Bread in the mail

My Niece Nina sent me a loaf of bread in a box through the USPS. It was a great loaf. Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the whole loaf, but I did get a picture of the sandwich I made.

It reminded me of loaves I had made using a white bread recipe. It was very good and it toasted really well. It was all gone by the time I got home at the end of the day. Good job Nina.

5 minute Artizan bread

I got the recipe from an online video. It is in support of the book, but it is a dead simple recipe so I think I will just keep playing with it. The basic recipe is:

• 6 1/2 cups flour
• 3 cups water
• 1-1/2 Tablespoons Salt
• Yeast, I used a baby sponge from my sourdough starter it is about 2 cups of flour water mix.

All of this is mixed up in a 6 quart plastic food safe tub and let sit. It says to let sit on the counter for a few hours and then put it in the frig for up to a week. This is a no knead recipe so the gluten is developed by the yeast action alone. It is very soft and sticky. To handle it, I throw some flour on top of the mix and grab a handful. I form it into a ball and keep adding flour so it does not stick on anything, I set it on a sheet of parchment paper and let it rise for at least 90 minutes. Then I brushed it with water and sprinkled a seed mixture on it before putting in a 450 oven with a pan of water. The results were wonderful 30 minutes later.

I love the random crumb. The crust was crispy out of the oven and after it cooled, It was good and chewy. I think I will have a lot of fun playing with this recipe.

Rye Bread first attempt

I have been wanting to do some other grain breads. I have done some whole wheat with limited success, so I tried a sourdough rye bread. I turned out great. J an loves rye bread so I was really trying to make it work well. I used a recipe from Joy of Cooking which has 6 steps. It starts with a poolish thing, rye flour and yeast and water that sits for 24 hours. Then more Rye flour and water is mixed in and it sits again. The long sit is so the regular yeast can sour up some, but instead of yeast I used a 1/4 cup of my sourdough starter. It worked really well and I let it sit extra long, actually a day too long.

The resulting sponge was really sour and had an alcoholic note. The rest of the recipe is as follows:










Sponge 1

• 1 3/4 cups rye flour
• Package dry active yeast
• 1/4 cup water

I let this sit for about 6 hours, it did not really double as it was supposed to. but it did sour more.

Sponge 2

• 1 3/4 cups rye flour
• 1 3/4 cups bread flour
• 1 cup water

 I let this sponge rise and it did double. I think it was the regular flour that loosened it up and let the yeast work. The dough through all of these steps was very sticky, more sticky than anything else I have made. I took me five minutes just to get it off my hands after mixing it.

Finally after this sponge doubled add;

• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 tablespoon caraway seeds
• 1 3/4 cups bread flour

Again this is a sticky mess. I let it rest for about 1 hour and them turned it onto a floured board and kneaded in 1 1/2 to 2 cups bread flour. The dough was really wet and it took most of 2 cups of flour. It ended up being very stiff and slightly sticky, but not so sticky as to stick to the board.  I cut it into two pieces and formed 2 loaves. These went into the oven with the light turned on to rise. I covered it with a very wet towel so it would not dry out. It rose for 30 to 45 minutes before I baked it. I baked at 425 with a pan of water for 20 minutes, and then took the water out and baked for another 30 minutes. I suppose I could have taken it out after 25 minutes, but it still turned out great. Once I pulled it out of the oven I brushed the loaves with salted butter that sizzled into the crust.

This was a great batch of bread it ended up with a crusty crust and a soft and chewy crumb. I will be making this again.

Whole Wheat

3/27/11      I made a baby sponge in the middle of the week and was too busy  to get to it until Sunday. On Saturday I put 1 cup back into the mother sponge, and added a cup of flour and 1 cup of water to the baby so I had enough for 2 breads. I used whole wheat flour for the first time. I bought some King Arthur whole wheat flour and I do like it. I made a batch of whole wheat bread based on a recipe from the King Arthur web site.

I also did a basic 3 cup loaf recipe splitting the flour 50/50 between my bread flour and the whole wheat. Both came out well. The flavor is definitely different and has a nutty sort of flavor. My next loaf is going to be a rye loaf.

 Both batches have a softer crust than the all white flour recipes. I have a good looking crumb on the Half and half loaves. I split the batches so the loaves are a little small, but Jan likes smaller bread. I am sure Jerrin will love these too.

Cinnamon rolls sort of

3/20/11     Used a sponge this morning to make the Joy of Cooking  Scandinavian pastry for some cinnamon rolls for this afternoon. I need to go get some ingredients, but I will do that as the dough rises. It is a good recipe that gives a very nice pastry.

• 2 eggs, beaten and stirred into the baby sponge
• 4 cups of flour sifted with
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 Tbs Sugar
• 1/2 cup butter cut in

The recipe calls for Cardamom seeds or ground cardamom, but the cinnamon roll recipe says to leave it out. I left it out since I do not have any at the moment, but I think I want to include it next time. One think I have learned from Brad is to get the dough a lot flatter, and once it is rolled up to put the cut slices into a rectangular pan instead of the muffin tin I have been using. I ended up getting a great roll, good fillings and filled a glass rectangular dish. They rose nicely and I put them in the oven. The pan sides were fairly high and as it baked, it did not brown well, so I kept them in the oven, big mistake. They looked great, but were way overdone, kind of hard. I did have a few, but I ended up taking Jan's advice and tossing most of them because they were rock like. I did not even take pictures this time.

My Favorite loaves

I started a baby sponge on Wednesday night and I let it sit on top of the frig until Saturday morning. A little longer than usual, but it was OK and very sour. I wanted to make some bread for Jerrin so I ended up doubling my favorite 3 cup loaf recipe

• 3 cups flour
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil or softened margarine
• 4 teaspoons of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of salt

I simply doubled everything and added 1 cup plus 2 oz. water and let the mixed knead the dough. It ended up perfect with just enough water for a soft elastic dough. I love using the electric mixer. so much easier.

The dough rose all day Saturday, and Saturday evening I split it in half, approximately, and formed 2 loaves on a baking sheet. I have had trouble in the recent past with making the dough too dry, but not this time.

I let the loaves rise in the oven with the light on. It is a perfect temperature for rising dough especially when the house is cool like now. Once it had risen I sliced it and let it sit while the oven warmed up

After baking the loaves look great. I noticed that the loaves split during baking where I had tucked the dough under during forming. I guess I need to seal the bottom better or do some more forming.

All in all a perfect batch, and again, no yeast, just the sourdough starter that is now years old, maybe 3 I think.

Started 2 things this morning. I did a 3 cup loaf, with less than a cup of starter. I added 5 OZ of water to make the dough come together.

• 2 Cups of sponge (proofed starter)
• 3 Cups of unbleached flour
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil or softened margarine
• 4 teaspoons of sugar
• 2 teaspoons of salt

I am also doing cinnamon rolls using a recipe from the Joy of Cooking for Scandinavian pastry

• 2 Eggs
• 1 cup starter whipped together
• 4 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 Tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 cup butter

Both of these doughs have no yeast and are working on the starter alone. I will let them rise while I am at work and get back to them in the late afternoon.

I never got back to the bread until Saturday morning, it ended up rising all day Saturday in the cold house it doubled nicely. I formed and let the bread loaf rise and it rose perfectly. It was not too wet or too dry. Great elastic skin, and it baked perfectly. Kind of chewy and soft. I think it is one of my better loaves.

The cinnamon rolls were a bit much. By the time I had the dough flattened and the filling in I thought it was too big and would not fit in the pan.

 A couple were, but I figured out the size after a while. I could really use a scale. The next time I do this I will try to get the rolled dough thinner and roll a tighter roll. I think I have a handle on the filling now. I put enough butter, sugar, rasins and nuts. After they baked a lot of the rasins and nuts were left in the bottom of the pan, I spooned them on top of the rolls before I iced them.

But they rose really well and after they baked the icing went on and they are awesome. I made a quick orange icing and of course tried one to see how great they were.