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

Grandma's Bread #15 & #16 - extrapolated

So I plugged in my weights & quantities from #14 to try to figure out baker's percentages for Grandma's bread #14. Here's what I ended up with (using the Expanded Pizza Dough Calculator on pizzamaking.com):

#15: single loaf based on #14 weights

MAKES 1 LOAF
Flour (100%): 342.88 g
Water (53%): 181.73 g
ADY (1%): 3.43 g | 0.91 tsp
Salt (2%): 6.86 g | 1.23 tsp
Honey (30%): 102.86 g | 0.31 cups
Buttermilk, fresh (85%): 291.45 g | 1.19 cups
Rye Flour (36%): 123.44 g
Total (307%): 1052.64 g | 37.13 oz | 2.32 lbs

Looking at the numbers, it seems funny. #14 and #15 dough is clearly wet, possibly over-hydrated, although wet + sticky dough is pretty normal for rye breads, which don't have much of a gluten structure. Also, according to Rose Levy Beranbaum, buttermilk is about 90% water and 1.75% fat, so the buttermilk by itself brings the hydration to ~76.5% alone (of bread flour only, or ~62.5% of total flours), without the water! This means we need to add ~3.5% water to get overall hydration to about 80%, which is pretty slack. So let's try an academic exercise:

1. Reduce water to 4%, which will make overall hydration ~80% of bread flour (or ~66.5% of flours overall); pretty slack, but less slack than breads up to and including #14!
   
2. Reduce rye to 25% (less stickiness, same flavor?)

So here is #16, the academic exercise :)

MAKES 1 LOAF
Flour (100%): 427.03 g
Rye Flour (25%): 106.76 g | 3.77 oz | 0.24 lbs | 15.43 tbsp | 0.96 cups
Buttermilk, fresh (85%): 362.98 g | 12.8 oz | 0.8 lbs | 23.7 tbsp | 1.48 cups
Water (3.5%): 14.95 g
ADY (1%): 4.27 g | 1.13 tsp
Salt (2%): 8.54 g | 1.53 tsp
Honey (30%): 128.11 g | 0.38 cups
Total (246.5%): 1052.64 g | 37.13 oz | 2.32 lbs

I would recommend making both of these, following same general directions as #14, and see what happens!

Directions

1. Heat buttermilk & water to 100 degrees.
2. Dissolve ADY and honey in buttermilk mixture; let sit for 5 minutes.
3. To mixing bowl, add flours, whisk to combine. Add buttermilk mixture. Mix on Kitchenaid #2 for 2 minutes. Should clear sides of bowl.
   
4. Let rest for 20 minutes.
   
5. NOW ADD SALT. Knead on #2 for 7 minutes.
   
6. Put in tub, cover and let rise for ~2 hrs, then into fridge.
7. Went into fridge at 615pm, out 945am next morning (15.5 hours total)
8. Rise at room temp for 2 hours
9. Preheat oven to 450F, bake 40 minutes with 1 cup hot water
   

NOTES on #16:

• I only added 70g honey (ran out), made up the rest of the weight with white sugar
• Even in mixing, hydration looks a lot more normal. In mixer, dough clears sides of bowl, but doesn't clear bottom (about coffee-cup size); out on lightly-floured board, very easily handleable
• Texture was MUCH tighter than #14, still a bit damp and soft, despite 1 hour rest. Crust was also thicker, not in a nice way.
• Better rise and oven spring than #14 though. My guess is that the yeast is OK, but it needs less buttermilk and more water, as well as overall higher hydration.
  

Grandma's Bread #14

Same old recipe, with a twist: I'm making 4 loaves for the holidays, so I decided to increase the recipe accuracy by weighing my otherwise normal volumetric measurements.

Here's what I have so far:

Makes 4 loaves

586g water (2-1/2 cups)
940g buttermilk (4 cups)
295g rye flour (2-2/3 cups of Arrowhead Mills rye flour)

820g bread flour (6-1/4 cups) (I weighed 6.25 cups 3 times, and came up with 810, 820, and 870g!)
52g table salt (7-1/4 tsp) - REMEASURE THIS I DON'T THINK THIS IS RIGHT!
11.6g* active dry yeast (4 tsp)
340g* honey (1 c)

* these two weights were calculated based on weight estimates found on the internet, i.e., 340g per cup of honey, 2.9g per tsp of active dry yeast.

Recipe: exactly like #11, with the following notes:

• 1st rise: 2 hours at room temp
• Retardation: 8 hours in fridge
• Final rise: 2 hours at room temp
• Bake at 450F for 40 minutes

Results:

• All loaves turned out close to the same: texture and crust very similar to #11
• Soft, flavorful, good balance of savory, sour and sweet.
• One on the right-most side of the oven seemed to rise the most, whereas the one on the left-most side got a tiny bit burned on the bottom and one of the sides at 40 minutes.

Notes

• Check the loaves on the sides carefully for burning at 30 minutes or so; if so, move the loaves around.
• Cooling in the pan for 10 minutes is a good idea! Then cool fully on racks.

Grandma's Bread #12

It's become a hot July. I was cleaning out the fridge, and started looking at my starter, which was looking a little brown, and so I started thinking about grandma's bread again. Haven't made any since April, and I bought some buttermilk over the weekend with the idea of making some more.

Grandma's Bread #12 - July 23, 2009

Makes 2 loaves

1-1/4 cups water
2 cups buttermilk
1-1/3 cup rye flour

6-1/4 cup AP wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup honey
3-1/2 + 1/8 tsp table salt

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in all rye flour, cover tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (at least 12 hours).

2. In mixing bowl, combine wheat flour + yeast. Transfer rye mixture to mixing bowl. Add honey. Using beater attachment, mix on speed "2" for 2 minutes, until the dough is uniform. It will look like a thick, uniform batter at this point. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

3. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using beater for 4 minutes, dough hook for 4 minutes, both set to "2" (low speed). You may need to clean the dough hook once in a while. Dough will be very thick and sticky; it will never clear the sides of the bowl, more like a thick wet batter...it will not stop sticking! This is why the stand mixer is so handy. Total kneading time is 8 minutes. You will see some gluten strands forming in the dough towards the end.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Using a wooden spoon or stiff bowl scraper, turn out the sticky dough onto a very well floured board. Form into a single round; dough will be very soft but with a well-floured board, won't be very sticky and will form a smooth surface. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel pretty soft, not quite baby's bottom but close) and place in bread pans. Press down on dough to get loaf to expand across the bottom of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 2.5 hours.

7. Cover tightly with oiled plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 7.5 hours.

8. Cover loaves with a towel, and let rise again at room temp (~74F) for 2 hours.

9. Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center with a serrated knife or a sharp razor blade, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for exactly 40 minutes; they will look dark chocolate brown (almost black!) on top.

10. Take bread from oven, remove from pans. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

11. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Results

• Forgot to oil the plastic wrap, so it got stuck to crust when I pulled it off. Made it extra rustic :( Best bet would be an inflated bag in the fridge; or a large rectangular ClickClack or other see-thru small airtight plastic cannister. So when I recovered with a towel, I dusted with some extra flour. Had a nice looking "snow dust on mountains" effect.
  
• Nice dark brown top crust. Bottom crust is solid tan with a few chocolate-y spots in the corners.
  
• Interior is perfect, just like #11 that proofed in the fridge. Same flavor, same texture. Would've risen more if I had oiled the plastic wrap.
  
• Didn't brush tops with butter this time. Didn't seem to matter (today, at least).
  

Notes/Next time:

• We'll see
  

Grandma's Bread #11

#10 was the best so far (perfect texture, great flavor), so hopefully #11 will be at least as good. I'm doubling the recipe this time, because uncle Gus wants some for easter.

Grandma's Bread #11 - April 10, 2009

Makes 2 loaves

1-1/4 cups water
2 cups buttermilk
1-1/3 cup rye flour

6-1/4 cup AP wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup honey
3-1/2 + 1/8 tsp table salt

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in all rye flour, cover tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (at least 12 hours).

2. Into dough mixture, add white flour, yeast, honey. Mix on speed "2" for 2 minutes, until the dough is uniform. It will look like a thick, uniform batter at this point. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

3. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using dough hook (or beater attachment) set to "2" (low speed). You may need to clean the dough hook once in a while. Dough will be very thick and sticky; it will never clear the sides of the bowl, more like a thick wet batter...it will not stop sticking! This is why the stand mixer is so handy. Total kneading time is 7 minutes. You will see some gluten strands forming in the dough towards the end.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Using a wooden spoon or stiff bowl scraper, turn out the sticky dough onto a very well floured board. Form into a single round; dough will be very soft but with a well-floured board, won't be very sticky and will form a smooth surface. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel pretty soft, not quite baby's bottom but close) and place in bread pans. Press down on dough to get loaf to expand across the bottom of the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 2.5 hours.

7. Cover tightly with oiled plastic wrap, and refrigerate overnight, or 7-8 hours (maximum of 24 hours).

8. Cover loaves with a towel, and let rise again at room temp (~74F) for 2 hours.

9. Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center with a serrated knife or a sharp razor blade, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped; they will look dark chocolate brown (almost black!) on top. Alternately, should be done somewhere around 190-210 degrees.

10. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and brush tops with butter. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

11. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Results

I baked 4 loaves using this recipe; however, 2 loaves skipped steps 7-8; the remaining two followed the recipe exactly.

The ones that skipped 7-8 (i.e., no refrigerated proofing) ended up with a result exactly like #10, but the bottom crust didn't brown as much. The rise, crumb, etc. were, for all intents and purposes, the same. Good oven spring, good flavor, good crumb, no sogginess.

The ones that I followed steps 7-8 were a whole different animal. I refrigerated for 24 hours, let rise again for 2 hours after coming out of the fridge. They didn't rise that much, but the texture and flavor was totally different: more mellow flavor; larger holes and better chew (more like my sourdough); not as much oven spring (seem to have barely risen); darker crust all around (top+bottom); crust was more thin and "crackery" like my best sourdough. I think I may like this one even better than the full #11, but it's not traditional.

Here's a photo, overnight #11 is LEFT, short rise is RIGHT:



Notes/Next time:

• Doubling the recipe doesn't work with a standard mixer; you have to do 2 separate batches. Split the buttermilk mixture into 2 separate containers; knead separately.

Grandma's Bread 2009 (#9?)

Trying a totally revised recipe. I spent a bunch of time building a spreadsheet based on what I learned from "The Baking Bible" by Rose Levy Berenbaum.

This new recipe is based on 18% rye flour ratio (i.e., 18% of flour weight). I read that 20% of more of rye makes bread gummy/sticky. This of course is contrary to the amount of rye flour my grandma suggested (closer to 23%)

1-1/4 cups water
2 cups buttermilk
1-1/3 cup rye flour

6-1/4 cup AP wheat flour
2 tsp yeast
1/2 cup honey
3-1/2 + 1/8 tsp table salt

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in all rye flour, cover tightly and leave at room temperature overnight (at least 12 hours).

2. Into dough mixture, add white flour, yeast, honey. Mix on speed "2" for 2 minutes, until the dough is somewhat uniform. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

3. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using dough hook set to "1" or "2" (low speed). You will need to clean the dough hook often (every 10 seconds or so), because the dough will bunch up a lot, over the top of the dough hook. After a couple of minutes, it MAY stop sticking. Total kneading time should be about 5-7 minutes.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel like ...) and place in bread pans. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 1 hour. Refrigerate covered for 7-8 hours; you can leave it up to (but not more than) 24 hours.

7. Remove loaves from fridge, remove plastic wrap. They were still pretty wet & sticky but with good bubbles, and soft. Re-shaped loaves: remove, dust with flour, and use the letterfold (tri-fold) technique to reshape as a loaf. Cover with towel, and let rise again in warm place for 3.5 hours. Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center; brush tops with butter, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for 40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped. Alternately, should be done somewhere around 190-210 degrees.

8. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and brush tops with remaining butter. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

9. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Results

Pros:

JACKPOT! I think I hit it 95% on the money

• Crust color, evenness and flavor: perfectly dark brown and toasty!!
  
• Salt/honey amount: perfect
  
• Texture/crumb: perfectly tender, perfectly chewy, with perfect size crumb, cooked perfectly through, not gummy in the middle!
  
• Rye flavor: good, but mild
  

Cons

• Dough was formed by Beckey; it was pretty wet and unshapely after I removed it from the fridge. So I punched it down and reformed it, then let it rise for 1 hour. So it didn't rise as much as it might have, but is still awesome!!
• Could use a bit more rye flavor, but it's a toss up; it doesn't overwhelm with rye, but it's there. A bit more rye/sour would be better to balance the slight sweetness of this recpe.
• There were 2-3 small uneven "parts" in the texture at the bottom of the 2nd loaf, perhaps where a flour "blob" had not been kneaded/incorporated enough, where the texture was tight and did not have bubbles. This was very, very minor however.
  

Next time:

• Maybe no punch down/reform? That was accidental, because Beckey shaped 'em ugly. Might need a tiny bit more flour when shaping the loaf; should lead to larger holes.
  
• Maybe try slightly higher rye percentage (20%)?
  

Grandma's Bread 2008 Again

OK, here's the usual end-of-year bread, taking it back east to PA.

Using different flour this type (Bob's Red Mill Dark Rye, instead of usual Hodgson's Rye or Arrowhead Mills Rye).

Makes 2 loaves

2 c. buttermilk
1.25 c. water
1lb 8oz rye flour, unsifted

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

1 lb 14oz unbleached white flour, unsifted
4 tbsp. gluten
1/2 c. honey
3 tsp salt

4 tbsp. melted butter

1. Over medium-low heat, warm buttermilk and water, stirring occasionally, just until it curdles and remove from heat. Stir in 1.5 lb. rye flour, cover tightly and leave in warm place. 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 gluten. Stir in 1.5 lb. of white flour and mix for about 2-3 minutes, until the dough is somewhat uniform. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest for 20 minutes.

4. NOW ADD THE SALT ALL AT ONCE. Mix using dough hook set to "1" or "2" (low speed). You will need to clean the dough hook often (every 10 seconds or so), because the dough will bunch up a lot, over the top of the dough hook. After a couple of minutes, it MAY stop sticking. Total kneading time should be about 5-7 minutes.

6. Grease two bread pans with butter, and dust them with white flour. Cut dough into 2 equal pieces, shape dough into loaves (they will feel like firm little logs) and place in bread pans. Cover with plastic wrap and towel, and leave in warm place to rise for 1 hour. Refrigerate covered for 7-8 hours; you can leave it up to (but not more than) 24 hours.

7. Remove loaves from fridge, remove plastic wrap, cover with towel, and let rise again in warm place for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 450, adjust racks to put bread on 2nd to lowest rack, and put an empty broiler pan at the bottom. Slash loaves down the center; brush tops with butter, and place bread pans on rack in the oven. Add 1 cup hot water to pan to steam and close door. Bake at 450 for 30-40 minutes or until loaves sound hollow when tapped (this time, did 30).

8. Take bread from oven, remove from pans, and brush tops with remaining butter. Let cool on rack, uncovered, for at least 30 min; will still be warm 2 hours later.

9. Store in large Ziploc freezer bags when cool; this will help promote a soft crust.

Notes:

• Ferment mixture: was more like thick dough/paste, not loose like the "sour cream" that grandma described at all
• Mixer kept getting clogged from the dough, had to clear the hook every 10 seconds, barely could turn; dough was pretty hard and sticky
  
• NEXT TIME: try increasing rise time after retarding (increase 3 hours).
  

Results

Pros:

• Nice dark crust on top, great rich toasty dark flavor
• Crust is nice and thin/crispy
  
• Excellent salt-to-dough ratio, perfect amount of salt
  
• When cooled for 2 hours, very soft & tender & somewhat chewy, but not wet AFAIK
  
• Nice rye flavor

Cons

• Crumb is very even, small holes, a bit too small; should be about 1/8" size, and more bagel-like chewy
• Was still a little moist in the middle of the loaf; needs to bake longer.
  

For next time:

• Try coarser rye flour
• Try kneading by hand
• Try less rye, more white flour
• Try less flour overall; more slack should yield bigger bubbles
• Try longer baking time: 40-50 minutes should be good.
  

Here's a photo, just from the oven:


And here's a texture/crumb shot (sorry, quality isn't great, but I don't have a decent digicam right now).

2nd Litho Rye

The next Litho Rye I made turned out pretty damn good. I added some honey, which helped.

Pros:

• All natural starter (sourdough!)
  
• Great flavor (nice rye, not too sour)
  
• Great texture (good size holes; nice chewy, spongy crumb; not damp)
• Crust wasn't too thick
• Beckey liked it!
  

Cons:

• Crust didn't brown on top too well (I took it out of the baking pan after 20 minutes, and just set it on the stone, so at least the bottom picked up some color)
• Crust wasn't very smooth on top

This one is pretty close; if I can get the crust issues worked out, it will be a good loaf

the sour life

Well, yesterday's bread turned out really well. Still holding up well today. Beckey said "it's the best bread you've ever made." Her seal of approval means a lot to me, and is very motivating.

I stayed up til 3am last night reading about Lithuanian black rye bread, including about bakeries in the US that produce it and historical and technical recipe information. So I'm going to try it again, albeit with a slightly different tack. My grandma's bread recipe is decent now, I just want to improve it to get closer to what I remember, and I think I can.

The recipe in the Lithuanian Foods book I have uses an active yeast starter. I'm going to try to do the same with the sourdough starter I have now, but modified. I'm also going to try to use their recipe, at least in generalities (2kg of starter and 6kg of rye flour is simply too much for the kind of baking that I do! That's over 17.6 lbs of flour!); that said, it's interesting that they are using a 3:1 flour-to-starter recipe by weight, whereas my version of KAF sourdough is ~3:1.75 flour-to-starter by weight. And unlike my grandma's bread, the recipe that I have uses no scalded buttermilk.

Here's the beginning:

1/2 cup KAF starter
1 cup rye flour (Hodgson Mill)
1 cup water

Let ferment for 24 hours.

So I had some leftover starter, what to do? Starting one more project: Sourdough waffles! Should be ready to rock and roll tomorrow morning...mmm! This is also from the KAF baking book, we'll see how it turns out. We had some pretty good sourdough pancakes that John A. made up at June Lake, we'll see how these compare. Should be interesting; using regular milk instead of buttermilk called for in the recipe. Hope it's close enough!