Baguette!

I've always wanted to try the Anis Bouabsa baguette that Janedo, David, breadbakingbassplayer and others on TFL have written about and tried. Here's the basics:

Makes 4 baguettes

500g flour (Anis uses T65 supposedly; this time, I will use 425g AP flour, 50g Caputo 00, and 25g whole wheat)
375g cool water
1/4 tsp instant yeast (about 0.8g, make it easy and round up to 1g)
10g kosher salt

1. In KA stand mixer, add water, and flour.
2. Mix for 1 min at lowest speed, scrape bowl, and rest for 20 min. 
3. Now add yeast and salt. 
4. Mix at speed #4 for 5 minutes. 
5. Fold every 20 minutes for 1hr (3x): leave dough in mixer, run mixer for 10 seconds at speed #1, just until dough almost completely gathers around the hook. 
6. Cover and refrigerate in mixing bowl for 21-23 hours. (This time, I will pull earlier because I have to bake by 3pm tomorrow; went in at 610pm on Sat). 
7. Divide right out of refrigerator and pre-shape. 
8. Rest for 45 min. 
9. Shape and place onto baguette pan.
10. Preheat oven to 550F
11. Proof for 45 minutes
12. Score 
13. Bake at 550F for 2 min, reduce heat to 480F and bake for 18-20min.

Does your sourdough starter actually need pineapple juice?

In 2009, Debra Wink has posted on The Fresh Loaf (my favorite bread-related forum) about her research into the microflora in developing sourdough starter cultures. The suggestion to use pineapple juice (or other high-acid fruit juice) to create more suitably acidic environment to eliminate the early stinky phases of starter development.

Recently, other bakers have suggested that there is no need for acidification to help get a sourdough starter going. Instead, a process using whole grain flours, careful temperature control and an somewhat anerobic environment are purported to help get a starter going in a short period of time.

So what is the role of pineapple juice, or other acids, in combating the "stink" that sometimes develops in a sourdough culture?

I can only share my own (limited) experience: I had a starter that I had neglected for several months in my fridge. It had some sentimental value, as it was developed close to 5 years ago. A month or two ago, I took it out, saved 1-2 tbsp and started to feed it 1-2x per day at room temperature. Even after about 5 days, it still stank in not a pretty way. It was not an "acetone" or "nail polish" stink (which I've had, mostly related to alcoholic fermentation); it was not a pleasantly cheesy "parmesan" stink either (which I've seen in some young starters); it smelled a bit of sweaty feet, somewhere between vinegar, sulfur, and something slighty sharp, almost rotten.

My best guess was that as Debra has suggested, Leuconostoc or other stink-producing bacteria had taken a hold of my culture. So I did what Debra suggested: fed my starter with fruit juice. In my case, I fed it with the juice of a fresh squeezed lemon, and the King Arthur all-purpose wheat flour I usually feed it. I did this only twice. The starter smelled a bit "lemony" for for those 2 days, and then I returned to feeding flour and water as usual. However, after those two days, the nasty "stink" was indeed gone, and has stayed gone for weeks. (I am feeding it more regularly now, maybe weekly, but it still hangs out in the fridge most of the time).

In fact I think both Debra's and Ars Pistorica's methods will work effectively. To me, aspects of both methods are complimentary and do not contradict one another. So if you boil them both down, what are the key elements?

1. Use whole grain flour to start a starter. (I think there is little disagreement that lactic acid bacteria live on most whole grain, and at least one study that backs this up.)
2. Keep it warm but away from light: you want to keep your new starter between 86-98F (30-37C). Light will kill yeast. 
3. Be patient. It will take at least 4 days to get a starter going, under optimum conditions. In less than optimum conditions, it can take 10 days. In addition, many believe that it can take 10 days or more for the overall "flavor" of the starter to improve. 

Dough hydration for beginning bakers

It seems like I respond to these questions too often on TFL.

Lots of beginning bakers (especially those fooling around with sourdough or natural levains) often start with recipes that give sourdough amounts by volume. For example:

To feed your starter, take 1/4c of starter and feed it 1c flour and 1c water.

The issue that I have with this is that using this starter (a very liquid starter) is this: while easy to remember the proportions for feeding, it's much harder to tell when the sourdough starter is fully ripe and ready to use.

Just so we're clear: feeding 1c flour and 1c water does not make a 100% hydration starter. Starter hydration percentage always represents the ratio of flour to water by weight, not volume.

• 1c of white flour weighs typically around 125g, but can weigh 120-140g, depending on how you measure. 
• 1c of water weighs around 236g

This means that a starter fed equal volumes will result in a ~188% hydration starter! (236g water/125g flour)

So what's the problem with this? Here's a very common sourdough recipe that I was investigating:


1 cup active starter (fed using 1c flour and 1c water)
3.5 cups flour
1 cup water
1 tsp salt


Let's translate this common recipe to a weight-based formula:

1/2c flour + 1/2c water = 62.5g + 118g = 180.5g
3.5c flour @ 125g/cup = 437.5g
1c water = 236g
1 tsp salt = 7g

So how does this help? What does this tell us?

First, let's total the flour in the recipe (62.5 + 437.5 = 500g) and water (118+236 = 354g)
354 / 500 = .708, or 70.8% hydration, which is slightly on the high side for a sourdough bread, which tends to get wetter and floppier the longer it ages.

Second, we are using 180.5 / 437.5 = 41% of the final flour in the recipe in starter, which is somewhat high, especially with a liquid starter...this means it will probably ferment really fast, perhaps more quickly than desired for a sourdough, which like all doughs, will develop deeper flavor during longer fermentations.

BTW, if you want to calculate dough hydration easily, Joshua Cronemeyer's online calculator is one of the easiest.

Bread and loss

Not sadness...not weight loss (really).

How much weight does a glob of dough lose while baking? Estimates are around 7-10%.

Example: a 12" sub sandwich loaf is around 6oz baked.

To calculate:

d - .10d = f

d(1 - .10) = f

d(.9) = f

d = 6oz / .9 = 6.67oz of dough pre-baked to get 6oz baked loaf.

Where d = dough weight in g, and f = final weight in g

Leidenheimer po-boy bread

Listened to a podcast with Sandy Whann, a descendent (and now owner) of Leidenheimer bakery in New Orleans, which provides french bread loaves for po-boys.

Based on my recent trip to NOLA, my recollections of the po-boy bread, and some research online, here's what I've gleaned about the Leidenheimer recipe:

1. Uses a sponge process, which is incorporated into the straight dough
2. Use a proprietary time/temperature/humidity proof
3. Produces a light, flaky, crisp crust, "one that crinkles as it cools into a distinctive 'alligator skin' pattern". Should shatter into small dust or flakes when bitten into.
4. Crumb is cotton-candy like, spongy but dry, fluffy but small-holed (not wispy), very mild, neutral flavor.
5. Crust color is very light golden, if not whitish.

Ingredients from their nutritional info:

• Flour
• Water
• Yeast (2% or less)
• Soybean oil (2% or less)
• Salt (2% or less)
• Sugar (2% or less)
• Wheat Gluten (2% or less)
• Dough conditioners and yeast foods (which I won't include in my finished product) (2% or less)

Based on the texture of the crumb, I think it's safe to say it's not a high-hydration dough, I'm guessing no higher than about 65%, but probably closer to 60%. It's also likely a pretty lean dough.

Here's some info on the dough conditioners & yeast foods that Leidenheimer is using in their French bread (with approximate figures I gathered from the very helpful Lallemand web site):

• Calcium propionate - preservative/mold inhibitor, use level 0.2%, probably added to finished dough (not sponge)
• Ammonium sulfate - yeast nutrient, nitrogen source, use level 0.04%
• Calcium sulfate - pH regulator, raises pH, use level 0.1 - 0.6%

If they are boosting pH, it may mean the water they use is too soft, which suggests (not surprisingly) that water quality is key to consistent product.

yeast amounts

From Daniel DiMuzio's "Bread Baking: An Artisan's Perspective"

This applies to instant yeast in a lean dough, at 77F, for rising times during bulk fermentation

• 0.3% - 3-4 hours
• 0.4 - 0.5% - 1.5 to 2 hours
• 0.7% - 1 hour
• 1% - 30 to 45 min

Kale and Bread Soup

I bought some kale a week ago, and I wanted to make a hearty and delicious soup, and use up a bunch of leftover bread. I made the garlic confit the night before, and it will last probably a week or more in the fridge, and is great just spread on bread, or mixed in with potatoes or other dishes.


Kale and Bread Soup

1/4 cup Garlic Confit (recipe follows)
2 tbsp oil from Garlic Confit (recipe follows)
2 tbsp caramelized onions*
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
1 bunch kale, rinsed well and julienned
1 cup stale bread, cut into 1/2" cubes
3 cups chicken stock
Black pepper and salt to taste.

1. In a large pot, add oil, red pepper flakes, onions, over medium heat for 20 seconds.
   
2. Mash garlic confit, and add, cooking 10 seconds.
   
3. Add kale, and toss to coat, cooking for 2 minutes. Season with black pepper.
   
4. Add bread, and cook for 30 seconds.
   
5. Add chicken stock, turn heat to high, and bring to a boil for 2 minutes.
   
6. Remove from heat
7. Serve immediately.
   

I had these as a leftover. Made a huge batch, with a lot of butter and some brandy. Froze it, and I use it for flavoring as needed.

Garlic Confit

1 entire head elephant garlic (or 2 large heads garlic), peeled
50-50 olive oil and canola oil to cover

1. Put peeled heads in small ovenproof saucepan. Add oils to cover garlic cloves completely
2. Roast at 300 degrees for 1.5 hours.
3. Let cool, cover and refrigerate. K
4. To use, remove as needed with a clean fork. Use as a spread or mash.

No knead sourdough #4

Baked this off this morning. Nice browning, but not much oven spring. Need to try handling it with flour OR doing stretch and fold. I think the gluten structure was too loose.




Still I'm sure it'll taste good




I love sourdough! :)

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Burger buns

Inspired by Sally's burger bun recipe from allrecipes, I developed my own, worked ou the bakers percentages and then compare with Reinharts soft white sandwich bread from ABE, very similar.

Dough was extremely sticky, probably needs more flour. I handled it with oil.

Here they are, formed and ready to rise. Not too pretty because they were too sticky.



After rise (a really quick 40 minutes) I brushe the tops with milk, butter and whole beaten egg successively:





Now into the oven at 400 for 5 minutes and 375 for 15 min (20 min total). Not as much browning as I'd like but nice to compare the effects:




The bottoms browned up nice




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Reinharts French Bread

One batard one boule!






- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Peter Reinhart

Went to a really great presentation by Peter Reinhart this evening at the Westlake Cooking School.

Peter was really great; tooko a lot of time afterwards to sign books and answer many questions. Every bread that I ate that evening was unquestionably delicious, from beautifully caramelized sticky buns with nuts and fruits...to creamy-textured, toasty flavored rustic loaves made with the 75% hydration "Lean Dough", to the wispy soft, almost cotton-candy, velvety texture of the challah!

A few key thoughts/things I learned!

• His doughs are extremely soft & supple, softer than a baby's bottom, perhaps!
• Oiling the kneading/forming surface to keep from sticking, and oiling wet doughs slightly for handling.
  
• Using wet fingers to handle dough (he had a little bowl at the side, dipping in his fingers as necessary).
  
• The "stretch and fold" technique: stretch towards you, fold in thirds, 90 degree turn, repeat, then rest! Repeat the whole process 4 times. It shapes shaggy soft dough into a tight manageable skin, and reduces stickiness.
• Kneading: more stretch and fold than kneading, and the doughs came out supple!
  
• Yeasty bread flavor: due to too much yeast OR over-fermentation (what you're actually tasting is the alcohol, not the yeast!); a problem (he notably mentioned) with the "Artisan 5 Min/Day" bread recipes, and I totally agree with him on that
• Blisters on crust: form the loaves, really shape them, and let them cold ferment overnight...you will get blisters! Great story about this question which he discussed with Raymond Calvel.

I got my "Artisan Breads Everyday" book signed (Beckey bought it for me as a present), and even bought his "Whole Grain Breads" book, with great info on soakers. I wasn't familiar with that technique, but it's exactly what my grandma used in her rye bread.

My first baking class, and absolutely worth every penny! If you can't make it to one of his workshops, the next best thing is to read this transcript of his Barnes & Noble interview.

Thanks Peter!

No knead white #4

a number of breads

I've made a number of breads over the last month, here's what I've learned:

• You can't make a good no-knead pizza dough, because the hydration is way too high to handle the dough. It may taste good when you bake it up, but it handles very poorly
• You can make a good wheat/rye hybrid bread with pretty short rise times, fluffy texture and no yeasty taste (my PG #1-3 breads are a testament to that)
• Investing $25 on a small weight-scale (in my case, from Old Will Knott's online) has been a great investment for increasing the accuracy of my yeast and salt weights

Grandma's Bread #17

Adjusting the formulations again; I estimate this hydration around 77%.

STRAIGHT DOUGH
Bread flour 100.00% 427g
Rye flour 25.00% 107g
TOTAL FLOURS 534g

Buttermilk 30.00% 160g
Water 50.00% 267g
Honey 15.00% 80g
Salt 2.00% 11g
Yeast 1.50% 8g

FINAL STRAIGHT WEIGHT (g) 1060g

Instructions:

1. Heat water & buttermilk to 80-100 degrees.
2. In mixer bowl, add buttermilk mixture. Stir in honey, then stir in yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes.
   
3. Whisk flours together in separate bowl.
   
4. Add to mixer bowl, knead with hook on #2 for 2 minutes, let rest for 20min.
5. Add salt. Knead with hook on #2 for 7 minutes.
   
6. Shape on floured board, put into oiled bowl, covered, for 2.5 hours.
   
7. Knock down, letter fold 2x, shape into loaf, put into greased & floured loaf pan.
8. Into fridge at 230pm, out at 530pm.
9. Rise for 1 hour
10. Add 2/3 cup hot water.
    
11. Bake at 450F for 10 minutes, then at 400 for 30 minutes.
    

Notes:

1. When it came out after 1st rise from oiled bowl, it was soft like pizza dough, and had doubled in size. Very easy to handle, very soft but not really sticky, minimum flour recipe.
2. At 530pm when it came out, it was doubled in size again, in the pan. So probably too much yeast.
3. After a 1 hour rise, it was falling over the sides.
   
4. Could've stayed in the oven another 5 minutes.
   

Results:

• Great browning
• Nice thin, crispy/crackery somewhat shattery crust
• Super light, airy texture, like store-bought sandwich bread, with a tiny chew/pull. More "spongy" than regular sandwich bread (doesn't compress as much)
• No yeasty taste despite super-fast rise
• Not sour, not sweet.
• Overall doesn't taste like Grandma's bread, but is a rye variation

how much yeast?

DiMuzio talks about this in "Bread Baking: An Artisan's Perspective" (p 158).

For a lean dough @ 77F, he estimates the following percentages for peak fermentation times:

0.3% - 3 to 4 hours
0.4 - 0.5% - 1.5 to 2 hours
0.7% - 1 hour
1% - 30 to 45 minutes

Lots of variables enter in though:

1. Sweeter doughs require more yeast (typically over 12% sugar)
2. Richer doughs require more yeast
   

no knead #4

No knead bread #4

This is the Bittman/Lahey bread, using sourdough, with the corrected hydration. Instead of 1 tbsp starter, this time I'm trying 44g of my 60% hydration firm starter, which is close to 3 tbsp. Hopefully this will jump-start fermentation. Yeah I realize it's lower than the typical desired 15-40%, but I think it will do just fine; it's a pretty active starter. Added some wheat germ to see how it affects the nuttiness factor.

Remember, baker's percentages are all measured by weight! So if you're gonna bake, get a good scale! For the small ingredients (yeast/salt), you may need to get a micro-scale, b/c a lot of the larger kitchen scales just measure in even-numbered grams (2,4,6,8,10,etc)

Flour (100%): 430.77g
Water (80%): 344.62g
Starter (10%): 44g
Salt (1.8%): 7.75 g | 1.39 tsp
Wheat germ (1.4%): 6 g | 1 tbsp
Total (193%): 833 g

1. Measure out water
2. Dissolve starter a portion of the water; then add back into the main water
   
3. Add flour, then salt, then wheat germ
4. Stir to combine, until all raw flour is incorporated.
5. Cover tightly and set aside at room temp for 18-20 hours (start time: 845p, 18hrs=245pm next day, 20hrs=445pm; my rise was a little more than 21 hours.
   
6. Preheat oven to 500F, with cast iron dutch oven & lid inside.
   
7. Dust generously with flour, turn out and shape into a round. Cover and let rest 15 min.
   
8. Shape into a round, put on top of parchment, let rise in basket, covered for 45 min.
9. Remove dutch oven carefully, lower parchment & bread into pot, cover, and into the oven
10. Bake for 30 minutes, uncover, and bake for 12-15 more minutes.
    
11. Remove and let cool on rack for 1.5-2 hours.
    

Results:

See the photos!

• Good flavor, more sour than #1
• A lot more oven spring than #1, about the same as #2
• Texture is a little more heavy & dense than #2, but it's nice not to have that yeasty flavor
• Nice browning
• Crust thickness just like #2. #1 actually had a thinner crust I think.
  

For next time, I wish I could put the dough right on the dutch oven instead of parchment, which I think causes some steaming and extra thickness of the crust.

standard loaf size

What is a standard size for a loaf?

making sourdough bread more sour; my starters

Inspired by a post on The Fresh Loaf forums about sourness, I got to thinking about how to make my sourdough more sour.

A lot of the sourness has to do with the starter, and how it's maintained. The "sourness" has to do with the bacteria in starter, which produce both acetic and lactic acid. Acetic acid is what makes vinegar sour, and is more sharp and pungent; lactic acid is the type of sour found in milk products & yogurt, and is a softer, creamier, more mellow sour. (On a side note: lactic acid is a beneficial part of the winemaking process, as part of malo-lactic fermentation in white wines, which converts green-apple flavored malic acid to creamier flavored lactic acid).

In any case, to make a sourdough bread more sour, do any one or more of the following:

1. Maintain a firm starter (50-60% hydration)
2. Keep the starter cool, around 50-65F (in fridge)
3. Use higher ash flour (like high gluten flour)
   
4. Feed the starter regularly
5. Spike it (dough and/or starter) with rye flour
6. Long and slow bulk fermentation (1st rise) (somewhere between 8 and 24 hours)
7. Cool bulk fermentation (1st rise) (such as in the fridge)
8. Lower overall hydration for the dough
9. Increase the amount of starter in the recipe (the working range is 15-40% of final dough weight, or 25-35% of the flour weight)
   

To make sourdough less sour:

1. Use a liquid starter (90-170% hydration)
2. Keep the starter at warm temp (70-85F) (such as room temperature)
3. Use lower ash flour (like all-purpose gluten flour)
   
4. Don't feed it as regularly
5. Don't use any rye flour
   
6. Bulk fermentation (initial rise) for dough for a short time (less than 8 hrs)
   
7. Bulk fermentation in a warmer place (such as room temp)
   
8. Higher hydration for the dough
9. Reduce the amount of starter in the recipe (between 5-15%)
   

DiMuzio's "Bread Baking" and the forums at The Fresh Loaf have more great info on how to make your sourdough more sour.

I keep 2 starters right now:

1. My original LBB starter, built using Nancy Silverton's organic grape-based starter recipe in the "La Brea Bakery" cookbook. I keep it at about 178% hydration (which is very liquid); I feed it as follows: 1/4c starter, 1 cup flour & 1 cup water. It stays in the fridge most of the time. If I need to bake, I take it out and feed it 2x per day for about 4-5 days to get it back up to strength.

2. A firm starter, which is just the LBB starter but it's maintained at 60% hydration as follows: 1 tbsp starter + 1 tbsp + 2 tsp water, 1/3 cup flour. This one sits in a plastic covered container on top of my fridge. I feed it maybe 1x per week. I'll feed it 2x per day for 1-2 days before baking.

I've been leaning more towards the firm starter lately, mostly because I can work in smaller quantities for maintenance, and it last longer at room temp w/o feeding, so I can bake with it more quickly.

I had a couple other starters; one was a Carl Griffin one that my friend John gave me. The other was a rye-based version that I started a few years ago. I threw them both out, just because I like the flavor of the LBB one, it's easy to maintain and works well.

Making a lot of bread

A great French video about making bread (I wish I understood French!)

According to a post on the Fresh Loaf web site:

the recipe is very simple: 33 kg of flour, 22 litres (i.e. 22 kg) of water and half a bucket (maybe 5 litres?) of starter.

Amazing to see someone work with that much dough.

What's also interesting to me is how this recipe matches up with the 1-2-3 recipe for sourdough, which is, by weight:

3 parts flour
2 parts water
1 part liquid starter (100% hydration)
Salt

And of course salt, which will be around 2% (well, 1.8 - 2.2% to be more exact) of the weight of the flour.

Well, what is liquid starter @ 100% hydration? Simply, an active sourdough culture that has been maintained at 1:1 flour-to-water, by weight.

1:1 flour-water starter is different if you go by volume:

1 cup bread flour (using fluff-dip-knifescrape measuring technique) weighs about 132g
1 cup water @ room temp weighs about 236g

This results in a starter that has a 178% hydration!