Month: May 2019

Smoked Gouda and Jalapeño Country Loaf

Now that the weather has finally warmed up, I am amazed at how differently my starter and doughs are behaving. The starter is rising and falling more quickly and bulk fermentation of the dough is taking a couple of hours less time. As of yesterday, the kitchen temperature was 74 F as opposed to the 67 F it was all winter.

I planned on making my grapevine smoked cheddar and jalapeño loaf this week only to discover we had eaten all the grapevine smoked cheddar. Debbie suggested that we use smoked Gouda (store bought) and I thought why not.

I did something a little different with the leaven this time. I didn’t want to mix the dough until mid-afternoon the next day. Instead of using 100 grams each flour and water, I used 50 grams each along with only 4 grams of starter. Then next morning, after 12 hours, I added another 50 grams each. I was trying to make a milder loaf of bread. I then mixed the dough 4 hours after after the second addition to the leaven.

I am going to cut this post short here. I made a poor assumption and bad decision when baking this bread. I am very frustrated with myself. My poor assumption was that the dutch oven was seasoned enough so that even though I was using it cold and going into a cold oven, the bread wouldn’t stick. The bad decision was to not use parchment paper anyway. The end result was the bread stuck severely and I crushed the crust trying to get it loose and I couldn’t get it off the bottom of the pot. When Debbie got home from church she worked on it. She did finally get it off the bottom of pot but some of the bottom crust stayed there. What’s left tastes fine and the loaf looked great in the pot when it came out of the oven. I’m still frustrated with myself a day later. Lesson learned!

I will document this loaf the next time I make it.

Pain Au Levain

This is a bread I have wanted to try since I started my sourdough journey. It is based on the pain au levain in the book Bread Alone by Dan Leader and Judith Blahnik. I should also mention that I have had this bread from the Bread Alone Bakery in Boiceville, NY and it was delicious. It was being baked in a wood-fired oven when I was there.

I used to make this starting with a pinch of yeast (< 1/16 teaspoon) like the book calls for but now I wanted to start with sourdough starter. If we accept that 1 teaspoon of yeast and 70 grams of 100% hydration sourdough starter can be used interchangeably, then 4 grams of starter should replace the pinch of yeast. The other issue with this bread is that the original recipe calls for a bread flour with 20% of the bran remaining. Until recently I had not been able to find anything even close. Then I discovered what is called bolted flour at Breadtopia (no affiliation with them). Bolted flour means a percentage of the bran is sieved out with a fine mesh sieve. It is also called high extraction flour. Everything else is left in so in theory, there should be more flavor and nutrition. So I contacted Breadtopia, told them what I was looking for and received a positive response. They don’t actually measure the bran left but their estimate was that it in the vicinity of what I was looking for. Based on that I ordered a bag of their Select Bread Flour. This flour is certified organic, unbleached, unbromated, non GMO, stone ground and bolted. This flour has a strong 14% protein level. The other big advantage to flour from Breadtopia is freshness. The bag I received was milled on the same day I placed the order and that it was shipped.

This recipe is the definition of slow bread. It starts with building a chef over 3 days, converting the chef to a levain on the fourth day and then mixing the dough, bulk fermenting, dividing, shaping, proofing and baking on the fifth day. The reason so much can be accomplished on the fifth day is the levain is a high percentage of the final dough. Bulk fermentation and proofing each only take about 2 hours. I actually had to set up a timetable for the various phases of the process. The most critical was that from the mixing of the levain to mixing the final dough needed to be at least 8 hours but not more than 10 hours. So I mixed the levain at 10:00 pm and the dough at 6:30 am the following morning. Luckily the timing on everything before the levain was flexible and not time consuming. The dough dictated the timing after it was mixed. My bulk fermentation time was two hours and fifteen minutes. Proofing only took one hour and forty five minutes.

The original recipe gives and unusually wide range of 142 grams for how much flour to use. All flour absorbs different amounts of water and I will admit I should have added more flour. I used the midpoint of the range but in hindsight, I should have been at or near the top of the range. When you’ve never used a flour before you just don’t know how it will behave. All you can do is to make notes for the next time. The result was the dough spread out way too much yielding flat loaves. I used 750 grams of flour but would use 780 to 800 grams the next time.

This was a very wet sticky dough that was difficult to work with throughout the process. I had to use a lot of extra flour in forming and shaping the loaves to prevent the the dough from sticking to everything.

The amounts in the original recipe were listed in ounce and fluid ounces so I converted everything to grams.

The Ingredients

Ingredients	Amount	Bakers %
The Chef
Day 1
100% Starter	4 g	3.5%
Water	118 g	104%
Select Bread Flour	113 g	100%
Day 2
Water	118 g	104%
Select Bread Flour	113 g	100%
Day 3
Water	118 g	104%
Select Bread Flour	113 g	100%
The Levain
Chef	All
Select Bread Flour	170 g	100%
The Dough
Levain	510 g	68%
Water	532 g	71%
Select Bread Flour	680-822 g	100%
Fine Sea Salt	15 g	2%

Note: Baker % for the dough based on the 750 g flour actually used.

My Process

1. Day 1, start the chef by weighing water in a 2 to 3 quart container. Add starter and flour to container. Mix thoroughly. Cover and leave on counter.
2. Day 2, weigh water and flour in the chef container. Mix thoroughly. Cover and leave on counter.
3. Day 3, weigh water and flour in the chef container. Mix thoroughly. Cover and place container in the fridge for up to 3 days until ready to make the levain.
4. Day 4, remove chef container from fridge about 12 hours before making levain.
5. At least 8 hours but not more than 10 hours before mixing the final dough add the flour to the chef. Mix thoroughly. Cover and leave on counter.
6. Day 5, weigh out the ingredients for the final dough. Not all the levain will be used. I chose to discard the remainder. It could be saved and turned back into a chef and refreshed periodically just like a starter.
7. Add the water and the levain to a mixing bowl. Mix with a dough whisk until the levain is incorporated into the water.
8. Add the flour to the water mixture a couple of handfuls at a time incorporating each addition before making the next addition. Add the salt while the dough is fairly liquid. Continue to add the flour until a firm dough is formed. Transfer to a dough fermentation container.
9. Knead the dough by hand for 15-17 minutes or perform 4-5 stretch and folds on 15 minute intervals covering in between.
10. Bulk ferment until dough is soft and less sticky, about 2 hours.
11. Flour a work surface. Remove the dough from container and knead briefly.
12. Divide dough in to 2 equal pieces.
13. Form each dough piece into a ball. Cover with a damp towel. Let rest on work surface for about 30 minutes.
14. Flour 2 – 14”x6” oblong cloth lined bannetons with a mix of rye and rice flour.
15. Working with one piece of dough at a time, flatten dough ball into an 8” diameter disk.
16. Shape dough into a batard. Roll dough until it matches the length of the banneton. Place dough into banneton and cover with a damp towel or plastic wrap.
17. Repeat for the other dough ball.
18. Let dough proof until a finger impression fills slowly but remains in the dough, about 2 hours.
19. 1 hour into the proofing time place the baking stone on the center rack position of the oven and a sheet pan on the rack below the stone. Preheat the oven to 450 F.
20. Line a cookie sheet with a sheet of parchment to use as a peel.
21. Transfer one loaf from banneton to parchment and slash loaf. Repeat for second loaf placing on the same parchment sheet.
22. Spritz loaves with water and transfer to baking stone in oven. Close oven.
23. As soon as possible open oven and pour 1 cup boiling water on the sheet pan and quickly close the oven door to trap the steam.
24. Bake loaves for 25-30 minutes. After 12 minutes slightly open the oven door to vent any remains steam. If any water remains on the sheet pan, carefully remove it from the oven.
25. Remove loaves from oven when baking is done and place loaves on cooling rack. Don’t slice until cooled, about 2 hours.

These loaves came out of the oven looking like giant ciabatta instead of pain au levain. I discussed the reason above. Luckily appearance has nothing to do with flavor and this bread tastes great. There is no mistaking it for anything but a sourdough, but it is mild and in the background. I was concerned that the long fermentation of the chef/ levain would have an overpowering sourdough flavor but it didn’t. There is a complexity and nuttiness in the flavor that I just haven’t gotten with supermarket bread flour. The crumb is moist but didn’t develop large holes like there wasn’t enough gluten development.

The method described for getting steam into the oven did not work as well as either using a dutch oven or covering the loaf with a roasting pan. Unfortunately, our roasting pan lid is not large enough to cover two loaves so I was stuck using this method. The crust came out soft and not nice and crisp like all my previous sourdough breads have been.

This was my first time baking bread with something other than King Arthur flour and all in all I would say this was a successful experiment. There is still work to do to get the loaf I had hoped for. It wouldn’t surprise me if it takes several more tries to get what I’m looking for. I am also going to expand the usage of different flours from a variety of sources.

This week we are making sourdough pita breads. I enjoy pita bread as as change of pace from regular bread. I particularly enjoy them with some falafels and tahini sauce or with Schwarma. I used a 60/40 mix of my usual organic bread flour and white whole wheat flours.

I based these on a recipe from Breadtopia (no affiliation) with a video. I followed the recipe as written which was supposed to yield a fairly stiff dough. I was not using the same flour and did not get a stiff dough. In hindsight, I should have held back 20 grams or so of the water. I ended up adding a heaping soup spoon of whole wheat flour to stiffen up the dough but still didn’t get it as stiff as the video.

I have not made pitas before and there was a learning curve when it came rolling out the dough to 8” rounds. This is a sticky, springy dough. Lots of flour is needed everywhere when rolling these out: board, dough and rolling pin. I used an 1/8” gauged rolling pin to get a uniform thickness when rolling these out. One of the keys to this to let the dough rest longer once it is divided into equal pieces and rolled into balls, at least 20 minutes. This recipe makes eight 8” pitas.

The Formula

Ingredient	Amount	Bakers %
Starter	70 g	14%
Tot Flour	500 g	100%
Bread Flour	300 g	60%
White Whole Wheat Flour	200 g	40%
Water	360 g	72%
Olive Oil	12 g	2.4%
Salt	10 g	2%

Note: Just figured out my dough issue. I misread the recipe and read 360 g of water as 380 g. Oops! The above formula has been corrected to the proper amount of water that should have been used, not what I actually used. I guess my assessment above that I should have withheld 20 grams of water was correct, since I used 20 grams too much.

My Process

1. Weigh out all ingredients mid-afternoon.
2. Mix flours and salt together.
3. Mix water, olive oil and starter together.
4. Slowly add flour mix to water mix. Incorporate each addition before adding the next.
5. When all flour is added let dough rest 15-20 minutes to let flour absorb the water and hydrate.
6. Briefly knead dough. Move to covered container for bulk fermentation.
7. Stretch and fold dough 3-4 times at 15 minute intervals.
8. Place covered container in fridge until just before bed time.
9. Remove container from the fridge, stretch and fold dough and cover container. Let dough bulk ferment at room temperature for a total of 10-14 hours.
10. The next morning place baking stone on rack in the next to the top rack position. Preheat the oven at its highest temperature for 60 minutes. In our case that was 525 F.
11. Divide dough into 8 equal weight pieces.
12. Form each dough piece into a ball. Cover with a damp linen towel and let rest 20 minutes.
13. Flour work surface generously. Flour rolling pin. Roll each dough piece into 8” round between 1/8” and 1/4” thick.
14. Place rolled dough on floured cookie sheet or peel. We could only fit 3 rounds on cookie sheet and on stone. In the end we did 2 at a time on cookie sheet and baking.
15. Cover dough rounds with a damp linen towel and let rest 15-20 minutes.
16. Before baking shake cookie sheet to make sure the dough is free to move. If not, loosen and more flour if necessary.
17. Slide rounds onto baking stone and bake 6 minutes. At about 2 minute they will begin to puff up.
18. Remove pitas from oven to a cooling rack. Stack baked pitas to help them deflate. Cover with a damp linen towel to prevent drying out.
19. After about 20 minutes cooling place in a zip lock bag for storage.

These are tasty pitas, they puffed nicely and are hollow inside for stuffing. I had one lunch each half stuffed with a half of a Italian sausage patty, onions, peppers and tomatoes. Yummy!

Other than using the correct amount of water the next time I am also going to reduce the amount of salt. I dawned on me that 10 grams of salt in 8 pitas amount to 1250 mg salt per pita, way more than someone on a reduced sodium diet should have. I will probably cut the total to 5 grams the next time and see how they taste.

This week is something totally different for me. It isn’t sourdough and most wouldn’t consider it bread. But it is the 5th of May or Cinco de Mayo, so what better way to celebrate than with homemade corn tortillas.

I have been thinking about this for a while as the last few packages from the supermarket have been bland and somewhat tasteless to me. Then, just as May approached, I learned that Wegmans sells Maseca brand masa harina. And tortillas are similar to sourdough in that they are both made from three ingredients water, salt and flour which in the case of tortillas is masa harina instead of wheat flour.

Masa harina is different than grits or polenta in that the corn has been dried, then cooked in an alkaline solution and the skin removed, then rinsed and dried again before grinding into flour.

Once I knew that Wegmans had Maseca, I ordered a tortilla press online. I chose a cast iron one made in Columbia branded Victoria.

The recipe on the Maseca bag calls for 2 cups of Maseca to 1-1/2 cups of water. Online recipes I found called for using warm water and adding a pinch of salt and I did both. After mixing the dough I thought it was pretty dry and I ended up adding 3 tablespoons of additional water, 1 at a time, until I had a nice dough that didn’t crumble. The recipe on the bag called for forming 1 ounce balls of dough to make 5” tortillas but I wanted them larger. I used 30 grams of dough and made 5-1/2 to 6” tortillas.

To press the dough balls into tortillas I took a gallon sized zip lock bag, cut off the zip lock and cut the bag down to fit the tortilla press.

Debbie and I worked together to make the tortillas. We had a 10” cast iron griddle preheated on the stove. I was pressing and Debbie was cooking them. The first few were rough until we figured out what we were doing. After the first couple I ended up adding a few drops of canola oil to the dough and working it in. I read about doing that to help the dough release from the plastic. It seemed to do the trick. Once we got our rhythm down and got the heat high enough on the griddle things went smoothly.

I have to admit I am surprised at how good these actually came out. We made both nachos and tacos and the tortillas worked well for both dishes. The corn flavor in the tortillas came through in both as well. The tortillas did not sog out from the meat filling in the tacos and they held up well first bite to last. Better outcome than I could have hoped for.