Tag Archives: sourdough bread

A SOURDOUGH EXPERIMENT

Posted on January 26, 2012 | 31 Comments

Would you like to bake bread with wild yeast, but the thought of keeping a starter is too intimidating? If that’s the case, I urge you to read this great post by Joanna, from Zeb Bakes. She will make you feel absolutely at ease with keeping the starter going, minimizing your work and the use of flour. She will also show you a simple schedule to bake bread on a weekly basis. Awesome read! Sourdough baking made simple and easy, as it should be.

Now, time for some fun with it. Remember the proofing bread box I gave myself for Christmas? Well, I put it to the test, by making a batch of sourdough bread and dividing the dough in two. Half went into the cozy environment of the box (78 F), half stayed outside in my kitchen kept (at this time of the year) at around 70F. The recipe I chose for such a ground-breaking experiment comes from a great baker, who blogs at Breadcetera. You can learn a ton of stuff from him, make sure to bookmark his site and visit often. He developed this technique called “double flour addition,” with the goal of maximizing the amount of air bubbles trapped in the dough from the very beginning of mixing. These tiny air bubbles, created by whisking the very loose mixture of flour and water, later generates the pockets of air that every baker searches for in this type of rustic loaf.

SOURDOUGH BREAD WITH DOUBLE FLOUR ADDITION
(from Breadcetera)

680 g bread flour
90 g whole wheat flour
455 g water
15 g salt
300 g sourdough starter (at 100% hydration)

Combine the flours in a large bowl and lightly mix them with a whisk.

Add the water and the sourdough starter to the bowl of a Kitchen Aid mixer, and use the whisk attachment to work them together at the lowest speed for a minute or so. At this point, you only need to combine them and have the starter dispersed through the water. Add just 75g of the flour mixture, and increase the speed of the mixer to level 3. Whisk until the mixture seems quite aerated (about 3 to 4 minutes).

Remove the whisk attachment and place the dough hook in place. Add the rest of the flour, and knead for a couple of minutes, until the flour forms a shaggy mass. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rest for 20 to 30 minutes.

Sprinkle the salt over the dough, and mix on speed 3 for 6 minutes. Place the dough in an oiled bowl, cover and let it ferment for 2 hours, without any folding or kneading. Divide the dough in two equal pieces, and lightly give it a round shape. Let it rest for 15 minutes for the gluten to relax, and do a final shaping, creating surface tension by pulling the sides of the dough up as you gather it all in the “boule” shape. Place the balls of dough, seam side up, in a floured round container (such as a brotform), cover with plastic, and let it ferment for 3 hours at 78 F.

Invert the dough on a peel, score, and bake at 425 F for 40 minutes, with steam during the first 15 minutes. Let it completely cool before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

For my experiment, I divided the dough in two right before the first fermentation, and placed one half in the proofing box. That dough stayed in the box until baking time, the other one stayed over the kitchen table, protected from drafts. The difference in the dough itself was pretty dramatic, but I could not get a picture that was good enough to show it. However, once the bread was baked, the one from the proofing box had much better oven spring, the other one was a bit on the flattish side. Both were delicious, and the crumb had a nice structure, but one bread looked a lot “healthier.” Here they are…

You can see that the taller bread, with a more round shape, had better oven spring, bursting through the slashing with greater power. Sorry, no photos of the crumb, we froze that baby for later and by the time we got to enjoying it, I forgot to grab the camera.

The bread proofing box not only optimizes the temperature, but also provides the correct amount of humidity, thanks to the small dish that sits at the bottom of the box, with some water in it. No need to worry about a skin forming on the loaf in the final proofing, no need to use plastic to cover it. A very well designed machine, that is getting constant use in our home.

I am submitting this post to Susan’s Yeastspotting…

ONE YEAR AGO: Shrimp and Fennel Casserole

TWO YEARS AGO: Tuscan Bread

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Tagged bread proofing box, rustic bread, sourdough boule, sourdough bread, wild yeast

SAN FRANCISCO SOURDOUGH

Posted on October 19, 2011 | 24 Comments

Talk about an American classic! The sourness of this bread is quite unique, but not everyone is fond of it. For some, it’s a little excessive, but I happen to love it. In fact, I’ve considered buying a commercial SF sourdough starter to try and mimic this bread at home. However, the fact that soon that population would change by incorporating yeast and bacteria present in our own environment, made me reluctant to go for it. Sure, it would be nice to bake a few loaves with a “close to the original” taste, but then I’d be left babying three starters instead of the two I own… and I already take care of way too many strains of bacteria in the lab!

Browsing through the pages of “Bread Alone,” I spotted a recipe for San Francisco Sourdough, and almost did not pay attention to it, thinking that it would involve the authentic starter. Nope. Daniel Leader developed his own recipe for it, coaching a regular starter into a slightly increased level of acidity, resulting in a bread that, according to him, would be very close to the original.

SAN FRANCISCO SOURDOUGH
(from Daniel Leader’s Bread Alone)

for the poolish
4 oz starter (mine was at 100% hydration)
4 oz bread flour
4 oz water

for the dough
8 oz water
all the poolish
13.5 to 16 oz bread flour
1/2 Tbs salt

Make the poolish the day before you want to bake the bread, by combining all the ingredients in a small bowl and leaving at room temperature for 24 hours, preferably from 74 F to 80 F, covered with plastic wrap.

Next day, pour the water at room temperature in the bowl of a KitchenAid, mixer, and add the poolish, breaking it up gently with a wooden spoon, and stirring until dissolved. Add about 1 cup (5 oz) of the total flour and the salt, and stir until combined. Place the dough hook in, keep adding the rest of the flour (you may not need all of it), and knead for about 12 minutes at the second speed of the machine.

Remove the dough to a slightly floured surface, knead it by hand a few times, place it in an oiled bowl, cover loosely with plastic wrap, and let it rise for 2.5 hours, with quick cycles of folding after 45 minutes and 1 hour and 30 minutes. After the second folding cycle, leave the dough undisturbed for the final 60 minutes of bulk fermentation.

Place the risen dough over a slightly floured surface, and without de-flating it too much, form it into a ball. Let it rise 45 minutes. Shape the dough as a boule or any other shape you prefer, place it in an appropriate container for the final rise, and leave it at room temperature for 1 hour.

Bake it in a pre-heated 450 F, with steam, for a total of 45 minutes, decreasing the temperature to 425 F after 10 minutes of baking. If using a cover to create steam, remove the cover after 30 minutes. Let it cool over a rack for a couple of hours before slicing it.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

My main modification of the recipe was to include two folding cycles after kneading in the KitchenAid because I felt the dough lacked structure and strength. I used regular, supermarket bread flour, so it’s possible that it behaved differently from the book’s description. For the most part, I tend to bake my breads with regular bread flour, not going out of my way to find the one with “a touch of germ,”, or “harvested during Spring, under a full moon.”

Did the bread deliver the promise in the taste department? YES! When I tried a piece all by itself to get the real taste of the crumb, it immediately hit me as VERY similar to a San Francisco sourdough, so if you live hundreds of miles away from the Bay Area and develop a craving for that bread, this recipe will soothe you.

A more authentic shape would be a torpedo type loaf, but I have a weakness for round bread, so that’s how I shaped mine. Round, oblong, it doesn’t really matter. It hit the spot. Awesome bread!

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ONE YEAR AGO: A Real Oscar Winner

TWO YEARS AGO: Pane Siciliano

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Posted in Breads

Tagged Local Breads, making sourdough bread at home, San Francisco sourdough, sourdough boule, sourdough bread, sourdough starter. San Francisco bread

FIVE GRAIN SOURDOUGH BREAD

Posted on September 7, 2011 | 21 Comments

Before I even start talking about last weekend’s bread, I urge you to visit Joanna’s blog to see her wonderful article about one of my favorite bread baking books, Bread. Her post is a must-read for anyone who might feel intimidated by Hamelman’s masterpiece. Great job, Joanna!

After the cracked wheat sandwich bread, our cravings for bread with grains incorporated in the dough only intensified. As usual, on Thursday evenings I start considering the possibilities for baking in the weekend, so I grabbed Hamelman’s book, and opened it at random. To my delight, the recipe on that particular page read: Five Grain Levain. Seemed too fitting to ignore. Plus, for a sourdough bread, the recipe could not be much simpler, the secret behind its simplicity lying in the use of commercial yeast to speed up fermentation. All I had to do the day before was soak the grains, and give a final feeding to my starter.

FIVE GRAIN LEVAIN
(adapted from Hamelman’s Bread)

for the liquid levain
4 oz bread flour
5 oz water
2 Tbs mature sourdough starter

for the grains mixture
1.5 oz cracked rye
1.5 oz flaxseeds
1.2 oz sunflower seeds
1.2 oz oats
6.5 oz boiling water
1/2 tsp salt

for the final dough
8 oz bread flour
4 oz whole-wheat flour
4.2 oz water
1/2 Tbs salt
1/2 tsp instant yeast
all soaker prepared
all liquid starter prepared

Prepare the liquid levain 12 to 16 hours before you plan to start the dough. Let it stand at room temperature, preferably around 70 F. When you make the levain, prepare the grains too, by pouring boiling water over the grains and the salt in a small bowl. Leave at room temperature.

Make the dough by adding all the ingredients into the bowl of a KitchenAid type mixer, knead on first speed for 3 minutes, then increase the speed to the second level and mix for 5 minutes. Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl, cover, and let it ferment for 1.5 hs, folding the dough on itself three times after 45 minutes to increase elasticity.

Shape the dough as a boule or batard, place in a banetton or appropriate container of your choice, and let it rise for 1 hour.

Bake at 460 F for 40 to 45 minutes, generating steam in the beginning, by either covering the dough with an inverted roasting pan, or adding ice cubes to an empty pan at the bottom of your oven. Allow it to cool completely before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: This loaf of bread lasted 5 days, and held up pretty well up to its end. Usually, after the second day we opt for toasting, but this particular loaf was good enough with a very brief warming in our electric oven. We kept it at room temperature over the cutting board with the cut side down, and sliced only what we were going to consume right away. It goes well with pretty much anything, from ham to turkey, jam to peanut butter, or butter with paper thin slices of radishes and a little sea salt… delicious!

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ONE YEAR AGO: The Nano-Kitchen

TWO YEARS AGO: Kaiser Rolls

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Posted in Breads

Tagged bread with grains, five grain sourdough, grains, hamelman, levain, rustic bread, seeded bread, sourdough bread

HOEGAARDEN BEER BREAD

Posted on July 14, 2011 | 38 Comments

I don’t regret that many things in my life, but if I could go back to the period that I lived in Paris, I’d take some time to travel to Belgium. I was so close to that beautiful country, but never saw it in person… it’s a shame and it’s sad. Plus, I’ve never met a person from Belgium who wasn’t super-nice! All my Belgium friends have a great sense of humor, a great appreciation for the fun side of life, and many positive things to say about their home country, that excels in so many things. Two of their special delicacies are chocolates and beer! The very best of both are produced in small quantities and not exported, but some excellent Belgium beer makes it all the way to the US, examples being Chimay, Leffe, and Hoegaarden, the latter of which is a beer that brings fond memories of my days as a single woman in Paris…

I don’t drink beer anymore, but I still like to cook with it, or include it in breads- for a quick flash back, click here. So, when I saw this post not too long ago, I changed all my baking plans for the weekend, to accommodate a little Hoegaarden sourdough, and take the Bewitching Kitchen on a virtual trip to Belgique!

HOEGAARDEN BEER BREAD
(adapted from Fab Food Blog)

For the sponge:
120 g 100% hydration sourdough starter
60 g bread flour
45 ml Hoegaarden white beer

For the final dough:
235 g bread flour
65 ml Hoegaarden white beer
40 ml lukewarm water
1 tsp salt
1 tsp fennel seeds
3 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped

Mix all the ingredients for the sponge in a small bowl, mix well and leave it overnight at room temperature. It should be very bubbly and more than double in size. If it rises too much and collapses, it’s fine.

Next morning, place the sponge, flour, beer and water in a large bowl. Mix for a few minutes until barely combined, then let it sit for 20 minutes undisturbed. Add the salt, fennel seeds, and rosemary, and mix by gentle kneading. Let the dough rise for 30 minutes, knead again (20 seconds cycle), let the dough rise for about 40 minutes. Do one more cycle of quick kneading and let the dough rise for another 40 minutes. Knead one final time and let the dough rise undisturbed for 1.5 to 2 hours, until almost doubled in size. Shape as a ball, and place with the seam side up inside a well floured banetton type container.

Let it rise undisturbed for 2 hours. Heat the oven to 450 F with baking stones or tiles inside. Invert the dough on the tiles, quickly score the surface, and bake with initial steam. If covering the dough, remove the cover after 30 minutes, reduce the temperature of the oven to 425 F and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more, until golden brown. Cool for at least 1 hour before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: This recipe makes a small boule, so if you want to serve it in a dinner party for several people, consider doubling the recipe and baking two loaves. The bread smells wonderful during baking, and fennel is the dominant flavor. As to the beer, it would be interesting to bake two loaves side by side, substituting water for beer in one of them – I imagine that there will be a slight difference in sourness and complexity of flavor, but it’s hard to know for sure with the competing taste of fennel and rosemary (which, by the way, I increased a bit from the original posted recipe). In my experience, fresh rosemary has a tendency to lose its punch once it’s incorporated in bread dough, so I now use it with more abandon.

Fennel lovers: pair this delicious bread with some hearty Italian type sausage, for a double-fennel kick… Don’t like fennel? Simply omit it, the bread will still be delicious with a nice crust and moderately open crumb.

I am submitting this post to Susan’s Yeastspotting event… stop by and visit her weekly showcase of breads.

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Homemade bagels! (kerrycooks.wordpress.com)

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Posted in Breads

Tagged bread, hoegaarden, hoegaarden beer bread, sourdough boule, sourdough bread, sourdough starter, wild yeast

SPICY KALAMATA SOURDOUGH

Posted on June 15, 2011 | 28 Comments

I cannot think of a better way to re-open the Bewitching Kitchen than a loaf of sourdough bread! My sourdough starter was refreshed the day before we left L.A., and a small amount came with us in the car. One more refreshment once we arrived, and I was back in business. Instead of using a recipe from a book, I adapted a basic formula, adding three ingredients that remind me of our times in L.A.

1. Kalamata olives, because we went through countless bottles of the very affordable and delicious Trader Joe’s pitted Kalamatas. We brought a bottle with us, it will be a sad day when it’s finished now that we don’t have a Trader Joe’s 3 miles from home.

2. Red pepper flakes, because quite a few of our friends in L.A. were heavy into hot and spicy food (and drinks!). The more we hang out with them, the more we got into pepper ourselves.

3. Fresh rosemary, because it grew wild around our neighborhood. In fact, on our second week in L.A., I was staring at a huge plant near our house, when the owner of the home came out and said hello. I asked, in disbelief – “Is this rosemary”? – she smiled, and told me to get some whenever I wanted, as evidently the plant was threatening to overtake her property!

So, here is my take on a sourdough to bring a little of L.A. into our kitchen.

SPICY KALAMATA SOURDOUGH
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

200g (ml) water at room temperature
142g sourdough starter (at 100% hydration)
1/4 tsp instant yeast
280g bread flour
85g dark rye flour
9 g salt
3/4 cup kalamata olives (cut in half)
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 Tbs fresh rosemary leaves, chopped

Dissolve the starter and the instant yeast in the water in a large bowl. Add the flour, mix to incorporate (or use a Kitchen Aid type mixer for a couple of minutes on low speed), then cover with a plastic wrap and allow it to sit for 20 minutes undisturbed.

Sprinkle the salt on top, and mix by gentle kneading or with the mixer for a few more minutes. Once the salt is incorporated, add the olives, red pepper, and rosemary, and knead by hand or with the mixer (again in low speed).

Let the dough rise for 3 hours, with quick kneading cycles at 40 min, 1h 20 min, and 2 hours (timing is pretty flexible, no need to pay too close attention to it). Shape the dough into a round, place in a banetton or other appropriate container with the seam up. Let it rise for 3 hours, until almost doubled in size, and with an airy feeling as you gently press the surface of the dough.

Bake in a 450F oven, covered for the first 30 minutes, then uncover and lower the temperature to 425F for the remaining time. If you have a favorite method to create steam, use it in the initial baking. I prefer to use a roasting pan previously filled with water, emptied of the water and quickly inverted on top of the loaf as my steam source.

Let the bread completely cool on a rack before slicing.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Wild yeast purists, forgive me, because I cheated. Yes, I admit, I added commercial yeast to this bread. It turns out that I baked it the day after arriving home, and my schedule for that day was a bit iffy. I wanted to make sure the bread would be ready to bake before too late. Also, I was hoping for a crumb a little more tight, to use the bread for sandwiches, so I proofed a little less and reduced the number of kneading cycles.

The bread has intense olive flavor, and a nice hint of heat every now and then. The rosemary flavor was not as strong as I had hoped for, so next time I’ll increase that amount. A delicious bread, fantastic as an open face sandwich with a slice of ham, cheese, tomato slices, and a run under the broiler.

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and you can also see it on Tastespotting

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Posted in Breads

Tagged Baking, kalamata olives, kalamata sourdough, red pepper flakes, rosemary bread, sourdough bread

MAPLE-OATMEAL SOURDOUGH BREAD

Posted on April 16, 2011 | 11 Comments

Two of my favorite bread baking sites are Wild Yeast and The Fresh Loaf. Every Friday, I look forward to Susan’s Yeastspotting event, that showcases breads baked during the previous week by folks all over the world. And The Fresh Loaf is a discussion forum with help and advice for beginners as well as experienced bakers. Through my visits to both sites over several years, I got to know – virtually, at least - some amazing bread bakers like MC, who runs the blog with the cute name “Farine.” Not too long ago she raved about a bread from Orchard Hill Breadworks, a bakery in New Hampshire owned by Noah Elbers. During her visit to the bakery, she learned how to make one of their signature breads, with two flavors I am quite fond of: oatmeal and maple syrup.

I won’t lie to you, the preparation is a bit involved: the day before you’ll need to bake the oatmeal, refresh your sourdough starter, and make a poolish with commercial yeast. But your hard work will pay off, big time…

NOAH ELBERS’ MAPLE-OATMEAL BREAD
(reprinted from Farine‘s blog, with permission from Noah Elbers)

447 g all-purpose unbleached flour

151 g whole-wheat flour

151 g steel-cut oatmeal, baked

328 g water

151 g liquid starter

151 g poolish

121 g pure maple syrup

16 g salt

The day before baking the bread:

1. Refresh your sourdough starter, to make sure it is bubbly and active when you make the dough next morning. I do that about 12 hours before mixing the dough, by mixing 2 tsp of mature starter with 150g water and 150g flour. Next morning remove the amount you need and keep the rest in the fridge.

2. Make the poolish by mixing 100g flour + pinch of instant yeast + 100 g/ml water recipe: Leave to ferment overnight. You will not use it all, weigh what you need for the recipe.

3. Bake the oatmeal. Boil water, then mix it with the oatmeal in a baking dish (200g oatmeal + 200g/ml boiling water). Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake in a 400F oven for 40 minutes. The mixture will turn into a brick. Once it cools, break the bits of oatmeal with your fingers, and weigh the amount needed for the dough.

On baking day:
Mix all the ingredients in a large bowl (except the salt), kneading briefly to form a shaggy mass. Let the mixture resting for 30 minutes. Add the salt and incorporate by gentle kneading.

Let the dough rest for 40 minutes. Knead by folding the dough in itself 4-6 times. Let the dough rest for 40 minutes more. Knead it again by folding.

Let the dough rise for 40 minutes, do one final cycle of kneading, then allow it to sit undisturbed for a full hour (total bulk fermentation will be about 3 hours).

Shape the dough as a large batard, or divide in two and shape as a small round (that’s what I did). Let the shaped bread rise for 1 hour at room temperature, then retard it in the fridge for 12-15 hours.

Bring the bread to room temperature for 2 hours before baking in a 450F oven for 45 minutes (25 minutes under steam, covered, 20 minutes uncovered). Cool the bread for at least one hour before indulging in it.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Even though this bread takes oatmeal and maple syrup, it is not sweet. I think its sourdough nature creates a nice counterpart to the sweetness, so that the bread is quite versatile: you can enjoy it with peanut butter and jelly (like my husband did), or go for a bit of Brie or Camembert (my favorite take).

I highly recommend that you visit Farine website, and click on the video made in the bakery during the preparation of this bread. It is amazing to see how those talented bakers handle a huge amount of dough, from mixing to shaping. And while you are net-surfing, make sure to stop by the bakery website and read about how it all started, a fascinating story told by Noah himself.

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