SPENT GRAIN - PART 3

Had some more spent grain gifted last week. Decided to dry some first to establish the water content. Weighed the rest out into 250g packs so they are pre-weighed for the recipe.

Drying was an eye opener. In 250g there is 187g of water. No wonder the last batch was so wet!

Reducing the water to 615g in the base dough meant that the final dough would have a hydration of 80%. Much easier dough to work with. Based  on the spent grains water content I estimate that the part 2 batch was about 85% hydration, which explains why it was so hard to finally shape.

Both loaves came out of the oven looking good, with good oven spring . The first loaf got away from me! My wife grabbed it for a gift before I could photograph it.

Nice oven spring

Here is the second loaf on the cooling rack.

Chewy crust, soft crumb.

 

 Ahh! Fresh bread with just a smear of butter.

BACK IN THE SWING OF THINGS

It's been unbearably hot in eastern North Carolina, so baking has been on the back burner for the past two months, except for my commitment of Challah for our local shul. 

But yesterday I got energized and put together two Overnight 40% Whole Wheat from Ken Forkish's Flour Water, Salt, Yeast, two loaves of Vogel's Bread and three Baguettes.

Overnight 40% Whole Wheat

Very pleased with this result, good oven spring, crisp, chewy crust, and soft crumb. Great flavor.

Crisp crust, soft crumb - delicious.

Vogel's Bread? Among other things it is the best selling bread in my home country of New Zealand. Created by a Swiss, Alfred Vogel who cared a lot about the enjoyment of good food and healthy living, believing that:

The best quality of life could be achieved by maintaining a well-balanced diet of wholesome natural foods.

And what better place to start than the ‘humble’ loaf? Alfred wanted to create bread full of wholesome and natural ingredients, making it simple and enjoyable for anyone and everyone to get essential nutrients into their everyday diet. So Vogel’s bread has been around for over 60 years now and baked in New Zealand since 1967.

Vogel's Bread

Essentially it's a multi-grain seeded loaf. Mine has 7 grain hot cereal, rolled oats, sunflower, pumpkin, flax and sesame seeds with 20% whole wheat flour. Here is a link to the recipe I used: Vogel's Bread. I used the 7 grain cereal in place of the kibbled wheat and rye. 

Cut into the Vogel's bread for a crumb shot, but did not try yet. Into the freezer for later in the week.

Vogel's Crumb

 
Baguettes were from a King Arthur recipe with an overnight retard in the refrigerator. Not at all happy with the result, so no photo. Recipe called for baking in a stoneware baguette baker, which I don't have. Tried baking in the oven on a stone with steam, but the crust did not crisp up, even with an additional five minutes. However, did make a great grilled Cuban sandwich from one of the baguettes, so all was not lost.

NO MORE UNLEAVEN BREAD

Passover officially finished at sunset on Saturday so the matzah was put away and the levain came out of hiding.

First up into the oven were two loaves of Steel-cut Oat Bread. Used the recipe and instructions posted by pjkobulnicky at thefreshloaf.com. You can find the recipe using the link above.

I confess to cheating a little bit as I refreshed the starter on Friday night and made the dough on Saturday. But did not bake until after sundown.

Here is the finished result before cutting into the loaf:

Steel-cut Oat Bread

Got a surprise when I cut for the crumb shot. Although the loaves sounded hollow when they came out of the oven, the interior was still wet!

I can only think the steel cut oats I used (Bob's Red Mill) absorbed more water. When I went to drain and reserve the water from steeping the oats, very little water drained out.

When I shaped the loaves, they were easy to handle. The initial hydration was 70%. Did not measure how much of the strained water came out from the oats, but the initial mix was 600g boiling water and 300g oats. So there could have been upwards of another 400g of water bound in the oats when they were added to the dough. Baking was 30 minutes in a closed Dutch Oven followed by 30 minutes with the lid off at 475^oF. Sunday morning I dropped them back in the oven at 475^oF for 30 minutes. Still a little doughy after that so gave them another 15 minutes.

Here is the crumb shot after the second bake:

Steel Cut Oats - Crumb

 
Tried a slice after the loaf had cooled. Great crunch to the crust, soft, sweet crumb. Will just have to play around with the bake time in future.

Bake # 2 was Overnight Country Brown from Ken Forkish's Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast. Abject failure! Over-proofed and finished up with two pancake loaves that will make great croutons, but not much else. I'm embarrassed to post a picture!

And finally a batch of Ciabatta. Used the formula from Linda West Eckhardt and Dianna Collingsworth's Rustic European Breads for your Bread Machine and the last cup of levain. Mixed by hand and then three stretch and folds during the fermentation. Turned the dough out onto a floured surface, cut in two and roughly shaped to 4x10 inches. 30 minutes more proof, then stretched out to 6x12 inches. Final proof then baked 30 minutes in oven with steam at 475^oF.

Ciabatta

 

Bagels

Peter Reinhart's recipe this week was for bagels. Now I'll be the first to admit that I have only baked bagels once before so a bagel baker I'm not! But anyway, in for a penny, in for a pound, as they say. Recipe was very straight forward, and like most of Peter's recipes calls for an overnight in the refrigerator for the dough. Shaping was the big bugbear and as you will see in the photos, not a good job of joining the ends. Bagels were shaped before putting in the refrigerator.


Next day, pulled the bagels out, and after they got back to room temperature, boiled them in simmering water for 1 1/2 minutes. Then dropped the still wet bagels into poppy seeds for a garnish. 16 minutes in a 450 degree oven and they were done.


Took some over to some friends with cream cheese and lox. Wow! Were they great - good tight crumb and real chewy texture. Their verdict? "Three thumbs up". These will be a try again recipe.

Mash-based Seed Culture

This week I spent time making Peter Rheinhart's mash-based seed culture. Mash is a partially cooked whole wheat flour and water mixture that partly gelatinizes the starches. This is then successively mixed with more whole wheat flour and water over 5 - 6 days, in a similar fashion to creating a sourdough starter. The final is a mother starter at 75% hydration that can be used directly in making a whole wheat loaf. This is a wonderfully vigorous starter as seen in this photo.


Today was bake day. Last night I finished refreshing the mother starter and made a whole wheat soaker. This is a mix of whole wheat flour and milk at 87% hydration. It is covered and left at room temperature over night. The starter and soaker are combined with a little more flour, brown sugar, salt, oil and yeast. Peter Rheinhart describes this as his 'epoxy' method because you are mixing essentially equal quantities of two pre-doughs, just like mixing an epoxy adhesive. The photo below right is the soaker just before combining.


The final combination felt good after kneading - no added flour or water other than a small amount of flour used for dusting. Rising went well and the dough was split into two 2lb loaves. A second rising in the pans, then into the oven they went.


Here's the finished product, just out of the oven. Not as much oven spring as I get with the multi-grain bread, but to be expected as this is a 100% whole wheat where the other has some regular bread flour. Tried one piece, tight crumb but good texture. So chalk up another success.

Multigrain Loaf

Today I finished a multigrain loaf from Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads" . I've been playing around with his recipes for some months now, and generally find them to be somewhat dry. So I decided to try one of his transitional recipes that have some regular bread flour to lighten the texture. This one has whole wheat flour, cornmeal, rolled oats, wheat bran, flax seed and a cooked grain. For the cooked grain I used Bulgar wheat. The grains are all mixed together with buttermilk and left overnight as a soaker. The bread flour goes into a biga that is refrigerated overnight.

When the soaker and biga were mixed together with the remaining ingredients this morning I had a dough that was wetter than usual, so I added a little bread flour to make a soft and slightly sticky dough. Then the dough went through a five minute autolyse and final kneading. First rise was in a ball, then shaping to a batard for the final rise.

Here is a photo of the finished product. Moist and chewy, it has a nice crust and crumb. This will definitely be on my regular recipe list.

A Follow Up and Some Equipment Notes

Follow up:

Last Thursday and Friday's bakes went well for the most part. The sourdough ciabatta turned out well and the sourdough cinnamon buns were fantastic. Moist and chewy, not like the commercial buns that often turn out to be dry. The two loaves the next day were also good. I think I have the basic sourdough recipe down now. The sourdough waffles for breakfast were a really nice change and we have two more lots in the freezer now for sometime later. The only disappointment was the challah. Came out of the oven looking very nice, with a crisp brown crust and a nice yellow crumb, thanks to the use of some saffron. But turned out to be dryer that I like, possibly over baked, so will reduce the time in the oven when I try again.

Equipment:

I Thought that a few notes on what equipment I use might be an idea. My bread machine is an Oster Model 5844. This will make up to a two pound loaf and I use it primarily for dough making for rolls and pizza dough.

My sourdough breads are first mixed in a Kenwood Chef stand mixer with 5 quart bowl and a dough hook. My favorite for proofing is the plastic Kenwood bowl or I use a recycled 1 gallon ice cream pail. A four pound capacity kitchen scale and various measuring cups are used for measuring ingredients.

Proofing the final loaf is done either in a pan, or especially for the sourdoughs I have two brotforms and four bannetons. For the non-bakers, brotforms are a spiral wound willow basket that leaves a really attractive marking on the bread and can be seen in this first photo.

Bannetons are similar in that they are round wicker baskets with a linen lining. Both make the loaf shape commonly referred to as boules.

Along with the usual loaf pans, I have a two section baguette pan as well. I use a large rectangular baking stone in the oven and a metal bakers peel to transfer the loaves in and out of the oven. I use a regular home oven in which I often put a pan of water to provide steam inside the oven. For loaves that need to be scored or cut before baking I use a single sided razor blade.