A new finish

After giving up on sour dough I decided to turn my attention to the finish of the breads. Normally for my French and Italian breads, I have had no finish. I would simply give the bread a steam bath to crunch it up a bit.

For the boys family birthday party I made some fresh rolls for the beef that Nana R. made. Chef Logan helped me out with this batch. He enjoyed smacking the dough around and singing "Dough dough dough dough-dough-dough" (from The Wiggles.)

This recipe was a classic Italian that contained plenty of fat (butter and milk) which makes for a softer bread. Very suitable for sandwiches After shaping the dough balls for the rolls I gave the dough a egg wash bath. As you can see after baking this made for a much shinier smoother
finish.

The Sour Dough Chronicals Part Three - Dough Boy's Revenge

So, I started all over again. I threw out the starter and found a new recipe. This one made a little more sense to me. In the sense that this should work. It was essentially pineapple juice and flour. Over many days I changed out pineapple juice and flour and let my baby grow and rise. The theory is that the acidity in the pineapple juice will breed the exact type of tangy yeasties we want.
My little creation grew and grew and bubbled and grew. After the prescribed amount of time I proofed my homegrown yeast and let it rise! Rise!

It was a long time sitting and rising. Hours upon hours the yeast and flour mixed and combined, were born and died along with thousands of their brothers and sisters. I kept the dough properly hydrated so I had a reasonable assumption that this would turn out perfectly. I enlisted the help of my lovely wife to shape the two loaves so they would look very nice.
This little contraption we bought at the kitchen store outlet when we were in Oshkosh a couple of weeks ago. It's for baking, of course, and helps to make the loaves look prettier than if I used my own man hands to shape them.

In the oven they went amidst a great cloud of steam and fan fare. There was great rejoicing in Ranch for the bread smelled divine. There was a nice crust and splendid color but something just didn't seem right.



When I pulled them out of the pan and on to the
cooling rack, the bread felt wrong. I knew immediately that it didn't turn out. The bottom of the loaves felt dense, and while the crumb was acceptable, and the over look appealing, it just wasn't right.

I knew even when we sliced to eat it, that it wasn't meant to be. The taste was just....eh. There was no sour, there was no tang, it was just a mediocre white bread at best. Luckily we had friends over that night, one of them just happened to be a bread junkie. For me that meant constant reassurance that the bread tasted wonderful. I ditched the started that night. It wasn't worth it. It beat me. I'm defeated. I think I'll order a starter from a website. This weekend I went back to my roots and made a French loaf. I'll post pictures of these loaves. I'm sure they'll turn out.

The Sour Dough Chronicals Part Duex - The return of dough boy

I am back. Now that we have regained a kitchen I am able to begin work on crafting and perfecting my bread making abilities. All throughout this ordeal I have attempted to keep my starter alive. Once and while I would discard and feed anew the starter.

My first attempt back using this starter was woefully disappointing. Not only was the crumb chewy and dense, there was not a sour tang throughout the entire loaf. I am not sure it was even worth eating, but we did. The only saving grace, was that it had a nice crust.

Now, I didn't give up on this one at all. I feed that starter and proofed it all over again. Taking some advice from my wise wife, I kept this batch slightly more hydrated than the last. She thought the reason it was dense was lack of moisture.

With the recent addition we've also finally been able to take Andi's KitchenAide away from her parents. I thought this time I would use the KitchenAide to knead everything, especially with it being so sticky. I also enlisted the assistance of famous baker and chef, Logan, from the highly viewed Tales of the Peanut Gallery fame.

He enjoyed duping everything in the bowl and turning on the mixer. After letting this one rise a good deal more than the previous loaf, we threw it into the oven. I knew something wasn't right because it didn't rise anymore than when we put it on. As you can see the crumb looks good, and it wasn't dense at all. However, there just wasn't any substance nor any tang.

I took this time to rethink everything about sourdough and start over. The do over will be in the next post. The Sourdough Chronicals Part 3.

The Sourdough Chronicals - Part I

The search for a simple sourdough recipe began easily enough. All I wanted to do was create a sourdough starter that I could keep alive for years and years and and years. You know...something that I could pass down to my boys. Right.

The recipe was easy. 1 cup of raisin water and 1 cup of wheat flour. Mix and leave in a open container, somewhere warm. Raisin water, in case you don't know is water that has been soaked in raisins. Supposedly all of the nooks and crannys in a raisin contain some kind of natural little beastie that will help our little culture grow. I placed the container on top of the fridge and waited.

I fed it daily as instructed. Throwing out half of it, and adding a 1/2 cup of water and 1/2 cup of flour. I kept this up for 4 days and like the recipe said, rite on the button, my started, started to bubble. At this point I had a culture growing. I could now cover it with some ventilation and keep in the fridge only feeding it once a week and I would be good for life.

After a couple of days, I decided to try my hand at my first sourdough loaf. According to the directions, I made a sponge by adding 1 cup of flour and 1 cup of water and letting it sit for a couple of hours. Then I mixed in basically some of the sponge 2-3 cups of flour, 2 tbs of oil, 1 cup of water and salt. I went to kneading and right away I noticed something different. The dough was very very stiff. It was very tough to knead and almost felt like play dough. I reasoned that I didn't hydrate it enough. However adding water didn't really seem to help.

After letting it rise, as you can see, it didn't really double in size like I'm used to seeing. The ball of dough just kind of sat there...staring at me. Mocking me.

I asked my bride to take over and punch it down and shape it and prepare it for the oven. I thought I would let it rest and rise again for another hour and perhaps her delicate touch would coax the glutinous mass to come out and play nicely. Even after waiting for a time, it did plump up a little bit, but I was not holding out hope.

You know that feeling you get when you just know something isn't going to turn out. Kind of like when you were in little league and you just knew that ball was coming your way and you knew you were just going to drop it no matter how hard you tried? Yeah, that's what happened with this loaf.

During baking, the bread did rise, but the taste was just kind of underwhelming. It was a very dense bread, kind of like my first loaves when I didn't knead enough.

I reasoned that in this loaf, I could have waited longer for the sponge to grow, even over night as the recipe suggested. Next time, in part two we'll visit the longer sponge time and longer rise to see if we improved on the sourdough. Oh, by the way, did I mention, NO tangyness what so ever. There was nothing sour. I wanted like the pictures on the Thefreshloaf.com, with the cool irregular holes and fantastic taste.

Wisconsin heresy? Propose beer tax hike

Madison - Two Democratic legislators today vowed to try again to raise the $2-per-barrel beer tax, which has been unchanged for 38 years, despite a warning they are taking on a "sacred Wisconsin beverage."

"I am not predicting it's going to pass," Democratic Rep. Terese Berceau of Madison said of her proposal to boost the $2 tax to $10 per barrel to fight drunken driving and treat alcohol addiction. "I'm kind of fooling around with holy water here."

Her beer-tax increase would raise the tax on a six-pack from 3.6-cents to 18-cents. Overall, it would cost beer drinkers between $40 million and $48 million more a year, she said.

The Assembly leader of her own party has panned her proposal, however.

Senate President Fred Risser (D-Madison) defended the increase, noting it essentially was indexing the beer tax for inflation since its last hike 38 tears ago. In 1969, Risser voted to raise the tax from $1 per barrel to $2, and he said none of the predictions then that it would devastate the state's economy came true.

Wisconsin's $2-per-barrel tax is third lowest in the nation, behind the 59-cent levy in Wyoming and the $1.86 tax in Missouri, home of Budweiser. Legisaltors said the highest beer tax in the nation is $33.17 per barrel in Alaska.

Michael Miller, a Madison-area physician who heads the American Society of Addiction Medicine, said Wisconsin's history, culture and politics has treated beer like a "sacred Wisconsin beverage." Raising the tax is needed and overdue, Miller said.

Miller commended Berceau and Risser for "walking directly into the mouth of the lion," comparing their effort to trying to raise the tax on wine in California or the tax on bourbon in Kentucky.

Other groups calling for the increase included Mothers Against Drunk Driving, the Mental Health Association of Wisconsin and the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

A Shandy Beach...

This weekend I was talked into trying a new beer against my better judgment. I say this because, it was described to me as the new Leinenkugel's, which for the record makes some incredible beers. There was a twist on this one, it is their Weiss beer, mixed with lemonade.

"It's very popular is Europe," I was told. So is eating your french fries with tiny wooden forks and mayonnaise, but you don't see us yanks doing that. Either way I immediately thought of that man law, "Don't fruit your beer." And I'd like to think that I don't participate in this barbaric act. But what do I do when my beer comes with the fruit already mixed in?

I tried to remember my time in jolly old Germany, next to Wisconsin, the Mecca of all that is good and right with beer. You wouldn't find Lemonade in compliance the German Beer Purity law. However, as I hope Patrick can help clear me up, I do recall stopping at a convenience store, and situated right next to the shiza porn were a whole slew of soda infused beers.

It would seem that by doing a little research, a Shandy is a term used to described any beer infused with either soda or lemonade. So, I gave it the old college try, and you know what, it wasn't that good. No sir, not in this beer snobs opinion.

The beer was definitely one of the lightest I've ever seen. One could say almost like the colour of lemonade. It tasted more like a hard lemonade that was trying to act like a beer. A hard lemonade in beer clothing if you will. The taste was ho-hum and didn't give any kind of crisp refreshing taste normally coming from a Leinenkugels. The after taste was dry and slightly bitter, my tongue was wishing for something to cling to. I immediately gave some to my lovely wife who I knew would enjoy this kind of beer, and I was right. However, in her defense she would rather drink this kind of beverage than a beer.

The head retention was weak, and there was barely a trace of it. Its smell was over powered by the lemons where it should have been a nice clean Weiss, with a hint of lemons. Over all, I couldn't see my self buying this beer for any kind of enjoyment or pleasure, but rather to say, "Hey, did you try that lemonade beer? I did...it tastes like lemonade mixed with beer."

Time to move back to Wisconsin

State Senate OKs free beer samples at the store
The Associated Press

MADISON — Beer lovers of Wisconsin, rejoice! Thanks to the state Senate, you’re a step closer to getting a free (yes, free!) half-can of beer.

The Senate today approved a bill on an unanimous voice vote that allows grocery and liquor stores to hand out samples of up to 6 ounces of free beer per day to people of legal drinking age. The Assembly was expected to take up the measure later today.

Current state law allows wineries, but not grocery and liquor stores, to offer up to 6 ounces of free samples.

Sen. Pat Kreitlow, D-Chippewa Falls, home of the Jacob Leinenkugel Brewing Co., is the bill’s main sponsor. He said the measure is designed to help beer manufacturers compete with wine makers.

Mmmmm....beer

This blog is suppose to be about all kinds of yeast related stuff. This weekend was beautiful and both of us worked hard outside all day. There was playing around, digging around, watering around, etc. Any way, today, out of any day was the most perfect day of the year so far to end it with a beer.

This is one of my home creations, a Honey Blond. The primary sugars while derived from the liquid malt extract was enhanced with a full pint of pure Wisconsin honey. I really like this one and it poured nicely. It's a little darker than I would have guessed a blond to be, but it tasted perfect.

It was sweet, with a dry after taste. I'm guessing the alcohol content is pretty high on this one, but you can't taste it. Now while I do prefer my beers at room temp, this one was perfect being refrigerated.

Next blog, sour dough strikes.

Freedom Baguettes

The weekend before last I ended up making some baguettes with the same simple French Bread recipe that I began with. The only difference this time was that I cut the dough and formed two smaller loaves. Andi and I ended up making them into sandwiches. They tasted excellent, however we had them the next day and the crust wasn't as crunchy. I don't think I should have stored them in a plastic bag. I'm not exactly please with the shaping but I'll get it down some day.

Last weekend...a little Italian

I know a little Italian.

He's sitting over there.

Now that I got that out of my system. Last weekend I went for the Italian loaf. I was looking to make bread that would rise a lot and make some decent sandwiches. While we never made sandwiches out it, I think these turned out beautifully.

The little secret behind these loaves or Italian for that matter, is the crust. While your French and sour doughs typically are accentuated by a hard crusty....well crust, the Italian is not as, and mostly chewy. Not unlike the Wookie.

I've been playing with techniques to change the type of crust you get with various suggestions on hydration. I've mostly been placing the broiler pan at the bottom of the oven and letting that heat up with the preheat. When I put the bread in I throw a cup of warm water on the pan and create a steam cloud. This cloud normally results in a super crunchy crust.

For the Italian, in order to get the crust just right, there has to be a little bit more moisture in the outer layer. This crust technique called for brushing the loaves with water before putting in the oven. They turned out perfect, and the loaves were only too ready to sop up all that tomato goodness from a nice (or not so nice) pasta dinner. These loaves were f-ing huge and I ended up taking one over to the neighbors. After all, bread, especially home made bread should be shared among friends.

Next time, I try and improve on my loaf shaping techniques, when I make baguettes.

A baking fool

I was feeling especially creative and recently emboldened by my success at rolls, I decided to attempt the Cinnamon Oatmeal Raisin bread. This time however, I didn't have any oatmeal. Not to be dissuaded I went and scoured the internet for a recipe for cinnamon raisin bread that didn't have oatmeal or any thing else fancy. I found one at allrecipe.com Cinnamon Bread. This one was promising.

I actually added about 1/2 cup more raisins than the recipe called for because it didn't look like enough and frankly, I like raisins. These first two pictures show the dough and then after the first rise. It doubled all right, and then some. Don't worry, this called for making three loaves.

After this rising you punch it down and flatten it out with a rolling pin. After rolling it out you spread out a cinnamon sugar mixture all over it. Now this was the tricky part and where my lovely wife lent a hand. She rolled it up for me like a jelly roll. After that you cut it into thirds and pinch the ends down.

We only had two loaf pans so one of the loaves was made to bake free form style. You can see that they colored very well and the rolling action made for a pretty neat looking loaf of bread. Tasty too I might add.

Second verse same as the first

This past weekend since I had off an extra day and decided to get some more baking practice. I did the same recipe as the weekend before however, I made rolls instead of loaves. I believe they turned out very pretty and very tasty. They went well with Nana's leftover ham from Easter. I thought they even split nicely.

The Second First Attempt - Lesson 2

Ok, so on Sunday I decided to follow directions a little better and move up on the lesson plan. Lesson two called for adding fat and sugar to the mix. This time, milk, butter and sugar were added to the flour mixture. However, I did deviate from the recipe. I know I shouldn't have, but for some reason it made sense in my head. I shouldn't listen to myself. It didn't turn out bad, but not as fluffy as I wanted. I added a little bit of wheat flour to the mix, when it didn't call for any.



The next time (this next sunday) I'll follow the recipe and do it right. Perhaps, I'll only try to make rolls instead.

This time you can see that my first rising was very successful. In the first picutre my blob of dough doubled in size just like it was supposed to. Now this time, after I beat up the dough, I took the time to shape it and rise for a second time on the stone. After scoring and baking you can see the bread did rise and color very nicely.

However, if you can tell once I cut it, that while it did rise nicely, the addition of the wheat flour seemed to have a negative effect on the crumb (little air pockets that form when the bread rises and bakes). It was slightly....heavy. I think the added wheat was too much gluten and I didn't compensate for it. I will do better and follow the recipe.

Basics

It’s true that I’m a little bit of a beer snob. I have been brewing for about three or four years now, and while I don’t drink enough to make enough, I try to keep up on my local and national micro brews. Also, recently, I’ve started to make homemade bread. Not the stuff in the machine, but actual down to earth get your hands sticky and beat down some dough, bread.

The first two attempts were disastrous. I tried to make some fancy bread and they just turned our horrible. The first was a blue cheese and walnut, which was flat and smelly. I know blue cheese is smelly any way, but this was like burnt blue cheese. The second one I tried was a cinnamon raisin. Again, this turned out disastrous and I made more of a cinnamon raisin hockey puck, then bread.

Thankfully the boys aren’t sophisticated with their tastes and they loved the bread anyway. Perhaps they were just being polite, but they would always ask for more “ray-ray bread.”

It was after this second disastrous loaf that I decided to do my research and found this site, The Fresh Loaf. They have not only lessons on line for free, but great tips from someone who’s worked at a commercial as well as local bakery. His insights and tips, led me to the conclusion that I had not been or did not knead enough.

So then last weekend, I did his lesson 1 first simple loaf. All it consisted of was flour, water, yeast and salt. Can’t get more simple than that. After kneading for the right amount of time, the dough turned out exactly like he described, a smooth silky ball. It doubled in size just like it was supposed to, the other loaves didn’t. And with the second rising, I knew I would be successfully. My one problem was that I should have shaped it after the second kneading. So that after the second rising, when I put it into the oven, when it was finished, I really had a bread ball, instead of a loaf.

It was a classic French ball, and tasted just fine for my first real bread. I had achieved success. For the most part. So now, in lesson two, we’ll add some kind of sugar, while changing out the water for milk. If I’m lucky, I’ll get to that today.