Month: June 2019

Smoked Gouda and Jalapeño Loaf

This is a repeat of my last weekly bread post. If you remember I had the loaf stick to the inside of the dutch oven and take a couple of hours to get it out of the pot destroying some of the crust. While we were trying to get it out, I said to my wife it would be nice if we could get precut parchment rounds to fit the dutch oven. Later, I went on Amazon (I have no affiliation with them) and found you can get precut parchment rounds in all kinds of diameters. So I order a package of 10” rounds.

Jumping ahead, these worked perfectly and there were no issues with sticking. And because it wasn’t a half sheet pan sized sheet surrounding the upper part of the loaf, the browning was much more uniform.

Because of the way my timing works out, I have modified my process. I like to minimize the amount of acid development in my bread. This loaf is based on Chad Robertson’s Tartine Country Bread. My kitchen is much cooler than his in California. In earlier loaves of this bread, I found that my longer fermentation and proofing times were generating more lactic acid than I really liked. That meant I needed to mix the dough in the afternoon, rather than the morning. I wanted the overnight proof in the refrigerator to be more than 10 hours but less than 12 hours. If I did that, the leaven would ferment too long and become overly sour and over fermented and past its prime for leavening.

So I decided to build the leaven in two stages. The night before mixing the the dough I used half each of the flour mix (50% AP flour + 50% white whole wheat flour) and the water plus a small amount of 100% hydration starter and mixed it in a small bowl that then sat covered on the counter overnight. 12 hours later I added the second half of the flour mix and the water. In his book Chad Robertson suggests throwing out half the leaven and adding flour and water to prevent the leaven from getting too sour but that seemed wasteful to me.

The first time I made this loaf I added the cheese and jalapeño at the same time as the salt and remaining water. Getting all of that incorporated at the same time was a challenge and I felt limited the gluten development. This time I added the cheese and jalapeños at the first stretch and fold 30 minutes after adding the salt and remaining water. There is a lot of cheese and jalapeños to incorporate and it will seem like it won’t go in but it will eventually. I stretch the dough as far as I can in its fermentation container and cover the surface with cheese and jalapeños, and fold the dough over itself. Then I flip the dough over and repeat the process. It usually takes 4 or 5 incorporations to get most of the cheese and jalapeños in the dough. By then the dough is to stiff to keep going but don’t worry if there is still cheese and jalapeños loose in the container, that will work in during subsequent stretch and folds. I did a total of 5 stretch and folds on 30 minute intervals.

This loaf will not rise as high as the loaf without additions due to the added weight of the cheese and jalapeños.

I used the cold start baking method for this loaf. It has become my preferred method when I am only baking one loaf. I think I get better oven spring than when I conventionally bake.

The Formula

Ingredient	Amount	Bakers %
The Leaven
Starter	4 g	4%
Water	100 g	100%
50-50 Flour Mix	100 g	100%
The Dough
Leaven	100 g	20%
Water	375 g	75%
Total Flour	500 g	100%
Bread Flour	450 g	90%
White Whole Wheat Flour	50 g	10%
Fine sea salt	10 g	2%
Shredded Smoked Gouda Cheese	100 g	20%
Diced Jalapeño, raw	70 g	14%

I have decided to add my actual times that key steps in the process. In his book, Chad Robertson notes a bulk fermentation time of 4 hours at a dough temperature of 78 F. I actually remembered to check my dough temperature with an instant read thermometer during bulk fermentation and it was 74 F. My bulk fermentation time ended up 6 hours and 45 minutes.

My Process

1. Day 1, 9:00 pm. The leaven, Mix 4 grams starter into 50 grams water in a small bowl. Add 50 grams flour mix and stir in thoroughly. Cover bowl and let sit on counter overnight.
2. Day 2, 9:00 am. Add 50 grams water and 50 grams flour mix to the leaven and stir to combine. Cover and let sit on counter.
3. 12:45 pm. Get out tools and equipment needed. Grate and weigh cheese, dice jalapeños and weigh, place on several layers of paper towels to absorb excess moisture.
4. 1:15 pm. Weigh out dough ingredients. Add 100g leaven to 350g water and stir to combine in mixing bowl. Add flour slowly to water/leaven mixture, stirring each adding in with a dough whisk before making next flour addition. Continue adding and mixing until no dry flour remains in mixing bowl. Transfer dough to bulk fermentation container and cover.
5. Let dough dough rest at least 40 minutes (Autolyse).
6. 2:20 pm. Add salt and remaining 25g water to dough stretching and folding to incorporate. Don’t worry if water remains in container, it will absorb and salt with be further incorporated in subsequent stretch and folds. Cover container.
7. 2:30pm. Beginning of bulk fermentation. Let dough rest 30 minutes covered.
8. 3:00pm. Stretch dough out as much as possible in the container. Cover 2/3 of dough with cheese and jalapeños. Fold the uncovered portion of the dough half way across the covered portion of dough. Take the remaining portion of covered dough and fold over the other dough. There now should be 5 layers, dough-cheese/jalapeños-dough-cheese/jalapeños-dough. Flip the dough over and repeat the the process. Continue until most all the cheese and jalapeños are incorporated.
9. Stretch and fold at least 4 times more on 30 minute intervals. Because of the cheese and jalapeños it is difficult to pull a good windowpane test to know when there is enough gluten development.
10. 9:15pm. From here on be careful to not deflate the dough too much. Scrape dough onto to unfloured work surface. Use bench scraper to form dough into a rough round. Generously flour the top of the dough. Use the bench scraper to flip the dough over on the work surface so floured side is down. Work the dough into a tight ball. Flip over on work surface.
11. Let dough rest 20 minutes. Dough will flatten somewhat to a bulging disk.
12. Final shape dough into a tight ball.
13. Place dough seam side up in a linen lined and floured banneton. Flour the seam side of the dough lightly with rye or rice flour.
14. Place in plastic bag and place in the refrigerator overnight to proof.
15. Day 3, 8:30am. Line a dutch oven with a 10” round of parchment. Remove dough from the refrigerator. Remove banneton from the plastic bag. Place your 4 fingers over the dough from both sides and invert the banneton over the dutch oven. Move your fingers down to release the dough and it gently drops into the center of the dutch oven. Easier to do than describe. Score loaf with lame. Cover dutch oven.
16. Place the dutch oven in a cold oven. Turn oven on to 450 F.
17. When oven has reached 450 F set a timer for 20 minutes.
18. When time is complete, remove cover from the dutch oven.
19. Bake for an additional 20 minutes uncovered. Remove from oven.
20. Place bread on cooling rack and resist slicing for at least 1 hour.

This has become one of our favorite breads. It was first made when I discovered we were out of my grapevine smoked cheddar cheese and were trying to figure out what to substitute. It is good plain with butter. It’s great in the morning toasted with butter and even better if you add some raspberry and jalapeño jam.