STIR THE POTS

Fanette Bread

Since first attempting Roland Feuillas's infamous Fanette Bread, I wasn't satisfied with the end product. I've seen others baking it successfully; Thierry Delabre, who has coached me, as well as some other fantastic French bakers. It made me wonder if it's a terroir thing - as if something wrong with American flour, whether hydration or something else.

Then Sam Fromartz  tried it with flour he shipped direct from France. But Sam wasn't getting his perfect loaf, either even after attempting a lower hydration of 75-percent in his first loaves. This bread demands somewhere between 75-90-percent hydrated dough.

Below are photos of what some recent attempts. Next up is Roland's Pain Nature, wheat with some spelt, wheat and levain.

Le Globe-Trotteur's Walnut Red Wine Bread

Ever since my interest in baking bread caught fever, I have managed to fenagle formulas from bakers worldwide. Sometimes the formulas take years to actually get right at home. Other times I hit it immediately.

One baker has helped me out in particular, someone who goes by the pseudonym Le Globe trotteur. I met Le Globe Trotteur on Facebook. He's based in Barcelona. He was kind enough to give me a formula for his "walnut red wine bread," which I'd had parked for awhile in my files. Finally trying it for clients of my micro bakery, I managed to get it right the first time, and ended up keeping a loaf for myself. 

Le Globe Trotteur's red wine walnut bread

1600 flour

800g walnut

600g wine

600cl water

700g levain (60%hydrated

2gr yeast

40gr salt

 

Badijonne

120g wine

90g rye

3g salt

 

 

 

Walnut red wine bread

Walnut 800g and red wine 600gr

White flour, t 65 1.600kg

With the white flour put your maceration add 600cl  more of water

Mix it 5 min and let it rest at least 45 min. (Autolyse)

If you use Levain liquide better to get only 500g of water because the sugars will work and dilated strongly so i recommend to use hard sourdough for this product 700g (60%)

You can try both anyway.

Well after your Autolyse introduce your levain(Whatever it is)2g of yeast and let it in first velocity (speed) during 3 min

After your 3 minutes add the salt,40g and let it mix  in first velocity (speed) 12min

When you've got the dough ready (mixed) let it proof 1hour in a bowl with a bit of oil (no flour)

Give it a rabat (fold), proof one more hour.

So after your rabat (fold) and after two hours 2 hours, get it out from your bowl and weigh it to whatever weight you want, pre-shape, and let it rest 30 40 minutes, the give it the final shape.  Give it a three hour proof,(if not retarding overnight..)

If your retard the dough, do exactly the same process to the folding letting it proof hour more after it's shaped, then into the fridge. Next day  take the dough out of the fridge divide it let it rest 40 minutes.  shape and let it proof, then into the oven around 250 Celcius or 485 Farenheit.

 Rye red wine crust (Optional)

Wine 120g

rye 90g

salt 3g

Mix this paste  the day before. Smear the paste  on proofed loaves, and bake. Try some and leave one with and  one without to decide which is your favorite one. Let it cool 2 hours et voila bonne!

Bageli

Been on a "go-back-and-try-it-again" trip lately. Ah, well, bread is a constant progression, and trials and tests. Besides, sometimes you just got to eat a bagel. Keep reading if you agree.

Last weekend, I made three kinds of bagels, pre-ferment, yeasted, and sourdough, with all purpose and bread flour. Odd textural differences; chewyness and retarding in sourdough, whereas a more custardy and lighter crumb in a pre-ferment. The straight dough to processing can make for a different bagel, yeasty, sweet, but a shorter shelf life.

It's said that a bagel should have a high gluten flour, but I like a mix of bread and all purpose, less work on my jaw. And the New York and Montreal styles are still a squabble of terroir of public opinion on their own. My jury is still out. I like them both, but really, where do you get bagels in New York anymore?

Long Fermentation Dough

In my ongoing pizza tests, I recently made a breakfast pizza; a pie featuring bacon and eggs. Having piece of dough in my fridge (which had turned hard as clay), and following a long night after baking for my micro-bakery, pizza fit my hunger pangs. I left the dough on the counter for six hours. And from this lifeless looking blob, a surprising bubbly and almost maleable dough was turned into a deliciously light, airy and crisp pizza. To my surprise the dough didn't have any overly sour flavor either, but a deep rich wheat taste. Even more intriguing was the fact the dough was made with supermarket flour, far from high end brand!

Some Loaves

On my return from my trip to Europe, I quickly started using my levain and odd bits of old dough ferments to make some loaves. With only one feeding, my levain was bubbly,and was able to make three or four breads. With amazing growth, each dough reached a peak of perkiness that seemed unatainable from three weeks hibernation in the cold.

 

Though not completely sure of its strength, I added a pinch of yeast as insurance in this dough based on Joe Ortiz's Pain Compagnon. The baguette bise had great aveolage. I was helped with hints from my former baking teacher, David Norman, who you can read about here regarding bassinage.

Finally I've been following Martin Johanssen's efforts with a honey injected sour of rye and wheat bread. I like the feel, but may tweak just as he has on his own site.

Tourte au seigle...100% rye

Baking a loaf of rye inspired by this boulangerie site, I made a mistake. The bread is called a "Tourte au seigle." Initially I thought it was 100 percent rye in both levain and final dough. Later I noticed that the levain was all wheat, with an overall sixty-five percent of rye in total. Must of been why the dough was so wet and more like loose cement. But I baked it,  curious at the result. Turns out this was a happy mistake. I waited one day for the crumb to set and when I cut into it was really amazed. A moist yet un-gummy texture  and the nice open pores rather then solid rock!

 

Mother Dough

Mothers Day weekend has passed, but this isn't about that day. Rather it's about the dough; "old mother dough". My friend Teresa from Northweast Sourdough, is in her bread lab throwing old "mother  dough into a fridge and letting it rot! She mixes a dry starter, a total of 40-percent hydration and forgets about in the fridge.

It made me think of San Francisco sourdough, sort of reverse engineering - using this cold approach to give more fermentation control with added flavor. Whatever the principle, I followed suit with this project, as I'd bugged Teresa for specifics. This is a sourdough that's addictive for it's mix of sour taste and sweet crumb. You chance developing blisters from the retard process, sometimes a faux pas in traditional bakers world, but attractive in it's own way.

Below are shots of what I got. I am sure I'll be giving it a go again, as it gives the baker less work with simple steps and a forgotten dough in the fridge.

Holy Toledo: The breads of Antonio Cepas Alonso

Bread is a silent sirenity, especially late baking in dimmly lit kitchen. I spent such an evening recently, baking a loaf, the formula of which I'd found on the Facebook page of Antonio Cepas Alonso, a baker from Toledo, Spain.

I had spent a full day at work in the kitchen, then come home to bake. After mixing the dough and waiting for the bulk ferment, I lay down, but fought the urge to sleep. I wanted to finish the bread and take it to my mother's house the next morning. My eye's felt like lead, but after starting to doze off, I forced myself back to the kitchen. The evening was cool, and I wondered about the chance of an overnight final proof. But then I decided to retard it in the fridge for at least five hours, as it was just midnight when I laid the dough into the banneton.

In the end, it all worked out. This bread is fabulous, having a moist crumb that's got a hint of honey. According to Antonio, who I managed to chat with after baking the bread, he uses the honey "to caramelize the crust in a more reduced cooking time." Antonio added that he uses "add's a small dose of honey every so often when refreshing the sourdough to stimulate some activity."

I hope to visit Toledo to sample his bread and meet the baker. In the meantime, I'll follow his advice and his gracious guidelines to make these breads here.

 

Recipe via Madrid in Spain, Flour from Cayuga, Upstate New York

Agustín Oliet (or Gusete) is a man who loves his bread - or "pan" as they call it on the Spanish baking board where he posts, Madrid tiene Miga. His post was on a bread called "pan imposible." I found it intriguing and decided to give it a try. 

Using a Google translation and my own bastardized Spanish, I realized it's actually close to Jeffrey Hamelman's Norwich sourdough. Augustin is simply expressing the pleasure of making bread the old fashioned way, with sourdough, and that it isn't impossible to make delicious bread, simply and with age old techniques.

I had good luck using my latest flours, made from grain locally grown in upstate and purchased through Farmer ground flour. But that's another post. Anyway, thanks Augustin for leading me to a good bake.