Bread Log 21: Oatmeal Bread

This bake marks a first for the blog posts, a straight dough.  This means there are absolutely no pre-ferments.  For most of us this is the type of bread baking we knew growing up, just mix the ingredients to gether and you're off to the races.  Straight doughs have advantages and disadvantages.  The disadvantages are that preferments, be they sourdough or commercial yeast, add a depth of flavor and the enzymes that develop over the longer life cycle actually increase the length of time the bread will go before staling.  The advantage comes if you, by some unforseeable circumstances, wound up not making a pre-ferment and just lazed around playing video games with your wife, your day of baking is still possible since there is absolutely no lead time . . . not that such a thing would ever happen to me . . . *cough*
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While there is defitely a loss of flavor from the lack of prefermented flour, the liberal amount of oats makes this bread plenty tasty. I did vary from the instructions in one important regard, I wanted to see how the bread would develop if I used the same non-mixed method as I used on the 6-fold french, and I could not have been happier with the results. 
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A pre bake, post slash shot.
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I wanted to include this shot because it gives you a good sense for the volume . . . that being HUGE. 
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And of course a post would not be complete without a shot of the crumb.

There is a modification of this bread in the book which includes cinnamon and raisins, and although I'm generally not a big fan of the latter in baked goods, this bread would suit the addition perfectly.  As it stands full of oats with just a touch of sweetness it is a fantastic morning toast bread.  Thanks as always for reading.

Here are the details for the bake:
Room: 72.3
Flour: 69.6
Water: 83
Pre-Ferment: none
Final: 76.5
Mix: 6 fold method
Bulk: 2:10
Notes: I allowed the oats to soak for 20 minutes in the water for the bread to expedite their hydration.

Bread Log 20: Cheese Bread

Yet another installment of Dan catching up on the blog.  The formula this bake: Cheese Bread. 

I know this conjures images of sauce-less pizza slathered in mozzarella, but bear with me, what results is very different but no less tasty.  

In this case I was making the bread for thanksgiving so I opted to make rolls instead of larger loaves.

It's probably worth mentioning that the shape/size of your final product is basically a question of taste.  There are always breads which work better or worse in one shape or another, but there is absolutely nothing to prohibit you from trying a shape if that best suits your needs.

The only things to bear in mind are: if you are going from a rustic unshaped or lightly shaped loaf like a ciabatta or pugliese to a standard batard the crumb will be affected, and as you increase the number of loaves, be sure to plan out your bake particularly if you have an oven as small as mine.

It took four batches (and some clever rotating through the fridge to keep them from over proofing) before I was done, and that made for an extra tired drive back home to see the familia the next day.  Such is the nature of holidays.

This bread features shredded parmesean cheese as well as small cubes of parmesean which leave delightful pockets of cheesiness.  You can see some of the latter in the crumb:
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Lastly here is a nice shot of a roll by itself
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I look forward to trying this bread again with various cheeses and larger forms . . . and fewer batches.

Until next time!

Here are the details for the bake:
Room: 68.2
Flour: 67.3
Water: 73.5
Pre-ferment: 68
Final Temp: 74.5
 *that's all I've got for this one unfortunately . . . bad note taker, BAD

Bread Log 18-19: Beer Bread and Roasted Garlic Levain

For this bake I was joined by another friend, and so once again it was a two bake day.  Even more unusual this marked the first new formula I've created, modifying Hamelman's Beer Bread with Roasted Barley into the beauty you see below. I'll figure out a way to link up the full formula soon.  Unfortunately I was a slacker when it came to pictures so you'll have to make due with just a handful.

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Starting with this bake, I decided that rather than doing a plethora of different shapes with each bake, I would endeavor to repeat the same shape and aim for consistency. That being said I only have one round coiled proofing basket so the pretty flour markings only appear on one of the two loaves.

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Still pretty ;).

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The loaves were a little lower profile than I would like, but all in all it was pretty successful and (not to pat myself on the back too much) damn tasty.

With the second formula I was back to Hamelman's book with Roasted Garlic Levain.  Once again I miscalculated the flour when multiplying the recipe which made for a FAR more hydrated dough than I had aimed for.  That being said it was still workable so we decided to give it a go.  Needless to say, it wouldn't be fair to judge this formula based on the results I obtained. 

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Yup . . . that's the only picture . . .

We are making some headway on the catch up, but there is still a good ways to go.  Thanks as always for reading. 

Here are the details for the Beer Bread:

Room: 71.6

Flour: 69.4

Pre-ferment: 72.5

Water: 73

Final Temp: 77

Mix: 3 minutes speed 2 + cut + 1.5 minutes speed 2 +1.5 minutes speed 3

Bulk: 2 folds over 2 hrs.

Here are the details for the Garlic Levain:

Room: 71.6

Flour: 69.8

Pre-ferment: 68

Water: 77+70.5

Final Temp: 77

Mix: 3 minutes speed 2 + cut +3 minutes speed 2 + Cut + 2 minutes speed 3

Bulk: 3 folds over 2 hrs.

Bread Log 17: Six Fold French.

So this was a formula I was really looking forward to, a no knead french dough which just utilized folding during bulk fermentation.  I've since adopted the process for several of the other formulae and while it might not work in a professional setting due to volume size it works really well in the quantities we work in as home bakers.
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The gist is simple, incorporate your ingredients, and then at regular intervals do multiple folds in the dough.  At the beginning these folds are more like the folding you do when making Chocolate Mousse, a gentle motion with a spatula.  However as the dough gained strength, I had to go back to my standard method of folding dough by hand.  I've got incremental pictures below so you can see the dough's development over time as well as the ultimate results.

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I did a double batch, so here are the two batches scaled out side by side.
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Here we are post incorporation
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Fold 1
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Fold 2
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Fold 3
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Fold 4
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Fold 5
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Fold 6

After this point it was shaping and baking as per normal.  I did a couple of boules, baguettes, and a scissor cut baguette called an Epi which is meant to look like a stalk of wheat.
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And of course I have a couple of crumb pics so you can see how it turned out.
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I was very happy with the structure on the baguettes, especially considering it was my first time using the fold only technique.  In the future I hope to outline the process a bit better for you, as it would be easily replicatable for any of you who are interested. 'Till next time!

Here are the details:
Room Temp: 73.6
Water Temp: 82.2
Flour Temp:  72.1
Preferment Temp: 67..6
Final Temp: 82 (target 76. . . yipe!)
No mix or autolyse information for this bread!

Bread Log 15-16: Ciabatta with poo, and wheat bread too

It's classy titles like that, that keep you coming back . . . admit it. So after having fallen off the blog wagon for the past few months I've decided to dust myself off and see if I can play a bit of catch up.

Ok so that may be a bit of an understatement, I have actually fallen off of at least 3 wagons and a wheel-barrow.  However in spite of not writing about it I have continued to bake, and as of writing this I have around 13 bakes to write about.  In the interest of getting through them, they will be pretty light on the Dan babbling at you front, but there will be at least a few pictures for each and some details for those curious among you.

First up I had a double bake of some Ciabatta with olive oil and wheat germ, made with a poolish pre-ferement, rather than the stiff biga I'm used to.  I was joined my friend Rudy for the bake, and he got to experience first hand the overly complex way I bake. 

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Here is a classic large rustic loaf.

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This was an attempt at a rustic batard, but I overshaped it so it lost that wonderful natural flour pattern you see on rustics.  On a last minute whim we used a cheesy post-it note in the shape of a W as a flour stencil. . . because why not?

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In any event it allowed my wife, Whitney, to claim the bread as her own.  It does have a W on it afterall.  This shot also gives you a sense for the size of the loaves . . . that is, BIG.

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I think this odd pattern of open structure is a result of both misjudging proof level and my original overshaping.

To give rudy some contrast to the Ciabatta we also made one of the formulas which has always been a regular for me Hamelman's Whole Wheat Levain.  The dough was a bit under hydrated, but it came out pretty well.

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You can see in the group picture above the hazards of trying to bake loaves too close together.  The poor slash job on the center loaf combined with the steam created by  the loaf near it's left side caused it to expand in direction.  Such is the nature of baking under time constraints in a tiny oven. Here are some more pics:

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One down, many to go!  Hopefully you'll be hearing from me sooner rather than later :).

Here are the details from the Ciabatta

Room Temp:  65.1

Water Temp: 77.3

Flour Temp:  63.3

Preferment Temp: 67..6

Final Temp: 78 (target 76)

Autolyse: None

Mix: Standard incorporation + 3 minutes at speed 2, cut on bench, 3 minutes at speed 2, cut on bench, 3 minutes at speed 3.

  - after this point my note-taking stopped . . . fail -

Here are the details from the Whole Wheat

Room Temp:  65.1

Water Temp: 75

Flour Temp:  63.3/63.7

Preferment Temp: 68.4

Final Temp: 78.4 (target 76)

Autolyse: None

Mix: Standard incorporation + 3 minutes at speed 2, cut on bench, cut on bench, 2 minutes at speed 3.

  - not only did I fail on notes here, but I also was quite off on my hydration.  It was actually so stiff that mixing it overheated my mixer and it shut down . . . oops! Such is the nature of multiplying a formula, always a chance for a mix up.