THOM LEONARD’S COUNTRY FRENCH BREAD

Posted in Breads, Vegetarian-friendly by sallybr

I live in a state of bread anxiety. On Thursdays I revive my sourdough starters and begin the tortuous process of choosing the bread to bake on the weekend. That evening you’ll find me on the sofa, surrounded by bread books, notebooks, pens, pencils, stickers, and close to a computer with multiple open tabs: The Fresh Loaf, Wild Yeast, Makanai, Dan Lepard, King Arthur, Northwest Sourdough… My beloved husband knows it’s useless to converse with with me when I’m in such a “bread daze,” and I can’t come out of it until I make my choice.

This weekend’s pick was an impressive loaf from Maggie Glezer’s book Artisan Baking. She ranks each of her recipes according to its level of difficulty, and this one forewarned “advanced” at the top of the page. But, that didn’t stop me, which ultimately resulted in quite a bit of pain for this baker.

THOM LEONARD’s COUNTRY FRENCH BREAD
(from Maggie Glezer’s Artisan Baking)

Make the levain on the evening before baking by mixing:

25 g fermented firm sourdough starter

140 g lukewarm water

140 g bread flour

Allow it to sit at room temperature for 12 hours, or until it has expanded and just started to sink in the center.

(click to enlarge)

On baking day:

Prepare the whole wheat component, by measuring 350g whole wheat flour and sifting it with a fine strainer. This will remove the large flakes of bran (you can use it to make muffins). Measure 250g of the sifted product, and start making the dough.

(click to enlarge)

250 g sifted whole wheat flour

750 g bread flour

30 g rye flour

660 g water

23 g salt

all of the levain made the previous evening

Add the three types of flour to the bowl of a large KitchenAid type mixer. Mix the water with the levain to dissolve it, and add it to the flours. Using the dough hook, mix it for 10-15 minutes, until the dough is very smooth and almost cleans the bowl. Add the salt and continue mixing for 5 more minutes.

(click to enlarge)

Place the dough in a very large bowl and let it rise for 3 hours, folding three times (at 30, 60, and 90 minutes). After the final folding, just leave it undisturbed for the final 90 minutes. Remove the dough from the container, form it into a ball and let it rest for 10 minutes to relax the gluten (that makes it easier to shape).

(click to enlarge)

Shape it into a large round loaf, and place it in a suitable container for proofing, lining it with a heavily floured linen, with the smooth side down. Proof at room temperature for 4 hours, or until an indentation made in the dough will not bounce back right away.

(click to enlarge)

Carefully transfer the bread to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, slash the surface and bake with an initial burst of steam, in a 450F oven. Bake it for 70 to 80 minutes, rotating the dough after 30 minutes, and reducing the temperature to 400F if it starts to get too dark. Allow it to cool on a rack for several hours before slicing it.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I had high expectations for this bread, because once the kneading was over and the fun part started (the folding!), the elasticity of the dough surprised me: gluten development at its best! The shaping went smoothly and the dough rose beautifully in my improvised banneton: a pasta colander, lined with my improvised baker’s linen. However, improvised is a dangerous word to use twice in the same description.

At the end of 4 hours, the dough was all airy, absolutely perfect! The oven was ready, with baking stones blazing hot, and I was on top of the world! As I inverted the dough on the parchment paper, I could not help but day dream… “When I submit this masterpiece to Susan for Yeastspotting, she’ll call me on the phone to personally compliment me!” …. “The Fresh Loaf will feature this bread on their front page, and leave it there for a year or two“…. “I’ll have my own show on PBS: Bread Baking with Sally“….

Then, reality interfered. The improvised baker’s linen would not peel off. It was stubbornly glued to my beautiful, airy, gorgeous dough. I screamed and howled in pain! As I was wrestling the fabric off, my beautiful, airy, gorgeous round loaf began to spread sideways and collapse right before my eyes! It was horrible: no glory for me, no phone call from Susan, no highlight on The Fresh Loaf, and definitely no show on PBS. Finally, with the dough threatening to slide off the baking sheet the linen came free and I rushed the loaf into the oven, without slashing, without steam, with just frantic moves and a few well chosen words that are unfit to print.

A major lesson learned: a 4.6 pound dough demands a perfect proofing environment, particularly for a 4 hour rise. Now, after helpful advice from the crowd at The Fresh Loaf, I’m seriously considering one of these.

Back to Thom Leonard’s country loaf. Aside from the top crust of my bread , which looked like the aftermath of Freddie Krueger, the crumb was open and the bread was incredibly flavorful. It’s a bread that begs to be in a Croque Monsieur! We shall comply shortly.

A bread that can survive the abuse I inflicted on this dough is worth saving in your personal repertoire. Try it. But do yourself a favor, and use the right tools for the job. You might just get that phone call from Susan….

I am submitting this post to Yeastspotting…

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18Apr2010

BLACK OLIVE BIALY

Posted in Breads, Vegetarian-friendly by sallybr

I’ve never had a bialy until today. But, ever since I first saw a picture of a bialy in cookbooks and all over the net I wanted to try one, or even better, to make one!

Many weekends I was ready to give it a go, but things came up and… bialy was postponed until next week. And the next… and the next…and the next. Then I saw Dan Lepard’s recipe for black olive bialy and I couldn’t wait any more. Black – olive – bialy. Three simple words that made my heart jump with joy. I’m a Kalamata-cheerleader…

BLACK OLIVE BIALY
(from Dan Lepard)

1/2 tsp instant dry yeast
150 g pitted Kalamata olives, diced
25 mL olive oil
1 tsp salt
550 g bread flour
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 Tbs poppy seeds

Pour 250 mL warm water and yeast in a bowl then add the minced olives, olive oil and salt. Add the flour, mix forming a firm dough, and refrigerate for 24 hours or more (up to three days).

Dry fry the onion a few minutes on a non-stick skillet until soft but still pale, scrape into a bowl with the poppy seeds, and leave in the fridge.

Heat the oven to 450F.

Divide the dough into ten pieces (use a scale to get equal pieces) and shape into balls. Leave covered for an hour to rise at room temperature. Pat the balls out to about 4 inches diameter, and firmly indent the middle area, leaving a very thin and wide skin of dough in the center. Cover a tray with parchment paper, and lay five bialys on it, well spaced. Press 1 tsp of onion/poppy seed mixture in the center, with wet fingers.

Bake for 12 – 15 minutes until puffed and just beginning to get dark, then repeat with the remaining five pieces.

ENJOY!

Comments: If this recipe didn’t have Dan Lepard behind it, I probably wouldn’t have tried it, because it’s essentially a no-knead bread. Quoting Seinfeld, “not that there’s anything wrong with that,” but I prefer recipes that involve kneading and/or folding the dough. This was one of the easiest breads I’ve ever made, that’s perfect for a dinner party or brunch: once the dough is in the fridge it takes just a little over 1 hour to enjoy the fruits of your labor (i.e., the bread!).

Two important remarks:
1. Use Kalamata olives or another good quality black olive that’s high in moisture. Avoid the black olives sold in tins, that are brine-free and have almost no olive flavor.

2. Don’t be shy when pressing your fingers into the dough to make the depressions. Try to leave a very thin skin in the center. My second batch was better than the first, because I was too delicate in shaping the first five.

The flavor of the olives as you bite into the soft bread, mixed with the onion filling, is just dreamy! I’ll revisit this bread again and again.

I am submitting this post to this week’s Yeastspotting….

10Apr2010

MELLOW BAKERS: RUSTIC BREAD

Posted in Breads by sallybr

Not sure what Mellow Bakers is all about? Click here to read about it.

I haven’t decided yet if I”ll make the bagels, which are part of the three breads listed for this month. While debating this extremely important issue, I baked Rustic Bread today (page 115 of Hamelman’s BREAD).

and the crumb was just the way we like it….

The bread takes a pre-ferment made the day before and allowed to rise for 12 to 16 hours at room temperature (around 70F). Next day, the final dough is mixed using a combination of regular, whole-wheat, and rye flour. The basic mixing and the folding method for kneading are very similar to that for Hamelman’s Vermont sourdough series, which happens to be my favorite way to handle bread dough. I did not need to adjust anything in the recipe, the dough came together beautifully.

Check the work of my mellow baker buddies by clicking here….

…. to bagel or not to bagel: that is the question! 😉

3Apr2010

MELLOW BAKERS: LIGHT RYE BREAD

Posted in Breads by sallybr

My first bread in this long journey, Hamelman’s light rye bread, requires a sourdough rye starter. So if you’re like me, and only have white flour starter, then you’ll need to feed it once or twice with rye flour to convert it into rye. Once your sourdough is actively bubbling, this bread will come together in minutes. The final dough only contains 15% rye, so the flavor is mellow, just like our virtual group… 😉

I was pleased with the lightness of the crumb, which was more open than I expected for a rye bread. That was from the high proportion of white flour in the formula (85%). I made a silly mistake in shaping the bread: I forgot to flour the countertop. Yes, it’s hard to believe I was so absent-minded, but… it happens. To shorten a long story, I had to re-shape it, and the extra handling resulted in a bread that was a little too long and a little too flat. Still, it didn’t compromise the internal structure or the taste, and a recipe that withstands my boo-boos is a recipe worth keeping!

Similarly to what happened in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, we will not post the recipes for this group project. The Light Rye Bread can be found on page 197 of Hamelman’s BREAD. It is also available online.

2Apr2010

COME MELLOW WITH US!

Posted in Breads, General by sallybr

As more and more fellow bakers finished the BBA Challenge, a net-gossip started: what should we do next? It was so much fun to bake together, cheering each others’ successes and commiserating over the failures, that we all felt a void when the party was over.

The idea of baking another complete bread book, from beginning to end, didn’t appeal to me because of the tight scheduling required. So when Paul proposed “Mellow Bakers,” it was just what I was looking for: we’ll bake Hamelman’s “BREAD” at a leisurely pace, and I’ll even emphasize the “mellowness,” by skipping some of breads. In fact, they already made hot cross buns while I only watched from a safe distance… 😉

So here is an invitation for you: for a nice bread project that will expose you to delicious recipes by a great author, Jeffrey Hamelman, first jump to Paul’s site to read all about it, and then to the Mellow Bakers forum to introduce yourself and join the party!

I’ll see you in the forum!