hullaf's blog

In past writing I've mentioned that I've been looking for a bread bowl. I own an antique kneading bowl that didn't clean up well and was too cracked to use so I have been on the prowl. Well, in the woods here in TN we have a variety of trees and my hubbie and I found a very big burl on a white oak tree on our property. We had the tree taken down (too big for us), got the burl off, and have set about making a bowl. It's an undertaking I tell you. We think the original whole burl and associated bark, etc. was over 120 pounds and about 3x2x2 feet big. My hubbie is doing all this work, he has experience with wood as he has been an amateur carpenter of sorts for the last 30 years. Here is the burl with most of the original excess wood removed, mostly by chainsaw.  

   white oak burl  

Then he removed the bark and more excess wood. It went down to 70 pounds, weighed on the bathroom scale! Still quite cumbersome.  

   burl without bark  

No bark-no bite to this burl! The wood is very hard and there are nice swirls inside the hollowed area. He's had to chisel and chainsaw, practically had bend over backwards to move it around. Then he started sanding and carving and measuring and balancing and deciding where the wood was good and what the best shape would be. Leftovers - there has been more than three wheelbarrows full of sawdust and wood chips. 

   starting to decide the shape of the burl bowl 

The weight has decreased to 40 pounds now, roughly about 20 inches in diameter, 8 inches deep and 1 1/2 inch walls -- (which eventually will be carved down to 1/2 inch thick.) More than that and it would be too heavy to lift and carry effectively for making bread! 

So, now it needs to dry out. And that might take a year or so. Hubbie has sanded out irregularities, made it sort of smooth, already noticed a few teeny cracks thus he put on a sealer made for wood so that it can dry out slower and more evenly all around. And since we live in a humid area it'll help to prevent any mold spores from seeping in too. Humidity can really creep into everything. 

Well, I'll let you all know how it turns out . . . in a year or so? We'll weigh it every now and then and when it starts to be stable we'll start carving some more. Or Hubbie will. I'm the recipient, the bread maker.  

 Anet 

I went to a local grist mill, called Fall's Mill in TN, and found some fresh cracked wheat. This is the bread recipe on the side of the bag: 

In a large mixing bowl pour 1 1/2 cups of boiling water over: 

2 cups cracked wheat

1 stick butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon salt

1 cup wheat germ 

Let cool. Meanwhile dissolve 1 package yeast in 1/2 cup warm water with 1 tablespoon sugar. Set aside to cool. 

Add 1 egg and 1 1/2 cups warm water to cooled wheat mixture. Add yeast and beat in 4 cups of bread flour. Work in additional 4 cups of bread flour by hand to make a fairly firm dough. Knead 5-10 minutes and turn into a greased bowl. Let rise for 1 1/2 hours in a warm place. Punch down and divide into thirds. Form 3 loaves and let rise an additional 1-1 1/2 hours. Bake at 350F for 30 minutes or more. Check often for even browning. Pull out pan, put back in oven for 1-2 minutes to crisp the crust. 

Now, my changes to the above were (don't we all tweak a bit?) -- I only made half the recipe as 3 loaves is way too much for just me and hubbie. I used half bread and half AP flours. I made a poolish with 6 ounces warm water + 6 ounces flour + 1/8 tsp of ADY and let it sit at room temp for 3 hours. I only kneaded 5 minutes by machine and 5 by hand. The final dough was shaped into one large loaf (9x5 pan) and a smaller (7x3x2). Total baking time was 45 min. and 25 minutes respectively. 

    cracked wheat    

The taste was very nice with the cracked wheat kernels soft and detectable. Next time I think I would put in a portion of whole wheat flour.   

Now I was so enamored with the cracked wheat that when I found a recipe in "Breadtime" by S.J. Cheney with sourdough I thought I'd try that too. The recipe is similar to the above, called Yeasted Sourdough Cracked Wheat Bread and the ingredients are: 

3 cups spring water 

1 cup cracked wheat or rye 

1 cup sourdough starter 

7 1/2 cups whole wheat bread flour 

1/4 tsp active dry yeast 

2 teaspoons sea salt 

2 tablespoons corn or other vegetable oil 

This time I made the whole amount, a lot of dough it is! I had been grooming my whole wheat starter a couple days before so that was used and I did soak the cracked wheat overnight with a pinch of salt. I didn't want a totally wheat bread so I used 1/3 whole wheat flour and the rest AP. I shaped the final amounts into one large boule which I baked in a preheated covered cast iron pot and the remaining into a 9x5 loaf (which turned out to be too big - next time I'll use an 8x4). Baked at 400F for 20 minutes, then uncovered with heat decreased to 350F for 28 more minutes. They both were removed from pans and set in oven with door slightly cracked for an additional 5 minutes to crisp the crust. 

This taste of cracked wheat with the sourdough was more tasty with a light sourdough flavor, but the cracked wheat was less pronounced. I think I should have not soaked it so long.  But, I liked this as well if not better than the non-sourdough one. 

I'm so pleased with my whole wheat sourdough starter. I know more and more every week how it reacts to temperature and technique, when it is ready and at it's best. It's nicely active -- which means every week I feed it, and each time I want to bake bread I "groom" it by refreshing/feeding it for 2 or 3 times every 12 hours beforehand. I do use the ratio of 1 part starter/3 parts water/4 parts wheat flour. Works for me. 

I also used my starter for Hamelman's Light Rye bread. It turned out so nice. I do think it is because of my sourdough starter and some newly bought whole rye flour from KA. But Hamelman's recipes always seem to work for me, too. 

   Hamelman's light rye 

So, my freezer is full of saved bread and I'm still eager to try some more recipes before the heat of summer makes me wish I had a southern outdoor kitchen out back. 

Anet

I'm liking my multigrain breads especially if I can get my sourdough starter to work with them. This latest is one from Hamelman's 'Bread", the Five-grain levain recipe. I followed the recipe fairly exactly only making 2/3 of the recipe. I used my whole wheat starter and not any commercial yeast. For the soaker I used part Bob's Red Mill 7-grain cereal mix, flaxseeds, and sunflower seeds. I even did the retarding part of the recipe in the refrigerator overnight, approximately 13 hours and then a four-hour warm up/proof on the counter before baking. The refrigerator-retarding part hasn't always worked for me and I think some of that is my knowing how to get the starter at the right timing of activeness and making sure it is active. The oven rise was nice with steaming, the aroma wheat-y, and the taste mildly sourdough (though I should have waited until tomorrow to slice, I can never wait.)         Anet

  five-grain levain  

  five-grain levain crumb  

I've been baking various breads with seeds. When Lindy tried Hamelman's "Sourdough Seed Bread" it sounded so good. It has 92% bread and 8% rye flours and uses a white flour starter. I have a whole wheat starter so used JMonkey's version from the new TFL Handbook, the 'Three-Seed Sourdough Bread' which uses  80% white and 20% whole wheat flours. Both recipes use sunflower, sesame, and flaxseeds. My bread came out tasting very good. See node 10286. 

But I wanted a bread with more whole wheat flour, so I tried R.L. Beranbaum's 'Sourdough Wheat Bread with Seeds' from "The Bread Bible". It has 50% each of white and whole wheat flours and a whole wheat starter. I followed the recipe fairly exactly with expanding/feeding the whole wheat stiff sourdough starter as described, used the five seeds she used (pumpkin, sesame, sunflower, polenta -- I used medium coarse grind cornmeal -- and flaxseeds.) The fermentation and proofing times went along well, I shaped two batards, the oven rise was nice, the browning seemed good, and the aroma heavenly. 

  sourdough wheat with seeds     sourdough wheat with lame scoring

  sourdough wheat crumb  

I've been trying new scoring after reading dmsynder's tutorial and have been better with my slashing. In the top photo, the left loaf was slashed with a bread knife and the right with a lame. I wish we got more times to slash per loaf. I want more practice - just means we get to bake more bread, right? 

Overall, I liked the taste of the three seeds alone rather than the five, but the whole wheat flavor of RLB's better.  

Anet  

 Susan's sourdough    

Susan's sourdough    

Like 'dmsynder' I baked Susan's sourdough this last week. (And somehow the above date is wrong, it is October 27, 2008.) I have tried it before without very good results but this time it was right! If you don't succeed . . .  The recipe was similar, only 2/3 of the recipe made, with the flour being  50% General Mill's "Best for Bread" and 50% KA all purpose flour (hoping for less chewiness). My starter was my whole wheat version (1:3:4 ratio) refreshed for two times before using. I made the dough as directed though "mixing" and folding was questionable as my dough wasn't loose enough for doing the "french fold"; it was moreso a "stretch and fold".  I felt the dough gluten development was sufficient and only folded for two times. It doubled in 6 hours. I formed it into one boule, put it into a well floured (I thought well floured) banneton and let it proof 1 hour and then into the refrigerator overnight. It then proofed at room temperature for 5 hours. And then when I took it out of the banneton, it stuck! Yee - I tenderly helped it out but it collapsed a bit and I thought, there it goes. But I put it in the oven with lots of (Hamelman type) steam -- it's difficult with my gas oven of course -- but it rose to the occasion wonderfully, the best oven rise I didn't expect! It came out tasting moderate sour.   Anet