Christmas baking
Ok, it isn’t all bread, but bread is prominently featured. My husband has been talking up my baking to his family so I couldn’t disappoint them. Most of this is now packed up in a suitcase on its way to Bangalore. Fingers crossed there is something left other than crumbs!
Breads, left to right:
Ginger plum loaf from the Rye Baker with triple the ginger and 1.5x the prunes
Spelt, rye, and whole wheat loaf from Perfect Loaf (https://www.theperfectloaf.com/spelt-rye-and-whole-wheat-sourdough-bread/)
Latgalian rye from the Rye Baker website, broken into 2 small loaves (http://theryebaker.com/latgalian-rye/)
Cookies, clockwise from bottom left:
Alfajores with goat’s milk caramel from Stella Parks (https://www.seriouseats.com/alfajores-vanilla-shortbread-milk-toffee-caramel-recipe)
Screaming ginger cookies from Alice Medrich (https://www.jamesbeard.org/recipes/my-ginger-cookies)
Christmas biscotti from Tish Boyle (http://tishboyle.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-biscotti.html?m=1)
Licorice brownie cookies from Jesse Szewczyk (https://food52.com/recipes/77735-salty-black-licorice-brownie-cookies)
Italian rainbow cookies from Smitten Kitchen (https://smittenkitchen.com/2008/12/seven-layer-cookies/)
Ginger crunch from David Lebovitz (https://www.davidlebovitz.com/ginger-slice-crunch-shortbread-recipe/)
Comments
It all looks tasty! I'm inspired to try some of the rye breads you have here.
Tony
I have made each of them multiple times and would recommend all of them.
Your in-laws will be very merry when they see this splendid array!! Nice work (and lots of it, too!)
I hope they like the bread. I made sure my husband bought them a toaster before the bread arrived :)
Wow amazing baking you have done there! I’d like to sample all of it. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
Benny
I always enjoy seeing your artistic bakes. Merry Christmas to you as well!
What a brilliant spread of diverse goodies! I hope it all gets safely to its destination.
Lance
Fortunately my in-laws are very nice people who will happily eat broken cookies if it comes to that :)
Wow! That's an amazing assortment of delectables. They all look delicious!
I may finally have to try the Latgalian Rye. I've been trying to hone my skills before attempting a more complicated recipe.
Definitely give it a try. It has a unique flavor (or at least a flavor I have not encountered in other breads). The dough is nice to handle, provided you wet your hands.
I find that the first scald stage doesn’t smell particularly nice (though not exactly bad) but the scent becomes pleasant at the later stages.
Part of my hesitation with these recipes that involve scalds is maintaining the elevated temperature for long periods. I don't have a B&T proofer, so I have will have to jury-rig a slow cooker with an inexpensive controller or possibly use an InstantPot.
I have made the Lithuanian Black Bread from theryebaker-dot-com and that was fantastic.
Your breads and cookies look amazing
First: all of the breads and cookies look amazing. And I'm happy to think of all those great items being on their way to Bangalore.
Second: a plug for the Latgalian Rye formula from trb.com -- http://theryebaker.com/latgalian-rye. I first made it in the crudest way, thinking of the scald as merely boiling water poured over a mix of rye flour, rye malt and caraway. It was terrific. Later, when I had the use of my bro-in-law's Anova oven, I baked it a second time, maintaining the temperature at 150C. I can't say the 16-hour temp hike made any big difference.
Rob
Rob,
Thanks for that info about the initial scald at 150 °F (65 °C). What did you do for the Sour-Scald at 130 °F (55 °C)? Did you also leave that at room temperature the first time?
yep. Room temp all the way. I thought it was a fantastic bread.
You can find my history with it in my responses to Martadella in this thread: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/70091/latgalian-rye.
If you follow the conversation, you will see (though I had forgotten it) that I actually baked this formula 3 times, twice using old-fashioned, non temperature-regulated scalds and once following the full directions. And you will see that I didn't think the sour-scald at 55C was useful, as it seemed to raise the sweetness and dial back the sour -- so the malty flavor of the final loaf was, to my mind, a bit cloying. But all 3 loaves were delicious and quite special and my families on both sides of the pond -- NYC and Zurich -- gobbled them up with gratitude.
Rob
Rob,
I'm sorry to ask one more question…
I was going over the recipe again and there is a discrepancy in the total water used. I see 650 g in the scald, 30 g in the sponge, and 100 g in the final dough. The Bakers'% table lists a total of 680 g,leaving out the final water. I assume the higher amount is the correct amount?
Thanks again—Happy Holidays!
Nice catch. You're way more detail-oriented than I am. I followed the recipe and ignored the final dough chart.
Beyond the temperature stuff, the only other changes I made were these: I used whole seeds instead of ground and I dialed down the honey in all 3 bakes, using about 20 g instead of 30. Just personal preference.
Cheers!
My Latgalian rye didn’t come out properly this time around. I’m not sure what happened to it. Looked fine from the outside but inside was clearly not right. It may have suffered starch attack.
Anyway, everything else was fine and survived the trip well.
congrats on a largely successful transport.
As for the Latgalian rye: is the issue you are describing that the loaf has huge air pockets underneath the crust, while the crumb below didn't rise as much and remained gummy and dense?
Not huge, but there were some odd gaps at various points, and the crumb was more moist and dense than it should have been.
the only times I've had similar problems, my fermentation was off -- either because my starter was weak or because I tried to save time.
Could be the problem. I ran out of the flour I usually use to feed my rye starter so had to use something else. Maybe it didn’t react well.
My first attempt is heading to the oven this afternoon. Fingers crossed…will know if I'm successful tomorrow upon slicing.
Great! Looking forward to your verdict.