread..."  This is the second formula I've tried from this book, following two fairly sucessful attempts at Vermont Sourdough.  There are a few differences between the two.  Vermont SD starts with a liquid levain while PaL starts with a stiff levain.  Hammelman calls for whole rye in Vermont SD while calling for medium rye flour in PaL.  Also, a long final ferment is called for with Vermont SD while it is recommended not to go for the long ferment with PaL.  I didn't vary from the formula and had pretty satisfactory results.  I also had good results with a new brotform following a previous episode where the dough stuck and I ruined a couple loaves a week or so ago.  Here are a couple pics of the look of the loaf and the crumb:

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I've just run across the roasted garlic levain on page 183 and am thinking that is going to have to be one of the next attempts. Have any of you tried this formula?

Hi all, I've been enjoying all your posts over the last week or so, it looks like many of you produced great breads for the holidays.  I did some baking over the holidays I need to catch up on blogging about.  I was away from home so in other words, away from the mixer, the baking stone, my arsenal of flours and the sourdough I am used to working with.  Add to that new brotforms I received for Christmas and you don't know what will happen.  Thankfully I have been reading up here at the fresh loaf and this gave me the opportunity to experiment with new methods and get out of my comfort zone.  My bakes included Vermont Sourdough, Susan's Simple Sourdough and Anis Bouabsa's baugettes.  Many of the things I tried came after reading ehanner's great post of eye opening techniques .  If you have not read that post I'd suggest you do.  You may develop a new technique or be led to many other great posts that challenge your routines.  I did all my mixing using stretch and folds and all my baking started with placing the loafs in a cold oven using the no preheat method.  I was pleased with most of the results.  The exception is that my overnight proof of the Vermont Sourdough stuck in the new brotform I received and getting it out deflated it such that it was nearly ruined.  The flavor was good but the crumb was pretty much non-existent.  Now that I'm home I've tried them again with rice flour with better results.  One bread I had not tried that I will be baking often is Susan's Simple Sourdough - just the right size for a household of 1 - thanks Susan!    Anyhow, Happy New Year to all.  A couple pictures follow...

Vermont Sourdough (not the loaf that stuck):

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Susans Simple Sourdough:

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Over the past weekend I thought I'd get into one of my books that I haven't baked from yet, "Bread" by Jeffrey Hammelman.  Being a sourdough fanatic I decided to start with a sourdough and selected the Vermont sourdough, which appears to be one of Hammelman's standbys.  I had great results with the formula and this bread may become one of my favorites if I can repeat the results.  I followed the formula fairly close, however following the mix the dough felt a bit on the dry side and I added about a tablespoon of water.  Once the dough had a chance to autolyse and I did two folds I decided I probably didn't need to add the water as the dough was really on the sticky side.  I let the formed loaves rise in a cool place to try and develop the flavor a bit and baked until I had a pretty dark crust.  I scored the loaves but they were pretty wet so it was almost a rustic looking loaf.  The oven spring was impressive and the crumb is very open.  It tastes great too!  I'll be making ths loaf again soon!

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