Benito's blog

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.

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.

I mentioned in my cake post that I was making purple sweet potato sourdough milk rolls, here they are.  Utilizing a stiff sweet levain to reduce the sour tang once again and adding a tangzhong to ensure fluffiness and to delay staling.  These turned out really well.  I love the colour of the soft shreddable crumb along with the small blisters on the crust.  For convenience I did a cold retard at the end of bulk so I could start these the day before our dinner party and then bake them the day of.

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24 rolls in a 9 x 13” pan 

egg wash: 1 yolk and 1 tbsp milk, beaten…

Prepare the stiff sweet levain overnight or the day before and refrigerate when ready.

Prepare the butter paste by blending very soft butter with flour.

Cook Tangzhong mixing flour and milk constantly until it becomes a thick roux.  Let cool before adding to final dough.  Or add to cold milk and egg to cool it down.  Add the levain and break it up into small pieces with your spatula.  Add and dissolved IDY if using.

To mix by hand, add the flour to the wet ingredients (milk, tangzhong and egg) to dissolve.  Next add the flour and mix with a silicone spatula until no dry flour remains.  Rest 10-20 mins.  Next perform French folds until the dough is well developed.  Smear the butter onto the dough and then fold to incorporate and then perform further French folds until well developed.  Gradually add the mashed potato and knead to incorporate it well into the dough.  Form into a tight ball and place in a bowl covered with plastic or a damp cloth @ 82°F for 3-4 hours, some rise will be visible. Alternatively, you could mix the mashed potato and butter and then add the mixture to the developed dough until well incorporated.

Butter a large baking pan or line the pan with parchment.  Punch the dough down and then divide into 24 equal portions.  Form each into tight boules.  Place in the buttered baking pan seam side down.  Cover them and allow them to fully proof about 4-6 hours, they should pass the poke test.

About 30 mins before the end of proofing time, whisk your remaining egg and milk and then brush the small boules.

About 30 mins prior to end of final proof preheat the oven to 350°F. 

Immediately prior to baking brush the dough again with the egg and milk mixture.

Bake the rolls uncovered for 30-35 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Cover if your rolls get brown early in the baking process.

Remove the bread from the oven but not the pans, brush the tops with the melted butter while hot, and then let cool for 10 minutes before pulling the bread from the pans. You may need to slide a butter knife down the sides of the pan to loosen the bread, but I have found parchment paper to be unnecessary.  Sprinkle with fleur de sel if you wish after brushing with butter. 

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My index of bakes

We are hosting some of our friends for dinner tonight.  In addition to the purple sweet potato SD milk rolls I have fermenting, I made this gingerbread layer cake with cream cheese frosting.  This recipe is care of Bake From Scratch.  The cake recipe that follows is for one 8” round cake, so I doubled it for this layer cake.  The frosting recipe would be more than enough for a three layer cake, so I halved it for this two layer cake.  I love a skim coat frosting for the sides of the cake because I typically find that much frosting less cloying than a fully frosted layer cake.

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GINGERBREAD CAKE

Makes 1 (8-inch) cake

This soft and moist stir-together cake blends warm spices with rich molasses, adding aromatic depth of flavor. It comes together quickly and easily, needing only a dusting of confectioners sugar, to be a fitting finish to any holiday gathering.

Ingredients

2 ½ cups (313 grams) all-purpose flour

2¼ teaspoons (4.5 grams) ground ginger

1¼ teaspoons (3.75 grams) kosher salt

1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda

1 teaspoon (2 grams) ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¾ cup (165 grams) firmly packed dark brown sugar*

¾ cup (255 grams) unsulphured molasses

½ cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted

2 large eggs (100 grams)

2 teaspoons (8 grams) vanilla extract

¾ cup (180 grams) hot water (128°F/53°C to 130°F/55°C)

Garnish: confectioners' sugar

1.   Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with baking spray with flour. Line pan with parchment paper, letting excess extend over sides of pan.
2.   In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves.
3.   In a large bowl, whisk together brown sugar, molasses, melted butter, eggs, and vanilla. Whisk in flour mixture just until a few dry streaks remain. Whisk in ¾ cup (180 grams) hot water until combined. Pour batter into prepared pan.
4.   Bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes.

Remove from pan, and let cool completely on a wire rack. Just before serving, garnish with confectioners' sugar, if desired or frost with cream cheese frosting.  Recipe follows below.

CREAM CHEESE FROSTING

Makes about 6 cups

Half recipe would make enough for a two layer cake.

2 (8-ounce) packages (454 grams) cream cheese, room temperature

1 cup (227 grams) unsalted butter, softened teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt

8 cups (960 grams) confectioners' sugar

2½ teaspoons (10 grams) vanilla extract

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat cream cheese, butter, and salt at high speed until smooth and creamy, stopping to scrape bottom and sides of bowl. With mixer on low speed, gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating until combined and stopping to scrape bottom and sides of bowl. Beat in vanilla. Increase mixer speed to high, and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Use immediately.

My index of bakes.

My first fruitcake was a Bara Brith, this is a fruitcake that Southern Living says is for those who don’t like fruitcake.  I like the variety of fruit that it has in it along with the nuts.  The recipe calls for apricots, dates, raisins, tart dried cherries, candied cherries, cranberries, apples, candied peel, slivered almonds and pecans.  I used extra apricots and cranberries and didn’t use dates or apples.  

I did two things that compromised the crumb.  First I used a 9x4” pullman pan instead of the 9x5” loaf pan so the batter was taller and more weighted down than it should have been.  Where the recipe says to smooth the top of the batter down, I went a bit overboard with that compressing the batter.

All in all thought, this is a delicious fruitcake and better than store bought for sure especially since making it yourself, you can control the quality of the ingredients. 

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Ingredients for 2 cakes

Soaked Fruit:

• 1 1/2 cups (about 8 1/2 oz.) chopped dried pitted apricots
• 1 1/2 cups (about 8 oz.) chopped pitted medjool dates
• 1 cup (5 oz.) golden raisins or raisins
• 1 cup (5 3/4 oz.) dried cherries
• 1 cup (6 3/4 oz.) glazed red cherries
• 1/2 cup (2 3/4 oz.) dried cranberries
• 1/2 cup (about 1 1/4 oz.) chopped dried apple 
• 1/2 cup (about 1 oz.) chopped glazed orange peel (optional)
• 1 cup (8 oz.) dark rum or brandy

Batter: for 2 cakes

• Cooking spray
• 1 cup (8 oz.) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 tsp. grated orange zest (from 1 medium orange)
• 1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups (about 8 1/2 oz.) all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. kosher salt
• 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. ground allspice
• 1 tsp. ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 cup (4 3/4 oz.) slivered almonds, toasted
• 1 cup (4 oz.) pecan halves, toasted
• 1/2 cup (4 oz.) dark rum or brandy, for brushing

Directions

Prepare the Soaked Fruit: 
Combine all ingredients in a large shallow dish (such as a 9- x 13-inch baking dish); toss to coat.

Cover tightly with plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature, stirring occasionally, until fruits have plumped and absorbed rum, at least 12 hours or up to 24 hours.

Prepare the oven and loaf pans: 

Preheat oven to 300°F. Light coat 2 (9- x 5-inch) loaf pans with cooking spray, and line pans with a double layer of parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on each side.

Mix the Batter: 

Beat butter, sugar, and orange zest with a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium-high speed until smooth and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes.

Add molasses, vanilla, and almond extract; beat on medium speed until blended, about 30 seconds. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating on low speed until just combined after each addition, about 1 minute total.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, allspice, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves in a medium bowl.

Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute, stopping to scrape down sides of bowl as needed.

Fold in fruits and nuts: 

Transfer batter to a very large bowl. Fold in almonds, pecans, and Soaked Fruit until evenly distributed.

Add batter to pans: 

Spoon batter evenly into prepared pans (about 5 cups per pan). Smooth top of batter with a small spatula, and gently tap pans on counter to release any large air bubbles.

Bake fruitcakes: 

Bake in preheated oven until tops are golden and a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, 1 hour and 30 minutes to 1 hour and 45 minutes.

Cool and brush with rum: 

Cool cakes in pan on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Using parchment overhang as handles, lift cakes from pans; place cakes on wire rack. Using a pastry brush, brush all sides of cakes with rum. Let cool completely on wire rack, about 6 hours, continuing to brush occasionally with rum as cakes cool.

My index of bakes.

My starter was fed only once after returning from our trip to Florida when I made the levain for this bread.  As a result the fermentation was much slower than usual.  However, this bread baked up just fine.  This dough was enriched with the addition of some wildflower honey and toasted sesame oil.  I added both black and golden toasted sesame seeds, thus the triple sesame seeds.  This has 20% sprouted whole Spelt which adds a great flavour and extensibility to the dough.  I’m quite happy with the bake especially considering the slowness of my starter which I’ll have to feed a couple more times before my next bake.  I haven’t sliced it yet, but given the oven spring, I think it will be just fine.

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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 black and golden 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.

For those who are interested in pH data.  I found the following.

pH after mixing 5.36

pH 4.39 when bulk fermentation complete and rise 35%

pH 4.0 and rise 90% at time of baking.

This follows what I have usually done aiming for about a 1.0 drop in pH at the time of shaping and then another 0.4 drop for a total of about 1.4 at the time of baking.  

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My Index of Bakes

I’ve seen these Dutch Babies before but never had one let alone made one.  Most of the ones I have seen are sweet, I decided to make this savory one for us tonight for dinner.  It was quite easy and delicious.  It is sort of like a pancake but made more like a Yorkshire pudding in a way.

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I do not recall where I found this recipe unfortunately.  But here it is.

SERVES 4 TOTAL TIME: 50 MINUTES

A traditional 12-inch skillet may be used in place of the nonstick skillet; coat it lightly with vegetable oil spray before using.

Ingredients

1¾ cups (8¾ ounces) all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon sugar

½ teaspoon table salt

1½ cups milk

6 large eggs

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

10 inch skillet

1.5 cups AP flour

0.83 tbsp sugar

0.4 tsp salt

1.25 cups milk

5 large eggs

2.5 tbsp unsalted butter 

1. Whisk flour, sugar, and salt together in large bowl. Whisk milk and eggs together in second bowl. Whisk two-thirds of milk mixture into flour mixture until no lumps remain, then slowly whisk in remaining milk mixture until smooth.

2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position. Melt butter in 12-inch ovensafe nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add batter to skillet, immediately transfer to oven, and set oven to 375 degrees. Bake until edges are deep golden brown and center is beginning to brown, 30 to 35 minutes.

3. Gently transfer Dutch baby to cutting board. Let cool for at least 5 minutes before topping. (Dutch baby will deflate.)

For a Lush, Custardy Dutch Baby, Start in a Cold Oven

Most Dutch baby recipes call for baking in a preheated oven, but that can lead to a thin, insubstantial center. In a hot oven, heat immediately begins to set the gluten and egg proteins on the surface of the batter, forming a flexible shell. Water inside the shell then turns to steam, prompting the pancake to balloon. Meanwhile, the batter at the circumference, which is in direct contact with the sides of the hot skillet, rapidly rises up and out of the pan, drawing some of the batter from the middle of the skillet with it and resulting in a paper-thin center. Starting in a cold (not preheated) oven means the batter warms gradually, so the center has more time to set (and maintain its stature) before the oven gets hot enough to inflate the rim. Not only is the substantial center luxurious to eat, but it’s also able to support a generous amount of toppings.

SAVORY DUTCH BABY WITH SMOKED
SALMON, SOUR CREAM, AND CUCUMBER

SERVES 4 TOTAL TIME: 25 MINUTES

Prepare the topping while the Dutch baby bakes.

1 small shallot, sliced thin (3 tablespoons)

½ teaspoon table salt, divided

½ cup sour cream

1  tablespoon capers, plus 1 tablespoon brine

1 tablespoon chopped fresh dill, divided

1 English cucumber

1 recipe Savory Dutch Baby

8 ounces smoked salmon

1. Combine ½ cup water, shallot, and ¼ teaspoon salt in small bowl. Stir well and let sit for 5 minutes. Drain shallot and discard liquid; set aside. Combine sour cream, caper brine, 1½ teaspoons dill, and remaining ¼ teaspoon salt in second bowl.

2. Using vegetable peeler, shave cucumber lengthwise into ribbons on 1 side until you reach seeds. Turn cucumber 180 degrees and repeat on other side; discard core.

3. Spread sour cream mixture evenly over Dutch baby. Arrange smoked salmon on top of sour cream. Scatter cucumber ribbons over Dutch baby. Sprinkle with shallot, capers, and remaining 1½ teaspoons dill. Cut into wedges and serve.

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My Index of Bakes.

We will be visiting friends tomorrow, and I wanted to bring a loaf of bread. We also ran out of bread, don’t know how that happens 😂, so decided to bake two loaves. I rarely bake more than one loaf. Since one of my Pullman pans is in Fort Lauderdale, I prepared the dough and after bulk fermentation divided it, shaped the one loaf, and cold retarded the other dough overnight to bake today. This worked out quite well.

I don’t think I’ve ever made an oatmeal porridge loaf with 20% oatmeal. I wanted to see how this would turn out. I prepared the oatmeal as I would a tangzhong, and it worked well this way with great oven spring despite the amount of oatmeal. Other than shaping differences, I don’t think there are any discernible differences between the two loaves. However, I haven’t yet tried the second loaf since that will be going to our friends tomorrow.

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For two 9x4x4” Pullman pan loaves 

Ingredients for 1 loaf

Tangzhong

Rolled Oats 82 g

Milk 163 g

Stiff Sweet Levain

Starter 21 g

Brown sugar 21 g

Water 27 g

WW flour 61

Final Dough

All tangzhong

All stiff sweet levain

1 lg egg 52 g

Milk 151 g

Salt 5.6 g

Sugar 18 g

WW flour 266 g

Butter 52 g

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 76-78ºF, 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 rolled oats. 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.  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. 

To develop by hand, melt the butter and add it with the wet ingredients.  

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 4-6 hours at 82ºF ending bulk fermentation once the dough has risen 30-40%.

You can next place the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours, this makes rolling the dough easier to shape.  Remember, if you do so the final proof will take longer.  Alternatively, you can do a cold retard in the fridge overnight, however, you may find that this increases the tang in your bread.

Prepare your pans by greasing them with butter or line with parchment paper.  

Lightly oil the top of the dough. Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top and divide it into four. I like to weigh them to have equal sized lobes. Shape each tightly into a boule, allow to rest 5 mins. Using an oiled rolling pin roll each ball out and then letterfold. Turn 90* and using a rolling pin roll each out to at least 8”. Letterfold again from the sides so you have a long narrow dough. Then using a rolling pin, roll flatter but keeping the dough relatively narrow.  The reason to do this extra letterfold is that the shorter fatter rolls when placed in the pan will not touch the sides of the pan.  This allows the swirled ends to rise during final proof, this is only done for appearance sake and is not necessary.  Next roll each into a tight roll with some tension. Arrange the rolls of dough inside your lined pan alternating the direction of the swirls. This should allow a greater rise during proof and in the oven.

Cover and let proof for  4-6 hours at a warm temperature.  I proof at 82°F.  You will need longer than 4-6 hours if you chilled your dough for shaping. I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.  At this point the dough should have risen 130-140% in total from the start of bulk fermentation.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.  Just prior to baking brush with the egg-milk wash again.

Bake the loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190ºF, rotating as needed to get even browning. Shield your loaf if it gets brown early in the baking process. After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 10 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack with the oven turned down to 325ºF.

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My index of bakes.