Freedom Bread

I know that I’ve been missing in action for a couple of weeks now, and the truth is this time of year makes me awfully lazy. Lazy to the point that I get bored and decide to have my wisdom teeth extracted. When I mean extracted, I mean they cut and grind and yank them out. Ah, well, I don’t need to bore you with all of the gory details, but I will say that I haven’t been able to eat properly for about a week. It had severely curtailed my bread baking and enjoying ability. I still feel that every carbohydrate that I eat gets stuck in the other world that used to occupy where my teeth once stood.

I missed out on eating anything Focaccia, so I’m going to be making that one again for everyone. Oh, what did you say? I didn’t bring that one to work? Oh, quite right, quite right. I gave that one to my wife to take as I was horizontal with packs of ice massaging my cheeks. Plus I can’t find the pictures.

I moved on to a tried and true recipe for me, the French Bread. My favorite of favorite breads. And it’s not that it’s my favorite because it’s the simplest, but just because of the crust and how “homey” the bread, with some good fresh butter, can make you feel. It’s this time of year that this bread will accompany, so nicely any home style soup, chili or loafed meat recipe that you can dream up.

There’s nothing to this recipe, it’s just flour, water, salt and yeast. That’s it, nothing else. The recipe out of the book called for equal parts of bread and all-purpose flour, and I suspect this has something to do with the gluten content, but I’ve made this recipe before just using all bread flour and it turned out great. The one element that might make this better tasting is the introduction of the pate fermente, or a pre-ferment. Just taking part of the dough and letting it sit in the fridge overnight to develop flavor. I am not sure this really raises the flavor of the bread, but then again, perhaps in this case, my pallet isn’t as refined as I really care it to be, and I just want to enjoy a good piece of bread.

Stollen – Frohe Weihnachten!

I thought better of it and skipped Foccacia all together this week and jumped to Stollen. I believed it would be better from a baking point of view in terms of the upcoming holiday. Plus, next week I’m getting my wisdom teeth extracted and I don’t know what I’ll be able to do and not do in terms of bread, but I should be able to crank out one more.

Growing up, my great aunt would bake Stollen’s during the Christmas season, at my dad’s wish. He loved eating these things. I’ll tell you what, I didn’t and I know what it was about it. The candied fruits. I cannot stand eating those yucky red and green cherries, or pineapple. So, since this was my stollen, I decided to use raisins, craisins, prunes and apricots. That, I think would be much tastier than the other. I was also able to use this as a lesson in patients and again…following directions.

The sponge called for the milk to be heated up to 100 degrees and wisked with the flour and yeast. I heated up the milk in a pan and kept it hot and wisking with the four. It turned out lumpy and rather thick, like paste. However, with all that was going on this weekend, I did it and left to run errands with Logan. When we came back the sponge wasn’t frothy and risen like it should have. It was flat…and didn’t move at all. I decided to try again, and this time I microwaved the milk, took the temp and wisked in the flour and yeast. It turned out much better. I think that I got it too hot and either killed the yeast or changed the chemical composition of the flour and made it too thick. Even the boys knew it wasn’t right.

Once last thing, I forgot to buy the powdered sugar. Oh well, I brushed butter on top of it anyway and topped with sugar in the raw as my own signature. Merry Christmas!

Of shopping malls and English gardens

How the heck does either of these things have anything in common, let alone anything to do with bread? Is there some queer reference in a Shakespearean play to the current economic situation of our local shopping centre? Or perhaps Hugh Grant was appearing at our local Macy’s doing a book signing for his latest seller “Pancake and me: Love syrup.”

No, none of this is how they relate, but it was a good guess, and I’ll give you a slug of chewing gum for a best effort. They tie in very nicely I think and relate to all the baking that I did this weekend for the bread. I had decided last weekend not to make anything, due to our vacation and the keen knowledge that I was saving the Cinnamon Bun recipe for our annual Thanksgiving Day tradition of said sweet treat. This year, however, I opted for the home made kind rather than the store bought pre packaged exploding tube of goodness.

You see, I have not eaten a T.J. Cinnabon, ever (the mall reference). You might find that odd, but every time I watch them create these devilishly sinful treats, I just can’t bring myself to consume such large and concentrated forms of delectable goodness (never mind the 8billion calories.) So, when last week’s recipe switch came to be, I decided mine would be just as good, but with considerably less sugar. This one was only difficult from a shaping and proofing aspect. I rolled up the dough, but the cinnamon sugar acted as a barrier and I was unable to seal the seam together nicely and the two ends were uneven, and came apart. However, they browned up nicely and after a glaze of fondant, they were ready to eat. They tasted pretty good and I even shared with the neighbors.

This weekend’s next bread was English muffins (hence the English reference.) And these seemed like they would be fun to me. The neat part that I didn’t know was English muffins are fried on a griddle, and then finished in the oven to get the center done. I think they turned out ok. They look like real English muffins from the outside, and they taste like them too, but on the inside I was missing the trademark big holes. The recipe said wet dough will help to get the big holes and I thought I had that, but apparently not. I decided then to make English muffin loaf bread instead of the actual muffins for work since I know I couldn’t make enough of the muffins for everyone.

Next week: Focaccia

Cranberry Walnut Celebration Bread

What exactly are we celebrating? Today is National Day for Tolerance. Sweet, and this bread to celebrate that historic day when put up with everyone’s BS. Or, perhaps it’s an engineering holiday when we test tolerance limits on various metals. I don’t really know. I purposely did not cut this bread ahead of time because I wanted people to be able to see the braiding that went into it. I still don’t have the braiding down to the point, where the ends stay together. During the rising and baking process, they seem to come undone, and the ends start to expand apart.

What I love about this bread is the smell and taste. It should evoke all of the flavors and smells of Thanksgiving. It has a very similar taste to a Christmas stolen, without the glaze and candied fruits. I think this bread would taste great with a flavored butter, perhaps cinnamon and sugar.

Next week I'll be doing home made cinnamon rolls, but that will be for Thanksgiving morning, so I'm afraid that my coworkers will most likely miss out on that one.

Corn Bread

Dear Wonderous Man/Woman who invented bacon. Let me thank you with the up most cured salty goodness in the bottom of my deep soul for that meat which you invented. It not only brings joy to us poor souls who love all the cured meats, but also rapture for the smoky fatty goodness that clogs our veins. In this we praise your name.

To be honest, I wasn’t too excited at first to make this recipe. After all, Corn Bread is really bread in name only. It’s considered a quick bread. That bread by which is chemically leavened so as to not have to wait for fermenting and yeast cultivating. However, I should not shun all that which is not made by yeast, because yea, this bread can stand on its own as a great American Bread.

It has a great combination of flavors, and textures. From the sweetness of the corn and honey, to the smoky and crunch flavor that the bacon helps to finish. This bread is moist enough to seemingly stand on its own for a meal, but yet was ok to mingle nicely at a church gathering we had, where our entrée brought was chili (what compliments chili better than corn bread?) Perhaps with our new canning endeavors, I’ll be able to use fresh/canned corn rather than the frozen stuff.

This bread was so beautiful when I just pulled it out of the oven, as I had to make a second batch for everyone who so craves this at work. I only wish that I could serve it warm as intended.

Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread

Wait Brian, what happened to the Ciabatta?

Um…what?

What happened to the Ciabatta?

Ah…nope, don’t know what you’re talking about. You mean Cinnamon Raisin Walnut Bread. That’s what I worked on this week. Don’t know what a Chi-bata is. Is that some kind of new fangled exercise you buy on T.V. from that guy who used to play The Incredible Hulk? No, not Bill Bixby, that other dude. Never mind, can I get on with this?

I have done this recipe before, and pretty much came to the same results. This particular recipe of cinnamon raisin bread has all the qualities one wants from raisin bread. Namely, cinnamon and raisins. It is light, flavorful, good finish and fills your mouth with a nice little after taste of roasted walnuts. The recipe indicated that I could have eliminated the walnuts without any further changes to the recipe itself and I may do that in the future.

I find that kneading nuts into the dough tends to tear the dough ever so slightly, which is what I thought was preventing it from rising properly. However, after some measurements after I set the pans for proofing, I discovered my pans were too small. I thought they were losing air or not rising because of the tears, but it turns out my loaf pans are too big. I never really paid attention to the sizing requirements. This recipe calls for an 8.5 x 4.5 and as it turns out my loaf pans are 9 x 5. That’s a big difference in bread making when you’re trying to make a proper loafs. So, in these pans, the loafs look particularly small, when they really aren’t.

I have since asked for smaller pans for Christmas.

Incidentally, I’m lazy, and just didn’t post the Ciabatta from last week. Truth be told, it didn’t turn out how I wanted. It lacked the large irregular holes that are the signature of a Ciabatta. It would have been like serving Cinnamon Raisin bread, without raisins.

Next week, in time for Thanksgiving…Corn Bread

Let me Challah at you!

Ok, dumb joke, but I thought it was kind of clever. Challah (pronounced holla) the braided Sabbath bread of Judaism, is a type of European celebratory loaf (similar to the Greek bread I made) symbolic of God’s goodness and bounty. I find myself reminiscing of my great-great-uncle, Tevye. I would spend time with him and countless hours in his simple house in a small village in Russia. We would celebrate the Sabbath by making many loaves of this slightly crusty, yet soft bread. Normally we would gather up the eggs to use up just before the Sabbath since gathering is obviously considered work in that Orthodox Jewish Community.

The key, apparently, to making great looking Challah, is to braid it so that it is tapered at the ends and plump in the middle. This is by far, the most beautiful bread that I have made. I may do this one again, just for the aesthetics. You can vary the shape of the bread based on the message you are trying to convey. You can curl the dough into a round shape for Rosh Hashanah. The round shape symbolizes how the world has no beginning and no end; three strands symbolize truth, peace and beauty; and the spiral coil indicate the ascent to God.

I am a little sad that the people who get to eat this tomorrow will not be able to eat it fresh, but it still tastes great, and I will include the pictures since I’ll have to slice it before I serve it tomorrow.

Next week, Ciabatta.

TU VUO' FA l'AMERICANO

Castatiello

This is a rich bread, only an Italian version of the French Brioche from the previous baking. It’s loaded with flavors that stem from the combination of a cured meat (in this case Salami) and soft cheese (provolone.) You may notice the same crust and texture of the Brioche in this loaf comes from the eggs and nearly 1 cup of butter. This time I let the dough site before adding the butter so as to let the gluten develop. By letting the mixture sit before adding the butter, I was able to avoid having the butter coat the gluten before it could form.

It’s noted that in this type of bread other types of cheese may be used, but it should be a good melter with distinctive flavors, such as Swiss, Gouda, or good old Wisconsin Cheddar. What I discovered is that my blending technique needs to be improved as you can see the folds and I managed to get a seam on top which leads to an uneven rising. However, this is primarily due to my desire to get the bread done since I had company coming over and I really didn’t have a lot time this weekend. No…I didn’t make this in my kilt. The bread is traditionally baked in paper bags or panettone molds, but I really didn’t want to push my luck with this rich bread, so I just stuck to a loaf pan.

The hollow parts come from the cheese being centered and then melting into the bread itself. The bread was a success, but I think next time I will mix the cheese in a little more to ensure a more even distribution. It’s awesome warmed, and if you’ve ever had that cheesy mozzarella bread at the Madison’s farmer’s market, it was similar to that. I would like to cap this weekends ethnic activities for those who knew was going on. I a Mexican in a Scottish wedding, made an Italian bread similar to a French bread and preparing for a Jewish bread next week.

Next week, Challah

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.

It has been many moons....

Kind of funny to be looking at my last post on this blog and now I'm longing for spring. Good news is that we tore down the Virginia Creeper on our purgola and Andi has given the go ahead to plant more hops. I just have to wait to buy the rhizomes and then plant some time in late March. Any way, on to the bread.

It's been while since I've baked, and I tried my hand at a whole wheat bread. This one started out with two pre-soaks. A soaker and a starter. The soaker was some water and called for some coarsely ground grain. All I had was some rye flour and since the recipe called for a grain, I figured this would be ok. The soaker sits with grain and water over night. That is supposed to start some natural yeast, coaxed from the air, as well break down the coarse grain.

The other was a pre-ferment, which consisted of the whole wheat, yeast and water. After the pre-ferment rose, you cover and stick into the fridget overnight (to retard the rising process.)

I didn't quit like how the pre-ferment turned out. Something about it didn't seem right and I should have listened to myself. The next day, I left the pre-ferment to rise and take the chill out while we were out to church. When I came back, I completed the dough, and again, something didn't feel right.

It was very wet, and none of the moisture seemed to be going away. Wheat breads, or coarse grains tend to take a little more water, but this was weird. I must have added close to a cup of extra flour and it didn't seem to help. The dough felt too dense and too wet.

As you can see, after a couple of hours rising, it failed to double in size, and I feared that it would turn out to be a brick. If you can't get the window pane test to pass, then the bread doesn't form the glueten strands to keep it taught, and therefore won't trap the gas bubbles to rise. This dough ball is cracking beacuse the gas isn't getting trapped. It was too wet, but I forged ahead.

I was hoping to get a spring in the loaves from the oven, and then perhaps they would rise. But alas, it was for naught. They didn't rise, and turnned out to be bricks. They didn't even make good croutons. Blech. Oh well, I'll chalk it up to one year old wheat bread, and sub par kneading. Andi is at the grocery store right now getting me some fresh whole wheat and some steel cut oats (one of the whole grains it calls for) and I'm confident that this loaf will turn out better.