Brioche

It wasn’t until just now that I figured what I did wrong with this week’s bread. No don’t get me wrong, it’s not like I accidently mixed in a tablespoon of industrial waste and everyone who consumes my bread becomes BRIOCHE MAN! (Queue dramatic music)

No, rather, I didn’t read close enough and I didn’t wait until the gluten had time to develop. Here is what happened. It started way back in History, with that rhyme MCA and me, Mike D. No…wait, it started more like this.

I had created the sponge with no problem, and it even became a bubbling mass, just like the directions. It struck me odd that this bread was going to be something special, as no water is/was required and it was totally laden with fat. Whole milk, 5 eggs, and a crap load of butter. In case you don’t know, a crap load is a unit of measurement developed by Enos Jenkins in central Tennessee in the mid 1920’s.

I followed the recipe to (what I naively thought) the tea, or Tee, or T. However, once I started mixing and adding the butter, remember 1 pound of it, I knew something wasn’t right. There wasn’t any of the typically “doughy” feel to the mass, as any bread so far has felt. In fact, when I was done mixing the butter in and shaping the “loaf” to chill overnight, it reminded me more of sugar cookie dough.

After I took it out the next day and put it in loaf pans, I realized that there indeed was not going to be much in the way of rising. There was just not enough strength. Even if the bread could ferment, I doubted it could rise to any significant level. After a couple hours at church and running errands, I came back to loaves that barely filled the pans. I forged ahead and baked everything. Afterwards, to my surprise, the bread turned out. The crumb was tight, but it tasted good and wasn’t dense at all. It tasted like a good biscuit, and tasted even better with jam on it.

When I read the commentary on this bread, here’s what I found. We’ll see if you can decide what happened. “When a formula calls for lots of fat, whether butter, shortening, or oil, it is usually beneficial to wait until gluten had has an opportunity to develop before adding the fat. If the fat is added at the beginning, it coats the protein fragments and makes it difficult for them to bond into the longer, stronger gluten molecule.”

Next week I’m off, after that Casatiello.

If I were a rich man

As I sit here among the aromas of cooking applesauce, cinnamon and vanilla drifting through the air, I contemplate the joys of the bread making up to now. The sauce will be another blog entry, even though it has nothing to do with yeast, but rather just the experience of new cooking itself.

This week, my challenge hat is tipped to my Jewish friends and friends who just like eating bagels. Whether it’s the nonchalant way we dismiss the store bought mass produced pucks that we call bagels, or the pile of freebies on someone’s birthday, which we arrogantly sigh “don’t you have one without sesame seeds on it” there is a lost art to these beautiful creations that we’ve forgotten.

It makes me long for the old country. (Ok, my old country consists of central Mexico, but I’m trying to paint a picture here.)

I can honestly say that I used to take bagels for granted, just picking the ones that had my favorite toppings on it, and spreading some kind of odd monstrosity of chive-tomato-onion-garlic-parsley-chive (wait I said chive already) cream cheese. I did not realize how great and fun it is to make bagels from scratch. They were..delightful.

Everyone I talked to about this, asked me if I was going to boil them. And to answer that question, yes I am and yes I did. From what I have learned, most of us, at least here in Wisconsin are blind when it comes to bagels, but I’m sure there are some of you who found that really truly great bagels are boiled, and not jet steamed. The recipe had me on the adventure to locate some malt powder. Not malted milk, but malt powder. Apparently this is what gives bagels their distinctive flavor and an edge over all those other lesser forms of bagels.

Alas my quest would prove not to be fruitful, and instead I had to rely on the backup of honey. Thankfully the author knew such was to be my fate and had graciously offered any number of substitutes. My only saving grace was the knowledge that had I an accessible home brewing supply store, my source of malt powder, or LME (that’s liquid malt extract to my non home brewing friend) would be limitless. I know I’m not a bagel former, so the finished product doesn’t look nice, but it serves its purpose well. I shaped and let them ferment overnight in the fridge, which is what helps develop the flavors. The next day I boiled them until done (just like a big noodle), topped them, here with cinnamon sugar, and then seed and salt mix and baked them until done.

Freakin awesome.

I am sad to say that the people at work will only get to enjoy bagel bites as I would like more than 12 to try them out. But I think this is a recipe that I will make again. I just think that I need a bigger fridge to hold more overnight.

Next week, Brioche.

Celebration time come on!

Greek Celebration Bread

Artos is the general name for Greek celebration breads, and they are given specific names for the shapes and/or occasions they are baked.This bread called for a number of special ingredients for just this master formula. A lot of fat, represented by the eggs, oil and milk, with plenty of spices to round out the flavor. From this recipe, you can make the following

Christopsomos – Christmas (also involves an elaborate shaping of the loaf with crosses, and dried colored fruits and nuts)

Lambropsomo – Easter (has hard cooked eggs in it, dyed red. What the hell? Hard boiled eggs?)

This bread was awesome to make. It required a lot of preplanning as the “barm” prepared four days before, takes a while. In order to create a barm, you essentially begin seed culture of Rye Flour and water to form a sticky goo. You let the goo bubble and ferment over a couple of days, each day removing a part of it, and adding water and more flour. With this see culture you make many of preferments and embark on your wild yeast culture. I won’t be going there right now, but sometime soon.

From the seed culture you can make barms, bigas, pate fermente and many of the sour doughs. Even though commercial instant yeast is used in this formula, the barm is there to present the bread with some help and great taste. The taste comes from the long drawn out flavor coaxed from the prolonged soaking of the rye flour.

This is the master formula that I did, by which all other Greek Celebration breads can be created. The bread turned out great, and I make two loaves. One by hand and the other entirely by mixer. If it hadn’t been like 80 degrees outside, this would have made the house all warm and fuzzy. I’m sure we would have been cuddled up with blankies watching a Charlie Brown Christmas. As it was, I was up early mixing and staying up late baking. We had Dozer Day, to get to, Church, Whitewater part, and all sorts of domestic stuff.

I believe I will be making this loaf again, and this time adding the dried fruits and nuts and giving my hands a try at shaping the complicated Christopsomos loaf. Shaped into a simple boule and glazed with honey water concoction, it was wonderful. A little sticky to cut, but it smelled great. Next week, bagels.

The taming of Anadama

I was indeed hesitant to start the whole bread baking thing again. Last time I tried this recipe it failed miserably. I don’t think I even posted about it, it was that bad. However, like Lewis and Clark in the face of starvation and the threat of attack, I perservered. (Ok a little over dramatic, but you get my point.) When last I tried my hand at this recipe, I recall something of either a hockey puck or door stop coming out of the oven.

Mmmm…fresh baked door stop. You know, the kind that is just a brick with some kind of needlepoint covering.

I reread the whole section on fermeting and the window pane test. Not that I’m going to stretch out my bread evertime like some kind of edible Stretch Armstrong (save that idea for another day) but rather to understand more what is happening with the bread in terms of glueten development.

The recipe started with a soaker a day before. A soaker is nothing more than taking some of the coarse, or whole grains and getting them soft by soaking them in water. This one called for coarse ground cornmeal soaked in water. Using corn will give this bread a heartier texture and more flovor. The next day, just after my morning run, I combined the soaker, ½ the flour, yeast and rest of water to make sponge.

A sponge will further develop the flavor and slowly coax out the shy natural sugars who from a long winters nap will be looking for a party. “Hey is that yeast? Holy crap! Man, it’s been ages, lets get down!” And did they. The sponge was to set until it started to buble, and that is the time we mix together the remaining ingredients, including 4oz of Molasses, Grandma’s Dark Molasses. I mixed everything together in the Kichenaid and when it formed a ball, I transferred the dough to begin the kneading.

One point that I read on the whole kneading front is that “the dough, not the formula, dictat the needs.” And I adhered to that adding nearly 1 and ½ cups of additional flour to the dough. The formula did indicate that you may have to add more and it would take longer to get to the right dough consistency. Holy gucamole did it ever take a long time, but I stuck with it until the dough was pliable, but not sticky. That is the key.

I let the dough rise (for a good three hours) while the family and I went off to a 5year old birthday party. When we got home, I nearly fell over with how much the dough had risen, and the boys were so excited they wanted to touch it. It was beautiful. I punched it down and shaped into the loaf pans. As indicated in the formula I put the pans in the fridge to retard fermentation until the next day when I wanted to bake it. Getting out the pans the next morning and proofing for a good two hours, I think as described in the book “they fully crested the pans.”

The bread turned out wonderful and it had a great hearty feel to it, and slightly sweet. While I don’t know if this would make a good sandwhich, I think it would make a great type of open face type meal, something with cheese and broiled perhaps.

Next week, Greek Celebration bread.

Week 1 - We start with Anadama

I’m starting over again and approaching this whole bread baking thing a little more methodically. I have had a couple of books on bread baking and have read many websites dedicated to the art of doing so, but I never really tackled it like I would a new subject in school.

I have to break this down, read, research, practice and plan. It should be treated much like my 5 credit lab science, Consumer Chemistry, without the Friday morning hang over preferably. This strategy will give me the background on the subject I need, while also allowing me to put the ideas into practice in my lab, the kitchen.

My inspiration behind this is indeed the concept from the move “Julie & Julia.” Snicker if you want my male friends, but this movie is entertaining and once in a while I like to watch these kinds. I will dedicate one week to a bread recipe until I have completed every single recipe and most every single variation.

Variants may be left up to interpretation and ultimately not completed, depending on if they are worthy. The reason for this is that I’m not sure I need to try all of the dried fruit options available to me in a stolen. I’m pretty sure there’s not much of a difference between raisins and craisins, other than a C. However, if there is a different technique or flour type, with a recipe I will try that in order to get the full experience of this experiment. It’s possible that on a given weekend I will try many variations, as long as my time and ingredients permit. I actually know already that two weekends will not permit me to bake (Aaron’s bachelor party, and a Green Bay Marathon.)

The textbook of choice for this endeavor is none other than the encyclopedia of bread making, “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread”, by Peter Reinhart. Since this isn’t a Capstone (shout out to my Stritch Alum) I won’t be documenting proper APA style. A sturdy book with both instructions, theories, stories, formulas and recipes. It’s a virtual cornucopia of everything that you need to know about bread baking. In this book there are approximately 44 recipes (which he calls formulas), not including the pre-ferments. Pre-ferments are just the starters that are sometimes used to extend fermentation, tease out flavours (look I’m so cool I use an ‘ou) from the different grains. I would say most of you know the Sourdough starter as the classic pre-ferment.

As you may recall I haven’t had that much luck with sourdough starters, but I will trudge on. Yo Joe!

Here are the ground rules for my experiment

1. Only the book can be used for the formulas
   
2. No “weight watchering it up.” Some of you know that I lost 45lbs on Weight Watchers and I currently am a WW leader. It’s hard to not want to make things “healthier” or try and substitute another ingredient to add less fat, or more fiber. However, like my loving wife indicated, “follow the formula, no substitutions, no weight watchering it up.”
   
3. I will weigh out the ingredients rather than measure. The book makes it clear that the best way to bake, is to weigh ingredients because 8oz is 8oz, but someone’s 1 cup scooping is different from another one’s scooping method.
   
4. I will definitely have to plan things out if I am going to get this right. I will make a calendar to plan out any preferments, or soakings that have to take place before hand (especially them starters.)

That’s it. I will post most of my adventure on Sunday nights so that any one at work or Andi’s work can anticipate some goodies the next day. I will try and do a couple of batches whenever possible.

This first week, Andama Bread. Needs a soaker of cornmeal started the day before. Coarse ground if possible. Oh yeah, it’s possible. Sendiks FTW.