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Hey guys, last weekend I made the whole wheat focaccia rustic bread from Peter Reinharts Whole Grain Breads.


here is the recipe...

4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons of yeast
2 cups plus 2 tablesppons of water at room temp.
1 1/2 teaspoons honey agave nectar sugar or brown sugar (optional)
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
extra flour for adjustments


1 If mixing by hand place all of the ingredients except the extra flour and the olive oil in a bowl and mix for 2-3 minutes. Keep a bowl of water hand and dip the mixing spoon in the water from time to time to keep the dough from sticking. Use a plastic bowl scraper, also dip it in water, to continually scrape down the bowl. You can also use wet hands to mix the dough. The dough will be sticky but fairly smooth; adjust the water or flour as needed. dd the olive oil and mix for another 14 seconds, long enough only to coat the dough. Let the dough rest in the bowl for 5 minutes, uncovered, and then mix again for 1 minute. the dough will be smooth and stronger, but it will still be sticky. If it is too wet, meaning it won't hold shape, add some additional flour.
Place the dough in a oiled bowl and and allow it to ferment for 8-12  hours or within 3 days. The next day pull the dough out of the fridge and allow it to thaw for 4 hours before turning out onto a heavily flour work surface for shaping.

I choose Ciabatta shape and it makes 2 ciabatta, although I made 4 mini ones. (if anyone wants shaping instructions just ask and i'll type them up too.) After shaping allow them to rise for about 45 minutes or 1 1/2 times its original size.

Prehead your oven to 500 and put them in on a peel or using parchment paper onto a baking stone or an upside down baking sheet. I used a upside baking sheet with parchment. Once the loaves are in drop the temperature down to 450 and steam the oven using a spray mister or 1 cup of hot water.

bake it for 20 minutes and rotate the bread 180degrees and then allow to bake for another 15 to 30 minutes unitl its golden brown on all sides and sounds hollow when thumped and registers atleast 200F in the center and pulls away clean.

Cool for 1 hour....thats if you can handle it...

There were a few things I had to alter and did differently  in this and i'll list it for you.

I was short of flour for this ( I weighed by grams) So I ended up using maybe 20 grams worth or handful or two of all purpose flour for adjustment. I also added some vital wheat gluten and ascorbic acid as well. I figured hey its so wet its not like this is gonna dry it up at all. I'd say a few grams of each for the AA and VW.

Also....I did 3 stretch and folds before putting it in the fridge for the overnight fermentation. I did them at 20 minute intervals after the first 45 minutes of the initial mixing, although i'm sure after 20-30 would be just fine. I did it on a watered surface rather than using flour.

I hope that covers it guys....the ciabatta tasted great the crust was nutty and the inside was just sweet enough but not too sweet for a hearth bread. Great taste and wonderful texture...

Oh Another note...I did use some agave nectar it recommends 10 grams worth but I only used half so 5 grams. I'm not sure how much that would equal to in terms of teaspoons...I'm thinking maybe half a teaspoon. It wasn't all that strong in the final product just sweet enough to take off the somewhat bland or bitter edge of whole wheat


oh yeah....

PICUTRES :)

Below is a recipe I created for a intensely cinnamon, Cinnimon Raisin Bread that is made using a long, slow, bulk fermentation..This is my first attempt at a 24 hour refrigerated ferment of a very sweet dough..I am asking those members familiar with long, slow, bulk fermentations to troubleshoot and critique this recipe..Any and all feed back will be greatly welcomed..My goal is a full 24-hour ferment instead of the 2.5-3 hour ferment that I generally use when I make similar breads using a sponge method..The ingredients are listed below in the order in which I added them to the DLX's mixing bowl..

Rich Cinnamon Raisin Bread w/  20.5 Hour Refrigerated Bulk Ferment

480g (17 oz.) 2% milk, 45F

285g (10 oz.) dark brown sugar

2.66g (0.09375 oz.) SAF Gold instant yeast-- (3/8 teaspoon)

170g (6 oz.) enriched eggs, 45F-- {7 large egg yolks = 115g (4.053 oz.), plus 55g (1.947 oz.) egg whites}

170g (6 oz.) salted butter, room temperature

1250g (44 oz.) bread flour

14g (0.50 oz.) table salt-- (2 teaspoons)

10g (0.3525 oz.) coarsely ground cassia cinnamon-- (4 1/2 teaspoons)--(sticks ground in spice grinder)

285g (10 oz.) dried raisins, soaked for 60 minutes in 50F water, drained, then refrigerated for 60 minutes to 45F--thus absorbing....

60g (2.11 oz.) water

EDIT: The refrigerated items in the recipe were actually at 45F, not 35F--My Bad!!

Dough Making Notes:

Bowl of my DLX mixer was placed in freezer for 10 minutes before mixing and kneading the dough..The sugar was dissolved into the cold milk in the DLX's bowl..Yeast was added and whisked in..Eggs were whisked in next, followed by the warm butter, which naturally formed small globules as it chilled..The salt and cinnamon were whisked into the flour as evenly as possible..The dough was mixed and kneaded for 6 minutes on medium speed on the DLX using the roller and scraper..The cold, drained raisins were added during the last 2 minutes of the kneadind process..Dough was hand kneaded for 15-20 seconds on an oiled bench after removal from the DLX's bowl..Bowl was washed in cold water, dried, and sprayed with pan spray..Dough was returned to DLX's bowl, flattened, covered tightly with 4 layers of plastic wrap, and placed in the coldest part of the refrigerator..Final dough entered the refrigerator at 1:50 PM EST on Wednesday, 02-25-09..

Final Dough Temperature: 68F

Yield: 2,698g (5 lb. 15.1 oz.) final dough

Baker's Percentage Formula

Milk---------38.64 %

Sugar-------22.73

Yeast--------0.21

Eggs--------13.64

Butter-------13.64

Flour-------100.00

Salt-----------1.14

Cinnamon----0.80

Raisins----- 22.73

Water---------4.80

__________________+

Total-------218.33 %

My main questions to those more familiar with overnight, cold, bulk fermentation are, "How do my salt and yeast percentages appear to you??"..I originally figured out the percentage of salt for a recipe containing 1,135g (40 oz.) of bread flour..Which was a percentage of 1.25%..The 170g (6 oz.) of butter also contains salt, although I do not know at what percentage..It is my intention to bake this bread in my 8.5" Pullman pans, and to perhaps even ice several loaves with a vanilla frosting..

Thanks in advance to anyone able to critique this recipe, and to possibly offer suggestions for improving it..

Bruce

I've been baking with sourdough for about a month now with good results, but most of the stuff I've made has been by feel, not a recipe. So I go looking for recipes online, my cook book collection being a little sparse right now, and I find tons of recipes.  I have one problem, though: they specify however much starter, but not what hydration that starter is.

What do you do in this situation? I've been assuming 100% hydration starter and going from there.