Chasing a Better Pain de Campagne

Careful monitoring, rather than a more or less casual approach, of the bulk ferment reaching the doubling of volume has proved to be a sound reason to eliminate a fault in my process. That also means that it's time to go back to study shaping methods and proofing. Practice, practice, practice....

The first loaf was a 1-2-3 loaf where 16% of the the total flour was a blend of white whole wheat and rye. The second loaf  has a 20% blend and had five grams of wheat bran in the starter just for fun. The second loaf definitely has the better flavor.


Starter
The starter was built in two stages with Wheat Montana Natural White AP, adding the bran in the first stage to soften the rough edges. I wanted to see if it would make any difference in the speed of the growth due to the additional wild yeast spoors. I couldn't tell that the bran improved the growth speed but that won't stop me from trying again and with more bran. My hydration level on this loaf was just a bit higher this time to adjust to the changing seasonal  "thirstiness" of the flour.

                                                                       120 g at 100% hydration

                                                                       Main Dough

                                                                        264 g Dakota Maid Bread Flour
                                                                        44 g WM Prairie Gold White Whole    
                                                                        Wheat Flour
                                                                        22 g Rye Flour
                                                                        220 g water at 85F
                                                                        8 g kosher salt

The local area here on the Middle Coast had its first snowfall on 15 October and there is a rumor of more to come in the forecast for this week. The hackberry and oak trees in the front yard are shedding and I can't keep up. It doesn't help that a maple tree in the neighboring yard is contributing as well. At best, I have an excuse to bring out the electric leaf blower to save myself from raking.

It's almost time for my annual garlic planting ritual. There's enough area in the garden that has been cleaned out but just out of habit I'll clean some more weeds out and get a bale of straw for mulching the garlic planting. I'm not superstitious enough to think that the very woolly caterpillar I saw has any significant meaning but after three winters in a row where there haven't been any significant snow events, I can't see anything wrong with being prepared.

Besides that, I've seen some juncos, AKA snowbirds, around my feeders. They're probably the scouting team of males that precede larger groups.Getting another "squirrel proof" feeder isn't a bad idea either. The usual suspects of the bird world have returned after scavenging in the recently harvested fields in our area.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

Summer's End Loaf

It has been a  while since I found something to post about. I've been baking all along, trying different approaches to figure out how to get past loaves that didn't seem to want spring up and others that flattened out. I tried using more bread flour, lower hydration, retarded ferment, spiking with IDY, and lately, a shorter bulk fermentation combined with a closer track of the proofing.

This loaf was an escape from overthinking procedure. It's a lower hydration, half white whole wheat, half all purpose pan loaf. The recipe is based on "Mama's Bread" from the book "Breaking Bread" by Martin Philip. The quantities are for single loaf, derived by simply halving the quantities suggested by Mr Philip. I just changed a bit here and a bit there to allow for what I had on hand and a procedure that would give me time to run a few errands or go to the gym.




258 g Wheat Montana Natural White AP flour
258 g Wheat Montana Prairie Gold White Whole Wheat flour
330 g water at 82F
10.5 g salt
7/8 tsp Instant Dry Yeast, divided
26 g unsalted butter, melted
1 TBS or 15 ml honey

Yield: One 9x5 inch pan loaf

1. Add water to the mixing bowl, add 1/8 tsp IDY to water, rehydrate yeast for three minutes, and stir water briefly. Add WWW flour to the bowl, mix well, and cover the bowl. Let the bowl sit for at least 90 minutes, much more if your room is cool.

2. In another bowl add the AP flour, salt, and remaining yeast, stirring with a spoon or whisk to distribute the salt and yeast. When bubbles form on top of the mixture in the first bowl, add the melted butter and honey, stir briefly, and then add flour mix. Mix your ingredients by hand or with a dough whisk to incorporate all your ingredients. Since this is a low hydration formula, the dough will be on the dry side. Use any extra water sparingly. I suggest using a spray bottle for additional water. Cover the mixing bowl and let it rest for about twenty minutes. Fold the dough in the bowl and cover.

3. Fold the dough again after another 25 and 50 minutes. Let the dough rest until doubled, about an hour. Preshape the dough for use in a 9"x5" pan. Cover and rest for about ten minutes while you prepare your pan and clean up your work space and dishes. Place your dough, seam side down, in the pan and press the dough lightly to fill the bottom of the pan.

4. Cover your pan lightly and let the dough rise until it crowns 1-1 1/2" above the rim of the pan. Toward the end of the proof, preheat your oven to 400F.  Remove the pan cover and place the loaf on a middle level rack in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes, rotate the pan and bake for another 10 to 15 minutes, looking for a golden crust, internal temperature around 205F. Cool on a wire rack for at least two hours.

Springtime weather out here was relatively cool, followed by a week or so of warmth, and then we launched into a dry summer. The garden wasn't as productive as usual, a common complaint among other gardeners in the area. We're now in a pleasantly cool and wet spell, too late to save the garden but in time to put some green back in the lawns in the form of crabgrass. As the saying goes among the fans of the KC Royals baseball team, wait until next year.

Cracked Wheat Sourdough

I like the touch of sweetness that cracked wheat adds to a good loaf. My experience with it has been that it needs to soak for at least an hour and more time is even better. If you have the opportunity, four hours will do nicely. In this loaf, 44 grams seemed appropriate but when it came to the finished product, the cracked wheat seemed hardly visible. Because Casa De PG is kept at a cool 68F during most of the working day and 63F at night, a small 1/8 tsp of IDY was added to the main dough to assist in the fermentation and proofing. That was just enough to work and not so much that it affected the flavor.

Soaker
44 g cracked wheat
33 g water

Starter
120 g at 100% hydration with 10 g wheat bran used during the build

First Dough Soak                                     

49 g White Whole Wheat Flour
51 g Bread Flour
All of soaker
All of starter
220g water at 83F

This step is meant to give the WWW
time to soak up some water and help
loosen up the starter for mixing when
the remaining bread flour and IDY
are added after 20 minutes. I've been letting the roughly mixed dough rest while I wash some the dishes and put away the ingredients that are no longer needed. Once the dishes are done, I mist the dough using a spray bottle and sprinkle the salt

over the dough.

Main Dough

230 g bread flour
8 g kosher salt
1/8 tsp instant dry yeast

After the salt has been mixed in, a quick knead and the dough goes into an oiled bowl or Cambro container. That's not how the bread books do it, they almost always have fewer steps. However, the extra time I take hasn't seemed to hurt the flavor of my breads so I'll indulge in those eccentricities until I read about something better and faster.

I've seen most of the daffodils and surprise lilies start to emerge from the ground already along with a few of the peony plantings showing up for work. The grass in the yard is still mostly brown which I like to attribute to the dry weather and temperatures rather than a dead lawn.

The usual suspects among the birds are still here. The juncos haven't left as of yet but will be soon. A red tailed hawk happened to perch on the top of the chain link fence, about 20 ft away from my window, on the north side of the property recently. I watched for a few minutes while it scoped out the area and enjoyed every minute.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.
                                      

Pain de Campagne Alternatif

 Before any French speakers descend upon this blog to heap scorn upon me for abusing the language they love, I hope they'll have some perspective on how little influence my blog has on the rest of the world. The title is just for fun as was baking this recipe. The classic Pain de Campagne, AKA French Country Loaf, has used either whole wheat, rye, or a combination of the two as the secondary flour. I used white whole wheat and rye and got what I consider to be a really nice loaf.

The minor details I used in this recipe included a two stage build for the starter, an overnight stay in the fridge as part of the proofing, a cross hatch slashing pattern to enable a better oven spring and an eccentric appearance, and finally, the initial baking stage being done under an aluminum foil roasting pan. In return, I got a great crust and a moist crumb with a pleasant tang to the flavor.

Starter
120 g at 100% hydration

Main dough
264 g DM bread flour
33 g whole rye flour
33 g WM white whole wheat flour
220 g water at 85F
8 g kosher salt

 This is a variation on the recipe using 50 g of white whole wheat rather than the WWW and rye combination so I'm confident that I can replicate the success.

I'm also working with IDY on other recipes. Basically, I'm targeting 70% hydration as a starting point. The boule was baked in my stoneware bowl, using a 200g poolish with 60 g of WW flour. The total flour weight was 360 g. The batard like creation utilized a 70% hydration preferment of 170 g, including 30 g of WWW. Total flour weight for the batard was 300 g. Both were a bit under proofed but with good flavor that I attribute to the slow overnight builds for the preferments.


Winter has been dry around here in that no one has really been able to justify hauling out their big snow blowers. We did have some actual, rare January thunderstorms last month that brought the most precipitation so far.  We're not fans of the brief spells of brutally cold air that have visited us here on the Middle Coast but we do tolerate them as best we can and acknowledge that they kill off some of the more obnoxious insects, especially the notorious oak leaf itch mites. You'll never see those mites in action because of their diminutive size but you'll know they've been around in a couple hours.

There have been a lot of hawks  in the area during the past five weeks or so, mostly red tailed and Cooper's hawks. The usual suspects have been populating the feeders with a lot more goldfinches than usual. The flickers and blue jays are only occasional as are the starlings. 

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

WWW Sourdough with Bulgur

I was just looking at all the odd ingredient leftovers in the spare fridge when I ran across the last of the bulgur. Using it would mean an excuse to stop by the bulk food section of the supermarket and perhaps a side trip to the wine and spirits section. Fridays are the day that the selections of bourbon and rye whiskeys come in. We can never tell when something interesting or new might come in so checking out the arrivals doesn't hurt. Back to the bread.

As I recall, I've done a quite similar loaf in the past. This loaf is bit different because I didn't slash all the way across the loaf. I indented about 1 1/4 inches in on the ends. That got me a higher than usual oven spring after starting the bake under a foil pan which was quite welcome after the slow bulk ferment and proofing.

Soaker
43 g bulgur
34 g water at room temperature, 2 hours

Starter
120 g at 100% hydration

Main Dough
264 g bread flour
66 g white whole wheat flour
220 g water at 85F
All of starter
All of Soaker
8 g kosher salt

The temperature outside dropped from 56F at Midnight to around 28F at 730 AM. In between those two times, rain fell and changed to sleet. Around 800 AM, a fine grained snow started falling. That's when the birds started showing up at our feeders. Sparrows showed up today for a change and a flicker showed as well, keeping the starlings away from the feeders and suet block.


Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

Winter Time Wonder Bread

The past Summer and Autumn weren't seasons for notable loaves. I was still baking a least once a week but nothing that I thought was new enough  or deserving attention. Then in November I had an accident that resulted in my not being able to stand at the counter and work on bread. Even though Mrs PG tried to find healthy bread, store bought bread motivated me to get back to healthy and through physical therapy. The PT continues but I'm already back to flinging flour.

The winter weather is playing games with my hydration estimates. It seems that all my loaves need at least an extra 5 g of water and often a few more. This dough turned out to be just short of sticky but I did manage to wrangle it into the banneton where a 16 hour rest in the fridge helped me out. The loaf had a nice interior crumb that was soft and open. Some more practice to get back into rhythm wouldn't hurt me but as always, if it tastes good, it is good.

Starter
125 g at 100%, using KAF AP

Main Dough
264 g Dakota Maid Bread Flour
66 g Wheat Montana White Whole Wheat Flour
215 g water at 85F
All of starter
8 g kosher salt

Part of the wonder in this loaf was my choice to use tap water instead of the filtered water from the refrigerator's ice maker system. It didn't appear to add any off flavored tastes so I guess I'll continue to use it. I also wondered about the pictures that were taken with my smart phone. The little details of an aggressive bake don't show through but I need more practice with that as well. Usually, I back off the bake temperature when I take off the foil roasting pan and turn the loaf around but this time  it was baked at 450F throughout the 45 minutes and I got a fine, shattering crust in return.

I also tried my hand at making some scones this past week. These were chocolate chip buttermilk scones. I subbed some white whole wheat into the recipe but I wouldn't say these were very healthy but they're good at breakfast time. Any time is a good time for chocolate, right? The shaping left a lot to be desired but they were a fun project for a day when the outside temperature was around 15F. There will be more quick breads before the winter is over.


The wintertime assortment of birds at the feeder is missing any sort of sparrows right now. The juncos probably miss the sparrows most of all since they're such sloppy eaters and the juncos, who are ground feeders, usually clean up after them. The blue jays are this season's funniest looking birds since they seem to puff out their feathers an extra 1/2 to 3/4 inch to keep warm in below freezing temperatures. Cooper's hawks are in this neighborhood but I've also seen some red tailed hawks closer to the river.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.