Is it time for a new community bake?
It's been a while since the last one. And I've been kicking around the idea for a bread. More accurately, a bread template.
The template I've been mulling over would look something like this:
30% bread or AP or plain flour
30% whole wheat flour
30% non-wheat flour(s) - baker's choice
10% seeds and/or cracked/chopped/flaked grains - baker's choice
1.5-2% salt
60-80% liquid (water/milk/beer/whatever) - baker's choice
baker's yeast or levain for leavening - baker's choice
sweetener (optional) - quantity and type are baker's choice
fat (optional) - quantity and type are baker's choice
I've used the term "template" because this gives the individual baker wide latitude in ingredient selection, bread style (lean hearth loaf or enriched panned loaf are just two possibilities), process, and personal tastes. Regardless of the choices, everyone winds up with a bread that behaves like most wheaten breads while including plenty of whole grains and seeds.
Let's say I wanted a sandwich loaf. I might choose oat and barley as the non-wheat flours, a combination of sunflower seeds and flax seeds and maybe some rolled oats for the "seeds" portion, some honey and molasses for a hint of sweetness and additional flavor, and maybe some vegetable oil for tenderness. I could put the seeds and rolled oats in a hot soaker so that they don't rob moisture from the dough. The whole thing could be baked in a bread pan so that I get uniform slices for my sandwiches.
And that's just one of many potential directions I could go with this template. I think it would be really interesting to see what the TFL bakers do with something like this.
Your thoughts?
Paul
Jawohl!
Paul, your idea is good, but as a beginner a few years ago, I would never have felt comfortable winging it (i.e., making up my own recipe). To encourage those with less experience to participate, perhaps giving one recipe as an example and then asking everyone to follow the recipe or deviate as desired (and have those who do so specifically describe their deviations) would result in more people in the thread.
Ted
Maybe one enriched and one lean? One with sourdough and one with bakers yeast? It might take me a couple of weeks to test them and make adjustments. Or I could just put them out in draft form and let people make their own tweaks.
Paul
I don't think Paul is asking us to wing it. Finding an existing recipe that fits the template would be fine. If we made something up it would likely be very similar to many other recipes anyway.
Ah, perhaps, but a newbie reading Paul's post could easily feel as if winging it were being asked. The idea is to get people involved.
I think would be a fine starting point. However, this has already been done as a community bake.
Great idea. I like the flexibility but also the challenge.
Gavin
Plenty of room for creativity.
Paul
But be careful what you wish for Paul. Because if we're playing tag, you're it, this will be your CB.
After being handed the reigns for the CB from Dan for 4-6 CBs as well as co-hosting the monster baguette CB*, I can tell you that it can be a near-all consuming activity for the host if there are enough participants and posts and you want to treat it right. How Dan ever did as many as he did was a marvelous feat.
*For the record, the baguette CB has 2289 replies so far, about 4x the amount as any other post on TFL, most or all of which are other CBs.
I was thinking of having fun, not responsibilities. Now I have to go back to see what hosting looks like and then decide whether or not to run screaming into the night.
Paul
What ever happened to Dan, he was committed and inspiring but has dissappeared from these pages like many others before him and is missed.
I do like your suggestion Paul and although it might seem daunting for some of the bakers setting out on their journey it is all about having a go. It could stimulate some of the others that might otherwise be repeat answering some of the same old questions that come up so regularly. i reckon the parameters will see some imaginative stuff come about from within our ranks.
regards Derek
literally!
He still checks in from time to time, but he decided to continue baking quietly and return to his real love, fishing for Crappies and the like in the Mississippi Delta area.
Thanks Alfonso for thats good to know he still casts an eye over TFL, good luck with the fishing Dan!
i have to admit im not here as often as i was, and i now rarely respond to posters that dont have their avatar up and a brief bit of info in their my account, i do like to know who i might be assisting.
And like youAlfonso have actually made some great face to face contacts through these pages, Ananda (Andy)in the UK, Baking Badly (Zita) visitin Perth. Mebake (Khalid) in Dubai Betsy and daughter visiting Perth and return visit to Malaysia. RossnRoller (Ross) lives here in Perth
i reckon it might also make it less easy for the spammers that quite often infest the site if they had to complete the my account form.
Its noticable that all who have responded to this pmccool (Pauls) post are all fully fledged members and i know a little bit about my brother bakers.
I'm sure its not going to cause loss of sleep for either them or me over this but it could be limiting the help they are often seeking. !
I'm up for it. I'm still very much a beginner when it comes to making bread, but I've at least learned bakers percentage. Applying it though is a different story.... But on a serious side, if it's okay in a tin, then I'll join in. I'm usually a plain-jane when it comes to bread. Cookies are a different story though. :)
A cookie aficionado!
Hi sugar .
I could use some help with shaping a more traditional Italian biscotti. If you have the time, check out my blog post. Any advice is appreciated.
Kind regards,
Will F.
You like tinned loaves; it will work for you.
Someone else likes hearth loaves; it will work for them.
it's the bare bones of a framework. What the individual baker builds around it is entirely their choice. One could use the template a dozen times in a row and have a different bread every time.
Paul
Seems to be enough interest. Let's get this pinned and pick a start date!
For the beginners. And also the bakers that are not so new, with limited skills (me) the community bakes are fantastic to elevate skills in a short time, catapulting, you over that wall to the next level. What I am trying to convey is, don't hesitate to join in. There is no judgement here, just knowledge for the taking !
Kind regards,
Will F.
I'm assuming it's already been done, but is it time for another Sandwich Loaf CB? Looking at your ingredient list suggested to me a high-end sandwich Loaf, and so I thought I'd suggest it.
I've been away working on other projects, but this winter I want to master a classic NY deli rye, using this photo as my goal to replicate. I'm grateful previous CBs (such as a NY deli rye) are still online that I can peruse for inspiration!
Re-reading the formula. What about the other 10% flour? Did you mean to leave that up to us or are you including the seeds as part of that?
30% white flour (bread, ap flour, or plain)
30% non-wheat
30% whole wheat
10% ?
I'm thinking of doing something like this:
400g flour total: 120g bread flour, 120g whole wheat, 60g oat flour, 60g cornmeal, 40g potato flakes (or ap flour)
For seeds, I'm thinking of sunflower seeds and cracked wheat, possible pecans too.
Liquid: 320g max, possibly apple cider, some of it water to soak the cracked wheat
Extras: a tablespoon of each honey and olive oil. More if using boiled apple cider for sweetener.
Forgot to add this will be a sourdough sandwich loaf so some of my flour/water will be in the starter. 100g starter = 50g water, 25g bread flour, 25g whole wheat flour
Conventions vary on what to include in the 100% base. I tend to include everything I expect to affect the hydration and nothing else. I didn't expect my pumpkin seeds to change the hydration much so I used thirds instead of 30%.
Why didn't I think of that? It seems obvious now that I look at it. And here I am about to go into fractions/percents with our homeschooling. I'd probably better read the book first! :) I updated my numbers on my end, not in the post though. I'll do that after it's baked (it's resting now).
Inspired by Paul's suggestion, I tweaked my daily bread to approximate his template. This is 500 grams of flour and a total dough weight of 946 grams baked in a 9x4x4 inch pullman pan with no lid.
Ingredients
20% 100g rye starter (100% hydration) from fridge
55% 275g hot water from tap about 110F
17% 85g prairie gold hard white wheat freshly ground
16% 80g bronze chief hard red wheat freshly ground
22% 110g spelt freshly ground
33% 165g King Arthur bread flour
2% 10g potato flakes
5% 25g butter
5% 25g honey
2% 10g King Arthur whole grain bread improver
2% 10g salt
0.3% 1.5g instant yeast
10% 50g pumpkin seeds
Method
It is cool in our house today so I put it in the oven with the light on for the rest, bulk ferment and final rise.
This dough handles perfectly. I love it. It is elastic, strong and only a little sticky.
The pH of the baked and cooled loaf is 4.74. It has the nice lactic acid tang that I like.
I started grinding the flour at 11:18 and pulled the loaf out of the oven at 15:50, about 4.5 hours from start to finish.
It tastes great and is super soft. Perfect for toast and sandwiches.
I love the open crumb that great oven spring achieved.
Like Gary, I baked a bread based on the template. And yes, I did adjust the flours to be 34% bread, 33% whole wheat, and 33% non-wheat from the 30% numbers mentioned in my original post. The non-wheat flours for this bake were barley, teff, and a smidge of rye. Seeds/grains included millet, sesame, chia, and bulgur wheat.
I chose to use 1000g of flour as the basis, just to keep the numbers simple. That made enough dough for two 9x5 pan loaves.
Sorry if the formatting looks a little odd. I copied from a Word document.
Soaker
Ingredients
Bakers %
Weight
Water, boiling
10
100 g
Seeds1
5
50 g2
Cracked/chopped grains
5
50 g2
Flaked/rolled grains
0
0 g2
Combine water, seeds, and grains. Mix until thoroughly moistened. Cover and let rest until cooled.
1Any combination of any seeds that you want to use.
2The combined weight of the seeds and grains is equal to 10% of the total flour weight.
Autolyse
Ingredients
Bakers %
Weight
Water
55
550 g
Multigrain flours3
33.3
333 g
Whole wheat flour
33.3
333 g
Honey
6
60 g
Molasses
6
60 g
While the soaker is cooling, combine water, flours, honey and molasses. Mix until all flour is moistened. Cover and let rest for 20-60 minutes.
3Multigrain flours: any combination of almost any flours that you want to use. The one caveat is that nut flours haven’t been tested with this recipe.
Yeast
Ingredients
Bakers %
Weight
Water
3
30 g
Active dry yeast
0.7
7 g
Combine water and yeast; allow yeast to soften.
Final Dough
Ingredients
Bakers %
Weight
Soaker
200 g
Autolyse
1386 g
Yeast
37 g
Oil, Vegetable
4.2
42 g
Salt
2
20 g
Bread (or AP) Flour
33.4
334 g
Combine the soaker, autolyze, yeast, vegetable oil, and salt; mix thoroughly. Add the flour and mix until all of the flour is combined. The dough should be somewhat soft and slightly tacky, rather than sticky. If the dough is too wet or too dry, add small amounts of flour or water to adjust the dough consistency.
Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. Add sprinkles of flour to the work surface only if the dough is sticking. Place the dough in the bowl and cover with plastic. Let rise the dough rise until doubled, approximately 1 hour. (Assuming room temperature is in the 70-80°F range. The dough will double faster if temperatures are warmer, or slower if temperatures are cooler.)
Lightly grease the 9x5 inch loaf pans. Turn the risen dough onto a lightly floured surface and gently deflate it. Pat half the dough into a rectangle, approximately 14 inches by 9 inches. Roll up the dough from the narrow end; pinch the seam closed and place the loaf, seam-side down, in the greased baking pan. Repeat for the second loaf. Cover the loaves and allow to rise until nearly doubled in volume, 45-60 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Bake 40-45 minutes, until the bread is golden. The internal temperature should be 190-195°F. If you don’t have an instant-read thermometer, the loaf should sound hollow when tapped. Remove the bread from the pans and cool to room temperature on a cooling rack, covered with a towel.
I haven't sliced or eaten the bread yet but the appearance and fragrance are appealing. It would have benefited from some additional time for final fermentation, as evidenced by some tearing.
With any luck, I'll test a lean hearth bread version tomorrow.
Edited to include crumb shot:
The crumb, no surprise, is fairly uniform with small cells. It is also very moist. The flavor is pleasing and should make excellent toast as well as sandwiches.
Paul
I am sure you will enjoy the loaf.
Oh, we have!
Why not pick a theme then one can have a choice to bake a variation on the theme?
For example the theme could be chocolate then someone could make a chocolate bread, cake or cookies? This gives the baker a wide range of self expression without having to commit to one recipe.
It's pumpkin season here :)
That seems like a great idea too. The holidays are fast approaching, an ingredient as the star of the bake would be very different and fun. I'd love to see all the different things people can come up with.
I also like the idea of a theme. It allows beginning and advanced creative bakers alike to explore new recipes. The beginners can pick a recipe that fits the theme and the advanced bakers can wing it.
For example, the rye community bake had mostly rye bread submissions, but I also thought outside the loaf pan and found a recipe for a rye spice cake that fit the parameters; it turned out to be delicious and maybe something I wouldn't have thought of otherwise. I also posted some rye breads.
The second iteration of a bread made from this template is cooling as I write this. My objective was to try a lean, hearth-style bread from the template, as a contrast to the enriched panned sandwich bread that I made yesterday. In case you hadn't noticed, that post has been updated with a picture of the crumb.
Autolyse
Beer (Upper Hand Brewing's Deer Camp Amber Lager) + water - 67%, 670g total
Whole oat flour - 19%, 190g
Whole rye flour - 14.3%, 143g
Whole wheat flour - 33.3%, 333g
Flax seeds - 10%, 100g
The autolyse ingredients were mixed together, then covered and left alone for an hour.
Yeast
Water - 3%, 30g
Active dry yeast - 0.7%, 7g
The water and yeast were combined and given five minutes or so for the yeast to soften.
Final Dough
Autolyze
Yeast mixture
Salt - 2%, 20g
Bread flour - 33.4%, 334 g
I first stirred the salt into the autolyse, then the yeast/water mixture. The I added the bread flour and stirred it in as much as I could. The dough was very stiff; my best guess is that the flax seeds soaked up a lot of the water since they were noticeably larger than they were at the start of the process. Consequently, I wound up working another 80-90g of water into the dough. While kneading, the dough was very sticky even though it was quite firm. The rye flour alone isn't enough explain the stickiness, so I suspect that the flax seeds were also having an effect.
Our house temperatures are now cooler, so it took the dough about an hour and a half to expand approximately 80%. I shaped the dough into two boules and tucked them into rice-floured bannetons. Since the bannetons are too big to fit both of them in my Brod & Taylor proofer, I put them in the slightly-warmed oven (leaving the heat off) where they took about an hour to expand about 150%.
My slashing was apparently slightly uneven, because each loaf exhibits tearing on one of the slashes. It also occurred to me (though not until I was taking the bread out of the oven) that some steam would have helped with that. Not sure where my head was while putting the bread into the oven... The bread baked 50 minutes at 400F, reaching 205F internal temperature.
Here's how they look:
Overall, this seems to be a fairly workable base for producing a broad array of breads and bread styles. There's no reason one couldn't include other add-ins like fruits, nuts, vegetables, herbs, cheeses, etc. Question is, is there enough interest in this approach to launch a Community Bake?
Paul
Nice job, Paul.