STIR THE POTS

How's that spelt?

Spelt is grain that is the  current rage in some baking circles. That mystifies me.This bronze age cousin of wheat has peculiar profiles that deem it healthy but is very difficult to handle. First, it has a weak gluten structure and doesn't rise into a lofty and airy loaves unless you're an amazing baker. Next it needs less water; say about 10-to 15 percent less than a normal wheat bread. Oh, yeah, don't over knead! Do I need to say that again with another exclamation point? Sorry, but over kneading kills it. Truth is, you need to handle it particularly gently. Three to four minutes is sufficient to get the flour mixed to use. For directions, let me suggest Dan Lepard's method of short 10 second kneads with some two folds, perhaps even Jim Lahey's no knead. Judge for yourself, but I stray away from using a mixer because of the danger of high speeds.

I first started using spelt flour with my sister at her home in Switzerland, a place  where watches, chocolate and  spelt are king. Why? Well, because spelt is less disease prone and utilizes less fertilizer, as well it is easier to digest for people who suffer with wheat allergies.When baking at her house I'd usually turn out bread that resembled a clay object, flat and unappealing. That said, it's mysteriously sweet nutty taste made up for the aesthetic flaws. It's safe to say the Swiss are on to something.

Last year on vacation, one of the wonderful things  I did on my various "bread adventures" was visit the mill at Maisprach a 6th generation family owned business. The bakers at Australian site Sourdough have been baking lots of loaves. One especially nice loaf was a recent entry from my friend Dom, who mixed the Dan Lepard and Jim Lahey techniques. Wise strategy. Personally, when I tried, my timing was off, and the loaf was slightly past its peak. Still, the result was a nice tasting loaf, somewhat of uneven shape, but still totally satisfying. Soooo... I won't give up on this spelt. Instead I will explore trying some mixed flourspelt breads like those I have seen on some of the German bread forums. Time to get out my translator!

Levain de pomme de terre au travail

Susan at wild yeast is making me painfully aware of some of my lazy baking habits. She inspires and cajoles some marvelous examples of bread some make me...hmmm... envious or just has me drooling uncontrollably on my keyboard! Her bread baking is well plain fabulous, so I was aiming to see if I could follow her rendition of a Jeffrey Hamelman Norwich levain. Above all I especially have been dying to perfect Susan's amazing Couronne Bordelaise. I even went as far as to order a banneton from France. 

I mention Susan because she reminds me of something that happened last week. It was inspired by a recent forum discussion on Graham Prichard's site, about terms in baking. Bread is basically three elements; water, flour and salt generally speaking, and in this mish mash world with all sorts of European baking terms thrown into Americas baking renaissance there is a whole bunch of anxious home bakers kinda following a myriad of methods and techniques like a bad diet! This of course includes yours truly, not because I don't know how to bake. It's just that I want to bake all the time and all kinds of flours,starters and formulas are racing in my head. This brings up adding fruits, vegetables or what other matter into the mix of creating a leaven.

So later in the week, ignoring orthodoxy, (John Downes, cursing me!) I started a loaf by following standard equal 1.1 flour-water, except I threw in a patate! (Potato), grated 5 oz and topped off the rest with water to make 8 oz total and added to it 8 oz flour, let sit 24 hours, and waited....Next day not a lot of movement but I persevered and fed the beast, removing 3/4 of the leaven, adding in the same amount of flour and water...this time the leaven sat over a two day period as we were closed on the weekend. On Monday I looked at the blob bubbling in my bucket, thinking "it's alive!" My breakfast cook looked at me like I was nuts and made a face at the gooey looking monster. I fed it again, and then again that evening. I figured if I am working all these hours and my breads have been less than perfect let me see what I can do while at work, monitoring and gaining my baking prowess again!

The next morning I went on the net to look for a dough to make, Nils my Aachen baking friend, had one of Dan Lepard's breads on view, a friendly oat and apple bread. With minimal range in flour, I set to task and realized it was going to be tricky to perform this baking feat with service looming! What came out of this first attempt wasn't the cleanest of breads, but it made me consider feeding the leaven a bit more so it could get some strength, yesterday I looked up the Norwich levain and proceeded to knead, rise, and fold all in between lunch service. Realizing a problem of baking the same day I proceeded to shape and leave the dough to proof about 1.5 hours and retarded it over night. Et voila! Success, at last, tasty and well felt marvelous about not having to rush home during an afternoon break to see if I can make a decent loaf work then get back for another dinner rush. Thanks Susan, Nils, Graham, for making me less lazy and appreciate baking like I really know how!

Supan, (what bread shouldn't be!)

Supan is my wife's name for supermarket bread,(a literal translation super-pan). Something I have only eaten when there's nothing we made or bought at a genuine bakery. Until today. And let me tell you, Supan will never ever again grace my delicate palette. Well, never is a long time. But let's just say that it reminded me of a maxim worth pocketing. Here goes: factory bread sold in big supermarkets should be labeled something other than bread. Cause it may cost dough but it ain't dough.

Here's a tip. If you’re ever out of your own homemade or reputable local bakery bought bread, then just eat some yogurt till your bread is out of the oven! Oh, yeah, I guess I'm saying that it's worth buying bakery bread or baking it yourself. And it is! Sorry for the exclamation points but the subject does produce a slight froth in my brain. Partially because of the injustice of food economics today, namely they way  wheat and corn commodities have skyrocketed. Not only has corn syrup filled virtually everything on supermarkets shelves of all basic food groups, but now it competes with oil to fill the bellies of our gas hungry cars! What will happen to the basic food stuff of every day life? Bread! Kind of spooky, no?

Where was I? Oh, yeah, bread. Fake bread. Supan. Out of desperation for some nourishment for breakfast, I toasted a couple slices for a quick bacon and egg sandwich. While waiting, I read the label on the bag of this lifeless loaf, figuring the manufacturer was sure to include  that famous government pyramid graph extolling the virtues of grains and good eating, bread being one of those important groups!

Well then my eye wandered down the package to what seemed a bewildering statement on the importance of freshness.

But the worst was the list of ingredients that made me cringe - all the say down to the barrows of my bowels. Indeed, this wasn't just water, flour, and salt and all the normal ingredients, including umpronounceable mystery preservatives. But worse, hateful, the scourge of anyone who actually loves real food... what I saw right there on the bread I was toasting... corn sweetener, the ingredient that makes us obese and god knows what else?

Fortunately, I had fed my starter for a loaf of my favorite miche  the  night before!

So dear wife (and readers) no more supan. No mas. No mas. Though I have to start making sandwich loaves for my truly American favorite, a  peanut butter sandwich. Perhaps  sourdough. 

Spring, sproing and terrine too!

When a loaf springs or in this case sproings it's most likely a good thing! I have been off baking for a bit, not that I like it, but work has been non-stop and my food end of this blog has been on the back burner somewhat, I mean how do you snap a shot when your hands are cooking on the line?

This being the long weekend with good Friday giving me a chance to  reawaken my ferments  in the fridge, I decided on a seeded mix loaf with my apple starter, Teresa it's going into the mail when I get a second, really! Amazing baker and friend Teresa has given me a little advice on a recipe with grains, but I wanted seeds and I sort of over hydrated the dough, that's ok though, put it in loaf pans says I! As for other loaf,what another loaf.... hell why make only one kind of bread? It's a Desem starter with multi flour combo including, wheat, rye, kamut and naked barley, formed in a crown shape with my beautiful bannetons from Cooperative Vannerie de Villaines, sure I am nuts to buy them with the dollar only good for wiping my ass, but who the "F" makes them in the states? Besides with the whole issue of sanitation, pasteurization and whatever else makes germ freaks go nutty, how couldn't I buy them? I promised the wife to go to the gym after of course, and fortunately my cat had me up early enough to get the doughs mixed so she couldn't nix the deal, the dough risen, formed and now baked, needs only a good accompaniment of cheese, sausage, whatever suits your taste buds, it's all in a days work, sproing!

P.S. Just stopped by Johnny the butcher in Sunnyside, got him a copy of Stéphane Reynauds Terrine book. I dropped him off a loaf of seeded bread and he gave me a sample of pate of duck, fabulous!

 

Staples as commodities, what is a baker to do?

If you haven't looked lately at your grocery shelfs or receipts, prices are up and yes Mr. Bush this is your recession!
As for wheat not being grown, but actually discouraged in favor of corn to substitute our need for oil to feed our cars instead, I mean who would rather drive than enjoy a good loaf of bread?
The discussion of prices and economics are not only for economists and federal reserve chairman, no it's for the people who gather the wheat, the mills who make the flour,the baker who tends to his/her dough and finally average you and me!
Some of our friends at the ABA (Australian Bakers Association) and the Sourdough.com.au have been discussing this dilemma as well as the BBGA  here in the states. I keep wondering what and how did this all get undone, here is an interesting article I found the other day on the subject of commodities and bread. One good thing is it's making people go home and make their own homemade bread, that is a good omen!

Desem, my first try in a pot!

I baked a desem miche today, even though we had a death in the family. The desem levain was getting up to strength when I fed it late yesterday for a total of 16 hours. I then made the dough and it would of been a good four hours when I would of sent it into the banneton but we had to go to the vets,tack on about and extra 2 hours and the thing was coming out of the bowl! I formed it into a boule, made some Vietnamese summer rolls for dinner and decided to put my creuset pot into action. I wanted to see if the old Jim Lahey wasn't pulling my leg, and cranked on the oven full heat!
When the dough had risen, I popped the loaf in rather haphazardly and it tipped onto the cut side, so I did a cooks quick pull back minding the fingers and wrists! and it was back in the pot the right way up! On the edge of the pot were marks from the wicker bannetons flour pattern, this isn't for the faint hearted!
I pushed back the loaf, topped the lid and closed the door! A half hour later I took out the loaf and was quite pleased at it's light feel and wonderful wheat aroma!

So I will try on my next Desem run to perhaps use the levain but maybe mix in different flours, morphing as my friend Theresa calls it!

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Mother Teresa, Northwest sourdough

Recently I was googling for desem formulas, desem is a levain that was developed by a family of Flemish bakers, it has a strong rise and noted for it's mild not so sour flavor. When I happened on an old forum mate from Graham Prichards sourdough.au site, Teresa the Northwest sourdough maven and baker extraordinaire! I made pretext to comment on her post on desem, when she replied pointing out  the direction of her well described method for making this rather tedious levain, best thing was she offered to send me a sample of her own stock desem! So it's arrived and I set the wheels in motion and got the sample fed and it's sitting in my bag of whole wheat flour, I just feel like peeking!

Thanks Theresa, I think I'll send you a sample of some granny smith apple starter to you as soon as I figure out how to make as beautiful a package that you sent me!

Pain Normande

The last two weeks have been a real pain, not pain like bread but pain like ouch! I don't know whether it's a army injury in my spine from lugging heavy china ware all over Germany for the generals or it is genetic, but it hurts. Making bread is a natural for me, whenever I can morning or night! So this pain,bread, withstood the pain, in my back ache!
Though I would love to bake a loaf everyday, this week it was hopelessly obvious I wasn't going to do that! Work is a non stop of parties and the last levain project I was trying was a ten day endeavor from Joe Ortiz's "The village baker" for Normandy cider bread.
I have used Mr. Ortiz's book a few times, more unsuccessfully than with good results. I don't know if it was my natural laziness or just so much information I was trying to take in as a baker from different sources that made less than perfect results? I still go back to his book though, I think it could do with a re-edit and perhaps some changes regarding using American measurements rather than metric! One day I will gather the nerve and give Joe a call see if he will talk to me on the show?
His pain Normande is familiar to some I did in school and at Bouley bakery.The bread has hints of rye, apple pieces like most Norman cider breads I have tried, though it is a bit difficult to keep in the little chunks in the dough it still makes a good eater! I had a little bit of camembert de boccage  with it and it really is a marriage straight from the apple cider orchards and grassy cow fields.

Roggenvollkornbrot

German bread or rye breads are one of my holy grail or crosses to carry in my quest to wake up America to a  really tasty loaf! Recently aided by Maggie Glezer on some BP% issues I had forgotten from my school training, I set about to conquer a challenging 3 stage detmold rye @ 100%! No easy feat let me tell you, so I ended up with a softic air bag of gummy rye and was about to give up when I remembered a book my friend Nils had told me he used. So I looked through the pages found one formula and trying to translate with a computer translator; my kinder German and bier ordering are pretty much what I know, so  I set about making this monster amount of dough! I just said screw doing the math and proceeded to grind whole grains with a mill I borrowed from work, and seeded the levain, soaked the grains and seeds! I was on my way, overnight and into the following day I didn't give in, I even e-mailed Nils for some help and continued finally trying to make this mother of all doughs by hand in the largest salad bowl I could find!

Et voila, a fine dough with really a thoothy and mild but delicious cake like bite! So don't give up and by all means do the math! This is a lot of dough, I gave three loaves to neighbors and friends!

    Formula from:

Brotrezepte aus ländlichen Backstuben - Landküche (Gebundene Ausgabe)                      

  Sourdough Build:
- 900g whole-rye flour
- 405g rye flour, Type 1150
- 1350g water
- 250g rye sourdough, hydration: 100%

Soaker:
- 200g rye kernels
- 570g chopped rye

- 200g grain-mix (sesame, flaxseed, sunflower seeds
- 1350g boiling water

Dough:

- Sourdough Build
- Soaker
- 300g whole-rye flour
- 135g rye flour, Type 1150
- 10g dried yeast
- 100g warm water
- 1 tsp sugar
- 3 tbsp salt
- 100g grain-mix for the top of the loaf

-> Proof dried yeast in the 100g warm water for about 10 minutes.
-> Mix dough and put into 2 loaf tins, then bake
(nor bulk or final fermentation at room temperature)
-> Bake for 60 minutes at 190°C

Bagels (sourdough of course!)

Talk about an icon, the bagel. Toasted with butter, schmeared with cream cheese or some smoked salmon, it's definitely a must for baking especially sourdough!
My friend Dom from Oz of Bethesdabakin has kindly posted a formula on Dan Lepards site, I also used  Nancy Silverton's  formula from her La  Brea bread book with great results!

New York's once famous Jewish neighborhood the lower eastside  has long since vanished save a few relics like Kossars who make a mean bialy or Katz's with their famous sandwiches(scuttle but is that it will soon shut down!). It say's a lot about where you live when you can't get a Jewish rye or pumpernickel or bagel from a local bakery, seems our culinary traditions are waining even in the so called capital of food! Montreal bagels are the cousins up north who traditionally bake the bagels in wood fired ovens and enrich the dough with egg? Sounds like they have the idea on how to make a good product Make a bagel and schmear it, they are good eats!