This makes a good French toast (assuming a richer egg soak).
Thursday, September 24, 2009
In Brief: The Pearl's Walnut Levain // Maggie Glezer, Artisan Baking
This bread is quite similar to The Pearl's Pane coi santi, as it uses a similar French-style levain method to produce a sourdough bread. The proportions, however, are a little different. My walnut bread was a little more successful than my Pane coi santi.
This makes a good French toast (assuming a richer egg soak).
This makes a good French toast (assuming a richer egg soak).
Pane Siciliano // Peter Reinhart, The Bread Baker's Apprentice
Peter Reinhart's Pane Siciliano is a favorite of mine because of the texture imparted by the semolina flour. It also has (is intended to have) a nifty S-curve (but, as you can see, Mistakes Were Made). It utilizes a preferment that has to be made in advance (ideally, a day in advance, but in this case it just got some extra rise time).
Part 1: Pâté Fermentée
This baking round confirms my observation about the differences between bread books: whereas my flour measurements for Glezer's formulas have come up light (leading to dough wetter than described), my measurements for Reinhart's pate fermentee came up heavy (drier than described). Proof again, if you needed it, that weighing is more accurate than scooping. But I still don't own a reliable scale.
I'm trying to minimize the time that I work the dough, as Glezer says mixing too much will aerate the dough and bleach the flours, resulting in a loss of flavor. This means adding an autolyse stage to my bread mixing (letting the dough rest after it comes together and before turning/making smooth). I'm doing this part by feel.
The PF rose quite briskly, as it's been hot weather in Southern California. I'd almost be inclined to reduce the yeast in this and the main dough -- in the picture, it's barely at the halfway counter by the clock.
Part 2: Main Dough
Mixing/Fermentation. This dough contains equal parts bread and semolina flour, plus the PF and small amounts of honey and oil. I added the oil after the rest of the dough was mixed and relaxed, as I've heard oil can interfere with gluten formation (however, I doubt whether a couple of tablespoons is that significant -- this is more important for brioche, I gather). It took some time for the oil to absorb.
The first rise was quite robust, even though I cut the rising time short; when I went to shape the dough, I found it bounding out of the bowl (honeycombing).
I made three loaves -- one quite lovely, the others ugly ducklings. Purists will note that the skin is not nearly tight enough! Bread does not suit a hurried soul!
Proofing. This bread proofs in the fridge overnight. The loaves were nearly ready to go when I pulled them out this morning. However, in the process of loading the breads into the oven, I suffered a terrible Bread Disaster (tm) -- I somehow misaligned the baking sheet as it was going onto the rack, and the sheet flipped a quarter turn and wedged between the door and the shelves. (I'm still not sure exactly how this happened.) With tiny screams of anxiety I scooped each loaf up and plopped it back onto the sheet -- hoping that there was some air left in the mangled loaves. There was a visible dough print left on the oven door!
Results. The bread, as you can see, turned into a kind of lumpy superloaf where the three original loaves got squished together in the rescue operation. The places where each loaf hit the oven door are visible if you know where to look. The interior of each loaf is dense and spongy -- this really was a super-rising bread -- and, of course, completely irregular, due to the accident. But edible! (After snapping the "results" picture, I returned the bread to the oven for approximately 10 minutes.)
Part 1: Pâté Fermentée
This baking round confirms my observation about the differences between bread books: whereas my flour measurements for Glezer's formulas have come up light (leading to dough wetter than described), my measurements for Reinhart's pate fermentee came up heavy (drier than described). Proof again, if you needed it, that weighing is more accurate than scooping. But I still don't own a reliable scale.
I'm trying to minimize the time that I work the dough, as Glezer says mixing too much will aerate the dough and bleach the flours, resulting in a loss of flavor. This means adding an autolyse stage to my bread mixing (letting the dough rest after it comes together and before turning/making smooth). I'm doing this part by feel.
The PF rose quite briskly, as it's been hot weather in Southern California. I'd almost be inclined to reduce the yeast in this and the main dough -- in the picture, it's barely at the halfway counter by the clock.
Part 2: Main Dough
Mixing/Fermentation. This dough contains equal parts bread and semolina flour, plus the PF and small amounts of honey and oil. I added the oil after the rest of the dough was mixed and relaxed, as I've heard oil can interfere with gluten formation (however, I doubt whether a couple of tablespoons is that significant -- this is more important for brioche, I gather). It took some time for the oil to absorb.
The first rise was quite robust, even though I cut the rising time short; when I went to shape the dough, I found it bounding out of the bowl (honeycombing).
I made three loaves -- one quite lovely, the others ugly ducklings. Purists will note that the skin is not nearly tight enough! Bread does not suit a hurried soul!
Proofing. This bread proofs in the fridge overnight. The loaves were nearly ready to go when I pulled them out this morning. However, in the process of loading the breads into the oven, I suffered a terrible Bread Disaster (tm) -- I somehow misaligned the baking sheet as it was going onto the rack, and the sheet flipped a quarter turn and wedged between the door and the shelves. (I'm still not sure exactly how this happened.) With tiny screams of anxiety I scooped each loaf up and plopped it back onto the sheet -- hoping that there was some air left in the mangled loaves. There was a visible dough print left on the oven door!
Results. The bread, as you can see, turned into a kind of lumpy superloaf where the three original loaves got squished together in the rescue operation. The places where each loaf hit the oven door are visible if you know where to look. The interior of each loaf is dense and spongy -- this really was a super-rising bread -- and, of course, completely irregular, due to the accident. But edible! (After snapping the "results" picture, I returned the bread to the oven for approximately 10 minutes.)
Sunday, September 13, 2009
The Pearl's Pane coi santi // Maggie Glezer, Artisan Baking
This bread is marked as Advanced in the Artisan Baking book, and the chief reason seems to be the difficulty of kneading in by hand a huge quantity of walnuts and raisins, not a few of which wanted to pop out and roll across the counter. This bread takes the full day to make, plus the preparation of the starter and levain the day before.
Ingredient Notes:
KAF All-Purpose
KAF White Wheat Flour
KAF Rye Blend Flour
Preparation: This recipe calls for levain, which is made the day before from a starter that has been refreshed within 8 hours. Here's my levain going down for the night:
The flours are mixed with water and left to autolyse. After adding the salt and levain and mixing with the dough hook, I had a very wet dough, not the firm dry dough called for in the recipe. This is the second recipe from this book that has turned out fairly wet, so I'm guessing there's a mismatch between the measuring cups I have and the book measurements. I don't have an accurate scale, so we'll be measuring more generously from now on.
A tablespoon of bread flour, plus additional flour during the hand-kneading stage, got it a bit firmer. After mixing in the walnuts and raisins (this took some rests for the dough to relax further), the dough went down for an hour, was turned, and back in the bowl for another 3-4 hours. Here it is before the rise:
After that, it was cut in two, shaped into batards (one shaped by rolling and pinching, the other in the traditional letter-fold way) and left to rest on a floured cloth (couche):
...for another 3 hours. The breads became puffy but not huge. (In the picture above, you can already see that the walnuts are staining the dough with dark swirls.)
The breads were then placed on parchment paper, shallowly cut, and slid onto a baking stone, 425 in my gas oven. And the result:
Results: With so many raisins and such a long rise, the bread can't help but taste sweet. The small quantities of rye and whole wheat definitely deepen the flavor and make it more complex. The bread is chewy.
I checked website for the Pearl Bakery (whose bread inspired Glezer's recipe), and note that their version of pane coi santi includes black pepper -- something to keep in mind for my next go at this bread.
Friday, September 11, 2009
In Progress: Sourdough Starter // Maggie Glezer
I'm currently refreshing my starter into the very firm, dough-like starter preferred by Maggie Glezer in Artisan Baking. Here's what it looks like as of this afternoon:
No, that's not a small underbaked biscuit -- this starter is very firm!
KAF Lemon-Almond Biscotti
We were running out of the Nonni's biscotti and I thought it might be time to try my hand again. However, the Old-Fashioned Biscotti recipe in The King Arthur Baker's Companion calls for three eggs, and we were down to two, so I pulled up this Lemon-Almond Biscotti recipe from the website. They've already blogged it on their Baker's Banter site (We break for biscotti, 30 Apr. 2008), so check out the page for step-by-step pictures (including a mister that looks a little like a blowtorch) and baker comments.
Ingredients:
Flour: KAF All-Purpose
Sugar: C&H Superfine
Almond extract: Beck's Secret Spoon Pure
Preparation: My own necessary adjustments to the recipe include using prepared dried lemon peel (1:1, according to the label) and (gasp) prepared lemon juice. I was also a little short on almond extract and couldn't go all the way up to the maximum amount, as I wanted to.
The recipe produces a soft dough very similar to unchilled cookie dough (which I guess this more or less is). Using parchment paper helps as you don't have to worry about the dough sticking to the sheet. The trickiest stage is coaxing the dough into a flattened "log" of the right length and thickness. I found that wetting the spatula repeatedly helped the most (good and wet, not just damp). What you end up with will look squarish and cook out into a rounded hump similar to the Baker's Banter picture, so you will have those nice round edges that you've seen on all commercial biscotti.
After taking the biscotti out of the oven after the first bake, I left them to cool for about an hour. I found it unnecessary to mist the log as the recipe suggests -- just go slowly with the serrated knife and, if the dough is cool enough to hold together, you won't have more than a few crumbles. I sliced at a slight diagonal to get longer slices.
The final stage is the "toasting" stage, which dries out the cookies and produces a nice brown edge. You can adjust the second bake according to the thickness of the slices and the desired amount of browning.
Results: After initial cooling, the cookies seem quite dry and crisp. I imagine that they will soften slightly over time, producing the "light and crunchy" cookies that the Banter page describes as "made for eating out of hand."
Ingredients:
Flour: KAF All-Purpose
Sugar: C&H Superfine
Almond extract: Beck's Secret Spoon Pure
Preparation: My own necessary adjustments to the recipe include using prepared dried lemon peel (1:1, according to the label) and (gasp) prepared lemon juice. I was also a little short on almond extract and couldn't go all the way up to the maximum amount, as I wanted to.
The recipe produces a soft dough very similar to unchilled cookie dough (which I guess this more or less is). Using parchment paper helps as you don't have to worry about the dough sticking to the sheet. The trickiest stage is coaxing the dough into a flattened "log" of the right length and thickness. I found that wetting the spatula repeatedly helped the most (good and wet, not just damp). What you end up with will look squarish and cook out into a rounded hump similar to the Baker's Banter picture, so you will have those nice round edges that you've seen on all commercial biscotti.
After taking the biscotti out of the oven after the first bake, I left them to cool for about an hour. I found it unnecessary to mist the log as the recipe suggests -- just go slowly with the serrated knife and, if the dough is cool enough to hold together, you won't have more than a few crumbles. I sliced at a slight diagonal to get longer slices.
The final stage is the "toasting" stage, which dries out the cookies and produces a nice brown edge. You can adjust the second bake according to the thickness of the slices and the desired amount of browning.
Results: After initial cooling, the cookies seem quite dry and crisp. I imagine that they will soften slightly over time, producing the "light and crunchy" cookies that the Banter page describes as "made for eating out of hand."
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