dabrownman's blog

Hanseata’s wild rice bread looked so enticing we had to move it up to the top of the bake list.  To her recipe, which hardly needed any changes at all if one of us was sane and not barking, we used high alcohol ice beer for most of the water and upped the hydration about 10 %.  We didn’t use all beer for the liquid because it had to pass quality control to make sure it was not spoiled in some way.  It actually took two or three tastings just to make sure, but it finally passed.

We also added hemp (since wild rice is a grass), anise, fennel and coriander seeds, as well as, some prunes for their sweetness, cleansing reputation and black color to go with the wild rice.  For the balsamic vinegar we used a pomegranate flavored one.  Last but not really last we added some rye, WW, spelt and barley sprouts to go with the beer.  We also add some molasses and honey to go with the barley malt and some home made red and white non-diastatic and diasatic malts.   Then we moved the salt to 2% or we thought we did after we remembered we forgot to add it.  So, all in all, only a few minor changes were required.

 The batard doubled in the proofing basket coming all the way to the top after it doubled in the fridge overnight too.  The spring in the oven after a slightly deflating diamond cut was also good.  The batard only sprawled 1” in length and ½“ in width after coming out of the basket.

 The crust took on a dark brown color as expected, the bloom was good and was still unexpectedly a little crunch after it cooled.  This is the best slash job we have managed to date.  The crumb was fairly open for so much stuff inside, very moist due to the YW and the texture was just the way we like it. The sprouts, wild rice and seeds gave it an nice nutty, chew and flavor but the hemp seeds were a crunchy contrast and unexpected.  Don’t soak your hemp seeds for this bread!

 One can’t really make out the prunes other than a very slight sweetness throughout.  The anise, coriander and fennel smell and taste were muted, but noticeable, also way we like it.  A medium SD tang was also there and very nice.  Don't know what it would taste like without the beer.  All in all, this is the best looking and tasting bread I have ever been fortunate to make.  It is a delight to eat plain, toasted and buttered.  I’m guessing it will make some kind of special sandwich.   This bread takes 3 days to make but it is worth the waiting.  It is an A+.  Thanks Hanseata for the inspiration.  Formula and method follow the pix's.

This bread made for a nice ham and cheese sandwich for a lazy Saturday lunch with some of favorite lunch sides.

Method

Sprouts - The first thing to get started are the spouts.  Soak the seeds for 5 hours and them sprout between - damp paper towels covered in plastic wrap. Reserve unti;l needed about 24 hours.

Starter - Then get the combination YW and SD starter going in (3) 4 hour builds totaling 12 hours.  It should double after the 3rd build between the 8 and 12 hour marks.  Refrigerate overnight.  This bread can be made with SD starter alone just double the amount of starter.

Autolyse - Take all the flour and add all the beer and water, less 25 g of the water, add the malts, honey, balsamic vinegar, molasses and the VWG mix well and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Cook - the wild rice on low for 1 hour in at least twice as much as water as rice.  Reserve the cooked rice in the refrigerator.

Reconstitute the chopped prunes in 1 T of hot water and grind the seeds slightly in a mortar.

Then next morning combine the autolyse, the reserved 25 g of water and starter in the mixing bowl and knead with the dough hook on KA 2 for 5 minutes.  Add the salt (donlt forget like I did) and knead on KA 3 for 3 minutes.  Knead an additional 2 minutes on KA 4 for 2 minutes.  Move dough to a well oiled, plastic covered bowl to rest for 15 minutes.

Do 6 sets of S&F’s every 15 minutes on a floured work surface putting the dough back into the oiled covered bowl each time.  On the 5th S&F add in the sprouts, seeds, prunes and cooked wild rice.   After the 6th S&F form dough into a tight ball, place into a oiled bowl, cover with plastic and let rest on the counter for 1 hour.  Retard  the dough in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning remove the dough from the fridge and let come to room temperature – about 1 hour.  Form into the shape you desire and let proof on the counter for 2- 3 hours in a plastic bag, or until it passes the poke test.  Mine took 3 hours total out of the fridge I formed the dough into one large 17” x 6” batard.

45 minutes before the dough is ready, preheat the oven to 500 F regular with steaming method and stone in place.  Bake the bread for 15 minutes with steam, the first 4 minutes at 500 F,  then 11 minutes at 450 F regular bake and then for another 20 minutes at 400 F convection until internal temperature reaches 205 F.  Rotate the bread every 5 minutes 90 degrees.   Leave door ajar with the oven off and the bread on the stone for 12 minutes to let the crust crisp.  Move to wire rack to cool to room temperature.

We have been eating lunch well the last day or two with our last Pretzel Roll bake for sandwiches - P and J and Baja Grilled Chicken with Grilled Veggies.  The J is caramelized Minneola Marmalade.  There is part of a croissant, some nice red pepper hummus, cucumber salad and fruits and veggies of all kinds.  All very healthy and my assistant cleaned herself up for a photo with her new bow!

Baja Grilled Chicken, squash and eggplant and some new Kosher Dill Pickles - Medium Hot. 

We were inspired, even though the wrong time of year for laminated doughs with it being 8o F inside and 105 F outside in AZ, by txfarmer's croissants and Danish pastries. 

Hers are just fantastic to look at and professional in every way - unlike mine.  But, I thought we would give it a go now and get back to them later next winter.  Her posts can be seen here:  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/22677/poolish-croissant-pursuit-perfection and here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/26777/cheese-danish-sourdough-all-american-beauty

We needed to change her recipe from yeast to sourdough and yeast water since I no longer stock any commercial yeast.   I didn't expect my first attempt at laminated dough to be anywhere near txfarmer's and I was right.  Freezing some of the croissants and Danish didn't help any either I suppose :-)  But I did learn many important things about lamination which will help my assistant out later. 

A very nice grilled; Amish Swiss and pepperjack cheese with grilled chicken sandwich made for lunch with this fine white sandwich bread.  Love the chia seeds.   The sweet potato and the pickled tomato, red onion and cucumber salad were also nice.

We made this enriched dough (can't believe it didn't have cream in it too) into 3 variations with various flavors; a non -laminated white sandwich bread (half of the dough split off before lamination), 3 kinds of Danish (blueberry, strawberry and dried apricot) and 2 kinds of croissants (plain and with a sweet home made mince meat filling made with beef shanks - those are the fat ones that didn't have 7 steps).

Used 27.5% of the total dough weight in roll-in butter (180 grams),  txfarmer recommends 30% but we had a few more add ins than her recipe that upped the total weight.  Txfarmer also said to hold the hydration down al little and I managed to somehow up it slightly,at least a couple of percent, if I calculated properly.  We used dried apricots and they burned on the top and I should have reconstituted them in bourbon or water.  We wanted to take them out of the oven at 25 minutes but by mistake took them out at 22 minutes and they could have used another 3 minutes in the oven.  If you live in AZ it is best to do this in the wintertime. 

My wife summed it up best.  They don't look too good but they taste OK.  I give the sandwich loaf a solid B and the rest a C only because it was a first attempt - my apprentice is worried she will soon be replaced since she said she was a lamination freak - well, at least the freak part was right:-) 

The formula and method follows the pictures.

Method

 Build the levain over 3 - 4 hour steps.  I mixed the YW and the SD together from the beginning as is our usual now a days.  Mine had more than doubled over 12 hours and then I refrigerated it overnight.

The nest morning, mix everything except the levain and the salt together in the mixing bowl and autolyse for 1 hour.  Add the levain and the salt and mix on KA 2 for 4 minutes and KA 3 for 1 minute.  Remove to an oiled bowl and rest for 15 minutes.  Do (4) S &F’s every 15 minutes.  At the 1 hour mark let the dough develop and ferment for 1 hour.

At this point I split off half the dough and formed it into a boule and let it ferment for another hour.  Then it was formed into a loaf, placed into a Pyrex loaf pan and refrigerated for 4 hours.  It doubled in the fridge.  It was then removed and allowed to final proof for 3 hours.  When it tripled in volume from when it initially went into the loaf pan, we slashed it and put it into a425 Fmini oven with steam for 10 minutes.  The steam was removed and the temperature turned down to 375 F convection this time.  The loaf was turned 180 degrees every 4 minutes 2 times.    At this point the loaf was removed from the Pyrex and allowed to finish baking turning 2 more times at 5 minute each.  When the loaf reached 205 F the loaf was allowed to stay in the off oven with the door ajar for 10 more minutes to crisp the crust..  It was then removed to a cooling rack.

 The other half of the dough was used for lamination and I followed txfarmer’s method and procedure.  I used180 gramsof roll-in butter for 645 g of dough (27.5%).  The croissants and Danish were retarded overnight in a plastic bag in the fridge where the back half of them froze – no harm done though.  In the morning, they came out of the fridge for final proof – this took about 2 ½ hours.  Then they were placed in the 425 F oven for 22 minutes (should have been 25 minutes) rotated half way through and the temperature turned down to 375 F convection.  When done they went onto a cooking rack from the parchment covered baking sheet.

Formula

A nice lunch for two featuring store bought (inside out and grilled) and home made ciabatta, beer can and teriyaki chicken.

With some Mojo de Ajo (with achoite and chili flakes) and the apple strawberry and ginger crisp.

We haven’t made SD ciabatta in a long time and wanted to make one that included some YW in the levain, had some semolina, rye and WWW for flavor while using mostly AP and a little bread flour for the rest of the dry.  We added some VWG to up the gluten of this dough and improve its crumb.  We also took some of our standard pizza dough ingredients; the mix of herbs, garlic and sun dried tomato and added them with some chia seeds.

 The crust came out nicely browned and crunchy and softened as it cooled.  The crumb was open, soft,glossy and moist.  The herbs, garlic and sun dried tomatoes came though but were not over powering.  The SD tang was there in the background but it was subdued due to the YW and no retarding of the dough or starters to bring out the SD flavor.  We didn’t do two separate levains this time but mixed the YW right into the SD starter from the beginning.

 This might well be the best tasting ciabatta we have ever made – just delicious!

 It looks to be some fine sandwich bread for paninis by putting the crust of the bread on the inside and grilling the inside of the bread on the outside of the sandwich. Formula and Method follow.  Here is a nice beer can chicken sandwich with lettuce and Amish Swiss, chips, berries and some salad and a chocolate sandwich cookie. 

Method

Make the YW and SD levain in 3 stages each 4 hours apart for a total of 12 hours.  The levain will triple in volume

The next morning autolayse the flour with the water for 1 hour in the mixer bowl.  Add the levain and knead with dough hook on KA 8 for 8 minutes or until the dough releases from the bowl.  Add the salt and chia seeds and knead on KA 8 for 1 more minute.  Place in a well oiled plastic covered bowl for 15 minutes.  Do 4 S & F’s every 15 minutes in the bowl.  Add the herbs garlic and sun dried tomato and do 2 more S & F’s.  Let ferment and develop in a well oiled bowl until the dough at least doubles.  This will take about 3 hours

Turn out onto a well flowered counter, shape into (2) 8”x14” rectangles with an oiled dough scraper, dimple top with fingers, spray top with oil and cover with a dusting of flour and plastic.  Let rest 60 minutes.

After 60 minutes, preheat oven for 45 minutes at 500 F regular bake with steam and stone in place.  With 2 dough scrapers, transfer ciabatta to a floured parchment paper on a peel by flipping in over at the same time.  Reshape as necessary.  Slide onto stone and steam for 6 minutes.  Remove stream, turn loaves 180 degrees and bake another 6 minutes at 450 F convection this time.  When the internal temperature reaches 205 F it is done but not finished.

Turn off oven, leave door ajar and bread on the stone for another 8 minutes to crisp the ciabatta crust.  Move to a cooling rack to cool to room temperature.

home for the summer means 2 lunch sammys every day.  Something to look forward to!  One was semolina SD with brie, chicken and pepper jack grilled cheese with home made Dijon mustard.  Made another batch of mustard today but it tales 6 weeks to mature - not that it lasted that long :-(  The other sammy has two different SD and YW starters mixed in the same bread but each slice is a different variety.  It is served with our vapor aged white cheddar and pepper jack Mac and Cheese that is modestly flavored with Thai red curry paste. - Yummy!

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We were inspired by Varda’s recent Priests Hat  Altamura Style Bread Revisited here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28663/altamura-style-bread-revisited 

and thought we would convert it to our new, nearly normal, 3 day, multi-grain with sprouts and seeds process – no nuts this time.  We reduced the semolina and added some; rye, 6 grain cereal, white WW, AP and bread flour. 

 I suppose we like the way the dough was shaped the most and what drew us to this take onAltamurastyle bread.  With our college age daughter home for the summer, she wanted to learn how to bake and cook so when she moves off into her apartment next year she won’t starve.  So she learned some French slap and folds and regular S& Fs on this loaf.   But didn’t make it out of bed early enough to do the unusual Altamura Priest’s Hat shaping.

 The dough rose well during the 20 hour retard period in the refrigerator and, after coming to room temperature the next morning, it nearly folded itself into the hat shape.  At about 2 ½ hours it was ready for the oven having passed the poke test.

 The crust browned very nice and dark, the way we like it, the seeds and sprouts were popping out here and  there.  Best of all the crust was very tasty. The crumb was fairly open with all the whole grains, seeds, and sprouts but the taste and texture were just great.  We really like how this bread tastes.  The SD tang was deep and complex so the 3 day process worked.  Can’t wait to taste it tomorrow.  Formula and methods follow the lunch shot.

It took years of genetic engineering to get a home grown heirloom tomato color to match Green Rooibos, Honeybush, 4 Fruit Tea but even longer to get the same tonato to match the shape of Altamura 'Priest's Hat' Bread.

Method

Start the sprouts by soaking the berries in water for 5 hours then spread them out on a damp paper towel, cover with another paper towel and then cover in plastic.  Set aside to sprout until needed – about 1 ½ days.

Start the SD levain build by following the 3 builds 3 hours apart and then refrigerate overnight.

Start the autolyse by combining the flour and water in the mixing bowl, cover with plastic and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Remove the levain and autolyse from the fridge and allow them to come to room temperature - about 90 minutes.

Mix with a dough hook, the levain and the autolyse in the mixing bowl on KA 2 for 4 minutes add salt and continue kneading for an additional 2 minutes .  Place in a well oiled bowl to rest for 15 minutes.  Do a few minutes of French slap and folds and let rest for 15 minutes, then do 4 S&F on 15 minute intervals.  Add the sprouts and seeds on the 3rd S&F and allow to rest for and ferment for 1-2 hours after the 4th.  Form into a boule and refrigerate overnight.

 Remove from refrigerator and allow dough to come to room temperature – about 90 minutes.  Flatten gently into a 8 x 18 rectangle and form into a priests hat by folding in half  from the short end and sealing the top edge.  Then fold up from the short end again but only go ¾ of the way up sealing the top and sides.  Allow to proof on parchment paper, on a peel, inside a trash bag until it passes the poke test about 90 minutes.

 Preheat oven to 500 F with steaming method and stone in place for 45 minutes.  Slide hat onto the stone and turn the oven temp down to 425 F after 4minutes.  Allow to steam for another 12 minutes.  Remove steam, turn down to oven to 425 convection this time, and allow bread to bake turning every 8 minutes, 120 degrees, until center reaches 205 F.  Turn off oven and leave on stone for 10 more minutes, with the door ajar, too allow skin to crisp up.  Move to wire rack to cool completely.

For breakfast we had a nice YW Buckwheat Apple Pecan Pancake loose based on sweetbird's bread but using YW as leaven and milk to thin it out to pancake consistency.  Very nice!

Then for lunch we used a couple of left over SD and SD YW breads to make a grilled chicken and brie sandwich with lettuce, tomato, homemade Dijon, mayo sstrawberries, mango, a dill pickle and Pink Lady Apples.  Why are there no Brown Men apples I still wonder.

Using the same filling and frosting as the YW Cinnamon Rolls, you can make a nice banana bread cake by substituting your favorite banana bead recipe for the dough - and you might need some sprinkles too!  Much better than plain old banana bread and 3 times as fattening too :-)

Dabrownman’s Banana Bread or Cupcakes

 Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

 Dry Mix:

 1 ½ C plus 2 T flour

¼ tsp salt

1/8 tsp each ginger, cloves, allspice

1 tsp each cinnamon and nutmeg

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

1 C chopped walnuts

1 C chopped chocolate chips

 Bourbon Fruit – add bourbon to below dried fruits in a Pyrex 1 cup measuring cup covered with plastic wrap.  Microwave on high for 30 seconds and set aside 15 minutes to plump up fruits.

 2 T bourbon

¼ C raisins or sultanas

¼ C dried cranberries

¼ C dried apricots cut into raisin size pieces

 Wet Mix:

 3 mashed up ripe bananas

1/8 cup sour cream

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

½ C vegetable oil

½ C each brown and white sugar

 Add ½ C sugar, ½ C brown sugar and Bourbon fruits to wet mix and stir until sugar is dissolved.  Mix the wet into the dry and stir 50 times with spatula until the flour is incorporated.

Quickly fill cupcake paper liners 3/4th full or put into PAM sprayed large bread loaf pan.

 Bake cupcakes for about 12-16 minutes until wooden toothpick comes out clean.  Loaves will take 45 minutes or more for wooden skewer to come out clean. 

 After 20 minutes remove from pans and let cool completely on wire racks.  Ice both with cream cheese vanilla icing and put sprinkles on each to decorate per the holiday or special occasion.  Makes about 21 cupcakes or 1 large bread loaf pan.

 Cream Cheese Frosting

 Ingredients

 1/2 C butter, softened

1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened

1 (16-oz.) package powdered sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract

 Preparation

 Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add powdered sugar, beating at low speed until blended; stir in vanilla.

 Cut recipe in half for 20 Cupcakes or 9x13 sheet cake .

This bake was meant to be a one day bread from start to finish that was still a tasty multi grain bread with soft white wheat, spelt, rye, WW, WWW and AP flours, 2 levains SD and YW, a WW berry scald, some fennel, anise and pumpkin seeds with ¼ tsp of ground cumin.  It has a 4 hour autolyse while the levains are being built, a short 1 hr fermentation and then final proof in a floured basket that took almost 3 hours.  It was a lovely looking bread since I didn't use a cloth for this basket.  The crust is crunchy crisp and nicely browned but we will have to wait for it to cool to see how these 2 quick levains worked together.

The crumb came out moderately open, very moist due to the YW.  The taste and texture was very nice with the pumpkin seeds and WW scald.  The normal 3 day developed SD tang was not there but just a hint of sour to go along with the light anise, fennel and cumin taste.  Ummm.... the smell was devine.  Very nice bread overall.  Had it for breakfast toast this morning - great with butter and apple ginger jam on another slice.

Formula and method after the pix's.

Soft White Wheat, Spelt, Seeded SD YW Bread

 The SD and YW levains were built over 2 stages of 2 hours each.  During this 4 hour period the flour’s, cumin, malts, VWG and water were autolysed in the mixing bowl.  The WW berries were also scalded and reserved on the counter to soak for 4 hours until needed.

 At the 4 hour mark all of the ingredients were incorporated in the mixing bowl with the exception of the seeds and scald.  The dough was mixed for 9 minutes on KA 2 .  Then the remainder of the ingredients were added  and mixed on KA 2 for 1 minute.

The dough was placed into a plastic covered oiled bowl to rest for 15 minutes.  4 S&F’s were performed at 15 minute intervals on a floured work surface with the dough returned to the covered oiled bowl in between each S&F.

 Let rest for 1 hour then form into a boule and place in a floured basket to proof in a plastic bag for 2-3 hours until it doubles.

 Preheat oven at 500 F for 45 minutes with stone steam in place.  Overturn basket onto parchment on a peel.  Slash as desired and slide bread into the oven.  After 4 minutes turn down to450 F.  After 12 more minutes, remove steam and turn down oven to 425 F convection this time.  Turn boule 90 degrees every 5 minutes and  bake until temperature in the middle of the bread is 205 F.  Turn off oven and crack the door to allow the crust to crisp for 12 more minutes.  Remove bread from the oven and let cool on a wire rack.