Category: This Weeks Bread

Right up front I will admit that this bread was a disappointment to me. I prefer hearty rye breads and at most, this had a very subtle rye flavor. I even tried to boost the rye flavor by the addition of caraway seeds that the original recipe did not call for. It is not that this is a bad loaf of bread, just not what I like for a rye bread. My favorite rye bread I have made so far is Artisan Sourdough Rye Breadhttps://ourweeklybread.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=116&action=edit&revision=612 at this link.

The original recipe comes from Chad Robertson’s book “ Tartine Bread”. The only changes I made to the recipe were to cut it in half to make one loaf, to add 2 teaspoons of caraway seeds that were lightly toasted and ground, and to bake starting with a cold dutch oven and oven.

The flours used to make this bread were King Arthur Organic Bread Flour and Hodgsons Mill Organic Stone Ground Whole Rye Flour. Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with with either of those companies.

The Formula

Ingredient	Amount	Bakers %
Starter	17g
Water	100g
Bread Flour	100g
Dough
Leaven	100g
Water	400g
Bread Flour	415g
Rye Flour	85g
Salt	10g
Caraway Seeds	7g (2t)

The following is the process that I used to make this bread. It works for me but you may have a different process that works for you.

My Process

1. Weigh out the ingredients for the leaven.
2. Add the starter to the water and mix to incorporate. Add the flour to the mixture and stir until no dry flour remains.
3. Cover bowl and let stand on counter overnight, but no more than 12 hours.
4. Weigh out caraway seeds.
5. Lightly toast the caraway seeds in a dry skillet until just fragrant.
6. Let cool before grinding in a spice grinder or with a mortar and pestle.
7. Weigh out the remaining dough ingredients. Reserve 50g of water.
8. Mix together the 350g of water and starter and stir with a dough whisk until incorporated.
9. Mix together the bread flour, rye flour and ground caraway seeds.
10. Slowly add the flour mixture to the starter mixture stirring with a dough whisk and kneading by hand until no dry flour remains.
11. Transfer the dough to a dough rising container or clean bowl.
12. Cover and let stand for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes.
13. Add 1/3 the salt and 1/3 the remaining water and fold the dough to incorporate. Repeat twice more with the remaining salt and water. There will be water remaining in the container. Don’t worry, it will absorb during the following stretch and folds. Cover and let rest 30 minutes.
14. Stretch and fold the dough 4 time on 30 minute intervals.
15. Let dough complete bulk fermentation. It will increase in volume by about 30% and if it is in a clear dough rising container you will see lots of bubbles through the side. Total time from adding the salt and water will be 4 to 6 hours, depending on ambient temperature.
16. From this point on treat the dough gently. Use a dough scraper to remove the dough to a work surface.
17. Use a bench knife to work flour underneath the dough and to form a round of dough. Use the bench knife to flip the dough over. Generously flour the top of the dough with flour. Continue to use the bench knife or your hands to shape the dough into a ball. Cover with a clean linen towel.
18. Let the dough rest on the work surface for 30 minutes.
19. Final shape the dough into a boule by your favorite method.
20. Place the boule of dough seam side up in a floured lined banneton for final proofing and place in a plastic bag to prevent drying.
21. Let dough proof until a finger poke slowly fills. It is better to be slightly under proofed, than to be over proofed.
22. Place a 10” round of parchment in the dutch oven.
23. Gently transfer the dough from the banneton to the dutch oven.
24. Score the dough with a lame.
25. Cover and place the dutch oven in a cold oven.
26. Turn oven on to 450F. Timing starts when oven if preheated.
27. Bake 20 minutes with the cover on. Remove the cover and bake an additional 20 to 25 minutes.
28. Remove bread to a cooling rack and let cool 2 hours before slicing.

Bread came out with a good crust and a soft crumb with lots of holes.

I doubt I will make this bread again. If you enjoy mild rye breads this could be a good introduction to making your own rye bread.

I have been reluctant to attempt making baguettes. Mainly this is because baguettes need to be eaten within hours of baking or they lose the characteristics that make a baguette special, at least for us Americans. It wasn’t until I discovered I could get French flour that I even considered attempting them. Even then I thought long and hard about whether I even wanted to try. In the end I am so glad I did.

In France, everything to do with baguettes is regulated by the French government. From the ingredients to the fact that a baguette must have five overlapping slashes running the length of the baguette. The only flexibility a baker has is in his process. Most make a straight dough using yeast. Some use a levain like I have chosen to do. Others save some of the dough from the previous day and incorporate it into the current days dough. There are even vending machines that will dispense freshly made baguettes.

My first attempt was not a huge success. They certainly were not worthy of documenting. I discovered French flour behaves differently than domestic flour. I am used routinely to making breads with a hydration level of 75% or more. The base recipe I was following for the baguettes had a hydration level of 62% and the dough was a sticky, gloppy mess that was difficult to handle all the way through the process. To compound things I made them too long and they hung off the parchment and the cookie sheet I use to transfer them to the baking stone. They turned out downright ugly! But oh the flavor. I have never made a bread that tasted so good. The crust wasn’t crispy, the crumb was chewy but did they ever taste good. That made it worth continuing.

To solve my main issue I reduced the hydration level to 55%. That’s the lowest hydration level I’ve ever used for a bread dough. In the past I have tried a number of different methods to get steam around the loaf. Most successful for me has always been the dutch oven. Obviously, that wouldn’t work for baguettes. I’ve tried using a cast iron pan underneath the baking stone but never really got a crust I was satisfied with. This was what I did for the first round of baguettes. So I decided to take a chance and bought a perforated baguette pan the would let the steam from the pan below directly surround the loaves by coming up through the perforations in the pan. This was an unqualified success. My second batch of baguettes had a shatteringly crispy thin crust with a soft, tender crumb. The flavor was even better than the first time. If I was only allowed to eat one type of bread for the rest of my life, this would be it. Thankfully, that is not the case and I can continue to experiment with other bread types and document them in this blog.

The flour used was Francine Bio T55 Farine an organic all purpose flour. The salt used in this recipe was Gros Sel de Guerande. Both items were purchased from Yummy Bazaar www.yummybazaar.com.

Some item that I consider necessary to make successful baguettes at home include a linen couche, a baguette flipping board, a lame and a baguette pan. I have shown the ones I use in the photo below. In my next post I will cover why I think they are important.

The Formula

Ingredient	Amount	Bakers %
Levain
Starter	17 g	14%
Water	110 g	88%
T55 Flour	125 g	100%
Dough
Levain	242 g	81%
Water	125 g	42%
T55 Flour	300 g	100%
Sea Salt	5 g	1.7%
Yeast	1 g (1/4 t)	0.3%

My Process

1. Day 1 evening, weigh levain ingredients.
2. Mix the starter into the water and stir to dissolve.
3. Add the flour and stir until incorporated.
4. Cover bowl and let stand on the counter for 12 hours.
5. Day 2 morning, weigh all dough ingredients.
6. In a mixing bowl, add the levain to the water and stir to dissolve.
7. Add the salt and yeast to the flour making sure to keep them separate, stir to incorporate.
8. Slowly add the flour mixture to the water/levain mixture using a dough whisk. Continue until all the dry flour mixture is incorporated into the dough.
9. Transfer the dough to a dough rising container and cover. Let rest 10 minutes.
10. Stretch and fold the dough the dough 4 or 5 times on 10 minute intervals until a smooth dough is achieved, covering in between.
11. Let the dough rise for an hour to and hour and fifteen minutes (I let it go an hour and a half and it was slightly over proofed).
12. Punch down the dough, form a rough ball, lightly flour the dough, and divide into 3 equal pieces. Use a scale!
13. Shape each dough piece into a log.
14. Cover with damp towel and let rest 15 minutes.
15. Shape baguettes. I strongly recommend watching the video on Breadtopia http://www.breadtopia.com to learn how to do this. There is a technique to this and I had to watch numerous times to semi-master it. I still need more practice.
16. Transfer formed dough to a well floured linen couche or linen towel. Let rise 1 hour or until doubled in size.
17. Preheat oven to 445F convection. Place a cast iron skillet directly beneath where the baguettes will bake. The baguette pan I bought is non-stick and has a maximum temperature of 450F. The recipe for baguettes calls for baking at 475F, too high for the pan. Our oven uses a temperature offset of 25F when set to “auto convection” so I actually set to 470F auto convection to get to the 440F setting.
18. Use a baguette flipping board to transfer the formed dough to baguette baking pan.
19. After all 3 loaves are transferred to the pan, slash the loaves. Remember, 5 overlapping slashes.
20. Place pan in the oven. Add 1/2 cup boiling water to the cast iron pan and quickly close the oven door. Be careful! Steam can cause serious burns.
21. After 8 minutes remove the cast iron pan from the oven. Total baking time 15 to 17 minutes.
22. Remove baguettes from the oven to a cooling rack. Let cool 45 minutes before eating.

As soon as these were cool enough we sliced the first one and ate with a cave-ripened Brie from Wegmans. We also ate plain, with butter, and with strawberry jam. All were awesome!

For dinner, we cut one baguette in half, split it and had with a grilled Gianelli Italian Sausage, peppers and onions. Also delicious. The sandwich was devoured and savored in lieu of taking a picture.

The third baguette was used the next morning for French toast. Again, very, very good. Just shows the versatility of the seemingly simple baguette.

I will continue to work baguettes into my weekly bread making. I also want to try using the French flour in some of the other breads I bake. It has the best flavor and aroma of any flour I have used to date.

Disclaimer: I have no affiliation of any kind with Breadtopia, Yummy Bazaar, Wegmans or Gianelli Sausage.

Miche aka Traditional French Sourdough

I have wanted to make this bread since I started baking naturally leavened bread. It is based on the bread baked by Poilâne Bakery in Paris. Of course mine won’t be the same since I am not using the same flour, water, salt or starter.

The version I am doing is from a recipe on Breadtopia (no affiliation) but again the same comment from above about ingredients applies.

This covers two weeks of making the same recipe with tweaks between the two attempts. The first week I followed the recipe as written. The main tweak the second week was to add more water to both the leaven and the dough the second week. Next was to reduce the bulk fermentation time from 24 hours to 22 hours and final proof was 4 hours vs 5 hours. Finally for mixing and kneading the dough I used the Kitchenaid mixer with dough hook the second week. All photos are from week 2 unless otherwise noted.

For flour I am using King Arthur Organic Bread Flour, King Arthur Organic Whole Wheat Flour, Hodgson Mills Organic Whole Rye Flour and Bobs Red Mill Organic Spelt Flour (I have no affiliation with any of those companies).

The process for the dough is slightly different than most of the other sourdoughs I have made. On day 1 a leaven is made. In this case it is made with a higher percentage of starter than I typically use, all the whole wheat flour and water. It is mixed and then sits on the counter covered for 12 hours.

Day 2 the dough is made. The dough is mixed with some of the bread flour held back. The dough is then kneaded by hand for 10 minutes adding some of the held back flour if the dough becomes sticky. At the end of kneading the dough should be smooth and tacky but not sticky. The difference is difficult to describe but obvious when achieved. This is a stiff dough. It was a fair amount of work for me with my compromised breathing. I could have used the mixer and dough hook but I wanted to feel the dough develop by hand to know what should feel like. When I make this again I most likely will use the mixer. The major difference with this dough is after it is kneaded, it is placed in an oiled bowl, covered, and placed in the refrigerator for 24 hours. There is no further work on the dough until the next day.

On day 3 the dough is removed from the refrigerator, shaped into a boule and placed in a 10” banneton to proof for approximately 5 hours.

The Formula

Ingredient	Amount	Bakers %
Leaven
Water	200 g	85%
Starter	120 g	51%
Whole wheat flour	236 g	100%
Dough
Water	274 g	54%
Leaven	556 g	110%
Bread flour	250 g	50%
Spelt flour	170 g	33%
Rye flour	85 g	17%
Total flour	505 g	100%
Sea salt	13 g	6%

Note: the salt percentage looks high but is based on the total flour in both the leaven and the dough.

My Process

1. Weigh ingredients for leaven in a medium sized mixing bowl.
2. Mix ingredients thoroughly.
3. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let stand on counter 12 hours.
4. Weigh ingredients for dough.
5. Mix the leaven into the water in a large mixing bowl.
6. Add the rye and spelt flours to the mixing bowl and thoroughly incorporate.
7. Add the salt to the mixing bowl and incorporate.
8. Slowly add the bread flour and incorporate by hand. Do not add all of the bread flour yet. The dough will become very stiff.
9. Remove the dough from the from the bowl to a surface floured with some of the reserved bread flour. Knead dough by hand for 10 minutes adding more of the reserved bread flour when the dough becomes sticky. The final dough should feel tacky but not sticky. The best way I can describe the difference is that sticky dough will stick to and remain on your fingers, tacky dough will feel tacky but not stick to your fingers.
10. Oil a large bowl with olive oil, place the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap.
11. Place bowl in the refrigerator for 24 hours.
12. The next day remove the dough from the fridge. Pre-shape into a boule.
13. Let rest covered on counter for 30 minutes.
14. Final shape into boule and place dough seam side up in a floured 10” banneton. Place banneton in a plastic bag. Note, proofed dough will fill or be slightly above the top of the banneton.
15. Let dough proof 5 hours.
16. 1 hour before proofing is complete, pre-heat the oven to 485F. 15 minutes before proofing is complete place a roasting pan in the oven.
17. When proofing is complete, invert dough on to a parchment covered peel.
18. Slash dough with lame.
19. Remove roasting pan from oven. Transfer the dough on the parchment to the baking stone. Spritz the dough with water from a spray bottle and cover with the roasting pan immediately.
20. Bake 25 minutes with the dough covered.
21. Remove cover and bake an additional 20 minutes uncovered with the oven set to 450F.
22. Remove bread from oven to a cooling rack. Let cool completely.

The first time I made this the dough reached the tacky stage and I still had 1/2 to 3/4 cup of the bread flour left. Week one the dough was over proofed after 5 hours and there was no oven spring. The flavor was excellent, probably the best tasting loaf I’ve ever made. There is a complexity to the flavor that just can’t be achieved using just white wheat flour. The crumb was tight and soft when first sliced. The next day the bread already seemed dry. That made the decision to make the bread again the next week, with some changes.

The changes in the formula were to increase the water in the leaven by 10 grams from 200 grams to 210 grams and to increase the water in the dough by 16 grams from 274 grams to 290 grams. This time I only had about a tablespoon of flour left when the dough reached the tacky point.

The changes to my process were in steps 5-9 to use the mixer with a dough hook, in step 11 to reduce the time from 24 hours to 22 hours and in step 15 from 5 hours from the time the dough went into the banneton to 4 hours from the time the dough came out of the fridge.

This time I got nice oven spring. The crumb was nice and soft with a more uniform tight texture and slightly more chew from better gluten development. I left the original formula and process because if someone uses different flours than I did, the original formula and proceeded would be the logical starting point.

This has become one of my favorite breads and will show up frequently in my bread making rotation. I think when I next make this I may try an herbed version.

Sourdough with Leaven

This coming week I am on a restricted diet for an upcoming medical procedure so I am not allowed any whole grain breads. So I am making a white sourdough using Chad Robertson’s method for Tartine Bread.

The process starts with making a leaven the night before mixing the dough and letting it sit out on the counter overnight. His goal is to keep the acid level low in the leaven and the bread, a non-sour sourdough. To achieve that he uses a small amount of starter, 1 tablespoon, to 200 grams each of water and flour for a recipe that makes 2 loaves of bread. Then only half the leaven is used in the final dough.

I have adapted his process to suit my schedule. I like to bake between 8:30 and 9:00 in the morning. I found that if I mix my dough on the morning before that it finished bulk fermentation by late afternoon. I would then form and shape the loaves and put the in the fridge until the next morning. I found that 16 to 18 hours in the fridge the bread was more sour than I like. I needed to keep the time in the fridge between 10 and 12 hours to keep the dough from getting too sour. That means into the fridge between 8:30 and 9:00 pm or later.

So what does that mean for my process? That means I need to mix my dough in the early afternoon. If my leaven sat from 9:00pm until early afternoon the next day it would be too sour and possibly losing its leavening power. So I make the leaven with half the water and flour at 9:00pm and then refresh it at 9:00am with the same amount of flour and water as the night before. By early afternoon it risen beautifully with out forming too much acid. Normally I use my 50-50 mix of all purpose flour and white whole wheat flour but because of my temporary dietary restriction I used bread flour only which worked fine.

Bulk fermentation took 6 hours with the kitchen at 74F. From there the dough was pre-shaped, rested on the work surface for 30 minutes, then final shaped, into a lined banneton and into the fridge for 12 hours.

After proofing in the fridge overnight the dough went into a cold parchment lined dutch oven, was slashed, covered and placed in a cold oven. The oven was turned on to 450F. Timing was started when the oven reached the set temperature and the bread baked for 20 minutes with the cover on and 20 minutes with the cover off.

The flour used for this loaf was King Arthur Organic Bread Flour. I have no affiliation with them.

The Formula

Ingredient	Amount	Bakers %
Leaven 9:00pm
Starter	10g
Water	50g	50%
Bread Flour	50g	50%
Leaven 9:00am
Water	50g	50%
Bread Flour	50g	50%
Dough
Leaven	100g	20%
Water	375g	75%
Bread Flour	500g	100%
Sea Salt	10g	2%

My Process

1. 9:00pm, weigh ingredients for the leaven using 50% each of the water and flour.
2. Mix starter into the water then mix flour into the water. Combine to a smooth mixture.
3. Cover bowl and let rest on counter overnight.
4. 9:00am, mix remaining water into the leaven, then mix the remaining flour into the leaven.
5. Cover bowl and let rest on counter until early afternoon.
6. 12:30pm, weigh out ingredients for the dough.
7. Combine the leaven and 350g of the water in a mixing bowl. Mix to incorporate.
8. Add the flour to the water mixture a couple of large spoonfuls at a time using a dough whisk to incorporate. Eventually you need to use your hands. Continue to add and mix until all the dry flour is incorporated into the dough.
9. Transfer the dough to a container for bulk fermentation and cover.
10. Let rest on the counter for 40 minutes.
11. Add the remaining 25g of water and half the salt on top of the dough. Perform several stretch and folds to incorporate. Add the remaining salt to the top of the dough and again stretch and fold to incorporate. Don’t worry if all the salt and water are fully incorporated, as the dough is worked more and bulk ferments it will fully incorporate.
12. 1:50pm, bulk fermentation begins.
13. Stretch and fold the dough at 30 minute intervals until a good windowpane test is achieved. This time took 5 times. Let dough continue to bulk ferment in covered container.
14. Dough will increase in volume by about 30% during bulk fermentation. From this point on handle the dough gently to preserve as many of the gas bubbles as possible.
15. 7:50pm, volume has increased and dough is soft. Remove dough from container to un-floured work surface.
16. Using a floured bench scraper shape the dough blob into a rough ball. Flour the top of the dough and using the bench scraper flip the dough on the work surface. Shape the dough into a tighter ball. Then flip the dough over to a very lightly floured area of the work surface. Using your hands rotate and draw the dough ball across the work surface to further tighten the ball.
17. Flour the dough and cover with a towel. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes.
18. Final shape the dough to the desired shape, this time was a boule and place seam side up in a well floured linen lined banneton.
19. 8:40pm, place banneton in a plastic grocery bag and into the fridge to proof overnight.
20. 8:25am, line dutch oven with 10” parchment circle, remove dough from fridge and invert into the dutch oven gently. Slash dough with lame.
21. 8:30am, cover dutch oven and place in a cold oven. Set temperature to 450F and turn oven on.
22. Wait for over to reach set temperature, then set timer for 20 minutes.
23. Remove cover from the dutch oven at the end of the set time. Set timer for an additional 20 minutes.
24. Check the bread for doneness at the end of the time. If necessary, rotate and bake for an additional 1 to 2 minutes.
25. Remove from oven and remove bread to a cooling rack. Let bread cool for at least 1 hour before slicing.

So there you have my timeline and process that I followed for this loaf of bread.

My only issue with this loaf of bread was that bottom crust over browned and is very difficult to slice through. The rest of the crust was great as are the flavor and texture.

We had this bread the night it was baked with butter and used it to sop up tomato sauce from our plates with dinner. We had it toasted with butter and a fried egg with a runny yolk on top for breakfast the next morning. In both cases it enhanced the meal.

Rustic Italian Loaf with Semolina

It has been a while since I have posted. We went away for a few days for a mini vacation and I’ve had a tough time getting back to baking and blogging.

On top of that I am experiencing changes in the way my starter is acting. Since the weather has gotten warm my starter has become weak and listless. When I went to make this loaf of bread, there was no sign of activity 5 hours after refreshing it and it certainly didn’t float. I proceeded anyway figuring I could compensate with longer bulk fermentation. That worked but bulk fermentation took a total of 19 hours with 8 hours and 45 minutes in the fridge.

The long fermentation gave the bread a distinct sourdough flavor, almost like a San Francisco sourdough, not unpleasant but not what I wanted for an Italian Bread.

The flours used for this bread were King Arthur Organic Bread Flour and Caputo Semolina.

The Formula

Ingredient	Amount	Bakers %
Sponge
Starter	20 g	11%
Water	131 g	75%
Bread Flour	125 g	70%
Semolina	50 g	30%
Dough
Sponge	346 g	106%
Starter	75 g	23%
Water	234 g	72%
Bread Flour	225 g	70%
Semolina	100 g	30%
Salt	9 g	1.8%

My Process

1. Weigh all ingredients for sponge.
2. Add the starter to the water in a bowl and mix thoroughly. Add the flours to and mix to incorporate the flours into the counter.
3. Cover and let rest on the counter for at least 5 hours. Then place covered bowl in the fridge until the next morning.
4. The next morning weigh all ingredients for the dough.
5. Add the starter to the water in a mixing bowl and mix thoroughly. Break up the sponge into pieces and incorporate into the water with a dough whisk.
6. After the sponge is incorporated begin adding the flour mixture, a handful at a time. Incorporate each flour addition with a dough whisk before making another. Use hands to make sure all the dry flour is incorporated into the dough.
7. Cover mixing bowl and let rest on counter for 20 to 30 minutes.
8. Add about 1/2 the salt on top of the dough. Fold dough a couple of times. Add the remaining salt on top of the dough and fold several more times to incorporate the salt.
9. Transfer the dough to a clean container for bulk fermentation. Cover and let rest on counter for 60 minutes.
10. Stretch and fold dough on 60 minute intervals a total of 4 or 5 times or until a good windowpane test is achieved.
11. From here on this was an abnormal process due to the low activity of the starter.
12. Let the dough rest covered on the counter until bed time then place the covered dough in the fridge to continue bulk fermentation.
13. Remove the dough from the fridge when getting up the next morning. Let rest on the counter for 2 hours.
14. Remove the dough from the fermentation container to an unfloured work surface.
15. Use a floured bench scraper to shape the dough into a ball.
16. Flour the top of the ball and cover and let rest on work surface for 30 minutes.
17. Invert the dough ball onto a floured work surface a shape dough into its final shape. This time it was a small batard.
18. Place the dough seam side up in a lined and floured banneton to proof. Cover banneton.
19. Place baking stone in oven and preheat oven to 500 F.
20. After 60 minutes check dough to see if it is proofed. If not continue checking on 15 minute intervals. The impression of a finger press in the dough should slowly fill. It is better be slightly underproofed that overproofed.
21. When dough is proofed, place roasting pan in oven to preheat. Invert dough on to a parchment lined peel.
22. Score dough as desired.
23. Remove preheated roasting pan from oven. Transfer dough on parchment to baking stone and cover with inverted roasting pan. Close oven and reduce temp to 475 F.
24. Bake covered for 20 minutes. Remove cover and reduce oven temp to 450 F. Bake another 20 minutes.
25. Remove bread from oven to a cooling rack.
26. Let bread cool at least 2 hours before slicing.

This turned out to be a very good bread, just not what I was aiming for.

This experience has shown me that baking naturally leavened breads are very forgiving. I used a starter that I knew shouldn’t have enough strength to leaven bread and it came though for me, given enough time and patience on my part. For the better part of a day and a half I was ready to dump out the dough. It wasn’t until the next morning when I saw the bubbles in the dough that I thought it might work. Was it a perfect loaf of bread? No, but it tasted good and in the end that’s what I want.

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.

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.