BBA#19: MARBLED RYE

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by sallybr

After a bunch of nice breads in the BBA challenge, it was bound to happen. Let’s just say that I have “issues” with this recipe. In practice, it was not too different from the previous assignment (light whole wheat bread), except that such rye-containing doughs should not be kneaded very long, or they become gummy.

For Marbled Rye you prepare two batches of dough, one that gets a darker color from the addition of caramel coloring or coffee. I chose coffee. The first thing that I noticed was that my darker dough was not dark enough, but at that point it was too late and I couldn’t do anything, as the texture seemed perfect. I took a deep breath and moved on.

I formed the loaf, placed it in the pan, and it rose beautifully….

I recommend accepting Reinhart’s advice and shaping it free-form. My pan was not big enough, and the bread ended up with a boxy shape. But, the most important thing for a marbled rye, is the marbling! Which in my case didn’t exist. It just wasn’t there, it wasn’t anywhere!

I’m accepting names for my fiasco, which tasted pretty good, if that’s any consolation… “Blobbed Rye”, “Faint Marbled Rye on Drugs”, “Drunk Baker’s Marbled Rye”…

With my self-confidence bruised, I will move on.

Nineteen breads down, twenty-four to go….

Please make sure you check the other bakers who already made this bread, and did a much better job than me:

Carolyn and Joe from Two Skinny Jenkins

Deborah, from Italian Food Forever

Mags, from The Other Side of Fifty

Oggi, from I Can do That

Txfarmer, with her gorgeous website in Chinese

Paul, from Yumarama Artisan Bread

20Sep2009

BBA#18: LIGHT WHOLE WHEAT BREAD

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by sallybr

Unlike the other breads in the “challenge“, I’ve made this one many times. It is in fact our default sandwich bread, that I bake on weekends and slice and freeze for later in the week.

It’s a straightforward recipe, with white and whole-wheat flours, dry milk, a little sugar, butter, and commercial instant yeast. Knead it until smooth, allow it to rise and shape it as a loaf; let it rise another time and bake it. Really, easy as pie!

I made it for the first time after reading this post at Smitten Kitchen. She expressed my feelings exactly: a person who loves good bread and enjoys cooking (that would be me, and I am sure many of you, who read food blogs… 😉 ), cannot possibly settle for what is sold at grocery stores as sandwich bread.

As I explained before, we can’t post the full recipe, but if you’d like to make a great sandwich-style bread at home, that freezes extremely well, look no further, grab the book, open to page 181 and give it a try…

You can follow the adventures of folks baking ahead of me through the challenge by clicking these links:
Carolyn and Joe, from Two Skinny Jenkins
Deb, from Italian Food Forever
Oggi, from I can do that
Phyl, from Of Cabbages and King Cakes
Paul, from The Yumarama Artisan Bread Blog
Maggie, from The Other Side of Fifty

Eighteen breads down, twenty-five to go!
(I wonder if Peter Reinhart is still watching our adventures… 😉

13Sep2009

BBA#17: LAVASH CRACKERS

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by sallybr

BEWARE: THESE ARE ADDICTIVE!!!

Now that I finished this recipe, let me say that as I began I was not too enthusiastic about it. I tried to make Ak-Mak-style crackers before, using an internet recipe, and I was unhappy. Not only was it a lot of work, but they had nothing to do with my favorite cracker.

But, a challenge is challenge, so I took a deep breath, grabbed the flour and went for it! Thanks to the advice of those who are ahead of me, I knew that rolling a thin dough was important, or else the potential crackers would become pita bread. Not that there’s anything wrong with pita, but…. pita is not a cracker.

Here you see the beginning of the process, a simple dough (53% hydration) made with flour, honey, oil, salt and instant yeast. Again, I did not bother kneading it to death. After incorporating the ingredients into a ball, I allowed it to sit for 15 minutes, then folded it a few times until it got smooth. From that point, I followed the recipe as written. In 90 minutes, it was ready to roll out.

Make sure that you roll it as thinly as possible without tearing the dough. I found it very forgiving, with no problems to roll out, although it was a bit tricky to lift into the baking sheet. To decorate the dough I used nigella seeds (which I bought here), black sesame seeds, smoked paprika, and coarse salt.

Into the oven it went… As you bake it, keep an eye on it, because if your rolling is uneven, some parts might darken faster than others. It happened to me, but I broke the darker parts away and allowed the rest of the sheet to stay in the oven longer. This approach worked quite well.

As they cooled down, I decided to try one. Then another. Then another. My beloved husband was not expected back home for at least 3 more hours, and the deepest proof of my love for him was this bowl with many crackers still inside.

See some of the happy bakers who made the lavash crackers before me:

Carolyn and Joe from Two Skinny Jenkins
Texas Farmer from Sina.blog (Blog in Chinese, amazing photos!)
Phyl from “Of Cabbages and King Cakes”
Deborah from “Italian Food Forever”
Oggi, from “I can do that”

6Sep2009

BBA#16: KAISER ROLLS

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by sallybr

A Kaiser roll….

is the beginning of a great sandwich!

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves… Back to this tasty bread…

Once more I switched from kneading the dough to folding it, and the results couldn’t have been better. For those following along the “challenge”, here’s a heads up: the recipe uses only half the amount of the pate fermentee shown on page 105. If you make the full amount, remember to only use half of it. 😉

After incorporating the pate fermentee into the flour, egg, oil, malt, and yeast, I folded the dough at 30, 60, and 90 minutes. At the 2 hour mark the dough was bubbly and airy as expected, so I cut it into 6 pieces and formed the rolls using the knot method. They rose for almost 1.5 hours (see the before and after pictures, the two photos at the bottom of this gallery).

A little egg wash helped to glue the black sesame seeds on top…

Right out of the oven, a light roll, with a nice crumb structure…

And, before I forget… that sandwich was made with ham, cheese, yellow tomatoes, and a fried egg. Absolutely delicious!

For more Kaiser Roll adventures, here are links to blogs by fellow bakers who made the rolls ahead of me, check them out!

Carolyn, from Two Skinny Jenkins
Deborah, from Italian Food Forever
Maggie, from The Other Side of Fifty
Devany, from My Hawaiian Home
Oggi, from I can do That
Joelen, from What’s Cooking, Chicago?

30Aug2009

BBA#15: ITALIAN BREAD

Posted in BBA Challenge, Breads by sallybr

Fifteen breads down, twenty-eight to go…

Once more I should say that all recipes from the challenge can be found here, a must-have book for any serious (or beginner) bread baker.

Reinhart’s Italian Bread is quite similar to the previous one (French Bread), except that it takes a “biga” instead of a “poolish”. No need to run away all scared, those are terms to describe the pre-mixture of flour, water, and yeast, that generally ferments for 24 hours before being used in the final dough. Usually a “biga” is firmer (contains less water).

For this bread, I changed the method of kneading. Instead of adding the dough to the Kitchen Aid and watching the machine do its job, I kneaded it myself, but used my favorite method: folding. I put the advice from bakers over at “The Fresh Loaf” to work, folding the dough twice, at 40 and 80 minutes, then forming a “boule” at 120 minutes. One more hour rising, and into the oven it went. These pictures show the second folding (made in two directions), and the “boule” right after shaping. Notice how bubbly it was, even before the final rise.

After 1 hour at room temperature, the dough rose about 1.5X of its original size, as expected. It had a spongy texture, airy and light. It lost some of it when I dumped it into my clay pot, but not much. It had good enough oven spring to recover.

This bread is spectacular, the crumb has excellent texture, the crust is not too hard, not too soft, just right. As my husband put it, “it is not very easy to stop eating it”. Indeed. It was a wise decision to make half the recipe, because there is only so much running one can do. 😉