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This is a follow-up of the recently concluded rye experiments, where it was established that:

1) A straight starter loaf gave a softer texture compared to a levain loaf (PFF 40%, all rye), fermentation time (16 hours) and dough components held constant, but

2) A straight starter loaf had less oven spring and was harder to shape than the levain loaf, though the straight starter loaf had an airier, less tight crumb.

3) The difference in taste was not that discernible. 

I wanted to confirm if the above held true, but this time with a 30% wholewheat loaf, 70% hydration, and lengthening the fermentation time to 19 hours - would the straight starter loaf hold up?

The straight starter loaf used 7g of starter for 240g of flour. BF and final proof 19 hours at DT 19 degrees.

The levain loaf had 30% wholewheat and 15% bread flour in the levain. Levain took 13 hours to mature, BF and final proof 6 hours at DT 19 degrees.

I also added a third loaf that used an overripe levain to see if that would increase the sourness of the loaf without compromising on dough strength, oven spring and crumb. Levain with 30% wholewheat and 15% bread flour; it peaked in 11 hours, and I left it for another two hours to collapse. The pH of this levain was 3.9 whereas that for the ripe levain loaf was 4.15. BF and final proof took the same time - dough strength was not affected. 

Results:

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Here you can see that the straight starter loaf had an equally good oven spring as the others. Like the previous experiment, the straight starter loaf yields an airier crumb.

Notes on taste, sourness, crust and crumb

This time I invited 3 other friends to do a blind tasting.

Straight starter loaf: Clearly softer texture. One taster said it was "mushier, drier, less bite". Flavour-wise: I thought it had a slightly more well-rounded flavour compared to the other two loaves, but not all tasters agreed on this. However, all tasters did place this loaf in the last place. (what!)

Ripe levain loaf: More bite and bounce than the straight starter loaf, but "weaker flavour" compared to the overripe levain loaf.

Overripe levain loaf: Slightly more sour than the other two loaves. Same bite as the ripe levain loaf. One taster had a strong preference for this loaf. 

So it seems the difference in bite and texture is pretty significant, and with my small sample group, more of them prefer bread with more bite. They did agree that the flavour was rather similar, though all discerned more sour notes with the overripe levain loaf. 

An interesting conclusion - a more elastic bite can clearly be controlled with the use of a levain, but the levain also at the same time retains complex flavours of long fermentation. Sourness can perhaps be manipulated by using an overripe levain (I do not know how far this can be pushed) without compromising on dough strength.

My next experiment would involve adding IDY to see if my results would agree with Rob's.

Dec 14

I love adding beer to sourdough bread. I’m not a big beer drinker but the malty flavor it imparts is amazing and Guinness is one of my favorites to use.

The sour cream added extra moisture to the crumb, and the caramelized onions imparted a wonderful sweet onion flavor.

I used King Arthur high-gluten flour since I didn’t have any first clear flour, along with some fresh-milled Danko Rye (milled from Barton Springs Mill berries).

The dough was mixed using my trusty Ankrusrum and open-baked with steam.

The finished loaves had a nice moist semi-open crumb perfect for a hot pastrami sandwich which I had twice for dinner! The pastrami was courtesy of Katz’s Deli which my wife had ordered a while ago by mail-order. You simply take the frozen vacuum-sealed pouch and immerse it in boiling water for five minutes and you have melt-in-your-mouth pastrami.

Formula

Levain Directions 

Mix all the levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.

Let it sit at room temperature for around 6-7 hours or until the starter has almost doubled. I used my proofer set at 76 degrees so it took around 5 hours for me. Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Note: I use an Ankarsrum Mixer so my order of mixing is slightly different than if using a Kitchenaid or other mixer. Add all your liquid to your mixing bowl except 50-80 grams. Add all your flour and sour cream to the bowl and mix on low for a minute until it forms a shaggy mass. Cover the mixing bowl and let it rest for 20 – 30 minutes.   Next add the levain, salt, olive oil and remaining Guinness as needed and mix on medium low (about speed 3) for 12- 24 minutes until you have a nice developed dough. 

Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl and do several stretch and folds.  Make sure the dough is as flat as possible in your bowl/container and measure the dough in millimeters and take the temperature of the dough as well. Based on the chart from www.thesourdoughjourney.com, determine what % rise you need and make a note. If you have a proofer decide what temperature you want to set it at and what rise you are aiming for. If the dough is fully developed you don’t need to do any stretch and folds, but if it’s not, do several sets 15-20 minutes apart.

Once the dough reaches the desired bulk rise, pre-shape and let rest for 15-20 minutes. Finish shaping place in your banneton, bowl, or on your sheet pan and cover it so it is pretty airtight. You will then place it in your refrigerator so you don’t want the dough to get a crust on it. I usually don’t leave the dough in the refrigerator for more than 12 hours because of all the fresh milled flour but it is possible to go longer. I let this one go 15 hours total and the dough was nicely fermented.

When you are ready to bake, an hour beforehand pre-heat your oven to 540 F and prepare for steam. I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water into the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.  Remove your dough from the refrigerator and score immediately. I used some cookie cutters to jazz it up a bit.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for around 35-45 minutes or until the breads are nice and brown and have an internal temperature of around 200-210 F. 

Take the bread(s) out of the oven when done and let them cool on a baker’s rack for as long as you can resist. 

I believe I found this recipe in Bake From Scratch if I’m not mistaken.  I love the idea of emulating a jelly filled dough in a cake.  The filling is homemade and although I increased the fruit in the recipe significantly and dropped the sugar by 50%, the filling I think could still be less sweet.  I like making extra jam for my morning yoghurt which is why I doubled the amount of fruit.  I also used frozen fruit since fresh is very expensive this time of year.  I haven’t sliced the cake yet since it is for a dinner party tonight.  However, based on my tasting of the jam, it is sweeter than it needs to be.  I also reduced the sugar in the batter by 10%.  Since the whole cake is coated with cinnamon sugar, I didn’t think the cake itself needed a ton of sugar.

Hopefully this will delicious, we’ll find out tonight and I’ll come back and post the photos of the slices.

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Makes 1(8-inch) cake

Ingredients

Wet ingredients

¾ cup (180 grams) whole milk

¾ cup plus 2 tablespoons (198 grams) unsalted butter, melted and divided

2 large eggs (100 grams)

½ teaspoon (3 grams) vanilla bean paste or ½ tsp of vanilla extract

Dry ingredients

2½ cups (313 grams) all-purpose flour

1¼ cups (250 grams) granulated sugar (used 215 g)

1½ teaspoons (7.5 grams) baking powder 

1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt 

1 teaspoon grated fresh nutmeg

¾ cup (240 grams) Quick Blackberry-Blueberry Jam (recipe follows)

Cinnamon-Sugar (recipe follows)

1.   Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter and flour an 8-inch round cake pan; line pan with parchment paper.
2.   In a large bowl, whisk together milk, ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons (141 grams) melted butter, eggs, and vanilla bean paste. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg. Gradually add flour mixture to milk mixture, stirring just until combined
3.   Pour half of batter into prepared pan. Spoon remaining batter into a large piping bag. Pipe a ring of batter around inside edge of pan. Spoon Quick Blackberry-Blueberry Jam into centre of ring. Pipe remaining batter on top of jam, and smooth with an offset spatula.
4.   Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 55 minutes to 1 hour, covering with foil during last 30 minutes of baking to prevent excess browning, if necessary. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes.
5.   Run an offset spatula around edge of pan to loosen cake before turning out. Turn cake back over (so dome is on top). Brush top and sides of cake with remaining ¼ cup (57 grams I only needed about half of this, so about 28 g) melted butter. Sprinkle top with Cinnamon-Sugar, and press into sides of cake.

QUICK BLACKBERRY-BLUEBERRY JAM

Makes 2 cups

½ pound (225 grams) fresh blackberries (I couldn’t fine blackberries so substituted strawberries)

½ pound (225 grams) fresh blueberries 

2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar (way too much sugar, maybe try ½-¾ cups)

2 tablespoons (15 grams) lemon juice

1.   In a large saucepan, combine all ingredients. Stir with a wooden spoon, and let stand for 2 hours.
2.   Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat.Cook for 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Reduce heat to medium, and cook, stirring frequently and mashing berries with a potato masher, until mixture thickens, 20 to 45 minutes. (See Note.) Remove from heat, and let cool for 1 hour before transferring to a clean jar. Jam will keep refrigerated for up to 2 weeks.

Note: The ripeness of berries can affect the cook time of jam. This jam could take anywhere from 20 minutes for very ripe berries to 45 minutes for less-ripe berries. To test your jam for doneness, scrape the bottom of the saucepan with your spoon - if the jam parts for a few seconds, it is ready.

CINNAMON-SUGAR

Makes about ½ cup (I only needed about half of this)

½ cup (100 grams) granulated sugar

2 teaspoons (4 grams) ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt

1. In a small bowl, stir together all ingredients.

My index of bakes.

I loved my last loaf but when I made it, my starter hadn’t been refreshed enough times to rev it up after my time away.  I loved the bread but thought it would be better with a more vigorous fermentation.  Things went much more as expected with this bake.  This took a total of 3 hours less time despite the same temperatures for fermentation. As well, the rise was much greater despite the shorter time, no surprise.  The final rise at the time of baking was 115%.

This bread is enriched only with honey and the toasted sesame oil.  Having said that, the addition of the ground black sesame seed should be considered an enrichment since there is a good amount of fat from the seeds that are released when the seeds are ground.  There is no dairy in the dough at all.  Instead of black sesame seeds in the dough, I used ground black sesame seeds.  I expect the crumb to have that lovely grey tone from the ground seeds and every bite will have the nutty notes from the ground black sesame seeds.  I haven’t sliced it yet, I’ll be back to post the crumb when I do.

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I didn’t update the spreadsheet, if you’re interested in baking this, substitute the same weight of ground black sesame seeds for the weight of the black and golden toasted sesame seeds in the spreadsheet.

For 1 loaf in a 9x4x4” Pullman pan.

Build stiff levain, ferment at 74°F for 10-12 hours overnight.

In the morning add the salt and honey to the water and dissolve.  Then add the levain and break down the levain as well as you can.  Add both the flours and mix well until no dry bits are left. After 10 mins of rest start gluten development with slap and folds or use your mixer.  Once the dough is well developed, while the mixer is running, drizzle in the toasted sesame oil until well incorporated.  Next gradually add the toasted ground sesame seeds until well incorporated.   Bench letterfold, remove aliquot, then at 30 mins intervals do coil folds until good structure is achieved.

Once the dough has risen 40% then shape the dough into a batard and place in prepared pan.

Final proof the dough until it has reached 1 cm of the rim of the pan.  pre-heat oven at 425°F and prepare for steam bake.

Once oven reaches 425ºF score top of dough and then brush with water.  Transfer to oven and bake with steam for 25 mins.  Vent the oven (remove steaming gear) rotate the pan and drop temperature to 350ºF.  Bake for another 25-30 mins rotating as needed until browned.  Remove from the pan and place directly on the rack baking for another 5-10 mins to firm up the crust.

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I didn’t like the prominent hump in my last loaf and wanted the slices of bread to be a bit more even in size.  I slightly modified my batard shaping in that there is less overlap in the initial “letter” fold of the dough prior to rolling it up.  I prefer this more even shape now and I’ll have to remember to do the same in the future.

My index of bakes

More Christmas baking today, I baked a pair of apple cranberry holiday cakes with lemon icing for more gifting.  I had a little extra batter that didn’t fit in the loaf pans so put that in two ramekins so we could taste this cake.

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For two loaf pans - 8 x 4” and 9 x 4 x 4” pullman 

5 cups ap flour

1 ⅔ tsp baking soda

0.833 tsp salt

2.5 cups vegetable oil

5 eggs

2.5 cups granulated sugar

0.833 cups packed brown sugar

1 ⅔ tbsp cinnamon 

0.833 tsp nutmeg

2 tbsp rum

1 ⅔ tsp vanilla

5 apples ¼” diced

2 cups cranberries coarsely chopped

Lemon drizzle icing - 1 ½-2 cups of icing sugar and juice from just over ½ a large lemon.

Place a rack in the middle position and preheat oven to 350ºF.  Butter and flour the pans.

Sift together flour, baking soda and salt in a bowl.

Whisk together oil, eggs, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, rum and vanilla in a large bowl until just combined.  Fold in flour mixture until just combined, then fold in apples and cranberries.  The batter will feel thick and heavy.  Spoon batter into pans.

Bake until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.  If baking all three loaves at once it may take up to 1 hour 50 mins.  For one loaf about 1 hour 15 mins.  Remove to rack to cool for 30 mins and then remove from the pans and allow to fully cool on the cooling rack.

Make a lemon drizzle icing and pour onto each fully cooled loaf.

My index of bakes.

Following the most recently concluded einkorn experiments, I decided to plunge headlong into levain build experiments, but this time with rye.

One of my usual rye breads is a 45% dark rye bread, 75% hydration, with all the rye fermented for 11 hours in an overnight levain (thus PFF is also 45%). BF and proof the next day for 4-5 hours, baked on the same day.

I decided to bake two other rye breads for comparison. One in which the levain consists of a double build; the other in which I mix my starter (it's a 50/50 rye/AP 100% hydration) directly with all other ingredients, but proof the dough for the same amount of time that it takes for the other levain-built breads. 

All three loaves are identical in terms of composition, i.e. 74% water, 45% dark rye, 55% bread flour, 1.25% salt. (And walnuts and cranberries. I cannot resist.) Total fermentation time was 16 hours at 20 degrees. All baked for 30 mins at 220 degrees.

My initial predictions were:

1) Straight starter loaf would be the most sour, followed by the double build levain, followed by the single build.

2) Straight starter loaf would have the most flavour, followed by the single build, and then the double build. 

2) Straight starter dough would be harder to handle towards end of BF and shaping with more gluten degradation (since the bread flour is also fermented with SD from the start), potentially a soupy mess.

Composition details:

Straight starter loaf: Mixed 30g of starter with 97g of dark rye, 118g of bread flour, 155g of water, and 5g of salt. PFF is therefore 6.5%. Briefly gave this two folds and then went to bed. Two more folds in the morning before shaping. Dough was much looser by the time of shaping compared to other loaves. Baked 16 hours after initial mix.

Single build levain: Mixed 25g of starter with 97g of dark rye and 80g of water to make levain. Autolysed 120g of bread flour with 78g of water overnight. Levain left to ferment for 11 hours. Mixed everything together with 5g of salt to make final dough. Additional 5 hours of BF and proof.

Double build levain: Mixed 11g of starter with 33g of dark rye and 26g of water to make levain. Autolysed 123g of bread flour with 78g of water overnight. Levain left to ferment for 8 hours. To this levain, added 70g of dark rye and 60g of water then left to ferment for another 3 hours to double. Finally mixed with autolysed flour/water and 5g of salt to make final dough. Additional 5 hours of BF and proof.

Note: Both levains had reached the same height (i.e. equal rise) by the end of the 11 hours before mixing DT. I had hoped this would happen and was very surprised it actually happened.

Results:

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 The straight starter loaf spreaded out a little more and had less bloom. The double build appeared to have the most rise.

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Crumb-wise, I think the straight starter's is the most beautiful. What do you think?

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Differences in taste and bite:

The straight starter loaf was only very slightly more sour than the single build loaf. I liked it. The double build levain loaf was the least sour. If this is of interest to anyone: the final pH of the single build levain was 4.11 and of the double build levain 4.55. 

The flavour of the straight starter loaf and single build loaf are really, really close. Extremely good. The double build levain loaf was a little...flatter? The husband who was subjected to a blind taste picked this out immediately. 

The bite. Now, the bite was a little different. The straight starter loaf had a slightly better bite - somewhat more even, tender, a better mouthfeel, compared to the levain loaves.

So all in all, the winner this time was the straight starter loaf. This has really surprised me! 

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Now that I’ve finished my last locum of the year I finally have time to get some Christmas baking done for the people I like to thank each year.  Today’s bake was for the staff in our condo.

I’m using my standing sweet roll dough, which doesn’t have any added sugar to the mix other than that in the Stiff Sweet Levain.  As usual I use a stiff sweet levain in order to reduce the sourness of the bread.  The filling has cinnamon along with Chinese five spice and my homemade miso.  The frosting is a cream cheese frosting with a bit of miso for colour and umami.

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For 12 rolls

Filling

153 g brown sugar

9.31 g cinnamon 

½ tsp Chinese five spice

38 g flour (bread or all purpose flour)

Mix the sugar and flour with the spices

73 g butter softened and mixed with the miso

1 ⅓ tsp miso

Miso Cream Cheese Frosting 

113 g cream cheese softened

73 g softened butter

1 ⅓ tsp vanilla extract

¼ tsp of miso or salt

170 g icing sugar

Make the frosting. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat all the frosting ingredients (except the sugar) on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Sift in the sugar, in increments, and beat until smooth.

Instructions for dough and baking

Instructions

Levain

Mix the levain ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 300% growth. 

Press down with your knuckles or silicone spatula to create a uniform surface and to push out air.

At a temperature of 76ºF, it typically takes up to 10-12 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.  For my starter I typically see 3-3.5 times increase in size at peak.  The levain will smell sweet with only a mild tang.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on medium heat, stir the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until well thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.  Theoretically it should reach 65ºC (149ºF) but I don’t find I need to measure the temperature as the tangzhong gelatinizes at this temperature.  You can prepare this the night before and refrigerate it, ensure that it is covered to prevent it from drying out.

If you plan on using a stand mixer to mix this dough, set up a Bain Marie and use your stand mixer’s bowl to prepare the tangzhong.

Dough

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the milk (consider holding back 10 g of milk and adding later if this is the first time you’re making this), egg, tangzhong, salt, sugar and levain.  Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces.  Next add the flours.  I like to use my spatula to mix until there aren’t many dry areas.  Allow the flour to hydrate (fermentolyse) for 20-30 minutes.  Mix on low speed and then medium speed until moderate gluten development this may take 5-10 mins.  You may want to scrape the sides of the bowl during the first 5 minutes of mixing.  Next add room temperature butter one pat at a time.  The dough may come apart, be patient, continue to mix until it comes together before adding in more butter.  Once all the butter has been added and incorporated increase the speed gradually to medium. Mix at medium speed until the gluten is well developed, approximately 10 mins.  You will want to check gluten development by windowpane during this time and stop mixing when you get a good windowpane.  You should be able to pull a good windowpane, not quite as good as a white flour because the bran will interrupt the windowpane somewhat.  Next add the zest of two oranges, that way they do not interfere with the gluten development. Mix until they are well incorporated in the dough.

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2-4 hours at 82ºF.  There will be some rise visible at this stage.

Optional cold retard overnight or just 1.5 hours to chill the dough for easier shaping.

Prepare your pan by greasing it or line with parchment paper.  

This dough is very soft. Act quickly to roll, spread the filling, and cut before the dough warms and softens further. If it begins to soften, place it in the fridge to firm.

Remove your bulk fermentation container from the fridge, lightly flour your work surface in a large rectangle shape, and the top of the dough in the bowl. Then, gently scrape out the dough to the center of your floured rectangle. Lightly dust the top of the dough with flour, and using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a 15″ x 18″ or larger rectangle.

Brush softened miso butter on rolled dough.  Then sprinkle the brown sugar, cinnamon and Chinese five spice  onto the dough, then sprinkle flour on top.  The flour will help absorb any water drawn out of the dough by the sugar in the filling.

Starting at one of the long sides of the rectangle in front of you, begin rolling up the dough as you move across. Be sure to tightly roll the dough by gently tugging on the dough as you roll.

Once finished rolling up the dough, divide it into twelve approximately 1 1/2″ pieces using dental floss. Transfer the pieces to the prepared baking pan and cover with a large, reusable bag, place in a warm spot.  I use my proofing box set to 82°F.  Final proof may take 3-6 hours, be patient and wait until the dough passes the finger poke test.  Using my aliquot jar the dough should reach a total rise of 120-130% or more.

Be sure to start preheating your oven about 30 minutes before you feel the rolls will be fully proofed. For me, the final warm proof time was about 3 hours at 77°F (25°C).

Bake

Preheat your oven, with a rack in the middle, to 400°F (200°C). After the warm proof, uncover your dough and gently press the tops of a few rolls.  The fully proofed rolls will look very soft. The texture of the dough will be almost like a whipped mousse. Be sure to give them extra time in warm proof if necessary. If the dough needs more time to proof, cover the pan and give the dough another 15 to 30 minutes at a warm temperature and check again.

Once your oven is preheated, remove your pan from its bag, slide it into the oven, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes rotating partway through.

The rolls are finished baking when the tops are well-colored and the internal temperature is around 195°F (90°C). Remove the rolls from the oven and let the rolls cool for 5 to 10 minutes in the pan.

Once a somewhat cooled spread the frosting onto the rolls slightly warm rolls.  Using a spoon or spatula, place a dollop of frosting on each roll.  Then spread the frosting over each roll.

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My index of bakes.

Before panettone, I tested my new LM starter. I choose to try something of quality... Wildfarmed is a brand in the UK that promotes regenerative farming practices headed up by former DJ and music producer Andy Cato. This bag says its from UK and French wheat, protein is low at 10.x%.

This was circa 70% hydration. I don't have any notes to describe what I did...

I did a flour water only autolyse at 55% hydration for about 3 hours.

Until recently I was busy working hard making English Sparkling wine for a large UK producer, we collectively processed 2000 tonnes of grapes! Now harvest is over it's time to get baking again and of course it is panettone season...

In addition to making wine at scale I have a few vines and make my own. I do spontaneous fermentation and I used this as a source of naturally occurring yeasts.

It's been several weeks since then and I have made three panettones (one per week) with my new LM starter.

Also I have been using a new formula - my own!

Here's the third round in pictures...

Bagnetto after overnight bound fermentation:

Hand Mixing the LM refresh:

Primo Impasto tripled:

Final mixed dough:

Baked:

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New formula I devised. It's been working well!

Flavourings: I infused the honey overnight with freshly grated orange zest and seeds of a half a Madagascan vanilla pod.

Formula comparison: