Through the Cooking Glass

Alas, my starter did not succeed. I don’t know what happened, but I will be trying a new one next week. My guess is that my kitchen was not warm enough. I’ll be using my toaster oven as a proof box next time. I’ll have to skip it this week as I’ll be gone skiing at Caberfae.

Nevertheless, I did make bread this week using a recipe I found on the discussingnt group (hat tip to Shelly in Tasmania) using a vinegar soak and commercial yeast with a small amount of baking soda. The bread turned out well and my wife and son like it better than my previous bread. It makes a nice sandwich bread. Nonetheless I consider commercial yeast a stop-gap measure. Natural leavening not only makes the bread more nutritious, but adds a lot more character to the bread.

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Start with part 1.

Now for texture…

Ingredients do play a role, but mostly handling. In an attempt to make my bread a little lighter (and I believe mildly successfully), I use 1 cup (per the two loaves) of an alternative flour. I had been using barley flour up until this weekend, but having run out of barley I tried short grain brown rice flour. The bread seems just a tad more crumbly, but pretty close to the same texture as the barley.

My basic process is as follows.

• The night before, take 6 tablespoons of my refrigerated starter and add 2/3c tepid water, whisk briskly, mix in 1 cup of whole wheat flour and let sit overnight.
• Sunday morning before leaving for church, whisk in 1c tepid water, mix in 2 1/4c whole wheat flour and leave till after church.
• Upon return home, grind the remaining 5 cups of wheat flour. Mix 4 cups with 2/3 cup of water and rest for 30 minutes (autolyse)
• Mix in 3 cups of sourdough starter (stirred down) and the remaining ingredients. Knead in Bosch for 5 minutes. Let rest for 10 minutes. Knead in 1 cup of barley flour and remaining 1 cup of wheat flour + extra based on feel. Add 1 tsp baking soda in the last minute of kneading.
• Knead by hand for about 1 minute and let rise for an hour or so in oiled glass bowl.
• Slice in two, shape into loaves, and place in greased, floured glass bread pans.
• Let rise till it’s about the size you want it (see pictures on previous post) with oiled plastic wrap covering it. This takes 5-7 hours depending on the temperature.
• Bake on 325 for 45 minutes.
• Cool on racks overnight.

If you can’t pass the windowpane test during kneading, let the dough rest a second time for 10 minutes or so. The key to passing the windowpane and consequently getting a better rise and crumb is soaking (autolyse). The home ground flour needs extra time to soak up the water.

The New York Times technique I’ve been experimenting with puts this soaking fact to work. The longer you soak the flour, the nicer the texture. I’ll probably try blending these two recipes. Maybe the first thing to try is throwing the dough in the refrigerator for a day instead of putting it out to rise…

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Here is my second attempt.

Ingredients were:

• 15oz wheat
• 12.5oz water
• 2t salt
• 1T oil
• 1T honey
• 1/4 cup starter

I baked in the stainless at 450 with lid on for 30 minutes and with lid off for 25 minutes. When I pulled out the pre-heated pan to put in the dough, I quickly floured the pan and then dumped in the dough. This much improved the sticking problem. However, it probably baked too long without the lid. The crust got a little too crispy.

It definitely needs more salt. It could also use more oil and honey and perhaps a small amount of an alternative flour such as barley. It has a very wheaty taste unlike my sandwich bread. It is also pretty bland, though the crust and texture is nice.

It could still use a longer proofing.

I may attempt adapting these techniques to my other recipe.

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I tried making the New York Times no-knead bread last night in a 4qt stainless steel sauce-pot. It has a lot of potential, but will require working out of some kinks.

I ground 370g of hard red spring wheat. I mixed in 1 1/4t salt. I then mixed in 295g tepid water to get about 80% hydration. Last I added 1/4c starter. This should have been pre-wisked with the water. The key is to have a well hydrated bread. I covered the bowl with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning I set it out on the counter before leaving for work. When I got home I took it out of the bowl and folded it 3-way like a letter you put in an envelope and then once again and put it back in the bowl to proof for 3 hours. I pre-heated the oven to 425 and put the pan and lid in. When it was hot I simply dumped the dough out of the bowl and into the pan and covered it with the lid. At 30 minutes I took the lid off and continued for another 15 minutes.

The results are interesting. The crust is nice and the bread is chewy. However, I should have either baked it at higher temperatures or left it in longer. It wasn’t quite done. It also could have used another hour or so of the proofing stage. The holes were not as big as I would have liked. Higher hydration may be worth trying too. I had serious problems with stickage. I had to use a big metal serving spoon to pry the bread out of the pan. It also needs significantly more salt. honey and oil might make it more flavorful as well.

This is worth experimenting with further. Before I try this again I will have to acquire a different pan that will not stick, or perhaps cover the dough or pan with flour or corn meal.

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I’ve been looking at the New York Times’ recently published no-knead bread recipe that is sweeping the net. I was considering trying this with a Pyrex pan. It seems that there are some people who have tried this with success.

Here is a word of warning from Wikipedia’s entry on Pyrex:

Pyrex, while more resistant to thermal shock than other types of glass, should never be subject to drastic or uneven temperature changes, such as when taken from the oven and placed on the stove elements (an excellent heat conductor) to cool, or immersed in cold water when hot. This can crack or shatter the dish.^{[citation needed]}

However, recent reports suggest that due to the change in manufacturing,^[1] notwithstanding the claims made for Pyrex, the glassware can shatter violently and unexpectedly, even when used in accordance with manufacturers instructions.^[3] Claims have been made of severe personal injury during these events. Some reports have suggested that older Pyrex was not as susceptible to these problems as currently produced Pyrex. It is unknown whether this has anything to do with the recent change in ownership and location of manufacture of the Pyrex brand.

I’ll be trying this with a stainless steel sauce pan since I don’t have a non-pyrex casserole dish. There are reports of this being successful.

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Start with part 1.

Over several months of baking this bread I have twiddled the process and recipe to come upon a bread I really like. It is a somewhat meaty and relatively moist bread with a rich, mildly wine-like flavor. It is soft rather than chewy and has a fairly fine crumb with small-to-medium holes relatively regularly spaced. It is quite filling. It makes a nice sandwich and goes well as an accompaniment to soups. It stays reasonably “fresh” for 4-5 days. After the 4th or 5th day it makes a really nice toast. When it’s too dry for toast I make it into bread crumbs for meatballs and such. You might call it a country style bread.

The physical aspects of the bread such as texture, moisture, crust, and crumb are mostly brought about by how the dough and grain is handled and baked. The flavor is affected by the ingredients. There is some overlap, but that is the general gist.

I bake 2 loaves at a time, so all the quantities listed are for 2 loaves. We’ll start with flavor.

Salt is key. In addition to affecting the flavor, it is also a dough conditioner and can increase the rise time, and decrease the size of the holes. I use 3 tsp, which is an increase from Mike Avery’s recipe.

The next trick I use is baking soda. I use baking soda not so much for leavening as for flavor. Baking soda is alkaline and so neutralizes acid. Because of this you can essentially use baking soda as a sweetener in sourdough. I use 1 tsp. I personally like the sour in sourdough, but my family does not so I use soda to make a milder bread. It still has the distinctive sourdough taste, but is relatively mild. Additionally, you don’t want to remove all the lactic acid from the dough as this is one of the things that makes sourdough more healthy. It helps to neutralize many of the anti-nutrients in the grains.

Oil can increase moisture retention and make bread stay “fresh” longer, but can also hinder gluten development and so make for a more crumbly, heavier bread. I use 6 Tbsp of extra virgin olive oil, a slight increase from Mike’s recipe. I’ve noticed that the bread stays moister longer and also has a richer taste, is slightly meatier, and is more filling.

Raw unprocessed honey is full of enzymes that help to pre-digest grains. I read somewhere that spreading a little raw honey on bread and letting it sit for 15 minutes will make the bread much more digestible. I use about 6 Tbsp, a slight increase from Mike’s recipe. The extra sweetness also helps to balance out the sour and thus the bread requires less baking soda to make it kid and wife friendly.

Continued in part 4…

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