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Archive for the ‘bread’ Category

Best Sourdough Yet

p1100085.JPGI started with my version of the No-Knead Bread (or minimal knead bread). I had recently received a copy of Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor. I followed his directions for culturing a sourdough starter. His starter is about 76% hydrated (which means there’s about 3.5oz of water and 4.5oz of flour).

  • 15oz hard white spring wheat ground finely
  • 13oz water
  • 8oz sourdough starter
  • 2t Celtic sea salt
  • 1t sprouted wheat ground finely

Mix all the ingredients the night before (preferably with a recently refreshed starter). It helps to break the starter into numerous small pieces to mix into the rest of the dough. Knead with wet hands for a minute or so to incorporate the starter. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator overnight.

In the morning knead the dough with wet hands about 8-10 times until the ball is tight. Put the dough back into the bowl (big enough so it can double in size) and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rise till about 3:00pm. Longer is fine, but the longer it sits, the more sour it will be.

Take the dough out of the bowl and fold it over gently a few times. Shape it into a ball (find a nice description of how to do that on the web somewhere) making sure to get the outer skin tight or snug. Place the bread on parchment on a pizza peal or edgeless cookie sheet. Allow it to rise for another 2 hours or so till it is about double in size.

p1100092.JPG

Place pizza stone on bottom rack. Place a cookie sheet full of water on the top rack. Preheat oven for at least one hour to 500°.

Slash the top of the bread in a plus pattern to about ½in deep. Quickly slide the bread onto the pizza stone. Close oven and reduce heat to 450°. Bake for 25 minutes. Turn 180° and bake for another 20-30 minutes. The bread is done if it sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom.

It takes some practice to get everything right. The only thing that isn’t quite right yet is the bottom is a little too dark. My technique will improve with time. I’m also still playing with the sprouted wheat flour hoping to speed rising time.

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I just received my pre-ordered copy of Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor. I was a little disappointed with some of his previous books, not because they were bad books, but because he seemed to be focused strongly on white breads. While I was only able to read a few pages last night, this looks to be a really interesting book. A review is forthcoming as soon as I have time to hunker down and read it and try making some loaves.

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No-Knead Bread

bread.jpgI’ve been refining this bread recipe. The beauty of this recipe is that it is so easy and doesn’t take much time. It seems to stay fresh longer than some of my previous recipes. I make it on Sunday and it is still reasonably fresh for my Thursday lunch sandwich. By Friday it is starting to get a bit dry and stale, but what more can you expect?

  • 15oz hard red spring wheat
  • 12oz tap water
  • 2T unpasteurized apple cider vinegar or whey
  • 1/4t active dry yeast
  • 1 1/2t celtic sea salt

Grind the wheat as finely as possible. Mix in yeast and salt. Add the vinegar to the water. Make a well in the middle of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid. Stir until mixed, cover, and refrigerate over night.

In the morning wet your hands and knead the dough about 10 times. Don’t do it much more than this. I have succeeded in over-kneading my dough after an overnight soak and a very short knead. Cover and let sit at room temperature.

Sometime in the afternoon (anywhere from 3-5) place a piece of parchment paper on an edgeless cookie sheet or pizza peel. Wet your hands and dump out the dough on the counter. Gently fold the dough as you would a business letter and then again once the other direction. Tuck the seams gently underneath – shaping it into a ball – and place in the center of the parchment. Sprinkle a little flour on top and cover with a towel. Let it rise for 1-2 hours. Don’t let it rise too long.

Place a pizza stone on the center oven rack. Place a pan of water on the bottom rack and preheat the oven to 450F. Let the oven preheat at least 30 minutes. Loosen the parchment paper on the cookie sheet so that it slides easily. With a quick jerk slide the bread onto the pizza stone. Bake for about 30 minutes.

So far the inside comes out perfect. The top sometimes gets a little too brown. I think more steam seems to help keep the bread from getting too dark.

UPDATE (9/16/2007): If found that if you put the pizza stone too high in the oven, you will get overdone crust. I put the stone on the lowest or next to lowest rack and then put the pan of water on the top rack.

I also recently tried using hard white spring wheat instead of the red. It make a much lighter colored bread. However, it also seems to be more thirsty. I bumped the water up to 13oz. The extra water seems to make the crumb a little more open as well.

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burgers.jpgThe grilling season has begun! (Actually I’ve been grilling for a couple weeks now.) I like to grill pretty nearly everything. One of our favorite grilled vegetables is broccoli with butter, salt, and pepper (various squashes are also quite good). We also like grilled potatoes. Grilled corn on the cob is wonderful.

This is my first attempt at hamburger buns. I haven’t been able to get my sourdough starter started ever since I killed my last one (purposely). So I’ve been making a “soaked” bread. That is, the flour is soaked in an acidic solution for a while. Since I use raw vinegar (with the mother of vinegar still in it) for the acid component, it might also be called a fermentation. I’ve developed the following technique based on the famous New York Times no-knead bread recipe.

  • 15oz hard red spring wheat
  • 12oz less 1 tablespoon cool water
  • 1 tablespoon raw apple cider vinegar
  • 1/4 teaspoon yeast (either active dry or instant are fine)
  • 1 1/2 teaspoon salt

Grind the wheat into flour as finely as you are able. Mix this all up in the evening, cover, and put it in the refrigerator over night. Take it out in the morning and knead it by hand for about one minute. Put it back in the bowl and cover. Leave it at room temperature.

In the afternoon, liberally cover a pizza peel or edgeless cookie sheet with cornmeal. Take the dough out of the bowl and fold it 3 ways like a letter. Fold it again the other way. Put it on the pizza peel or cookie sheet. Cover it with a towel and wait for it to rise a bit. Probably about 2 hours or so, but whatever seems right.

Put a cookie sheet in the very bottom of the oven and fill it with water. Put your pizza stone on the middle rack. Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Let it continue preheating after the oven thinks it is preheated. It’s lying. Preheat it at least 20 minutes. When the oven is ready quickly slide the dough off the peel directly onto the stone. Bake for about 30 minutes. I haven’t yet found the perfect baking time. Last time I did it 35 minutes and the crust was a bit too brown.

For the buns in the above picture I first folded the dough and then cut it into 5 pieces (6 might be better). I shaped them gently into balls then I put them on a sheet of parchment paper on an edgeless cookie sheet. The rest is the same.

I’ve also made this into bread sticks and pizza.

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Dead Starter

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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New Starter

starter.jpgI was informed the other day (not the first time either) that my bread is too sour. This even though a great deal of the sour is reduced by my judicious use of the acid removing properties of baking soda. I asked Shari why she thought it was too sour since she does like some sourdough breads. She said it was too sharp. Yes, it is somewhat reminiscent of lemon flavored bread.

I have occasionally succeeded in making less sour bread by feeding my starter a lot and refrigerating the bread dough and things, but I finally decided to try culturing a new starter. I received Peter Reinhart‘s Crust and Crumb for Christmas, so I set about to follow his directions for a mild starter. The key for a mild starter is to have a very firm starter, more like bread dough. My starters in the past have all been more like pancake batter.

My old starter was cultured with rye flour from a bag – non-organic. Peter recommends using organic flour for at least the initial batch of starter since more yeasts and bacteria live on the surface of organic grains. This starter is made with my home ground wheat instead of rye.

I was really impressed when after 48 hours it was already doubling in size! This could be the best thing to happen to my bread yet. (The tape is the height it was when I put it in the cup.) By Sunday it should be tripling.

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burrito.jpgUsing my spiffy new Fidibus 21 grain mill and my new tortilla baker (a Christmas gift), I made burritos. I would link to the tortilla baker, but Amazon doesn’t seem to carry it anymore.

I had been making corn torillas with masa harina, but Shari wanted me to try to make flour tortillas. So here’s the recipe I developed for whole wheat flour tortillas.

  • 2 cups soft white wheat freshly ground into flour (or about 3c whole wheat flour)
  • 2 tablespoons of whey
  • 1 teaspoons of sea salt (I’m currently using RealSalt)
  • 1 tablespoon of oil (I used extra virgin olive oil)
  • 1 cup of lukewarm water

tortilla.jpgMix all of this stuff up and let it sit for 12-24 hours at room temperature. It’s probably better to leave the salt out and knead it in just before baking as it will allow the lacto-bacilli in the whey to work better.

Pull dough off in 2 inch diameter balls and flatten in a tortilla press or baker. Heat on both sides until done. Keep warm in the over (or toaster oven) on a plate covered by a damp paper towel till ready to serve.

If they stick to your press, you may want to add some extra flour to the dough or flour the press. The press I am using is Teflon coated (gasp) so works well with this recipe.

These are wonderful fresh, but get quite stiff if they sit around for very long. I found that they make a nice chewy snack after a day or so, but won’t work for burritos anymore unless you seriously rehydrate them.

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In preparation for buying a new grain mill, I order a new book, Flour Power.

As far as I can tell, this book has no competition. There are no other books out there covering this topic. It is loaded with information about how commercial flour is milled, what get’s destroyed, etc. It also tells you about all the different home grain mill milling mechanisms (e.g. impact, stone burr, roller, etc.) and their pluses and minuses. It has a lot of information about different manufactures and how to contact them. It also has a wealth of information about different types of wheat, dough conditioners, and recipes for various breads.

In short, if you are considering (or even if you are already an avid home-miller) milling your own grain, this is a must have book. Don’t go out and buy a grain mill and then order this book. For the small price you pay for this book you could save yourself a lot of pain and heartache. Buy it, read it, THEN order your grain mill.

That said, I do have some complaints. The author, Marleeta Basey, has completely bought into the whole low-fat agenda. She preaches low-fat high-fiber diets throughout the book. Naturally, Nourishing Traditions cooks will have to disagree with this preaching. There are about 3-4 chapters of nutrition information, which in my humble opinion are completely unnecessary. They talk about vitamins, minerals, fat and other things and there are a large number of speculative statements like… this study showed that vitamin x MAY do such and such. These are the same chapters that rail against fat. My recommendation is to take these chapters with a grain of salt and get down to the practical information in the book.

On the whole, I highly recommend this book. Even if you are not planning to mill your own grains, this book may change your mind.

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Ruined Dough

I ruined some dough the other day. I was trying an experiment with a no-knead sandwich bread and I actually ended up kneading it. I had left the dough in the refrigerator overnight and when I took it out I thought it looked like it could use some kneading. I threw it in my Bosch and set the timer for 5 minutes. About half way through the kneading the machine suddenly started going faster. It had been working harder and suddenly there was less resistance and the machine started going faster.

After taking out the dough and playing with it, I discovered that it was now a bit like pancake batter and didn’t stick together anymore. I over-kneaded it (a first for me)! I was about to throw out the dough and decided to see if I could make something useful out of it. So I let it sit for the rest of the day to ferment.

That night, I threw in some baking soda and baking powder, poured it out on an edgeless cookie sheet, and baked it. It spread out to about 1 inch thick. It was very tender – almost muffin or biscuit-like – and nothing like a yeast or sourdough bread should be. However, it had a very nice crust and nice flavor. We ate it up much faster than we usually eat a loaf of bread as it made a very nice munching bread.

Moral: Don’t throw out ruined dough.

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Grain Mill Shopping

I’m shopping for a new grain mill.

I discovered that there is a widening crack in my attachment for my Bosch Universal. The ebay ad said there was a crack, but I had not been able to find it until now. Perhaps it was exacerbated when I dropped it. At any rate, my flour has become much coarser now.

My spending limit is $250. I’ve been looking at both impact mills and stone mills. I looked at some of the less expensive steel burr mills, but none of them will grind fine enough for what I want to do.

Currently I have narrowed the list down to 2 mills:

  • The Nutrimill – an impact style mill that pulverizes the grain at super high speeds into micron size particles.
  • The Komo Fidibus 21 – A German stone mill that is visually stunning and well reviewed.

At this point I am leaning toward the Fidibus 21, but am still considering the Nutrimill. I am primarily concerned about possible high temperatures and possible excessive starch damage caused by an impact mill.

I would love to hear comments on either of these mills (or any other mill for that matter) from people who have used them.

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Start with part 1.

crumb.jpgNow 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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No-Knead Bread pt. 2

nyt2.jpgHere 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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No-Knead Bread in Stainless

noknead.jpgI 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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No-Knead Bread and Pyrex

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.

bread.jpgOver 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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