Oh my Gosh!! I just made the BBA Cornbread and it was awsome. You have to try it. It was really easy, but plan ahead when you want to have the cornbread, because you have to soak the coarse cornmeal overnight. We made a batch of chilli and cornbread for the cold evenings we have had and the cornbread disappered before we sat down to eat the chilli!! I will make another and take some pics! A++ on this one.
Matt
To start, I swear by my equipment and cannot bake a good artisan loaf without these. They are well worth the investment. 1) La Cloche (Can buy through King Arthur Flour) 2) High Gluten Flour (A good source is Honeyvillie Flour - Artisan Flour - they mail order and it is very inexpensive in a 50 pound bag). 3) Dough rising bucket - mine's from King Arthur) 4) a really good starter that has been maintained (I bought mine originally from King Arthur - but I also have a home grown version that works just as well). 4) My water is from my well, so with that being an important variable, I would suggest to buy water if you can to keep out the chlorine. 5) a willow banneton. Mine is about 8.5 inches across. 6) I use a Kitchen Aid stand mixer 7) plastic dough scraper 8) electric scale. (Note: King Arthur has some fabulous DVD's out now. I bought all of them and they are terrific).
Technique:
Bring starter (about 1 cup) to room temperature. Add 1/2cup flour and 1/2 cup water. Stir and let sit for at least 4 hours and about up to 8. You can repeat this process to adjust the acidity of the starter to your taste. Return 1 cup of unused starter to the covered crock and place in the refrigerator (feed at least weekly by repeating the above steps and removing 1 cup of the starter before each feeding - leaving you with 1 cup starter to place in the refrigerator to rest)
A good loaf in my view requires I weigh everything, versus using measuring cups. I truly believe this and after 25 years of baking bread, I don't like to do it any other way.
Place bowl on electric scale and set it to zero. Add 15oz of artisan high gluten flour (not bagel flour). Add 1 tsp salt, 1/2 tsp dry yeast, 6 oz (1 cup) of the starter above. To this add about 6 oz of cool water. Set to 1st setting and run until cleanup (dough pulled away from the side of the bowl). Turn to #2 setting and run for about 10 minutes. The goal is to create a very supple windowpane when you take a ball of dough and pull it and stretch it. The pane should be very thin and not break. With practice, you will come to learn what this should feel like. This means the gluten in the flour is fully developed and will produce the best loaf possible.
When the dough is sufficiently kneaded as described above remove it from the mixer and knead it a bit by hand and then form it into a ball, sealing the bottom by rubbing it across an unfloured counter. The dough should be smooth, elastic, not very sticky. Note, I used no flour once I took the dough out of the bowl. If you've done this right, you won't need any.
Next rub some olive oil in your plastic rising container. Put the ball in upside down and then turn it over. Cover the tub and place in the refrigerator until the next day. This is so important. Dough develops flavor through a cool slow rise. I cannot bake a good boule without this step. (Note: If you let the dough remain in the refrigerator for 2-4 days, it will make a fabulous pizza crust).
The next day, take the tub out and allow it to reach room temperature. Set your oven to 500 degrees. I keep a large stone in the bottom shelf at all times. Divide the dough in half and shape each into a round ball. Place one inside a floured banneton (round willow basket without a lining). I cover mine with a clean new shower cap. Place the other in your La Cloche and cover it to rise on the counter. Keep the Banneton in a cool place to rise, as both loaves will be baked in the La Cloche and the first loaf will be ready before the second can go in the oven.
This next step is key. You want to catch your dough on "the rise" when you score it and then bake it. This is why so many people complain their loaves fell when they scored them. They waited too long. How long should you wait? This is something you learn with time. It is before the dough doubles. Maybe about 40 minutes or so. It depends on the temperature of your kitchen and how much water is in the dough. The key here is not to let it rise fully. You want it to "pop" in the oven. The heat creates an explosion and if you catch the dough on the rise it makes that explosion huge, versus uneventful (hense a fallen loaf).
I sprinkle my boule with flour and then slash it three times. The center slash is straight and the two outside slashes at an angle to create a V with the straight slash in the middle. On the banneton risen loaf, I make a cross. It blooms so beautifully like this.
For the first loaf, once floured and slashed - place the covered la cloche with your nearly risen loaf on the middle rack of your oven. Reduce the temperature to 425. Bake it covered for 35 minutes. Remove the La Cloche cover and let it continue to bake until sufficiently brown. Remove from the oven and place the loaf on a rack to cool.
Next, immediately turn the banneton loaf over onto the la cloche. Slash it in your desired pattern and then cover it. Note, the la cloche will be very hot. Cover it and repeat the baking process as above.
Make sure you let your loaves cool fully before slicing.
This recipe makes 2 georgeous loaves of artisan bread that are crusty on the outside, soft on the inside, with some irregular holes and a very nice slightly tangy flavor.
For variation, you can add a few tablespoons of whole wheat flour, or add chopped fresh rosemary or chopped pitted calamata olives, or other addition you enjoy. You can also brush the top with egg white wash and sprikle with sesame seeds.
I bake this bread every day, so trust that even though it sounds complicated, it is really a piece of cake.....
Hope this is helpful to you.
Lisa H.
Hi all,
I have a question about the hydration of a pre-ferment. I realize that changing the hydration makes it either a biga or a poolish, but I don't care so much about the name as I do the result! I just made Hamelman's Rustic Bread with a few changes, and the family loved it. I doubled the ww (there's not that much to begin with), and used it in the pre-ferment instead of the final dough. It worked wonderfully, but I'd like to go a little further and up the ww % even further, maybe to 50% eventually.
That much I'm OK with figuring out. The problem I have with the recipe is that the pre-ferment is really quite stiff, and since I don't have a mixer, working it into the dough is pretty hard. Still OK with that though; the problem is that I'd like to be able to make larger batches, say 6 loaves, so that I can bring it to the local food pantry. I don't think I can manhandle that much stiff pre-ferment into the final dough. If I keep all the final percentages the same, is there any reason I can't use more of the water in the pre-ferment?
Thanks,
edh
I've been plagued by this question since beginning my foray into sourdough four months ago. Is it really necessary to toss excess starter or can I use it in my bread making? Example, I've refreshed my starter from the fridge, bread baking formula/recipe calls for one half cup, I have another cup that is not needed. I place it in the fridge and the next time I go to make bread I start my process over again, refreshing the starter and allowing it to become quite active. I now have about two cups of starter. I take out the half cup called for in the recipe, but I'm left with an ever increasing amount of active starter. So....I've been dumping more starter into a recipe than it calls for and simply adjusting my flour/water ratios. My bread is not consistent, but its not unedible. Sometimes I even get a wonderful surprise.
Giving starter to friends is not an answer. I'm one of the few bakers in my circle of friends. I do keep starter in the freezer and always a secondary container in the fridge.
Does anyone else toss their 'extra' into their breadmaking?
Good afternoon!
I am trying to find a really good, dense, Artisan-type white sandwich bread recipe to make for my family.
My husband is from the Netherlands, and he does not care for how soft the average white bread is that we get here in our grocery stores. Compared to the white bread that his mom gets from their open air markets, there is a HUGE difference.
The European white bread is very healthy, dense, and it tastes divine! It does not fall apart when condiments are spread on it, (they use butter as their mayonnaise), and when you toast the bread it tastes so great! It has a nice crunchy crust, and a good chewy texture on the inside.
Since my husband loves this type of bread, I set out to learn how to make it at home with my KA 600. I have gotten the French Baguette down to a science, even with the slashing when it goes in the oven, which took me forever and a day not to deflate the loaf when I tried the slashing..and now they come out looking really nice and tasting yummy!
Here at our local Sam's Club, there is a bread made by a company called Milton's Original Healthy Grain Bread. It comes in loaves of 2, and it is very reasonably priced at Sam's. However, Sam's is going to discontinue it, and that has started me on this quest to find a recipe that I can make at home. Milton's has the texture that I am seeking. They make 2 different types of white bread, but on their website 1 loaf of either is $12!! I am not paying $12 for 1 loaf of bread.
Please help me if you can! There has to be a good dense recipe somewhere! Thanks so much!
This has been a family holiday favorite since I was around 10 years old. I believe it was a recipe off the side of a graham cracker box, but we got it from a family friend.
Magic Squares
1 stick of butter
1 package graham crackers (1/2 box of crackers)
1/2 bag chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnuts
1 can sweetened condensed milk
1 bag shredded cocoanut
Place the stick of butter in a large baking pan (9 x 13) and place in a warm oven until the butter melts. Make graham cracker crumbs by placing the graham crackers in a blender, a food processor, or by smashing them by hand (I've done all three). Pour the graham cracker crumbs into the baking pan full of butter and spread them around until you have a full layer of crumbs. Press down to compact it into a crust. Spread a layer of chocolate chips over the crackers. Sprinkle a layer of walnuts over the chocolate chips, then pour the sweetened condensed milk over the walnuts. Sprinkle shredded cocoanut on top. Bake at 375 for approximately 20-25 minutes, until the cocoanut has begun to brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before slicing into squares.
I'm trying a sourdough starter with a combination of organic rye and organic wheat berries [gound very fine] and my well water. For convenience I decided try it with 100%, or something close to it, hydration. Are there good reasons not to do this? I just decided it would be easier measure and handle that way. It seems to be doing fine so far. Will it cause problems later when I try to follow a specific recipie that suggests a specific prrcentage of hydration? This p o v in baking is new to me but it sure seems like a better way to do things. How does the thinking or the math go when using my starter in the above situation? Thanks for any input.
Ron
The manual that came with my Kitchen Aid mixer (Accolade 400) clearly states, " Do not exceed Speed 2 when preparing yeast doughs as this may cause damage to the motor." But Daniel Leader in "Local Breads" calls for faster speeds, sometimes for rather extended times, in several formulas. For example, in the formula for Genzano Country Bread (pg.199), he says to mix at Speed "5 or 6 on a KitchenAid mixer" for 10 minutes, then at Speed 10 for 8 to 10 minutes.
If this is okay, and I assume he has tried it without burning out his mixer's motor, I assume you can get away with the higher speed with high-hydration doughs because there is less drag on the motor.
Any thoughts or, better yet, experience with Leader's formula for Pane casareccio di Genzano would be appreciated.
David
Hi all:
TGIF! I have a question for the great bakers here. We have just two in our house and our bread gets hard and stale before we can use it. I don’t want to slice and freeze a full size loaf. I’d like to have a small loaf we could use in a day or two…say ¾ pound. If I make a standard recipe and make smaller loaf, do all the same rules apply (i.e. rising time, baking time, etc.)?
Thanks for your input. It’s been a rough week in Omaha. God Bless all the victims’ family and friends. One of them, Beverly Flynn worked at my company…
Trishinomaha
This recipe is a basic sourdough that I make frequently and use as an all purpose basic bread. It has more components of whole grain in it than a typical white country loaf, yet because of the high extraction flour, it has a more refined texture and less grassy flavor than a typical whole grain loaf. At least for me, it blends better with food than whole grain or close to whole grain loaves I would make for toast at breakfast, peanut butter or tahini, or sometimes as a vehicle for more strongly flavored salted meats and cheeses. I could use it as a substitute for a rustic French bread to have along with a roasted meat or an eggplant parmesan, for example.
Some additional photos are posted, as well as spreadsheets of the recipe and rise time calculations in xls and html formats.
Levain:
The levain is designed to ripen in 10 hours at 70F or about 7 hours at 76F. In my case, it was left to ripen on the counter overnight at about 70F for a total of 10 hours. The levain can be made ahead and refrigerated after it has just doubled. It will keep for a day or two stored in the refrigerator. Ideally, if it is refrigerated, it should be removed from the refrigerator an hour or two before you put it in the dough.
Soaker:
Mix the flour and water enough to form a shaggy mass. Let it rest overnight. I just left it on the kitchen counter next to the levain for the night. You can also mix it ahead and store it in the refrigerator along with the levain. Remove it an hour or two before you are ready to mix the dough.
High extraction flour is a less refined flour that has some or most of the bran removed but contains most or all of the remaining components of the whole grain. Heartland Mills Golden Buffalo has the germ and a small amount of bran in it.
Dough:
Mixing
The dough was mixed with a DLX mixer for about 10 minutes on low/medium. The dough is medium soft to soft. It spreads a little bit when you first pour it on the counter and is a little sticky. The dough was folded a few times after mixing, using a wet dough folding/kneading technique, in order to form it into a round ball. The dough was then placed in a covered container to rise.
Bulk Fermentation and Folding
The bulk fermentation phase was designed to last 3.7 hours at 75F. During that time the dough was conventionally folded three times, about once per hour. As the gluten develops, the dough will become stiffer and will no longer spread out when turned out onto the counter. Fold more often if the dough is too slack or fold less often if it seems too stiff and resistant to folding.
The dough should expand to about 1.7 times the original volume and become puffy during the bulk fermentation. The dough is not intended to double in volume during the bulk fermentation.
At 70F the bulk fermentation should take about 5 hours, somewhat longer than at 75F.
Shaping
The dough was halved and two large rectangular loaves were formed. The two loaves were placed in a couche on a half tray and placed in a Ziploc "Big Bag" with two bowls of hot water. The loaves were proofed for 2.6 hours at 75F. At 70F the loaves should proof for about 3.5 hours.
Slash and Bake
The loaves were slashed, put on parchment paper on a large peel and placed in a brick oven. The oven hearth temperature was about 525F at the beginning of the bake. The loaves and interior of the oven were sprayed with a fine mist using an orchid sprayer (1/6 gal/minute for 25 seconds), and the oven was sealed with a towel covered door. After 15 minutes, the loaves were rotated and the door of the oven was left open. The loaves were baked for a total of 45 minutes until dark brown. Since the dough is fairly wet, it helps to give the loaves a thorough bake. The internal temperature was 209F, but I've found that internal temperature can be an unreliable indicator of doneness with higher hydration loaves.
In my kitchen oven, I would preheat the oven to 500F with a stone and cast iron skillet. After placing the loaves on the stone, put water in the skillet and drop the temperature to 450F. After 15 minutes, drop the temperature to 400F for the rest of the bake.
The loaves are fairly large, as my brick oven has room for them. In a kitchen oven the loaves could be done one at a time, possibly shaped a little wider and shorter. To do a more typical quantity of bread for a kitchen oven, halve the recipe and make two smaller loaves that can be baked at the same time.
Cool
Allow the loaves to completely cool on a rack that allows the entire loaf, top and bottom, to be exposed to air.
Results
This bread is named Workhorse Sourdough because it can be used for almost any job. It will work in place of a white country bread for dinner, for sandwiches, for toast, or even for dipping in olive oil. The sourdough flavor of the levain with the rye and whole wheat is a little stronger than breads I've made with a white flour or spelt levain. One could put all the whole grains and Golden Buffalo flour in the soaker, and make the levain from a portion of the white flour. Water would have to be moved from the dough to the larger soaker in that case.