The Fresh Loaf

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Kjknits's picture
Kjknits

These were pretty tasty. I used my KAB starter, KAB bread flour, and pretzel salt from Boise Salt Co. The recipe is from Little Spoon Farm. We have an all-time fave soft pretzel recipe from an Amish cookbook I bought at a craft fair, but that uses regular yeast and I wanted to use my new starter. These are equally good as our fave commercial yeast pretzels…maybe a little chewier? 

Kjknits's picture
Kjknits

I am LOVING my new sourdough starter from KAB (KAF for the old schoolers). I got it in the mail a week ago and have made English muffins, crackers, a lovely no-knead recipe from Taste of Artisan (my fave regular no-knead recipe is from there as well), some dinner rolls (not special enough to link to), and some fab waffles. I should’ve taken more pics, but here’s the no-knead from Taste of Artisan. 

I need to practice slashing. I tried a (new, clean) utility razor blade but it wasn’t sharp enough…a lame is currently on the way to my house. 

The crust is thin and crisp and flavorful, and the crumb is moist but not gummy at all. Makes great toast and hearty sandwiches! Streamside lunch spot is optional. ;)

gavinc's picture
gavinc

I love to hear the crust "sing" when first out of the oven. Lovely crisp cracking sound.

yozzause's picture
yozzause

i made a dough today using Lupin Flakes and Lupin flour @ 25% inclusion  but this time i toasted the Lupin dry on the stove top in a skillet stirring continuously making sure it didn't burn. 

The idea was to see how it performed and tasted, i also wanted to try the dough as a pizza base too,

so here we have a 2 hour bulk fermented dough ready to take

 scaled off at 750g for the loaf, 300gfor the Pizza, and 194g for the mini loaf

 topped with Jalapeno stuffed olives, spicy pork belly salami , swiss brown mushrooms, soft fetta and finely grated cheddar 

it disappeared real fast mind you it was lunchtime

 

The mini loaf which is handy to give away for taste testing and evaluation

 

The 750g loaf 

i think the toasting of the Lupin gave a nice nutty taste and aroma. really pleased with this but its very thirsty i added lots of extra water during the mix.

jkandell's picture
jkandell

The new recipe for Salzburg Wheat Germ Rye by Markus Farbinger in Hamelman's Bread 3rd ed intrigued me, It's so different from the German detmolder ryes so close to Hamelman's heart. The bread involves a rye starter focusing on lactic prominence, a hefty dose of wheat germ, a cold pre-soak of just the wheat portion, and a mixture of aromatic spices (toasted coriander, fennel, caraway), along with toasted rye malt,.

Upon first glance this new bread seems close to the Russian tradition. I can't help but wonder if this kind of spiced malted bread from Farbinger's youth was either an inspiration for the famous Borodinsky, or itself inspired by it. Looking at the ingredients, in broad terms, you can see the two breads are in the same universe: 

In comparing the two, both have a strong coriander flavor. What's missing in the Salzburg is any sweet note: no sugar, no syrup, and no "sweetening" of the malt. The Salzburg Weizenkeimbrot uses a cold soaker, whereas with the Russian breads, the spices and malt are scalded with boiling water with some of the rye, then mixed with sourdough for a scalded sponge ("zavarka"). Here things are more straightforward: the coriander and other spices are given a cold soak with the entire wheat component (white flour, whole wheat and the wheat germ) several hours before baking.

Another distinguishing feature of Salzburg Weizenkeimbrot is its focus on lactic acid. Since my location in Arizona is currently 115F outside and in the 80s inside, I was attracted to the fact that the levain builds at 83-85F and ferments at around 82F--the temperature in my laundry room! Alas a silver lining to record heat, is I can experiment with lactic fermentation. 

Formula:

salzburg formula

Sourdough: Last build: 1:10:10 at 100%, 82-85F for about 4 hours. "The high hydration, warm environment and short duration all favor lactic as opposite to acidic flavors to develop."  [I used whole rye, and raised hydration to 115%. At 85F it took 6.5h to get light and fluffy. It was only slightly sour, with no sharp tang.

Toast, Blend and Soak. Several hours before mixing, lightly toast the spices and grind fine. Lightly toast the wheat germ. Lightly toast the rye malt and grind fine. [I used C90.]  Combine with all the wheat flours, and add an equal amount of water, and cold soak till ready to mix. I added a pinch of the total salt since my house is so warm.

Mix. Mix everything: the final water and sourdough, and soaked wheat, germ, and spices. Add in the last bit of rye flour and salt, and mix well.  [I used 40g less water in the final dough because I had increased the sourdough hydration 40g to loosen it up. And, again, I used whole rye instead of medium.]. No stretch and folds needed with rye.

Bulk Ferment. 40 minutes.

Pan and Proof:: Press into 8.5X10 loaf pan, with untoasted whole coriander seeds on top and bottom. Proof 45-60 minutes till it reaches the sides. 

Bake: Dock with holes down the center. 450F covered, then another 45minutes at 400 uncovered, then 5 minutes at 350. I let sit for 12 hours to cure wrapped a dishtowel before cutting to equalize the moisture. 

I used a loaf pan rather than free form, and I did not coat with the roasted starch glaze in the book.

Assessment. The bread tasted good. It had a moist firm but soft texture, the crust was dark but still somewhat soft after curing. The flavor wasn't as far from Russian breads as I'd imagined, definitely with a family resemblance. The lack of scald was noticeable, but not wanting. FWIW I didn't taste the toasted wheat germ at all--which surprised me. (Note to self: toast it a little more next time?)  The spices were equally strong as in Russian breads; If I had to summarize  it, I'd say it's overall profile as a muted, mellow Borodinsky, Moscow, or Litovsky rye. 

Aside from the background "lactic" rye odor and taste, the the spices were the main noticeable feature. I'm used to coriander, but I found the additions of toasted caraway and anise added a subtle sophistication to the whole loaf that complimented the sour notes. (These spices are common in German and Austrian breads but new to me.)  The relatively muted lactic acid mellow sourness again provided a more subtle background than I'm used to with the “in your face” more sweet-and-more-sour Russian and East European and German breads. In short. if Borodinsky and its ilk are breads of extremes, Salzburg Rye is a mellow, balanced, adult loaf. If I had to pick one word to summarize Salzburger Weizenkeimbrot it is "sophisticated".  

Take Aways for baking other breads:  

  • I need to play around more with personalizing my own rye spice blend. The one here is quite balanced (at 60% toasted ground coriander, 20% toasted ground caraway, 20% toasted ground fennel), and a nice change of pace from the straight raw coriander I'm used to. Most German spice blends have much less coriander relative to the caraway and fennel. Some add fenugreek or even cardamom. Which spices go with which breads? Will it work with wheat and spelt breads? Toasted versus raw?
  • Pre-soaking the wheat portion in an 80 or 90% rye is something I'm going to start doing. This allowed the wheat to form some gluten on its own, which was easier than trying to form the gluten later after it's mixed with a bunch of rye flour and water at the last stage. That small wheat portion needs all the help it can get! 
  • Using only the lactic stage of Detmolder is intriguing way to make the rye less sharp without sacrificing digestibility, and is worth exploring with other breads. (Reminds me a bit of the Italian method of "washing the madre".) Given my house gets into the mid 80s in summer I need to find breads that favor extreme heat like this one to adapt to the times. 
  • I also wonder how this bread would change with a more traditional two-stage Detmolder elaboration; Since Hamelman uses a long 14 hour at 70F at 83% refresh for his starter, the main difference would be elaborating the second (final) elaboration 1:3:3 instead of 1:10:10.  In other words, the "acidic" part would be a third of the final starter rather than a tenth.  My guess is it would be on a small distinction in flavor, and I'm even wondering if the two-stage Detmolder process is what Farbinger had in mind all along. Or maybe even a Berlin Short Sour?

 

 

.

 

Benito's picture
Benito

I  wanted to try adding an egg to my country sourdough again.  I’ve seen other bakers on IG post their bakes and some of them achieve quite incredible rise and open crumb when adding an egg to their otherwise lean dough recipes.  Then again, these same bakers always post super open crumb anyways, so who knows if the addition of the egg adds to this or just adds to the rise.  When adding the egg one has to compensate for the water in the egg (74%) and reduce the water used to make the dough.

Overnight levain 

Ferment 75°F overnight

 

In the morning mix egg and 265 g water.  Add salt and all the stiff sweet levain.  Break levain into small pieces.

Add whole wheat and whole spelt flours.  Then finally add bread flour and mix until no dry flour remains. 

Fermentolyse for 20  mins.

Knead dough well until at least moderate gluten development, can use French folds or stand mixer.  Bassinage remaining 18 g of hold back water.

Do a bench letter fold.  Extract aliquot jar doughs one for rise and one for pH.

Every 30 mins thereafter do coil folds until the dough is strong and holds its shape well.  Since I used my Ankarsrum Assistent and built good gluten during mixing, I only needed 3 coil folds.

Rest for the remainder of bulk until an aliquot jar rise of 40% the shape the dough.  Follow the pH to ensure that the pH isn’t falling too much allowing gluten degradation.

Once shaped place in banneton.  Allow further bench proofing until rise of 90-100% before either baking or overnight cold retard.

 

Pre-heat oven to 500°F with cast iron skillet in the oven and set up for open steam baking.

30 mins prior to baking, pour 1 L of boiling water into metal loaf pan with Sylvia towel and place on baking steel on the lowest rack of the oven.

Once oven reaches 500ºF turn dough out of banneton, brush excess rice flour off, score and then brush with water.  Transfer to oven.  Pour 250 mL of boiling water into the cast iron skillet on a high shelf, high enough that the dough have fully bloom.  Drop temperature to 450ºF and bake with steam for 25 mins.  Then vent oven and remove all steaming gear and drop temperature to 425ºF.  Bake for another 25-30 mins rotating as needed.  

 

After 10 mins at 425°F I dropped it to 400°F since it was browning nicely already. Then final 9 mins down to 350°F 

My index of bakes

albacore's picture
albacore

A recent comment by Michael Lily regarding dough bulk volume increase got me thinking about a topic I have already given a lot of thought to - volume increase during bulk and it's effect on the final bread.

In that post Michael suggested a bulk volume increase of 20% to improve oven spring, which I would agree with, but I think there may be a downside in terms of flavour development.

I'm coming to the conclusion that low bulk volume increase, eg 20-40%, gives good oven spring, good ears, good loft, good open crumb, but maybe a lack of lactic flavour deveopment. Bulk volume increase of 60-100% gives good lactic flavour development, but poorer oven spring, poorer ears, lower loft and a more closed, regular crumb - "frog spawn crumb", as I have christened it.

This can be quite well tracked by measuring the pH of the final bread - mush up 6g crumb + 40g distilled H2O and take pH.

More musings may follow!

Lance

 

Kjknits's picture
Kjknits

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been active on TFL, but I recently got a new starter and had to come look up my old English muffin recipe. I didn’t want to fool with starting my own starter this time, so I bought the one that King Arthur sells. It arrived Wednesday and I got to work feeding it. Yesterday it doubled in eight hours, so I decided to use the discard for these, since the recipe also uses baking soda and I figured there would be enough lift even from that. Not disappointed…they’re as fluffy and big and beautiful as they ever were! I’m excited to make bread with this new starter over the weekend. It should be fully ready by Sunday, I expect. 

 

 

IMG_7248.jpeg
CalBeachBaker's picture
CalBeachBaker

Today's bake:  Benny's SD Hokkaido Milk Bread w/Walnut, Sesame and Poppy Seed & Whole Spelt  - Plant Based Version

Source:  https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/72628/walnut-sesame-and-poppy-seed-whole-spelt-sd-hokkaido-milk-bread

Note: Increased  TDW to1665g  from 950g, Pan to 15.75x4x4 from 9x4x4, Water % to 20.4% from 15.4%

Substitutions: Aqua faba for egg, used flax-egg for egg wash.

Discussion: I have been watching Benny impress us with his various versions of this bread for some time now and was inspired to attempt this impressive bread. I decided to make plant based version by substituting aqua faba for egg and a flax-egg for the wash.

The original recipe is located here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/72628/walnut-sesame-and-poppy-seed-whole-spelt-sd-hokkaido-milk-bread

Here is Benny's video showing the shaping of the rolls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-58d3NYNAo

This is a fun to make, and very tasty bread. An option that Benny mentions is that you can cold-retard the dough for an increase in tang. I opted to go for a 20 hour cold-retard an all I can say is wow does it ever have a tang.

I really like this bread. The crumb has a creamy quality, the spelt flour provides a touch of sweetness and the nuts and seeds provide a nice rustic taste with a crunchy texture. Overall this is a nice, soft, rich tasting bread that can be eaten alone or with a mild cheese or other mild topping.

Make again? - Yes, definitely.

Changes/Recommendations: Decrease the hydration level a little, I'd increased it to accommodate the fresh ground flour but I'd roll it back to the original % next time. I would also try to space the rolls more evenly next time, I think the erratic spacing caused uneven rise.

Ratings

 

Flax-egg applied. Note the uneven spacing - the first rolls were at the bottom and the latter one up top got squeezed.

 

 Tony

 

rgreenberg2000's picture
rgreenberg2000

I have been remiss in not posting sooner about my little (VERY little), home-based pico-bakery, Nickel Cat Bread Company.  I made my first loaf of sourdough bread about 11 1/2 years ago, which was a success in very great part to all of the information I gleaned from this site as I was diving into the hobby.  On June 3rd of this year, I sold my first loaves of bread as a licensed cottage bakery.  I have purposely kept my production very small, providing loaves to friends and neighbors for porch pickup here in Redwood City, CA.  My typical weekly production is 8-10 loaves, with a high of 16 loaves when I had extra orders for folks over the July 4th holiday.  I will likely expand to 2 or 3 days a week since I'm seeing enough demand to support that level of production, and I'm still enjoying the heck out of the process.

I typically offer two types of bread per week from a list of five formulas that I have developed and tested:

Country Blend - 30% freshly milled whole wheat
Emerald Hills Blend - 70% freshly milled whole wheat
Stulsaft Cheddar & Herb - 10% whole wheat, sharp cheddar, thyme/rosemary
Oak Ridge Oats - 10% whole wheat, oat porridge
Summerhill Sesame - 20% whole wheat, 10% toasted sesame seeds

I could not possibly have gotten to this point without all of the information, interaction, and assistance I have received from countless posters on this site, so this blog entry is really a giant THANK YOU to @Floydm, and the entire TFL community.  I am humbled by all of your incredible generosity!  If anyone has any interest in any of the formulas for the list of loaves above, just let me know!

Here are a few photos of recent bakes in the "bakery"! :)

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Thank you, TFL!

Rich

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