Benito's blog

I baked another Sour Cherry Rhubarb Streusel Pie for dessert last night but this time not vegan and used my usual all butter pastry and butter in the streusel topping. This has quickly become my favorite pie this summer.  I love the tart sweetness of the cherries and the distinctive rhubarb flavour.  The almond extract brings out the cherry flavour while the lemon brightens everything up.

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Ingredients

• 2 1/2 cups (12.5 ounces; 350g total) all-purpose flour, divided, 233 g with the butter and 117 g after.
• 2 tablespoons (25g) sugar
• 1 teaspoon (5g) kosher salt; for table salt use same weight or half as much by volume
• 2 1/2 sticks (10 ounces; 280g) unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pats (see note)
• 6 tablespoons (3 ounces; 85 g or 85ml) cold water

Directions

• Combine two thirds of flour  (233 g) with 25 g sugar and 5 g salt in the bowl of a food processor. Pulse twice to incorporate. Spread butter pats evenly over surface. Pulse until no dry flour remains and dough just begins to collect in clumps, about 25 short pulses. Use a rubber spatula to spread the dough evenly around the bowl of the food processor. Sprinkle with remaining flour (117 g) and pulse until dough is just barely broken up, about 5 short pulses. Transfer dough to a large bowl. 

• Sprinkle with 85 g of cold water. Then, using a rubber spatula, fold and press dough until it comes together into a ball. Divide ball in half. Form each half into a 4-inch disk. Wrap tightly in plastic and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before rolling and baking. 
  

• When ready to shape the dough, pull out one ball, set it on a well-floured work surface, and sprinkle with more flour. Use a tapered rolling pin to start rolling the dough out into a circle, lifting the dough and rotating it while rolling to achieve an even shape. Continue rolling, changing the angle of your rolling pin as you go to get an even shape and thickness. The finished dough should overhang your pie plate by an inch or two.

• Pick up the dough by carefully rolling it around your rolling pin, using your bench scraper to help lift it off the work surface. Unroll it over a pie plate. Gently lift and fit the dough into the pie plate, getting down into the corners.  
  

• For a single-crusted pie, use a pair of scissors to trim the dough so that it overhangs the edge by 1/2 inch all around. For a double-crusted pie, at this stage, fill it and drape your second round of pie dough over the top. Trim it to a 1/2-inch overhang along with the lower crust. Either way, tuck the overhanging edge(s) under itself all the way around the pie. 

• Flute the edges of the pie crust using the forefinger of one hand and the thumb and forefinger of the other. The single-crust pie shell is ready to be blind-baked or filled. For a double-crusted pie, brush with an egg white, sprinkle with sugar, and cut vent holes in the top with a sharp knife before baking. 

Par-baking

Par-bake crust for 20 mins at 400°F with pie weights and the edge crust shielded right from the start.

Remove weights then bake further 5-10 mins until lightly golden.

Filling 

450 g pitted sour cherries

450 g rhubarb cut in 0.5-1 inch pieces

170 g sugar

2 tbsp or 40 g cornstarch 

A pinch of salt

1 tsp of almond extract

Juice of ½  lemon 

prepare the night before baking

Mix all of the above except cornstarch and allow the fruit to macerate releasing much of its juices.  Add cornstarch and mix to dissolve.  Cook on medium heat until the liquid just starts to thicken.  Remove from the heat until needed.

Streusel Topping for Pies

1⅔ cups streusel, to top Makes 1⅔ cups streusel, enough for one 9- or 10-inch pie topping

1 cup all-purpose flour

3 tablespoons packed light brown sugar

4 teaspoons granulated sugar

¼ teaspoon kosher salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes, at room temperature

Prepare the night before baking and refrigerate.

Stir together the flour, brown and granulated sugars, and salt in a large bowl. Sprinkle in the butter pieces and toss to coat. Rub the butter into the dry ingredients with your fingertips until the butter is incorporated and the mixture is chunky but not homogenous.

Chill for at least 15 minutes before using.

The streusel will keep refrigerated for 5 days or frozen for 1 month.

Once the par-baked crust has cooled 20-30 mins fill crust with the filling spreading it evenly.  Top with the streusel.

Bake at 425°F for 20-25 mins with the edge shielded then 375°F until the juices are bubbling, 25-30 mins.  Allow to cool fully before slicing.

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I plan to make a barley risotto with lemon ricotta, sun dried tomatoes and spinach for dinner and wanted a bread to go along with it.  It has been a long time since I made a plain old country sourdough so decided that would go well with dinner. I made small changes to my usual country sourdough recipe for this bake.  I went back to using a liquid levain instead of a stiff levain just because I hadn’t done a liquid levain in a long long time.

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Build overnight levain and ferment at 78°F for about 8-9 hours.

Overnight saltolyse of water, salt and flours.

In the morning add the levain to the saltolysed dough and knead until well developed.

Do a bench letterfold and then place in a proofing box at 82°F.

Do a coil fold every 30 mins until the dough is strong and holds its shape between folds.   I did five coil folds.

Shape the dough when it has risen about 40% or the pH has fallen about 1.1 since the beginning of bulk.  Place in a rice flour dusted banneton.

Monitor the pH and rise once the dough is in the banneton and start cold retard once the dough has risen to a total of 70% or the pH fallen a total of 1.4.

The next morning pre-heat the oven 500°F and set up for steam baking.  30 mins before ready to bake pour 1 L of boiling water into your metal loaf pan with the Sylvia towel rolled tightly inside to pre-steam the oven.  When the oven reaches 500°F flip the dough onto a parchment paper sheet, brush off excess rice flour, score and then brush water onto the dough but not the main score.  Transfer to the oven and onto the heated baking steel or stone.  Pour 250 mL of boiling water into your cast iron skillet.  Drop the temperature of the oven to 450°F baking with steam for 25 mins.  After 25 mins vent the steam and remove the steaming gear.  Drop the temperature to 420°F and bake for a further 20-25 mins, turning half way through and moving the bread to a rack instead of the baking steel.

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My index of bakes.

We have friends staying over tomorrow night.  I am planning on baking a strata for breakfast on Sunday morning.  Because the strata requires an egg bread I decided that I couldn’t possibly just buy a grocery store challah for our friends’ breakfast.  So the decision was made to bake a delicious 50% WW SD Challah and push fermentation further.  This time I pushed the fermentation until the aliquot jar showed a full 190% rise at the time of baking.  At this point the poke test showed that the dough just slightly sprung back.  I should have waited just a bit longer, but my impatience got the best of me.  For challah, you can see that it is under fermented when you see a lot of tearing between the strands when baked.

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Procedures

1. The night before baking, mix the starter and ferment it at 76-78°F for 8-12 hours.
2. In the morning, in a large bowl or the bowl of a stand mixer, add the starter then water, then mix in the 4 eggs, salt and honey and mix until completely combined.
3. Mix in all the flour until it forms a shaggy mass.
4. Knead the dough on the bench or in a stand mixer until it is smooth and there is moderate gluten development. (Bassinage the hold back water to achieve the desired consistency) The dough should be quite firm.  Gradually add the oil, the dough may break down, wait until it comes back together and before you add more.  Mix until gluten is well developed.
5. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and cover it tightly. Ferment for about 2 hours. It may not rise much.  At 82°F it rose 20-25%
6. To make one loaf, divide the dough into two equal portions, and divide each portion into the number of pieces needed for the type of braiding you plan to do, so divide each by 3 to make 1 six strand braided loaf.
7. Form each piece into a ball and allow them to rest, covered, for 10-20 minutes to relax the gluten.
8. Form each piece into a strand about 14” long. (I like Glezer's technique for this. On an un-floured board, flatten each piece with the palm of your hand. Using a rolling pin, roll out each piece to about ¼ inch thickness. Then roll up each piece into a tight tube. Using the palms of your hands, lengthen each piece by rolling each tube back and forth on the bench with light pressure. Start with your hands together in the middle of the tube and, as you roll it, move your hands gradually outward. Taper the ends of the tubeby rotating your wrists slightly so that the thumb side of your hand is slightly elevated, as you near the ends of the tube.).  You can consider rolling each rope of dough in two different types of seeds at this point for a decorative effect, or only a few of the strands.
9. Braid the loaves.  Braiding somewhat loosely, not too tight. 
10. Place loaf on parchment paper on a sheet pan. Brush with egg wash. Cover well with plastic wrap (brush with oil so it doesn’t stick to the dough) or place the pans in a food grade plastic bag, and proof at room temperature until the loaves have tripled in volume. About 4-6 hours.
11. If it's quadrupled or more and when poked the dough only springs back a little, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F.  Gauge the dough again. Stick a finger lightly in the dough. If it makes an indentation that doesn't spring back, the dough is ready to be baked. If not, wait a bit more if you can.
12. Pre-heat the oven to 350ºF with the rack in the upper third of the oven about 30 mins before final proof is complete.
13. Brush each loaf with an egg lightly beaten with a pinch of salt.  I do this twice.
14. Optionally, sprinkle the loaves with sesame seeds and/or poppy seeds.
15. Bake until done – 30-40 minutes rotating half way.  If baking as one large loaf may take a bit longer, bake until sounds hollow or reaches 190ºF in the middle.
16. Cool completely before slicing.

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My index of bakes.

I still have a bag of whole buckwheat flour from Anita’s Mill that I am finding hard to use up. I decided to try it in a milk bread for something a bit different.  Then because buckwheat has no gluten I decided I’d use it in the tangzhong and also as half the flour in the levain.  Buckwheat is neither a grain nor a grass, in fact it is a flowering plant related to rhubarb and sorrel.  It is considered a pseudo cereal.  The seeds of buckwheat are what is used to make the flour and it is becoming in vogue at the moment in French bakeries for bread. 

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I forgot to take photos of the loaf prior to slicing so you’ll have to settle for the sliced photos.

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 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 flour and vital wheat gluten.  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. 

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2 - 3 hours at 82ºF.  There may be some rise visible at this stage.

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 flour 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 a 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 3.5-4 hours at a warm temperature.  I proof at 82°F.  You will need longer than 3.5-4 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.

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. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot to keep the top crust soft.

My index of bakes.

Heading to some friends for a celebratory lunch, one of whom is retiring. We cannot possibly arrive with only some flowers and a card, so what better to bring than some home baked bread. In this case I wanted to use fresh Canadian grown blueberries and enhance them with lemon.

Using the 50% WW SD sweet rolls recipe I’ve made now a couple of times, I added the zest of one lemon into the dough. The filling is butter, lemon sugar (ensure you zest the lemons into the sugar and rub it all together to get the lemon oils into the sugar) and fresh blueberries. Finally for some extra lemon zing they are finished with a lemon drizzle icing.

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Sweet Lemon Glaze

juice from ½ large lemon* this makes more than needed
½ cup (60g) confectioners’ sugar

1 Tablespoons (15-30ml) milk, half-and-half, or heavy cream

Make the glaze: Right before serving, top your blueberry rolls with glaze. Mix all of the glaze ingredients together. If you prefer a thicker glaze, add more powdered sugar and then add salt to cut the sweetness, if desired. If you’d like it thinner, add more lemon juice or cream. Pour over sweet rolls.

FOR THE FILLING:

30 g Butter melted and slightly cooled

3/4 c. Sugar

The zest of two lemons 

2 c. (Heaping) Fresh Blueberries

Melt 1 stick of butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Once melted remove from heat.

Brush melted butter over the dough, using your fingers to spread evenly.

Using your fingers, mix sugar and lemon zest so that it’s a nice, light yellow sugar. Sprinkle it all over the butter. Sprinkle the blueberries evenly over the surface.

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 one to two lemons, 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 - 3 hours at 82ºF. There may 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 15″ square or larger rectangle.

Brush melted butter on rolled dough. Sprinkle lemon sugar mix then blueberries on top.

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 nine 1 1/2″ pieces using a sharp knife. 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 2.5-4 hours, be patient and wait until the dough passes the finger poke test.

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 in my 77°F (25°C) room.

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, place it on a lined cookie tray and then slide it into the oven, and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.

Once fully baked, fully cool on a rack before glazing.

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My index of bakes.

Inspired by a recent post by Eric Hanner’s daughter, I decided to have another go at the deli rye recipe that Eric has shared with us.  As you may know he passed away before his time and although I didn’t know him, I know many of you did here on TFL.  Based on my previous bakes of this recipe, I’ve made small changes which are reflected in the spreadsheet and instructions.  If you’re worried that the onion flavour will be too much, you can just used filtered water instead of the water used to rehydrated the onions.

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Build levain overnight 74°F for 8 - 10 hours

Boil filtered water about 250 g and use to rehydrate the onions overnight. When ready to start the dough in the morning, strain the onions and use the water to make the dough. If you’re worried there might be too much onion flavour, use regular filtered water than wasn’t used to hydrate the onions.

Mix bread flour, VWG, onion water (minus holdout water), yeast and sugar using a mixer. Once incorporated let rest for 15 mins. This is a stiff dough. Then mix on low speed to build gluten. If the dough seems just too stiff for your mixer to develop, add some of the levain since it is 100% hydration.

Once gluten well developed add levain mixing again until well incorporated and gluten well developed, the dough will be a bit loose at this point. Then add the salt and holdout water (if needed) gradually and again mix until well developed. The salt will tighten up the dough. Add the rehydrated onion and mix until well combined.

Transfer the dough to a well oiled bowl and continue bulk fermentation 82ºF for about 1-2 hour or until the dough has at least doubled.
Once bulk is complete and the dough has at least doubled pre-heat the oven to 500ºF with the dutch oven inside.
Dust the surface of the dough and the countertop with flour and release the dough onto the countertop. Degas the dough by patting it down with the heel of your hand. Shape into a batard.
Transfer the batard to your final proofing device. I used a cookie tray with bottles of wine on either side, then my couche and then a sheet of parchment paper. I placed the dough seem side down onto the parchment supporting the sides of the dough. I brushed the surface with water and put poppyseeds on the outside of the dough.

When oven pre-heated to 500ºF, brush the dough with the cornstarch glaze then score with the bread knife and load into the dutch oven to bake with steam for 15 mins at 450ºF then remove the lid and drop temperature to 420ºF for 20 mins and then drop temperature again to 350ºF and bake for another 10 mins. Make sure the loaf is fully baked, remove it from the oven and tap on the bottom to ensure that it sounds hollow. If hollow then it is done. Place on a cooling rack and brush once again with the cornstarch glaze.

Cornstarch Glaze - (makes more than needed)
Bring 125 g water to a boil in a small sauce pan.
In a 1 cup measuring cup, whisk together ⅛ cup (31 g) water and ¾-1 tbsp cornstarch. Slowly add the dissolved cornstarch mixture into the boiling water, whisking constantly until the glaze has thickened slightly. Take it off the stove and set aside until needed. It will be quite thick by the time it is needed.

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My index of bakes.

One of our closest friends are vegan so it is a fun challenge to have them over for dinner.  I still have frozen rhubarb from another friend who lives in the countryside so decided that the sour cherry rhubarb combination was so good it needed to be repeated, but this time without my all butter crust.

Following Rose Beranbaum’s vegetable shortening recipe in her book I made a shortening based crust.  I much prefer the flavour of butter to shortening’s lack of flavour, but shortening has some positive attributes as well.  It is softer at fridge temperature so starts to roll out extremely well right out of the fridge.  It also doesn’t melt on you as easily as you roll it out and handle the dough.  It browns more quickly than butter based pastry which is a positive or a negative as long as you are aware of this.  Despite shielding the edge of the crust after it was par-baked, fill and topped it still ended up more brown with slight bitterness I associate with over baked crust edge.  In the future, I’d shield it even soon maybe even right from the start of par-baking.  Finally it can make a flaky crust if you give the dough enough folds, but it easily is much more tender than an all butter crust.

For the streusel topping, I used a vegan butter.  Once again I missed the flavour of butter in the topping, however, the streusel’s flavour had hints of butter in it from the vegan butter.  I browned nicely without over baking.

Final note to self, when pre-cooking the filling there is no need to fully heat and fully thicken it.  I would probably just cook until it just starts to thicken and leave it loose as it will fully cook in the oven in the pie.

I added some almond extract to the filling along with lemon juice, both these additions really enhanced the pie.  As you know almond and cherry go extremely well together so a bit of almond extract just makes the cherry sing without making itself been known.  Lemon juice is almost always a positive from making fruit pies sing that that is no different there.

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My index of bakes.

I had a bit of mashed sweet potato leftover from a previous bake and wanted to use it up. I decided to try adding it to a Hokkaido Milk Bread done with 30% whole wheat and this is what I came up with.

For 1 loaf in a 9”x4”x4” Pullman pan

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Instructions
Mashed Purple Sweet Potato
To prepare the purple sweet potato, peel and cut into 1.5-2 cm cubes and place in a small metal bowl. Pour 1 cup of water into the Instant Pot, then place the small bowl containing the purple sweet potato onto the trivet in the Instant Pot. Pressure cook 18 mins normal. Quick release the pressure. Remove from the Instant Pot and allow to cool until safe to handle. Mash the purple sweet potato.

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 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, diastatic malt (optional) and levain. Mix and then break up the levain into many smaller pieces. Next add the flour and vital wheat gluten. 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 mashed sweet potato, that way it does not interfere with the gluten development. Mix until well incorporated in the dough.

On the counter, shape the dough into a tight ball, cover in the bowl and ferment for 2 - 3 hours at 82ºF. There may be some rise visible at this stage.

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 flour the top of the dough. Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. Shape into a batard and place in your prepared loaf pan.

Cover and let proof for 6-8 hours at a warm temperature. I proof at 82°F. In general, I find the addition of mashed purple sweet potato slows fermentation so despite using 20% prefermented flour, this is a slow final proof so be patient. You will need longer than 6-8 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.

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 then sprinkle poppy seeds on the crust. Finally score the top of the dough.

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. You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot to keep the top crust soft.

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 My index of bakes.

I’ve had this bake on my list for sometime.  I saved the recipe when I read through his book months ago along with a couple other of his recipes.  I have to say that we quite enjoyed the texture and flavour of this bread.  Very rustic with a new chewiness and that nutty sweet flavour that durum semolina has.  I used semola rimacinata flour as is typical for this bread from what I’ve read.

A couple of notes, I didn’t quite get the shaping right.  I believe a tad too much flour on the fold along with the fold not quite going far enough lead to the top part of the dough sliding down during the bake as the oven spring happened.  Also, the recipe says to bake for 30-35 mins.  Despite baking for 45 mins I found at the very center of the loaf that there was a tiny bit of crumb that wasn’t fully baked.  I’d probably bake a bit longer by 5-10 mins next time to ensure a deeper colour to the crust and a fully baked crumb.

START TO FINISH: 10 to 12 hours

LIEVITO MADRE 6 to 8 hours

KNEAD 15 minutes

FIRST FERMENTATION 2½ hours

REST 30 to 40 minutes

BAKE 30 to 35 minutes

MAKES one 1,084-gram loaf

1. PREPARE THE LIEVITO MADRE: In a small bowl, stir together the flour, water, and sourdough starter until well incorporated. Cover and let ferment at room temperature (68 to 77 degrees) until doubled in volume, 6 to 8 hours.
2. MAKE THE FINAL DOUGH: Combine the semolina flour, water, salt, lievito madre, and yeast if using in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix with a spatula just until a rough dough forms. With the dough hook, mix on medium-low (4 on a KitchenAid mixer) until the dough is velvety, soft, shiny, and elastic, about 15 minutes.
3. FIRST FERMENTATION: Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled, clear 4-quart container with a lid. Turn the dough over so all sides are oiled. Cover and let stand 45 minutes. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter. Pat into a 6- by 8-inch rectangle and fold like a business letter. Slide both hands under the dough and flip it over so the folds are underneath. Slip it back into the container, cover, and let stand another 45 minutes. Repeat the folding and turning, return to the container, and let stand until the dough is very pillowy, 1 hour longer. (If making Altamura Focaccia or Panzanella, skip to directions in the following variations at this point.)
4. REST: On a lightly floured countertop, pre-shape into a round. Dust with flour and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Let rest 30 to 40 minutes.
5. BAKE: Right after pre-shaping, place a baking stone on the middle rack of the oven and a cast-iron skillet on the lower rack. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Dust a parchment-covered peel or baking sheet with about 15 g of the semolina flour and place the dough on the parchment, seam side up. Flatten into an 11- to 12-inch round and fold almost in half. Push down on the edge with the heel of your hand to seal the edge. Turn the folded dough in the semolina to coat on all sides, sprinkling with the remaining 5 g as needed. Slide the loaf, still on the parchment, onto the baking stone. Place 1 cup of ice cubes in the skillet to produce steam. Bake until the loaf is reddish brown and well risen, 30 to 35 minutes. Slide the loaf, still on the parchment, onto a wire rack. Cool completely. Store in a brown paper bag at room temperature for 5 to 6 days.

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I hadn’t made a pizza in half year so it was high time that we had pizza.  I decided to try baking another Capricciosa pizza (capocollo, mushrooms, olives artichokes and tomato sauce) and ensured that the mushrooms were pre-cooked so that they didn’t flood the pizza with their liquid during baking.  To that end I dry sautéed the mushrooms after slicing them in sixths until they were nicely browned.  The artichokes I allowed to drain in a sieve so that they didn’t too much liquid to the pizza.  Finally, for the pizza sauce, I used a can of San Marzano tomatoes removing the tomatoes.  I squeezed them open to remove the tomato water and then drained them in a sieve.  After they dried for some time, I added some homemade red wine vinegar, garlic powder, salt, pepper, oregano and basil and squeezed it all to mix and breakdown the tomatoes.

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(1) In your mixer bowl(or by hand) dissolve the levain and diastatic malt in all of the Final Dough Water except the HOLD OUT Water. 

(2) Mix in the flours until well hydrated 

(3) Allow to fermentolyse for 1hr 

(4) Mix in the remaining HOLD OUT Water, salt, and sugar mix until well-incorporated. 

(5) Slowly drizzle in the oil until well combined. 

(6) Beat or knead by hand until dough is moderately developed. The dough will be sticky and elastic. If kneading by hand, use slightly wet hands and avoid adding more flour. 

(6a) Allow to ferment for 1 hour before proceeding to (7)

(7) Oil your hands and a suitable container. 

(8) Shape into a tight ball.  I divide the ball into four smaller ones each for one 9” pizza at this point.  Each goes into a small oiled bowl and allowed to proof for 1 hour before starting cold fermentation.

(9) Cold ferment in the refrigerator for 48-96hrs. 

(10) Remove to warm up to room temp for at 3-6hr or so before use at room temperature, or you can ferment 2-3 hours at 80ºF.  One hour before the dough is ready, pre-heat your oven on roast setting at 550°F or as high as it will go.

(11) Stretch the balls into your desired size.  Top your pizzas, brush the cornicione with water then roast at 550F (as high as your oven will go) until the crust is browned and the cheese has melted. Spin the pie at least once to avoid burning due to oven hot spots. 

(12) I bake in a preheat cast iron skillet that heats in the oven while it is pre-heating.  I set the oven to roast and bake the pizzas in the cast iron skillet on my baking steel so that the skillet is quite close to the top of the oven.  It only takes 6 mins to fully bake my pizzas.

Heat oven to 550ºF roasting setting, with skillet in oven on baking steel on the second highest rack about 1 hour.  My set up with the baking steel on the roasting rack that set up is on the third highest rack because of the added height from the roasting rack so it essentially makes the skillet on the second highest rack.

Place stretched dough into skillet and top with sauce and toppings.

Brushing water on the cornicione prior to baking in oven, gives better oven spring and leopard spots to the cornicione. 

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 My index of bakes.