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caryn's blog

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caryn

I have once again decided to document my bakes. I think I did not do this correctly a few moments ago, so here is a link to my last entry where I added my latest bake and explain what I did.  https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/57785/multigrain-loaf-la-dmsnyder

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caryn

I thought I would more seriously document my bread-making on this site, so I have a history that I and others can learn from. Today I baked a formula that dmsnyder posted in August http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/57042/multigrain-sourdough-bread-made-homemilled-flours-august-8-2018 using using the technique that is used in Myhrvold’s bread encyclopedia. I did the autolyse step with all but the salt (including the leaving that I made the previous day), and then I machine mixed the ingredients until medium gluten development.  I then did 2 folds over  2 1/2 hours, and then pretty much followed David’s formula. I baked the loaves in the cast iron pot, covered for 45 minutes and then uncovered for an additional 10. For the first loaf I had set my oven to 500, reducing it to 470 when the bread went into the oven; for the second, I just left the oven at 470 the whole time. I think I prefer the second one.

i feel that this was a great success. It did not rise very high, but after all it is 40% whole grain. The taste and texture was really nice. I may play with this formula some time adding seeds and/or dried fruit some time. It is a really nice formula. Thank you, David.

 My scoring could use some improvement (not as lovely as David’s), but the taste makes up for it, I feel!

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caryn

Today I experimented with a recipe from the Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook that I borrowed from the library. Jim Lahey’s techniques are very different from anything I have done before. Besides his method for propagating  a biga, I tried his high speed mixing technique. I think it worked quite well, but I am waiting for it to cool enough to cut into it.

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caryn

I decided to try the technique in Chad Robertson's Tartine Book No. 3, so I spent several days developing a starter based on his technique rather than using the usual starter that I maintain. So when my levain was ready, I mixed the dough for white-wheat blend.. The consistency seemed very loose, but since I had not made this before, I just decided to continue with the steps. Then this morning, after I had already put the dough in rising baskets, with a lot of difficulty since the dough was so loose, I re-read the recipe. Lo and behold, I had miscalculated and had omitted 250g of bread flour, and it was too late to do anything about it, so I baked the loaves. They are not pretty, but amazingly the flatbread was very tasty with a nice flavor and crumb! Now I can't wait to try again when I will be sure to use the proper amount of flour. Hopefully I will be able to get to the store to get more bread flour in a few days.

Right now I am rather snowed in!l

 

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caryn

Today I made Sour Cherry Focaccia by using Cook's Illustrated for the dough and method and Martha Stewart's idea for the topping. I used a total of 6oz. of sour cherries which I defrosted from my summer farmer's market stash and sprinkled each (9") pan with 1/2 tablespoon of  coarse sugar and fresh rosemary.

i will taste them tonight at our dinner gathering and report the tasting results.

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caryn

After mostly making levain breads from Hamelman's bread, I decided to try Ken Forkish's approach which is quite a bit different.  I had made bread using the Dutch oven technique a long time ago when the method was popularized. It seemed like everyone was jumping on the band wagon. A number of books came out with variations on that technique. What I noticed was that for the most part the recipes were white breads with some subtle flavor additives, and I have always favored breads with a fair amount of whole grains. So, though intrigued with the method, I was not that excited about the recipes for that "new" technique.

I did try that method around that time and it worked quite well, and I even felt it was a nice change from the breads that I was making. However, I still craved the whole  grain formulas  and found the procedure of depositing  dough into a blazing hot pot rather scary. So I went back to making breads the more usual way a la Hamelman and some others.

Now, after stumbling on some posts here at TFL, I saw some wonderful write-ups on the breads from Ken Forkish's book abbreviated here as FWSY. I was particularly interested when I saw dmsnyder's 2 posts on the 75% whole wheat bread from his book. (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/40675/75-whole-wheat-levain-bread-fwsy  ).  So now I was intrigued once again. I asked him and lindyD some questions on the method, and today with the Forkish book from the library,  I baked the 75% whole wheat  bread. I think it may be one of my best breads that I have made to date. I was a bit skeptical when I started, thinking that the bread might be heavier than I would want, but the texture was really nice considering the amount of whole wheat in the formula. I highly recommend this to anyone.

I also worked on making the method less scary. I know that both dmsnyder's and lindyD use a Lodge Dutch oven combo to make the process safer and easier, but being reluctant to add yet another piece of equipment to my already excessive collection, I worked on coming up with my own solution, getting some ideas from lindyD. So this is what I finally did. I proofed the dough in 2 bannetons in the refrigerator overnight as directed. I then preheated my oven with my 6 quart Dutch oven to 450 F.  After 45 minutes, I took the first loaf out of the refrig and inverted it on to a peel with a greased piece of parchment paper on top of the banneton.   The bread dough was now on the peel sitting on the parchment paper, so I trimmed the paper so I would be able to lower it into the pot. I took the pot out of the oven, slashed the loaf, sprayed it with water, and then lowered it into the pot holding onto the parchment (with oven gloves on). It worked nicely. When the first losf was baked, I repeated the process with the second loaf, reusing the parchment paper.

So now I am a big fan of "Bread, Water, Salt, Yeast" and look forward to trying more of his breads, and perhaps using the technique on the more standard formulas. I will, though, test to see if a similar result could be achieved using a stone and an aluminum pan lid. That way I could bake the two loaves at once.

This is a picture showing the crumb:

 

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caryn

Since I have shared some successes on this site, I thought I would share a not so good outcome.  Today I was baking sourdough loaves for out-of-town visitors to take back to their home in Madison Wisconsin tomorrow.  I decided to make them two loaves of BBA sourdough with pecans and some whole wheat and rye flours.  So I scaled up my recipe to make 3 loaves, so I could taste the result before I gave the loaves to them.  I baked the first two, since I don't have room to bake three at once, thinking that if the third one was a bit over-risen because of the extra wait for the oven, I would not care, since my husband and I would keep that one.

Well, what happened is I was taking that first batch of two out of the oven  and....the first loaf went flying off of the rack onto the floor!!!!!  Naturally it was the better looking of the two!  (I am usually pleased with the flavor of the breads that I make, but the shaping could use some improvement.)

Thank goodness the loaf that I baked by itself came out without mishap.  So I will send our friends off with the loaves that made it out of the oven properly, and my husband and I will abide by the "5 second rule."  I am sure it will be fine for us to eat, but not to give away.  It looked only a bit worse for wear, having some cracks in the crust from the mishap!

BBA Sourdough With Pecans- 5 Second Rule!BBA Sourdough With Pecans- 5 Second Rule!

The other loaves that I am giving awayThe other loaves that I am giving away

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