cfraenkel's blog

I need a treat. (those usually involve flour and yeast in my house)  Deb Pearlman (Smitten Kitchen) posted a recipe for a cheater braided brioche with lemon curd and cream cheese (A la Danish) I'm tempted. But I don't do regular yeast...so will convert to starter - https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/55004/brioche-orange-blossom-water minus orange blossom water this time. 

Can't decide if I want to do do that or if I want to do a bunne-tone repeat, or an actual Pannetone.  Not sure I have time for Pannetone ( as IMHO it has to have candied fruit, and for corn allergy girl here that means making my own, and I don't actually have any at the moment)

What are you baking for easter?  I will definitely make some buttery dinner rolls, but other than that I'm still pondering. 

Happy Baking! and Happy Easter!

Carolann

There is nothing like waking up and realizing there is no bread for your morning toast.  I ended up having to eat yogurt for breakfast!

I threw this loaf together with very little fuss, and 24 hours later there was bread. 

I mixed up what amounted to 175 g of ripe active starter at 100% hydration.

added:

290 g. of All purpose flour

204 g of hard white whole wheat

314 g of water

11 g. of salt

to the 175 g of levain. 

I mixed it with the awesome dough wand thing I found at of all places the dollarama.  (best $1.25 I have spent in a long time) Left it on the counter, went about my morning, gave it a stretch and fold in the tub, took the dog for a walk, gave it another fold in the tub and then left it to ferment.  After dinner (it's cold here...) I shaped it and stuck it in the fridge in the banneton with a cover.  Baked it up this morning and it is great!  A lovely soft even crumb, perfect for toast and sandwiches.  Had to write it down so I remember it.

I am running very low on safe AP flour, so I did this one kinda? whole grain.  I probably could have used less AP, but I was afraid it would be too dense. In hindsight I could have used more freshly milled grains.

Levain build: (4 hours before mixing)

10g NMNF rye starter

40g fresh milled hard red wheat

40g water

Second build: (after the 4 hours and at the same time as the soaker) - I was NOT sure this was going to work, (I never add this much all at once) but it was bubbly and ready in about 2 hours. Go figure.

192g fresh milled hard red wheat

192g water

Soaker:

80g Cracked rye

80g Whole Flaxseeds

70g Sunflower seeds

70g old fashioned oats

370g boiling water

6g salt

Final Mix

450g AP Flour

228g Einkorn

228g Water

Soaker

Levain

Mixed about 4 minutes in my Kitchenaid Mixer on speed 4, divided in two, shaped and put to bed in bannetons in the fridge overnight.  Baked at 465df in dutch ovens for about 40 minutes in the morning. 

Really tasty! (and low sodium - next time I'd like more salt - I'll add it in the final mix)

I am running very low on safe AP flour, so I did this one kinda? whole grain.  I probably could have used less AP, but I was afraid it would be too dense. In hindsight I could have used more freshly milled grains.

Levain build: (4 hours before mixing)

10g NMNF rye starter

40g fresh milled hard red wheat

40g water

Second build: (after the 4 hours and at the same time as the soaker) - I was NOT sure this was going to work, (I never add this much all at once) but it was bubbly and ready in about 2 hours. Go figure.

192g fresh milled hard red wheat

192g water

Soaker:

80g Cracked rye

80g Whole Flaxseeds

70g Sunflower seeds

70g old fashioned oats

370g boiling water

6g salt

Final Mix

450g AP Flour

228g Einkorn

228g Water

Soaker

Levain

Mixed about 4 minutes in my Kitchenaid Mixer on speed 4, divided in two, shaped and put to bed in bannetons in the fridge overnight.  Baked at 465df in dutch ovens for about 40 minutes in the morning. 

Really tasty! (and low sodium - next time I'd like more salt - I'll add it in the final mix)

My husband had a hankering for a rye bread....who can say no?

I grabbed my Hamelman, and went in search of a rye that had no commercial yeast and also was wholegrain.  I failed, so I modified his 65 percent sourdough rye to use only freshly milled grain.  I have to say - this is one of the tastiest rye breads I have had since I moved out of New York. 

Prepare sourdough -and then let it sit about 16 hours on the counter at about 20 degrees C

• 350g. freshly milled rye
• 280g water
• 20g. sourdough culture - straight from the fridge

Add all of the following plus all the sourdough above to the bowl of mixer (I have a Kitchenaide - but whatever - or mix by hand until the internal temperature is about 26 degrees C.

• 300g freshly milled rye
• 350g freshly milled Einkorn (sifted)
• 460g room temperature water
• 18g salt
• 1 tablespoon  + of Caraway seeds ( I didn't really measure...I like caraway!)

Bulk ferment 1 hour and 45 minutes on counter - again about 20 degrees C

Divide into two loaves and shape - this dough has absolutely NO strength - it felt like I was molding a little ball - This is the only time I used some commercial flour (from my precious stash) - to dust the board and help reduce the stickiness - so I kinda failed in my mission not to use only freshly milled flour, but who will ever know? ;-) Place in bannetons which were sprinkled with caraway and let rest covered about 1 hr. 15 minutes - heat oven and two dutch ovens while this is happening.

Bake at about 460dF for 15 minutes with covers and then reduce temperature to 425 and remove covers.  Bake an additional 30 minutes.  Cool on a rack at least 24 hours.  It's hard...

Now we are on a quest to make smoked meat - this is how it goes in our house. One thing leads to another.  After realizing that there is not a corned beef, pastrami or Montreal smoked meat to be found that doesn't have either dextrose or corn starch - the next step is to build a smoker (Thank you Alton Brown) and make our own.  That's how we roll.  Ahh the life of the corn allergy girl.

I baked 2 loaves of DMSnyder's SJSD and they disappeared overnight.... so decided I'd make something that at least seemed more healthy.

I broke out the Hamelman Bread book and started browsing.  Several hours later (serious) I settled on Sourdough Seed Bread, I had all the ingredients on hand and it seemed like it would be delicious. I ended up tweaking the recipe a little bit to incorporate some freshly milled grains, and I think it turned out pretty well!  I am also bad at following instructions, and my KA mixer made the dough pretty warm at the start, but no harm done!

Prepared the Levain from 1oz NMNF starter with 4.8 oz AP flour and 6 oz Water the night before. (it took around 12 hours to be bubbly and ready -  I have never done a one step levain build like this, but we were desperate and out of bread, so I forged on. At the same time made the soaker with 2.2 oz flaxseeds and 6.7oz water.  Both Levain and soaker sat overnight on the kitchen counter.

The next morning I mixed the dough: (I am glad my scale will change units to oz from grams or I'd have been in trouble here, or doing a lot of math to scale down from bakery sized measurements)

Soaker, Levain 1lb AP flour and 8.6 oz freshly milled hard white, 2.6oz dark rye, 3.8 oz toasted sunflower seeds, 1oz toasted sesame seeds (all I had - the recipe called for more) 11.3 oz water and .7oz salt.  Threw them all in the bowl of the Kitchen Aide and mixed for a bit, it looked very dry so I added a smidge more water and set the timer for 4 minutes.  At 4 minutes the dough was 86 dF Yikes!  a little warm....

Bulk Ferment - 2.5 hours on the counter with one fold in the middle somewhere.

Divide and shape into 3 loaves - put in bannetons and retard in fridge about 21 hours.

Removed from the fridge and they were like bricks, so I left them on the counter and went to Yoga class.  Came back (about 1.5 hours) turned the oven on and loaded into Dutch ovens. 

Baked 25 minutes lid on at 475 and 20 minutes lid off at 450dF.  It smells divine and looks pretty good too!

My DH was asking for a plain sourdough. But it's a little too boring for me. So I made a high hydration loaf and coated it with sesame seeds. 

500g Organic AP flour

262g water (over poured a bit)

150g Levin built from NMNF rye starter and whole wheat flour over 2 days

13g salt

Autolyse about 20 mins flour and water. Add Levin and salt. Process in KitchenAid with dough hook for 15 mins. Bulk overnight in the fridge. Warm to room temp about 3 hours. "shape" coat in sesame seeds and proof again in the fridge, about an hour in banneton. Bake in DO 25mins and 30 lid off at about 460 DF. 

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So for this 123 challenge, I set out to use up what I had hanging around.

Starter (leftover from many thanksgiving loaves) 160g (don't ask what was in it - see note about leftovers - I took what I had added flour and water in more or less equal proportions and waited for it to be bubbly)

320g water

480g flour.  about 40+ g of leftover freshly milled combo hard white and spelt, 320g Organic White flour, 120g white spelt

10g salt

I had just finished baking  for thanksgiving (sage and onion brioche for the stuffing, plain sourdough for the table, sourdough banana bread for the granddaughter) and I was baked out...so I mixed all the above together, threw it in the Kitchenaide for 15 minutes  added a knob of butter and let it go for another 5 minutes.  Let it sit until bedtime (about 5 hours) and rolled it out into a rectangle.  While the kitchenaide was doing it's work, I found apple and sage sausage in the fridge that I forgot to put in the stuffing, made some carmelized onions to go with it, and then grated some cheddar on top and sprinkled with some mystery grated cheese that I found in the fridge).  I rolled the whole thing into a log, put it in a basket lined with parchment and stuffed it in a plastic bag and put it in the fridge overnight and most of the day until I got home. (I'm pretty sure it over proofed, but I had very little choice, the DH doesn't "do" bread he only eats it)  I managed (barely) to stuff it into my roasting pan and bake at 450df for 25 minutes lid on and 25 minutes lid off. 

garbagebread1.jpg

Not as bad as I thought it would be (with the crazy long fridge proof)

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Danni is my inspiration, (fellow teacher, Canadian, baker, potter) http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/57017/raisin-fennel-sourdough%C2%A0

She posted about a Fennel Raisin bread, and I had *just* managed to find some raisins that were safe for my allergies, so I was excited to try this bread. (I have a corn allergy, which is more challenging than I wish) So.... With my new Komo Mill and $200 worth of buckets filled with wheat berries, I have been working on using all home milled flour. Some attempts have been more successful than others.

Well, maybe I have finally figured this out!  This is one gorgeous loaf of bread, and it smells divine.

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In case this looks interesting, here is the recipe:

The night before:

Mill grains:

125g Hard Red

50g Einkorn

50g Spelt

135g Hard White

Mill Spices/Flax (in my spice grinder)

3g Fennel

25g Flax seeds

Soak:

a handful of raisins in 205g water (I have pretty big hands)

Toast:

40g sunflower seeds

In the Morning:

Autolyse grains and flax with water from raisin soak plus extra water to equal total of 215g 1 Hour

Add 280g well fed and bubbly NMNF starter, http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/40918/no-muss-no-fuss-starter ground fennel, 9g salt

Mix in KA mixer for 20 minutes  Use folds to add in sunflower seeds and raisins.

Bulk ferment in refrigerator for 7 hours, shape and proof in banneton for 2 1/2 hours

Bake @475F for 25 minutes in DO lid on, remove lid and bake another 25 mins.

Crumb shot, It's delicious! (I might have cut it *a little* early....don't care!

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• 650 g AP flour
• 200 g Whole Wheat flour
• 100 g Whole Dark Rye Flour
• 50 g Milled Flax seed
• 15 g Cocoa Powder
• 700 g water

Autolyse for a while - as long as it took me to pit the cherries and weigh the other add ins:

• 60 g sunflower seeds
• 57 g pecans (all I had left)
• 150 g fresh cherries, pitted and halved
• 50 g unsweetened coconut

Mix in to autolyse:

• 30 g unsweetened greek yogurt
• 20 g salt
• 268 g levain (this ended up being a 4 stage build)

After 30 mins do Stretch and fold in the tub

Wait another 30 mins - mix in add ins and do another SF - one more SF at +30 mins

Bulk ferment until double

Divide and shape - rest overnight in fridge

In the morning I will bake in Dutch Ovens

The dough smells divine....hoping the bread will be.