Monday, December 26, 2005

bread results

This year's recipe turned out good flavor, with a couple of comments:

1. Interior of bread was really too moist (although fully cooked), even after cooling down. Need to find some way to deal with this excess moisture. Maybe it means initial dough was too moist? Maybe it means longer cooking time? Maybe some further online research is warranted for dough/bread "troubleshooting".
2. Crust turned nice and black brown.
3. Too much dough for 2 loaves, even with 1/2 quantities. Recommend dividing into 3rds for final shaping & baking. One loave puffed up so high it was almost 2 loaves!

Saturday, December 24, 2005

Grandma's bread revisited again

OK, so here's my revised take, reduced quantities for 2 loaves (instead of original version, which is for 4 loaves):

2 c. buttermilk
1.5 c. water
1 lb. + 1/2 lb. rye flour, unsifted (1.5 lb. total)
1 lb. + 1/2 lb. (8 0z) + 1/2 lb. (8 oz) unbleached white flour, unsifted (2 lbs total)

2-1/4 tsp. active dry yeast (or 1 packet)
1 tbsp. unbleached white flour
1/2 c. warm water (120 degrees)

1/2 c. honey
1/2 tbsp. salt

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water in a pan to 110 degrees (stirring constantly so it doesn't curdle) and remove from heat. Stir in 1 lb. rye flour, cover tightly and leave in warm place overnight. Or, refrigerate and bring back to room temperature before continuing

2. The next day, combine yeast, 1 tbsp. flour, and warm water, and stir to dissolve. Let sit for 5 minutes until yeast mixture gets bubbly.

3. Into dough mixture, add yeast mixture, honey and salt. Stir in remaining 1/2 pound of rye flour, and stir in 1 lb. of white flour until mixture is uniform. Then, split dough in half by weight. Set half of dough aside. It gets split in half because the full amount of dough is too much for the small stand mixer to handle!

4. Take one-half of the dough and add dough to mixer set to "1" or "2" (low speed), and knead with dough hook, gradually adding 1/2 lb. of white flour. You will need to clean the dough hook a number of times at the beginning (every 30 seconds or so). After a couple of minutes, it will stop sticking. Total kneading time should be about 5-7 minutes.

5. Repeat step 4 for the remaining dough.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with rye flour. Shape dough into loaves and place in bread pans. Cover with towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 2 hours or until approximately doubled in bulk.

7. Preheat oven to 425. Place bread pans in oven and bake for 3o minutes. Reduce heat to 375 and bake for 15-20 more minutes.

8. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and drape with damp cloth while they cool. This supposedly will help keep the crust from separating from the dough.

That's my story, and I'm stickin to it! We'll see how they turn out this year.

UPDATE 12/26/2005:
This year's recipe turned out good flavor, with a couple of comments:

1. Interior of bread was really too moist (although fully cooked), even after cooling down. Need to find some way to deal with this excess moisture. Maybe it means initial dough was too moist? Maybe it means longer cooking time? Maybe some further online research is warranted for dough/bread "troubleshooting".
2. Crust turned nice and black brown.
3. Too much dough for 2 loaves, even with 1/2 quantities. Recommend dividing into 3rds for final shaping & baking. One loave puffed up so high it was almost 2 loaves!

Thursday, December 22, 2005

bread in progress

So grandma's bread is in progress. I'm trying to scale the recipe down (from 4 to 2 loaves) because last year, I simply made too much of it. The base is "fermenting" right now; hopefully this year's proportions will make it right. I think this is the 4th or 5th time that I'm making the bread.

I've purposely passed on the Lithuanian black rye recipe (incidentally, the same one online as in the cookbook), in lieu of my grandma's recipe. I know my grandma's recipe works reasonably well, but needs some tweaking to make it right. Last year's was pretty good, as I recall. This means that hopefully this year's will be good as well. I decided to read up on rye flour, in Nancy Silverton's "La Brea Bakery" bread book. Apparently rye flour is tricky: easy to overmix, tends to be wet, not a lot of gluten. A recipe in Julia Child's "Baking" tome got me thinking about the correct proportions for this bread (wheat flour-rye flour-liquid ratio). I need to read up more on "golden ratios" for flour to liquid to yeast. I remember that "The Man Who Ate Everything" had some of this info, which was pretty good, at least in terms of making a batch of starter from scratch. Last year's recipe put rye-to-wheat flour at around 6:12 or 6:13 by weight. I'm going to shoot for a more even ratio this year, closer to 6:7. I hope this will yield something closer to what I'm looking for.

Wednesday, December 21, 2005

Grandma's Rye Bread part II

OK, so there is a fairly comprehensive web site on Lithuanian cookery at:
http://ausis.gf.vu.lt/eka/food/fcont.html

There is a recipe for black rye bread, similar to my grandma's, at:
http://ausis.gf.vu.lt/eka/food/bread.html

I wonder if this is the same recipe from the cookbook that I used? I wonder how it compares? This might just be the year to find out! I did have some excellent bread in Lithuania (I believe at Cili Kaimas restaurant in Vilnius) which tasted almost exactly like hers: soft, semi-dense but very uniform texture; thin, hard, black crust, delicious!

I do remember that last year, it turned out abysmal when I followed the cookbook recipe.

tis the twisted season

Winter is here again, another year has come and almost gone.

Made pretzels for the first time last night. Beckey's a real pretzel fan, so I figured I would give it a shot.

Here's the recipe I used:

Soft Pretzel Recipe
From: http://www.kitchenproject.com/german/soft_pretzel_recipes1.htm

Servings: 6 large or 12 small

Ingredients:
3 ½ cups of flour
4 tbsp brown sugar
2 tsp. salt (sea salt preferably)
1 tbsp dry yeast, dissolved in the water
1 cup water (120°) fairly warm but not hot.

2 tbsp baking soda mixed with 1 Cup hot water (in a small bowl)

Egg wash: 1 egg beaten with 1 tsp. water (in a small bowl)

Directions: Mix water/yeast, brown sugar, and salt in a food processor, or a large mixing bowl. Add flour and mix until dough is smooth. Add more flour if sticky. (If possible let the dough sit overnight in a bowl or plastic container in the refridgerator.)

Divide the dough into 6 or 12 pieces. Roll each piece into a rope, a bit thicker than a pencil, but not quite as thick as a cigar. Shape into an upside down U shape on your table. Bring the ends together and twist them. Flatten the ends and bring to the top of the pretzel and press in the dough to secure making it look like a pretzel. Place on a greased cookie sheet.

Now let the pretzels rise for 30-45 minutes in a warm place or till about double in size.

Boil 4 cups of water and add 2 tbsp. baking soda. Drop the pretzel in there for about 10 seconds and then lift out with a strainer or pancake turner. Place back on cookie sheet. This will give a nice chewy crust. If you skip this, the crust will be crispier.

Brush with egg wash. This gives the pretzel a nice shiny glaze.

Sprinkle with toppings like
coarse salt (grind rock salt in a coffee grinder); garlic and parmesan cheese; Cinnamon and sugar; or sesame seeds.

Bake in a hot oven 450 degrees (225 degrees C) for 10-12 minutes or until well browned. (Interesting note: Homemade pretzels and soft pretzels are often made much the same way as bagels, by poaching them in boiling water before baking, the difference being that bagels are usually poached in salt water rather than water and baking soda.)

So how did they taste? Pretty good. Nice golden brown crust, nice and soft with a tiny bit of tooth, and the inside was nice and chewy, although a bit more dense than I would like. Several adjustments needed to be made:

1. You may need more than 1 cup water. The dough was not very soft/sticky, and it was clumping together while being mixed. I think a softer dough will yield a softer, chewier pretzel.
2. I don't think the dough rose enough after the knotting.
3. Rolling them out was tricky, because the dough was too dry, I think. I found wetting my hands from a little bowl of water gave me the necessary traction. This may not be necessary if the dough is sufficiently soft.
4. I would try with a slightly longer boil time than 10 seconds, or maybe more baking soda in the water mixture. I was hoping the dough would have a bit more "tart" kick, somehow.

In other baking news, time to go to the store to buy supplies to bake Grandma's bread.