Lazy Loafer's blog

Finally, I took some time off from baking for customers (at least cut down my baking days) so I have time to do a few more things, like getting ready for Christmas. I figured this was a good time to try the no oven challenge.

It made sense to use the wood stove in the basement. We use this as a significant source of heat for the house in the winter and, as there is a fire going all day, it didn't take much effort to use it for bread baking. I thought I'd use one of my cast iron pots which hopefully would survive the experience without being destroyed for use in the regular oven later.

A simple 123 sourdough seemed just the thing - this one with about 50 grams of stone-ground Kamut added to the bread flour.

It turned out quite nice, and I even managed to score it (you can see the straight razor I use for this).

The stove was hot and I moved the coals to the back and sides to make room for the pot right on the fire brick.

The pot itself had been pre-heating on top of the stove for a while...

The dough got plopped into the pot (with the parchment paper), on with the lid and into the stove.

And then I made the big mistake - I thought "That will take a little while, so I'm going to pop out to the garden to dig some potatoes". Yes, on the first day of winter in Canada I was out in a tee-shirt and cropped trousers, digging potatoes. Then I got a couple of parsnips and a bunch of carrots, cleaned the mud off my tools and tidied up. Oh, and took out the recycling.

Time to check the bread...

Oops! I actually burned the oven mitts on the pot handles! The parchment paper was a little bit of glowing red ash on the side of the little cinder that was my loaf of bread. I had to disable the smoke alarm in the basement and open the window.

I haven't stopped laughing yet. And I hope no one needs a crumb shot! :)

Well, I am chuffed. I've been working on version of 'beer' bread that has all kinds of good things in it. I've been inspired by several people (Cedar Mountain, danni3ll3, dabrownman among others) and was also spurred to action by a happy little relationship. My regular beer bread is mostly white flour with a poolish starter made from my husband's pilsner-style beer. The place where he gets his beer making supplies (has been for about 30 years) asked if he could bring in some bread to see if they could sell it, and that worked out well. I wanted to make something a bit more multigrain using the dark beer (stout) that he also makes from one of their kits, plus they gave me a bag of lovely crystal malt and some dried malt extract which I wanted to incorporate.

I put together a recipe a couple of weeks ago and tested it out. It was good, but a bit gummy and dense. I changed up the recipe a bit and made version two. this was way better but the crust was quite tough (very tasty though). This week I made a few more changes and voila - one of the best breads I've made. The crust is crisp and shatters when cut; the crumb is moist and just open enough, and the flavour is awesome!

The recipe is a bit difficult to recount, as there are so many things in it! But here's the synopsis:

Starter

• 200 grams bread flour
• 50 grams Bob's Red Mill 7-grain cereal
• 250 grams stout
• 1/8 tsp active dry yeast

Mix and let ferment until bubbly (overnight if you like)

Dough

• Bread flour - 350 grams
• Organic AP flour - 350 grams
• Mixed stone-ground whole organic flours (spelt, khorasan, Red Fife, rye) - 200 grams
• Water - 600 grams
• Cracked crystal malt - 25 grams
• Cooked, toasted grains (spelt, khorasan, Red Fife, rye) - 125 grams
• Active dry yeast - 1/4 teaspoon per loaf
• Dried malt extract - about a tablespoon per loaf
• Olive oil - about half a tablespoon per loaf
• Salt - 20 grams

So, first toast and cook the grains:

Next, soak the crystal malt in the dough water:

That smelled sooooo amazing!

I then mixed all the cooked, cooled grain into the soaker water as well, than added all the flours and let autolyse for about 45 minutes.

I spread out the resulting 'dough' and sprinkled it with the salt, then topped with the starter, dried malt extract and the dough yeast. I folded this in well and then mixed it in the stand mixer until smooth and consistent. I let it sit for probably four or five hours, folding four times over the first couple of hours and it ended up very nice and stretchy.

And into the fridge to proof overnight. It actually was a bit longer as I didn't get around to baking this one until the following afternoon (too busy baking the light beer bread for the beer supplier!). The dough was beautiful - nicely risen and domed with one huge gas bubble just under the top skin. That was some windowpane! I scaled the loaves to 600 grams, preshaped then shaped into tight(ish) balls and into floured baskets.

I didn't let them proof for too long with all that good stuff in them - maybe an hour while I pre-heated the oven and the cast iron pots to 475F. I cut squares of parchment paper and turned the dough out onto the paper, slashed, then lifted each and dropped it into a hot pot. 30 minutes at 450F, then remove lids and another 20 minutes at 425F. Interior temperature was about 205F.

I was so happy with this bread. Even with all that stuff in it, it was not dense. The crust was amazing, and so was the crumb. The things that contributed were:

1. Using half AP flour and half bread flour made the crust so much more tender and crispy
2. Adding a bit of dried malt extract and olive oil reduced any bitterness from the whole grains (as was evident in the first iteration of this bread)
3. Toasting the grains added to the flavour; cooking them reduced the hardness
4. Cracking the malt and soaking it in the dough water added an amazing amount of flavour and colour

This is my new favourite bread... :)

Sometimes, people just want a loaf of nice white bread, you know? I tried this recipe from America's Test Kitchen's book "Bread Illustrated", and found it to be just the thing. It's a soft bread, enriched with some olive oil and a bit of sugar, made with AP flour instead of bread flour. A pre-ferment (sponge or poolish) gives it a flavour boost too. The dough is very soft and delicate.

Scali is traditionally braided and topped with an egg wash and sesame seeds. I tried it free-form the first time but it ended up a bit flat (I think it over-proofed as well, as I shaped it then let it sit in the fridge overnight and baked it the next morning). This time I braided it and popped it in loaf pans. It proofed quite quickly and I baked it about 45 minutes after shaping. It's a beautiful bread and very tasty too.

Rather than cutting three pieces then sticking them back together, I patted the dough out to a rectangle and cut most of the way through, leaving the strips attached at the top. Then I just braided to the bottom and tucked the other ends under. It fit nicely into 8.5" X 4.5" loaf pans, sprayed with pan spray.

Yay, The FWSY Country Brown turned out beautiful! I did fudge the recipe a bit. I cut down on the initial hydration and then added water back in when I was happy with the consistency of the dough, so not sure of the final hydration but the dough was very soft and stretchy. I used fresh hand-milled stone-ground flour for the whole wheat portion (about 38% overall) so I wasn't sure how much water it would absorb. The grain was hard red spring wheat from a local farmer, and the flour smelled wonderful!

I also changed the proofing times somewhat. Though I did let it bulk ferment overnight, it was in the unheated workshop downstairs. In the morning it was very pouffy and had risen well. I shaped the loaves and let them sit in the baskets for only about one to one and a half hours, not the four or five hours that Forkish recommends. Shaping went quite well but the dough was still very, very soft so I basically pinched all the edges into the middle and lifted it up like a dumpling to put into the basket. Unfortunately that meant it was seam side up, so no natural burst for these ones.

I cut pieces of parchment paper to fit the bottoms of my cast iron pots. When they were hot (45 minutes or so at 475F) I turned the dough out onto the parchment circles, quickly scored (single slash) and then used the parchment circle to pick up the dough (spreading the fingers of both hands and using them to lift under the circle). The dough tried to run off the edges but I just plopped it into the pans and covered them up.

Into the oven - 30 minutes at 450F with the lids on, then lids off, rotate the pots (four of them) and 20 minutes more, reducing the temp to 425F.

I was very happy with the results. The bottom crust was bold but not burnt; the slash opened up nicely and the crust looked wonderful. These were all for customers so no crumb shot, but I did get an email later saying that the bread was amazing. :)

I know, I know, I said I was going to create something new for homemade bread day. But I baked eight loaves of Buckwheat Cranberry bread (a variation on Buckwheat Cherry posted here) on Sunday, and have four dozen hamburger buns and ten loaves of beer poolish bread to make today and bake tomorrow, and I wanted to get my Christmas pudding done, so here it is.

This is an old recipe I've been using for many years. I like it for a couple of reasons:

1. It uses butter instead of lard or suet so it's good for the vegetarian members of the family
2. There is fresh chopped apple and a lot of mixed dried fruit, without any of the candied, dyed 'fruit'
3. There's a healthy dram of good Scotch whisky in it :)

I like to serve this warm with a nice lemon sauce, but of course it goes equally well with hard sauce, brandied cream or whatever you prefer.

I'll be making smaller ones too (for gifts or for sale), and steaming them in large soup mugs from the dollar store.

It was my daughter's baby shower on the weekend, and I made good old spinach dip. Of course, you need to put it in a sourdough bread bowl, right? So I added one 123 sourdough boule to the weekend bake. It turned out to be so good, I'm making smaller bread bowls (or boules, if they don't want them for holding soup!) for the subscription list customers for Wednesday. Nice creamy open gelatinized crumb, but I didn't get a crumb shot because I hollowed it out at the shower and it was devoured!

Sometimes it's nice to get back to basics. :)

• 150 grams of 100% hydration active starter
• 300 grams of water
• 400 grams of bread flour (Roger's Silver Star)
• 50 grams of sprouted whole spelt flour (Anita's Organic)
• 9 grams of salt

30 minute autolyze; 5 hour bulk ferment with 3 or 4 stretch & folds; overnight retard in the fridge; shape & proof for a couple of hours; bake in a DO.

I watched British Bake-off with my daughter last night. It was Botanicals week, and the bread challenge was Fougasse. Not being one to turn down a challenge...

I find the flour here in the UK to be a bit of a challenge in itself, being used to Canadian bread flour. The dough was very, very sticky and took a long time to develop. I ended up with so much stuck to me and the bench, even after 10-12 minutes of slapping and folding, that there was barely enough left for the bread! Oh well, a challenge is meant to be challenging, after all.

I should have stretched it a bit more so the cuts stayed more open, but it seems crispy enough just the same. We'll have it with dinner and let you know!

Well, after having spent five days in Prague, sampling their wonderful bread (there is even fresh, home-baked sourdough multi-grain bread in the convenience stores!), I came back to my daughter's house to find no fresh bread. So off we go again. First, some more of the seed bread for toast. This also makes very good toasted egg, ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, especially with some of the excellent cheese I got at Neal's Yard in London Borough Market - the best cheese shop in the best market in the world! :)

I made this with a poolish pre-ferment, as there is no room in the tiny fridge for cold-fermenting dough and I wanted a bit more flavour in the bread. I ended up making too much poolish so I decided to make some kind of buns to go with the Chicken Paprika I was making for dinner the next day. This was a real throw-everything-in-the-bowl kind of dough - to about 85 grams of poolish I added around 200 grams of water, and around 300 grams of mixed flours (strong white, granary and whole spelt). I say 'around' because the scales, which are solar powered, turned themselves off in the middle of weighing the flour so I eyeballed it. Then I added some smoked paprika (seemed like a good idea), a bit of granulated garlic, salt, and more of that excellent cheese from the market, grated right into the dough. After a bit of mixing, kneading, stretching & folding, and otherwise manipulating the dough, I put it into a bowl and took it into the bedroom with us to rise slowly overnight (this is the coldest room in the flat, with the window open). By morning it had about tripled and was definitely active!

Fold the dough down a bit, pat it out into a rectangle and cut into six pieces (with a pizza wheel, as my daughter doesn't have a bench scraper!), then chafe these into nice tight little balls. They proofed for about an hour and I popped them into the oven (about 200C).

I must say, they turned out rather well. They certainly smelled wonderful while baking, and they were nice and moist inside. And the weird combination of ingredients turned out nearly perfect! Not only did they go well with the Chicken Paprika, but I had half of a left-over bun for breakfast this morning, toasted and topped with cream cheese and rhubarb compote. I'll definitely be using smoked paprika and cheese together again.

Well, we're here safe and sound in Huntingdon, Cambs in the UK. It's hot and sticky in our daughter's little flat, and of course the kitchen is a bit challenged for space, especially the tiny British fridge! But I still had to make bread (not about to eat store-bought!). I did bring some of my starter, which seems to have survived the trip over. I fed it with Strong white bread flour (Allinsons I think, without going to look) and it bubbled up nicely overnight.

The first loaf was a 123 sourdough, with 200 grams of strong white flour, 50 grams of wholemeal, and 50 grams of granary flour (Allinson's Country Grain bread flour). No place to retard the bulk ferment, so it was all done in one day. It ended up a little overproofed and was very soft and 'spreadable', but turned out quite nice all things considered. I proofed it rolled up in a floured placemat from the pound store and baked it on a fairly heavy baking tray, with a bit of water in the grill pan in the oven. It ended up with just the right amount of 'chew' and nicely moist with a decent crust.

Then, for breakfast toast and such, I made a loaf of seed bread. I normally would bulk ferment this in the fridge overnight, but as that wasn't possible I made a poolish and let it bubble for a few hours, then figured out the rest of the recipe (volume of flour and water, and reduced amount of yeast). The kitchen scales are very rudimentary and don't measure accurately so I was a bit challenged but just added what felt right. I dumped in a heaping half cup of an omega seed blend I found (pumpkin, sunflower and brown and golden flax seeds). The dough was fairly stiff but I kneaded it until smooth, did a bulk rise then proofed it in the bread pan and baked it without steam. It had milk and honey in it but no fat. It was lovely for toast this morning!

I'll be keeping an eye out for other interesting flours and equipment on our travels! And hello to all the TFLers from the UK.

Okay, I'm quite sure one is not allowed to have this much fun while baking bread. :) With all the ideas purcolating through my head, many sparked by questions and comments on this site, I decided to go a little nuts with this weekend's fun bake.

I'm still playing around with the 123 bread to see what I can do with it. Turns out just about anything! Then there was the semi-challenge issued by Dab I think it was, when someone posted that beautifully-weird black bread and he wondered about a 'colour' challenge. And I was also browsing an old thread about how to get more vegetables in bread to make it healthier.

So ... drumroll please ... I present 123 Veg bread, in three colours!

The base dough was the same for all of them - 100 grams of fresh, 100% hydration starter, 200 grams of water, 225 grams of bread flour and 75 grams of whole wheat flour, with 6 grams of salt, for each loaf.

The first had roasted beets, chopped fine in the food processor (they were a little chunky still because I roasted them a little too long and the outside was a bit crusty). I added some currants and cardamom, thinking of the sweetness of beets.  One thing that really annoys me is that I took pictures of the entire process, but ended up accidentally deleting them before uploading them. Anyway, the dough for the Beet bread was the most beautiful bright shade of fuschia pink, dotted with currants. Lovely!

The second had mashed roasted yam, with a little bit of maple syrup and a touch of cayenne (as this is what I like with my roasted yams). Dough was a lovely soft orange, as expected.

And the third contains chopped cooked spinach, with some toasted sunflower seeds and a dash of nutmeg. The dough itself wasn't really green (probably a good thing) but rather flecked with green.

Of the three doughs, the one with mashed roasted yam was the softest dough. The beet one was the most firm and springy, and the spinach dough was a little sticky but still nicely workable. Oven spring was very good for all of them.

Once baked, the colours come through nicely and the flavour is quite different with all of them. I baked two loaves of each plus a small taster loaf, which I cut and tested. The crumb shots below are from the taster loaves. I was quite surprised how strong the spinach taste was, and decided that one would be best served with cheese. :)

But here's a series of pictures I re-took after the bake. The colours are not so dramatic as they were in the dough (I am SO gutted about the loss of all those pictures!).

The three side-by-side for colour contrast.

Here is the Beet Currant...

And the crumb for the Beet Currant...

This is the Roasted Yam...

And the crumb shot of the Yam...

And finally, the Spinach and Sunflower loaf...

And the Spinach & Sunflower crumb shot...

So, what other colours can we make? :)