Augieland

bread 9

In the food processor, with a metal blade, this time I put:

3 ½ cups Arrowhead Mills organic pastry flour  (4g protein per ¼ cup)
2 ½ tsp Diamond Crystal coarse Kosher salt
1 ½ tsp saf-instant dry yeast
1 ¾ NYC tap water

I gave them a quick whiz in the food processor. Then I placed the dough in a large metal bowl to rise. The dough itself was extremely moist and loose. I laid the protective plastic-wrap across the top of the bowl, letting it lay inside the bowl close to the dough.

2 hours later I turned it out of the bowl onto a floured board, divided it into 4 equal portions and rolled them flat. I shaped these into loaves by folding them over into thirds and pinching the seam together.

The 4 loaves proofed for 3 ½  hours between 2 floured side towels.

I slashed the top of each loaf with a razor blade and cooked them for 30 minutes in the oven I had preheated to 425 for ½ an hour.

This time I:
1.    Made the bread entirely of one kind of flour.
2.    Upped the portion of salt to 2 ½ teaspoons as the bread was getting bland.
3.    Added extra water in the interest of creating more steam in the cooking loaf.
4.    Ended up using much more bench flour then I’d needed before.
5.    Shortened the rising time of the dough and skipped the proofing period as balls before rolling out in favor of allowing the loaf shapes to proof, hoping to create more CO2 in the shaped loafs.
6.    Only sprayed the oven walls with water once at the beginning, hoping to reduce the thickness of the crust.

With Bread 8 I found:
1.    The bread tasted much more of whole wheat then it had when this flour was part of a mix
2.    Proofing as loaf shapes seemed to accomplish nothing because, although the loaves rose a little in the 3 ½ hours, they came out of the oven in exactly this shape. The dough itself seemed to have dried noticeably from having the increased surface area for such a long period of time.
3.    The salt seemed to be in good proportion.
4.    The crust was of a good thickness.

Bread eight was born out of a desire to create a crumb that contained a lot of air. The first decision was to incorporate more water into the dough that could then turn to vapor while cooking. This seemed to be lost to the second decision, which was to allow the dough to proof in its final shape for longer. Proofing in the dough shape seems to have encouraged the dough to dry out more than allowing the CO2 byproduct of the rising yeast to be trapped inside.

Oh well, huge failure. On to bread 9.

Bread 7

In the food processor, with a metal blade, this time I put:

2 cups Bellaria Farina tipo “00”(2.1g protein per ¼ cup)

1 cup Arrowhead Mills organic pastry flour  (4g protein per ¼ cup)

½ cup Arrowhead Mills organic Kamut flour (5g protein per ¼ cup)

2 tsp Diamond Coarse Kosher salt

1 ½ tsp saf-instant dry yeast

1 ¾  cup NYC tap water

I gave these a quick whiz in the food processor, and then placed the dough in a large metal bowl to rise. I laid the protective plastic-wrap across the top of the bowl, letting it rest inside the bowl close to the dough.

8 hours later I turned it out of the bowl, punched it down, divided it into 4 balls and rolled these out. Because they had already proofed for so long, I immediately skipped ahead to loaf formation. I rolled the balls out and rolled them into long tubes, which I rested for 1.5 hours.

I slashed the top of each loaf and put them in an oven that had preheated to 425 for ½ an hour and cooked them for 35 minutes.

This time I:

1. Hoped to create looser dough by upping the water a little, it was still rather stiff.
2. Sprayed the walls of the oven before I put the loaves in and again 5 minutes into cooking.
3. Rolled the dough into loaves rather then dividing into thirds and folding.
4. Skipped the ½ hour of proofing as balls and went straight to proofing in the shape of loaves, which I proofed for 1 ½ hours.

Notes on bread 7:

1. There is more air in the crumb.
2. The gauge of the crust is getting too thick and hard to break through.
3. Rolling the dough, rather then folding, made more pockets for air but they were smaller.

I think water = air pockets inside the bread, and that spraying the oven resulted in the too-thick crusts. Going to have to play with this.

bread 6

In the food processor, with a metal blade, this time I put:

3 ½  cups Bellaria Farina tipo “00”(2.1g protein per ¼ cup)
2 tsp Diamond Crystal Coarse Kosher salt
1 ¼   tsp saf-instant dry yeast
1 ½ cup Lynx natural Mineral Water From Milan

I gave it a quick whiz in the food processor. Usually, before I slowly add the water, I combine the dry products for five or so seconds, but this time I realized after adding all the water I had forgotten the yeast so I sprinkled it in while I let the blade spin. Then I placed the dough in a large metal bowl to rise. The dough itself was extremely moist and loose. I laid the protective plastic-wrap across the top of the bowl, letting it lay inside the bowl close to the dough.

3 hours later I turned it out of the bowl onto a floured board, and punched it down. It was unworkable, I would guess I needed about ½ a cup of bench flour to be able to handle it without it gluing itself to whatever it touched. Once I got it to stop sticking it to everything, I divided it into 4 balls and let it rest under a floured side towel.

The 4 balls proofed for 1 hour. I then rolled them out, gently, folded them into thirds, pinched their seams closed, and rested them between two floured towels for ½ hour while I preheated the oven to 425.

I slashed the top of each loaf with a razor blade and cooked them in the preheated oven for ½ an hour.

This time I:
1.    Made the bread entirely of one kind of flour.
2.    Switched to Diamond Crystal kosher salt; there was too much variation in the flavor of the breads made with Mortons.
3.    Used a bottled mineral water.
4.    Ended up using much more bench flour then I’d needed before.
5.    The dough, in spite of all the bench flour, was almost liquid and required the lightest touch to work it and get it into the oven.
6.    Decided that “00” flour is soft as confectioners’ sugar and quite fun to play with.
7.    Switched back to spraying the walls of the oven with a spray bottle.

With Bread 6 I found:
1.    There was much more air in the crumb.
2.    It was far creamier tasting.
3.    It might tolerate even a little more salt.
4.    The crust was much lighter, except on the bottom where it was nicely thick.
5.    The late yeast addition doesn’t seem to have hurt it any.

Bread six was born out of an experiment involving primarily Italian ingredients.  Finding “00” flour was easy (all I had to do was go to The Garden Of Eden on 14th St) and European mineral water is ubiquitous. Sadly, the “00” flour they sell has about half the protein of bread flour. I will have to keep my eyes out for someone with “00” flour in the 4g+ protein range. I figured it was worth a shot, and think I have happily discovered some insights into the more airy crumb as a result.

Bring on bread 7!!!

bread 5

In the food processor, with a metal blade, this time I put:

1 cup King Arthur bread flour (4g protein per ¼ cup)
1 cup Arrowhead Mills organic pastry flour  (4g protein per ¼ cup)
1cup Heckers unbleached All Purpose flour (3g protein per ¼ cup)
½ cup Arrowhead Mills organic Kamut flour (5g protein per ¼ cup)
2 tsp Morton Coarse Kosher salt
1 ½ tsp saf-instant dry yeast
1 ½ cup NYC tap water

I gave these a quick whiz in the food processor, and then placed the dough in a large metal bowl to rise. The dough itself was very dry and tight. I laid the protective plastic-wrap across the top of the bowl, letting it rest inside the bowl close to the dough.

3 hours later I turned it out of the bowl, punched it down, divided it into 4 balls and let it rest under a floured side-towel.

The 4 balls proofed for 2 hours. I then rolled them out, folded them into thirds, pinched their seams together, and rested them between two floured towels, seam side down, for 1 hour. I also tucked the pointy ends under in the interest of creating a uniform shape.

I slashed the top of each loaf and put them in an oven that had preheated to 425 for ½ an hour and cooked them for 30 minutes, plus five minutes (see notes on this below).

This time I:
1.    Tossed 4 ice cubes in the gap between the stone and the oven floor when I put the bread in, and then again 5 minutes into the cycle.
2.    Divided the bread into 4 loaves (last time the center didn’t seem to cook all the way through).
3.    Went back to the 2 tsp amount of salt.

Notes on bread 5:
1.    The crumb is still far denser then I would like.
2.    The crust, although it has a very good crunch, is harder than I would like and seems thicker in gauge than my previous attempts.
3.    Tucking the corners under just made for even sillier looking ends.
4.    There is still a scorching issue, although much less, with whatever ends up on the left side of the center of the stone.

I think it mat be time to shake up the system, this is good bread, but not great.

Bread 4

In the food processor, with a metal blade, this time I put:

1 ¼  cups King Arthur bread flour (4g protein per ¼ cup)
1 ½  cup Arrow Head Mills pastry flour flour (4g protein per ¼ cup)
¾  cup Arrow Head Mills organic Kamut flour (5g protein per ¼ cup)
1 ¾ tsp Morton Coarse Kosher salt
1 ¼ tsp saf-instant dry yeast
1 ½ cup NYC tap water

I gave it a quick whiz in the food processor, and then placed it in a large metal bowl to rise. The dough itself was very moist and loose. I assume this has something to do with the use of pastry flour. I laid the protective plastic-wrap across the top of the bowl, letting it lay inside the bowl close to the dough.

3 hours later I turned it out of the bowl, punched it down, divided it into 3 balls and let it rest under a floured side towel.

The 3 balls proofed for 1 hour. I then rolled them out, folded them into thirds, and rested them between two floured towels for ½ hour.

I slashed the top of each loaf and put them in an oven that had preheated to 425 for ½ an hour and cooked them for 30 minutes, plus five minutes (see notes on this below).

This time I:
1.    Accidentally had set the oven to 375 as opposed to 425 so I added 5 minutes with the oven on 500 to the end.
2.    Tossed 6 ice cubes in the gap between the stone and the oven floor when I put the bread in, and then again 5 minutes into the cycle.
3.    Divided the bread into 3 loaves (last time the center didn’t seem to cook all the way through).

Notes on bread 4:
1.    Hard to judge because of the mistake in oven temp.
2.    Crust was nice
3.    Crumb again seemed under-cooked
4.    Color more yellow, probably as a result of more kamut.
5.    The salt was noticeably missing.

Well there is always bread 5.

bread 3

In the food processor, with a metal blade, this time I put:

2 cups King Arthur bread flour (4g protein per ¼ cup)
1 cup Arrow Head Mills organic enriched unbleached flour (4g protein per ¼ cup)
½ cup Arrow Head Mills organic Kamut flour (5g protein per ¼ cup)
1 ¾ tsp Morton Coarse Kosher salt
1 ¼ tsp saf-instant dry yeast
1 ½ cup NYC tap water

I gave it a quick whiz in the food processor, and then placed it in a large metal bowl to rise. This time I laid the protective plastic wrap across the top of the bowl, letting it lay inside the bowl close to the dough, last time I stretched it across the top of the bowl and the dough developed a bit of a skin.

2 ¾ hours later I turned it out of the bowl, punched it down, divided it into 2 balls and let it rest under a floured side towel.

The 2 balls proofed for 4 hours. I then rolled them out, folded them into thirds, and slashed the tops with a razorblade.

I sprayed the oven walls with water and put the loaves on the stone in a 450-degree oven for 35 minutes.

This time I:
1.    Added an extra ¼ teaspoon salt trying to bring the flavor up.
2.    Added an extra ¼ teaspoon instant yeast trying to get more air in the bread.
3.    Put the bread stone up on its wire rack trying to get closer to the oven floor without being directly on the hot spot.
4.    Divided the bread into 2 loaves, giving it more room to capture air.
5.    Set the oven to 450 as opposed to 425.
6.    Cut one of the loaves with the razor blade across rather then lengthwise.

Notes on bread 3:
1.    The 450 oven seems to be too much: the bottom scorched again.
2.    1 ¾ tsp salt seems to be the right amount.
3.    The extra yeast seems only to have helped.
4.    The cross-length slashed loaf split its seam. It seemed that without the stretching room of the long slashes it expanded and pulled at the easiest point.
5.    The crust on bread 3 was just about right, the crumb is still a little dense and this time moist.

Hmmmm. Any one for bread 4?

bread 2

My second attempt at baguettes started much the same as Bread 1. I went with Bittman’s basic measurements, except I cut back a little salt this time and varied the flours, trying to lighten the crumb from last time. In the food processor, with a metal blade, this time I put:

1 ½ cup King Arthur bread flour (4g protein per ¼ cup)
1 ½ cup Arrow Head Mills organic enriched unbleached flour (4g protein per ¼ cup)
½ cup Arrow Head Mills organic Kamut flour (5g protein per ¼ cup)
1 ½ tsp Morton Coarse Kosher salt
1 ½ tsp saf-instant dry yeast
1 ½ cup NYC tap water

I gave it a quick whiz in the food processor, and then placed it in a large metal bowl to rise. This time I stretched the protective plastic wrap across the top of the bowl, last time I pressed it down to the dough and it stuck a little when I removed it.

The dough proofed for 4.5 hours. I turned it out and divided it into 5 equal portions which I rolled into 5 balls and covered with a floured side-towel for a second rise. (There were some dryish spots I ignored.)

The 5 balls rose for an hour after which I rolled them out with a pin and folded them into thirds. I then pinched the seam together and placed them seam side down between two towels.

½ hour later I slashed the top of each loaf with a razorblade and put them all on the peel.

I sprayed the walls of the oven (preheated to 425 for ½ hour) with water and slid the 5 loaves off together onto the stone.

5 minutes into cooking, I sprayed the walls of the oven with water again.

25 minutes later I looked in and decided they were still a little blonde, so I sprayed the walls with water one last time.

27 total minutes in the oven and I pulled the 5 loaves out.

Ok, so this time I changed a couple of things:
1.    I snugged the stone against the back wall of the oven, since last time the loaves fell off the end.
2.    I put the stone on top of a roasting pan to avoid the hot spot in the center that scorched the bread last time.
3.    I went with 1 ½ tsp salt because Bread one was just a little salty with 2 tsp.
4.    I changed the flour to a three-way mix: bread, AP, and Kamut hoping to trap more air.
5.    I divided the dough into 5 loaves as opposed to 4.

Except for avoiding the scorching I did not love this bread more.
1.    I liked the crunch of the crust but not the carmelization.
2.    The crumb lacked the missing flavor of the salt.
3.    The baguettes were too thin in diameter
4.    The crumb was not significantly more airy.

There is always next time!

bread 1

Wife had expressed an interest in bread baking prior to her birthday so I added to the gifts I was getting her a baking stone. That was last week and as of this morning it had sat in the bottom of our rather arcane oven unused. As I am bad at not playing with other people’s toys at their houses, the likely-hood of my not playing with a new toy in my own oven was slim to none. I was proud of myself for letting it go a whole week. So today I decided to learn how to make a baguette.

These days, when I am breaking uncharted culinary earth, I turn to Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything, having left the old standby of my youth, The Fanny Farmer Cook Book, in dad’s charge years ago. Bittman has really come through with very solid starter recipes, and he backs them up with fundamental methodology you can run with. So far, he has delivered on all the things I have turned to him for. This proved true for baguettes as well.

Bittman explains that the basic elements are white flour, water, salt, and yeast, and that’s about it. He goes on to discuss additions, like rye flour or seeds. Having read his intro on the basics of bread, which I also suggest you do if you are interested in trying it, I decided on my approach and set about my first experiment in the land of home-baked bread. I used:

3 cups King Arthur unbleached bread flour, 4g protein per ¼ cup
½ cup Arrowhead Mills Kamut flour, 5g protein per ¼ cup
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp saf-instant dry yeast
a heavy 1½ cup NYC tap water

All of this went into the food processor with a metal blade for a quick whiz, and I added water slowly. As the last of the water went in, 1½ minutes give or take, the dough started pulling away from the sides and I turned it all into a large metal bowl, covered it with plastic wrap, and left it for four hours.

When it was finished proofing, I poured the now larger blob of dough onto a floured cutting board and divided it into 4 pieces. I rolled these out with a pin in rectangles, folded them into thirds, squeezed the seam together with my fingers, and put them on a side towel seam-side down. I covered this with another side towel and left them on the countertop to proof again.

1½ hours later, I transferred the baguettes onto a floured peel, scored the top with a razor blade, and inserted a probe thermometer in the center of the largest one, sprayed the internal walls of the oven with water, and threw them on the baking stone on the floor of the gas oven that had been preheating to 425 for the last ½ hour. I overshot the back of the stone by about three inches and wiggled them back as best I could. I set the probe for 210 and waited for the alarm.

Five minutes into cooking, I sprayed the oven walls again with water.

The internal temperature of 210 was achieved in 10 minutes. I figured better to wait a little longer since the loaves were still white.

24 minutes later I pulled them out, at an internal temperature of 212.

I learned there is a hot spot in the middle of my oven, because the two center loaves were scorched on the center of their bottoms.

The bread itself had a denser crumb then I would have liked, and it represented more salt than I would have liked. I was pleased with the crust, though, so next time I’ll fool around with it a little. Stand by.