Artisan Bread N+2

Artisan Bread 8/19/2010

Biga 1045 a.m.

2.5 Cups Whole wheat

1.0 C water

1/4 tsp yeast

Dough made

1.25 tsp yeast

3.25 c water

All the biga

4 tsp salt

6.5 c organic whole wheat

1 c bread flour

Dough looks right. This time 9 cups of organic whole wheat from the Marketplace, Aberdeen, WA & 1 cup of bread flour.

rising on counter for 2 hr then into fridge overnight.

1/4 of dough (615 gm) taken out left to rise some more in bowl. Remembered after t hr that I didn't knead it. So stretch and fold x3 at 30 min intervals. left to rise on a floured towel in perfed colander & covered with a bowl. at 1.5 hours, turned onto parchment paper, using a disc the size of the dough to keep it from dropping and collapsing.

into the oven? Yes. The 1st loaf turned out at 8" diameter and 3" high. Found a thermometer in a drawer & stuck it into the the loaf--200 deg.

Found two books online: The Bread Bible and King Arthur Flour Whole Grain baking. Library had both.

From Wikipedia: A banneton is a type of basket used to provide structure for the sourdough breads during proofing. Proofing baskets are distinct from loaf pans in that the bread is normally removed from these baskets before baking. Traditionally these baskets are made out of wicker, but many modern proofing baskets are made out of silicone or plastic.

Hey, bannetons cost $20 each! Do I think I can find a basket for less at Big Lots, Cost Plus or Ross Stores?

The Bread Bible says I can use a colander, of which I have two. Let the bread rise within, When it's finishing rising, invert onto parchment paper with a disk underneath that matches the size of the dough so it doesn't fall and collapse.

Artisan bread again

This time total of 6.5 C bread flour, 3.5 c whole wheat flour

4.25 cups water (1 c water for the biga and 3.25 c for the dough).

process started 2 days ago, making the biga.

Yesterday a.m. I made the dough.

@1500 dough is wet but not as wet as 2 days earlier. Stretch and fold x 5 @14 minute intervals, shaped into long loaves. Placed on sheets of parchment paper on flimsy disposable baking sheets 2 loaves to the sheet. Wet towels around and in between loaves to keep loaves from spreading. covered with wet towel. The loaves still want to spread--after rising a bit, they spread.

On counter top to rise for 1.5 hours

Into fridge

two loaves removed from refrigerator at 1600

1800 oven turned on, stone on shelf. water in pan

towels removed, loaves slack and pretty flat. Baked on baking sheets.

final size 14" x 5.5" x 1.25" high--flat, not much lift. Same great crust and crumb as two days ago, but needs a push up bra.

Next, how else to keep the creature from spreading out? a metal fence? Replace more bread flour w/ whole wheat flour?

Aug 19 1515

2 remaining loaves removed from fridge, looking pretty flat. placed into baguette pan. Pan placed into cold oven with oven light on and instructions to rise.

Must remember to poke top of loaves before baking.

Left: one of the baguettes. crust & crumb ok.

Original recipe was for 3.25 cups water and 10 cups of unbleached flour. I started by using Eagle Mills (Costco) Ultragrain flour which is essentially whole wheat. Going to bread flour 6.5 c + whole wheat 3.5 c makes the dough more slack and liable to spread. I forgot that rule going from white to wheat: add more water--the reverse applies going from Ultragrain to white bread flour.

I'd get lost by myself

Mountain bike ride w/Marc Tomlinson & John Forrester around logging trails above Lake Aberdeen.

5 p.m. great time to go .

About 70 deg. F (21 deg C) good shaded double track trail, mostly smooth, not too steep going up anywhere, uphill grinds short.

Artisan bread N+1

Artisan Bread
Going back 2 nights, I made preparations to bake bread. That is, for baking either the next morning or afternoon.

Here's the recipe.

But wait, first I had to make the Biga or Starter

@ 11 p.m. I made the biga using bread flour instead of all purpose.

At 8 a.m. the next day, I made the dough, using the entire biga and using

4 cups of bread flour &

3.5 cups of whole wheat flour.

Being a bit adventurous, I used 4 cups of water instead of the 2.25 in the recipe. I'd tried 2.25, but (because I mix by hand?), I couldn't get all the flour moistened. 3.25 cups worked pretty well in the past.

at 11:30 a.m. the dough went into the fridge because I had to go out.

@ 10 p.m. I returned, splitting the dough into four and did 4 or 5 stretch/folds on each lump with 10 min between S/F's. No kneading--this is not meant to be work.

In between stretch/folds, I made four bottomless boxes from cardboard--4x10x3" high and cut parchment paper to fit the bottom and run up each side.

after final S/F each lump of dough went into each of the boxes (above).

At noon, I turned on the oven 425 deg. a ceramic tile on the lowest shelf. After 30 min a pan of water went into the oven below the stone. @ 60 min I lifted the boxes & tried to slide 2 loaves of bread off the baking sheet onto the tile. No go, the dough refused to budge. It also went flat. I shoved it on and got two loaves of bread like you see below. It's more Ciabatta than Pugliese, but what do I know? I googled the difference and I am still befuddled. Nonetheless, the bread had a good crust, was soft and chewy inside and tasted great! Great means great whether plain, w/butter, w/olive oil +/-balsamic vinegar, etc. We ate half a loaf in 10 minutes

With the 3rd loaf, I pushed a baking pan up next to it and got slightly taller bread, more like a traditional french loaf.

I don't have a pic of that 3rd loaf as Daughter #2 absconded to British Columbia with it at 3 p.m., but the 4th loaf went into (8 p.m.) the oven. I slid the baking sheet holding this loaf into the oven, & then slipped the cardboard box off. The 4th loaf has maintained the torpedo shape imposed by the box.

This is loaf #4 on the left, fresh out of the oven. Below, a view of the bread sliced in which I can see that I forgot to poke the top of the dough to rupture the big bubble on the top of the loaf and to enable the bread to rise a bit more in the oven. The crust is decent, the crumb decent & the taste is outa this world.

This loaf had its start almost 48 hours ago.

My evaluation of my efforts.

1. I have used the entire biga after the first few efforts because it doesn't take much yeast or flour. The recipe says to measure out 13/16th cup biga--no can do.

2. In the past, I had used rolled up wet towels to keep the dough from spreading (effective) and they didn't stick to the dough. I liked the bottomless boxes which served well to keep the dough from spreading flat which gives a flat bread. The reluctance of the loaves to slip off the baking sheet surprised me. they also stick more to the parchment paper. The towels are effective and more dependable than the boxes and when used with parchment paper, slide without issues.

3. I didn't like the wetness of the dough, because it wanted to spread over the work surface while it rested between stretch/fold events.

4. The bread flour and whole wheat flour replaced Eagle Mills Ultra Grain flour (Costco) This is great bread but not good science, changing so many variables at once.