rgreenberg2000's blog

Ok, so it took me WAY too long to make this after salivating over all of Benny's iterations of his lovely Hokkaido loaves, but I finally did it.  Thanks to Benny's very detailed and clear instructions, my first Hokkaido loaf was a success (though I need to get some of his super yeast so I can replicate the explosive rise he gets!)

I just finished my first two slices of this loaf, and it is delicious! A nice, soft crumb with just a bit of sweetness.  Toasts up perfectly, and was just wonderful with a light spread of raspberry jam.  Looking forward to a sandwich for lunch!

Anyway, here's my version of Benny's 50% Hokkaido Milk Loaf.......

NOTES:

My bread flour was KA

My WW flour was freshly home milled white winter wheat from Central Milling

My bulk and proof temps were 82F (4.5 hours bulk, 6.25 hours final), and I did chill the dough prior to rolling

I will now shamelessly copy all of Benny's lovely bread photo angles....... :). THANKS BENNY!

No bread today (sorry, Benny, didn't get to the Hokkaido bread today), but still had some fun with flour......  I feel like I've got my pasta dough down pretty pat at this point......

400g Caputo Antimo 00

3 large eggs

Tomato paste (to make the liquid equal 230g)

EDIT: Oops!  My (minimal steps after the ingredients didn't paste!  I use the "well" method for making pasta because I'm lazy and would rather clean a bowl than my food processor set up.  I have a wide/shallow bowl that is perfect, so I don't have to do this directly on the counter.  I pour the whisked egg/tomato paste mixture into a well created in the middle of my flour.  Slowly pull flour into the mixture with a fork until it becomes very thick, then I switch to hand mixing/kneading.  It will take some time to knead all the dry flour in, but resist the temptation to add moisture! Total kneading time should be able 10 minutes.  Wrap in plastic wrap, and rest at RT for at least 30 minutes, or in the fridge for several hours.  At this point, follow the directions for your pasta machine, or roll out by and and cut your pasta shapes.  Cook (quickly) and eat!

I received a new set of cutters for my Marcato Atlas 150 pasta "machine", and I tested out the Linguine cutter today.  I think due to the rain today, my dough needed about 30 minutes after rolling to dry a bit to be ready for the cutter, but after that, it went smooth as silk......

I sautéed some crimini mushrooms with butter, olive oil, garlic, salt and pepper.  When they were tender, I mixed in some chopped parsley, half a cup of pasta water, and about 1/2-1 cup of parmesan cheese.  Tossed with the pasta, then served with some grilled chicken breast and roasted zucchini......super tasty stuff!!!

.....and plenty of leftovers! :)

Rich

I'll preface this blog post with a big THANK YOU for the input, insights, and recommendations from my prior thread about needing to find my way back to the right timing for my regular loaves.  I think I've got it (pending a look at the crumb, but I'm pretty confident from the exterior and the heft (or lack thereof)) of my most recent bake.

430g AP

430g Bread

116g WW

116g Durum

58g Rye

240g levain

794g water

26g salt

The breakdown on the process this time was.......

• 0:00 - Autolyze whole wheat flours w/equal amount of water (290g)
• 1:00 - Mix remaining flour, water, and levain until dry bits incorporated, rest 30 minutes
• 1:30 - Mix in salt, then develop dough in Ankarsrum for about 12-14 minutes on speed 3/3.5
• 1:45 - Move dough to bulk container and into proofer @ 82F
• 2:15 - Stretch/fold, rest 30
• 2:45 - Stretch/fold, finish proof
• 5:00 - Divide, pre-shape, rest, shape
• 5:15 - Loaves in bannetons back into proofer @ 82F
• 5:45 - Loaves into fridge
• 6:45 - Preheat oven to 550F
• 7:45 - Bake loaf #1 (smaller banneton) - oven down to 475F, 20 covered on stone, 25 uncovered on stone
• 8:30 - Re-heat oven to 550F
• 8:45 - Bake loaf #2

I did try to use the aliquot method again, but I was getting only minimal apparent rise in my spice jar, and the dough had surface bubbles and was jiggly.  I think I didn't remove air from the sample well, so my reference point was off.....I forged ahead.  Loaf #1 didn't spring as much as loaf #2, so on my next batch, I'll extend the fridge proof an hour, and bake loaf #1 @ 8:45 on the "clock".

Overall, I'm very happy with the progress on this batch, and, if the crumb on Loaf #2 matches the nice exterior, then I will consider this my new procedure (until, of course, I change something else.)  Being able to use the proofer to control the temp variable across batches will help with consistency, and I'll work on a better procedure with my aliquot jar to use as reference.

Ok, a couple of pics.....

Loaf #1 on the left, loaf #2 on the right:

....and a close up of that proud ear on loaf #2!! :)

Again, my thanks for the help from the TFL collective, and I'll update with a crumb shot when I cut into a loaf for my toast in the morning.

Rich

I was very intrigued by Dan's CB post of the Portuguese Sweet Bread, but I didn't have all of the ingredients to properly attempt the recipe he posted.  I did think this would be a good way to use my new mixer with an enriched bread, though, so I instead decided to attempt the Portuguese Sweet Bread from King Arthur.

I followed the recipe exactly, substituting 1.33 Tbsp of Fleischmann's ADY for the preferred 1 Tbsp SAF Gold.

I used my new Ankarsrum mixer to mix everything up, and then develop the dough (went about 9-10 minutes.)

After about 2 hours, it seemed like it had puffed enough (kind of hard to tell from the photo)

I deflated the dough, then roughly shaped it into a square, as I decided to use my 8x8 brownie pan (USA Pans) instead of a 9" round....

A couple hours later, the dough was just below the rim of the pan, so I popped it into the oven to bake

After the 40 minutes called for in the recipe, the top of the bread was still a bit pale, so I hit it with Conv Bake for five minutes, and it came out a lovely, deep brown/mahogany

I haven't cut into it yet, so I'll have to update with a crumb shot later.  It smells deliciously sweet and lemony, and was pretty easy to make!

Rich

This is the third time I followed Benito's version of Eric's favorite deli rye sourdough.  After the first two times, my biggest frustration was my inability to get the rye sour well incorporated with the bread flour after its initial development........enter my new toy.  My lovely wife got me an Ankarsrum mixer for Christmas, and even green-lighted me using it a bit early.

My two favorite kitchen appliances:

So, I followed the process in Benny's blog post faithfully making the rye sour overnight, developing some strength in the bread flour/water, bringing the two together, etc.  The mixer performed beautifully (thanks to reading ALL of the posts on here about them), and I had a nicely developed and well integrated dough after about 12 minutes of mixing at the 3'oclock position on the Ank.

Baked it up and ended up with this (I was out of poppy seeds, so used black sesame for contrast:

I also made a couple of my "standard" loaves to test out the mixer with my weekly formula:

Sliced into the rye this morning:

Looking forward to a sandwich with my Kasseler Ripchen (cured/smoked pork loin):

A delicious bread, and thanks again, Benny, for sharing your version of Eric's rye!! :)

Rich

We had lots of good food yesterday for Thanksgiving, but I was especially happy with the dinner rolls that I made using Maurizio's Super Soft Sourdough Rolls writeup.  As promised, these were soft, fluffy, baked up nicely tall, and just downright tasty.  Perfect with a little butter, and to mop up whatever was left on my plate!

I followed Maurizio's instructions to the letter with two mods: (1) I only have AP flour on hand, so added some VWG to boost the protein content, and (2) I don't have a Lloyd pan, but my 12" CI skillet was a perfect substitute.

I snapped a few pics along the way on a busy day......

Dough portioned:

Rolls risen:

Baked and resting:

I've been wanting to make a rye bread for a while to change things up a bit, and finally got to it today (and yesterday.)

I really liked Benny's version of Eric's deli rye (pretty sure this was part of a CB), so I decided that I would follow Benny's post HERE.

I don't have too much to add to Benny's post, other than things went pretty much as planned.  I did extend the "bulk" to an hour to get to doubling, and this was a bit of an adventure to mix/develop by hand, but all in all, it came together as it should.

Here's my loaf after shaping, before adding poppy seeds, and using boxes of cat food for support rather than wine bottles (I have no doubt this will impact the loaf significantly!):

....and after baking, brushed with the cornstarch glaze:

I'll let this one "mature" until at least lunch tomorrow.  My biggest regret is that I didn't cure any corned beef or pastrami for sandwiches! :)

Thanks for the detailed post of your version of this rye bread, Benny!  Can't wait to slice it open!

Rich

I haven't posted in quite some time, but there is rarely a day that goes by that I don't check in here and marvel at the TFL creations.  I haven't posted, as I was pretty much making the same bread every week, so not much to share.  At some point (early Covid lockdown) I decided to acquire a Pullman pan and work on my sandwich bread.  I've been making this loaf with small tweaks to the flour mix here and there, and just wanted to pop in, share, and say thanks..... without some of the wonderful breads I see posted here, I would not have achieved this kind of result.  My current loaf is my modified version of Maurizio's Pain de Mie Sandwich Bread

Weekly Sandwich Loaf (9" Pullman - USA Pans)

398g AP Flour (Central Milling ABC)

76g Whole Wheat (freshly milled, CM hard red spring)

49g Durum (freshly milled, Great Plains)

14g Rye (freshly milled, CM)

350g Water

21g Olive Oil

35g Honey

9g Salt

87g Active Starter (100% hydration)

(note, my scale died today, and I obviously can't halve a double batch by eye....hence the lumpier loaf on the right that didn't fill the pan.) :)

Keep on baking, TFL, your creations inspire me!  (.....going to try one of Benito's multi-colored creations soon!)

Rich

Alfanso's recent blog post about the classic baguettes that he made, gave me the inspiration to try my hand at baguettes again (I did reasonably well in my first foray, but just hadn't made them again in a few years.  I followed the recipe and process from Alfanso's blog entry to the letter, except for extending my bulk proof to 90 minutes, and reducing the retarded portion to 3 hours.  They came out......ok.  I'm definitely out of shape from a shaping perspective, my scoring needs practice, and I think I prefer a 330g dough weight instead of 310g.

They were pretty easy to do, though, and they will likely taste good, so I will chalk this up as a success, and something to keep working on.  A few pics......

Woke up to this poolish in the am:

Ready for their fridge nap:

....and, baked:

Thanks for the inspiration (again!), Alfanso!

Rich

I decided that I wanted to change things up a bit this week, after falling into a rut making the same bread every week for a while.  Looking back through some of my favorite breads from the past, I decided that I would bake a rye sourdough with a nod to PiP's 40% rye.

Formula

343g AP

254g Dark Rye (Bob's Red Mill)

38g WW (fresh milled, hard red spring)

120g mature levain (100% hydration, fed WW flour)

385g Water

13g Salt

I used my typical process for this bread.  Mix all but the salt until incorporated, then rest for 30 minutes.  Add salt, use pinch method to incorporate, slap/fold about 30x, rest 30 minutes.  Gentle stretch folds about 20x, rest 30 minutes.  Four gentle folds, rest 90 minutes.  Four gentle folds to help release the dough from the container, then pre-shape and rest for 15 minutes.  Final shaping (batard in this case), proof in a banneton for 75 minutes, then into the fridge for about 4 hours. (NOTE: all "resting" done at RT since it was pretty warm.)

Bake covered at 475F for 15 minutes, then uncovered for 20 minutes.

I was very happy with how this turned out, and I think my dough handling skills are getting better......I remember this same bread at same hydration really being a major pain the first time I made it! :)

Fresh out of the oven:

Crumb shot:

Kicking myself for not making some pastrami...... :)

Rich