The Big Dance and an exuberant starter

Everybody that's familiar with American college basketball know that the NCAA tournament began this week. Mrs PG and I were fortunate enough to get two tickets for the first round game between Detroit and our local favorites, the University of Kansas Jayhawks in Omaha, NE. Since I had enough time to plan, I baked this pan loaf for my MIL who lives in Omaha.

It's a relatively simple loaf of with no formal name yet and Is probably going to be the foundation for the loaves I've been asked to donate to the Cushing Hospital Volunteers bake sale at the end of the month.

Starter:
155g  70% hydration, two stage build

Soaker:
100g white whole wheat flour
100g water at room temperature

Main Dough:
300g bread flour
180g water at 85F, plus another 15g for adjustment
9g kosher salt
15g honey
All off soaker
All of starter

The Tonganoxie Split is a bit of local weather lore that has been disputed by media weather forecasters but still believed by many. Usually those people are the ones who are looking for something to blame for the current conditions that they want to complain about. It's all based on the belief that the land formations around Tonganoxie, KS (home of the County Fair where I've participated in bread baking competitions) affect weather patterns that come up from the southwest. Either the weather goes toward the south of KC, MO or north towards Atchison, KS and St Joseph, MO. That, the local gardeners argue, is why KC and Leavenworth come up on the short side of the rainfall when we really could use some for our gardens and lawns. It's a much less harmful form of mythology to have faith in than the ephemera being spouted by our politicians in this election year.

It is a stretch to somehow put that previous bit of local trivia in the same banneton as a loaf of bread but this one is my Tonganoxie Split Loaf. I used a small portion of my newly remodeled starter to do a two stage build of rye flour for this loaf.
After 24 hours, the build had doubled but was nowhere near tripled or quadrupled which I've found possible when using mostly all purpose flour with this starter and warm,76-80F, temperatures. I bulk ferment my dough in a 4L Cambro container and its easy to see the dough growing by 50-60% in volume after an hour. My previous starter struggled to get to 50% in only the warmest conditions, 80-84F room temperature. Paul told me that this starter was vigorous but that seems to be an understatement. Perhaps by building up an almost entirely new culture I've gotten new pH levels and have been rewarded for doing so but that's just conjecture. This is a situation that demands an attitude of if it works, don't fix it. My loaves that have been made with the new starter are improving in taste  after 24-48 hours. There's a mild sourness that is pleasing to both myself and Mrs PG. With the dough being easier to handle and shape, it's all bonus right now.

Tonganoxie Split Sourdough Loaf
Starter:
160g rye sour, 70% hydration after two stage build
Soaker:
85g white whole wheat flour
85g water at room temperature

Main Dough:
315g bread flour
195g water at 85F, plus 15g water for adjustment if needed
9g kosher salt
All of starter
All of soaker

One last note from our trip to Omaha. Last summer I mentioned the flood damage caused by the river levels of the Missouri River. Today, a lot of the fine grained silt left on the bottom land that was flooded became air borne due to high winds in the 30-40 MPH speeds. Visibility dropped to 1/4 mile at times as we drove down the highway from Omaha. While not quite Dust Bowl conditions, it wasn't what anyone would call healthy fresh air. Some of the dust had to come from farmers tilling their fields for planting but down in the bottoms the dust was rising right there in front of us, not a distant condition on the horizon.

There is a weather pattern approaching my little house on the edge of the prairie that is forecast to bring about four days of rainfall that may be in the 2-4" total rainfall. We could use that to clean off the dust.

Brunei and India brought in new readers this week.


Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

Daffodils on the way and a PKWG Loaf variation

This was the first daffodil bloom of the season that I found in the yard yesterday afternoon. By the time Mrs PG and I were heading out to eat in Lawrence, KS a few hours later, there were a few more to give it competition for the eyes of viewers who really need some Spring in their lives. We'll get that this week in that the forecast high temperatures will be in the high 70Fs and low 80Fs. Time to open up the windows, let the stale air out, and the allergens in.

This is the latest loaf out of the oven. It's a variation on my Pilot Knob Wheat Germ loaf in that I used less wheat germ, the originally intended 25G instead of 50g, and there was no presoak of the WWW. The final hydration was just a shade over 70% and the dough was still easy to handle. The original PKWG was around 69%. It's difficult if not impossible to definitively memorize flavors so I won't choose which is better. I could serve either to my mother or MIL with confidence. My brother might be a tougher sell but only because he baked sourdough bread himself. He's the clinical chemist in the family as well.

Starter
150g 75% hydration

Dough
300g bread flour
100g white whole wheat
25g BRM wheat germ
295g water at 85F
9g kosher salt

Baked on a stone at 450F for 10 minutes, reduced to 425F for 5 minutes, turned around and baked at 425F for 20 minutes. Loaf had an internal temperature of 206F at 35 minutes so I turned the oven off, left the door cracked open for 5 minutes, and then cooled on a wire rack.

I think I've mined this vein of bread enough for a while. I can't decide whether to go with a rye next, I've been reading my copies of Clayton's "Breads of France" and "Inside the Jewish Bakery" a lot, or to go with another crack at my Anadama and Pioneer Bread recipes. I'll give that some thought while I wash the cars in the driveway this week. I can't miss my chance to take advantage of the expected warm weather.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

Kansas Bread Sticks

  I concede that these have little in common with baguettes. They have more in common in with Italian breads in that I used a biga and some olive oil for ingredients. I also  considered calling them "pane rude" or rude bread but I thought that might be pushing my luck with my Italian-American acquaintances.
Perhaps I could get away with calling them crude bread.

Essentially, the dough was about 70% hydration dough that could have been used for pizza with a little more effort on my part. The biga was 70% and left alone for 12 hours or so, then mixed with the remainder of the ingredients. An hour long bulk ferment was followed by shaping and proofing under a towel for another hour.They were baked on a stone at 425F for around 25-27 minutes and then cooled on a rack. The crumb wasn't bad but not really good. I think the next time I try this I'll use a lttle more yeast in the main dough, probably starting with 1/2 tsp in the main dough. Still, for using a total of 3/8 tsp of ADY, they turned out OK.

Biga
100g AP flour
70g water at room temperature
1/8 tsp active dry yeast

Main dough
300g AP flour
200g water at 88F
1/4 tsp active dry yeast
7g kosher salt
8g olive oil


Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

Pilot Knob Wheat Germ Loaf

Pilot Knob is a hill only a mile or two away as the crow flies from here. It overlooks Leavenworth and across the river bottom on the Missouri side of the river. It's home to a lot of deer that have lost all sense of danger because no hunting is allowed there and several cell phone towers that are notorious for the amount of radio frequency interference they throw into the nearby homes.

This loaf confirmed one of my suspicions about why my loaves weren't meeting my ever advancing benchmark for what's really good and what's only good enough. I baked it on a baking stone without any steaming pan underneath it and my perceived problem of an almost crushed crumb on the bottom of the loaves disappeared. In fact, that convinced me that I should preheat the stone longer than the time when the oven beeps after reaching the predetermined temperature. That's a great idea but I use a typical domestic gas oven, not a monster "gourmet" or convection oven. This is a low budget operation.

The two unplanned wrinkles in my procedure didn't detract from the effort. The first happened while I was scaling my wheat germ for the soaker. I just added an extra 25g before I caught my error and decided to just keep rolling along rather than obsessing on how to fix the mistake. How can there be a mistake when there was no fixed recipe, just a vague mental outline? I did find that I needed to add some water while mixing the dough.

The second wrinkle happened when Mrs PG and I had meet someone in Lawrence, KS while the bread was bulk fermenting. I took a chance on doing a stretch and fold then placing the dough container in the basement when the temperature was around 62F. We got back four hours later and while it had definitely risen, it wasn't terminal. A second stretch and fold was done and followed by an hour of room temperature fermenting before shaping. The dough handled very well so I didn't stop to worry.

There was need for the bread to be baked as soon as practical so I proofed for two hours, slashed- I still need practice, loaded, and at the end of the bake retrieved one of my better tasting loaves in a long time.

Soaker
100g white whole wheat flour
50g Bob's Red Mill wheat germ
150g water at room temperature

Starter
165g at 75% hydration

Dough
300g bread flour
150g water at 85F, plus adjustments
9g kosher salt
all of soaker
all of starter


I really do enjoy the flavor the wheat germ added. I've been using it for a while and could never really get a feel for it's use. I started with some supermarket wheat germ by Kretschmer's that looked better suited for use in a hot breakfast cereal. The BRM wheat germ appears to be more soft and fibrous for lack of better description. It too can be used as a cereal. Until I find a local source for fresher wheat germ, I'll stay with the BRM stuff.

The oven spring on this loaf surprised me. Given that I had so much WWW flour and the wheat germ, I didn't expect this result.

The temperatures climbed into the 70s today which made opening our windows possible. I didn't wash my car because along with the warmth came sustained high winds averaging 25 mph and gusts up to 40 mph. It wasn't a good day for hair or hats. Thunderstorms are expected for tomorrow night and rain through Friday morning. That means I have plenty of time to work on a batch of my industrial red sauce for pasta and pizzas.

It's time to proofread and start a biga for some pane de Como bread or maybe a couple of Stiratto to go with the pasta. It's also time to extend recognition out to new countries in the page viewership with Argentina, France, Greece, and Turkey showing up on Google list.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

Don't Overlook the Obvious

I had one of those "Duh!" moments yesterday afternoon. After trying to figure out the "why" and "wherefore" of the missteps that lead to a less than adequate last loaf, I was at it again trying to figure why this loaf came up short. It had a nice oven spring, probably due to be just a little bit under proofed, and developed a dramatic looking grigne. The crust has a nice color but when you look at the crumb, it's on the dense side for a 70% hydration loaf and  the bottom is even more dense. Different loaf, same problem.

Before posting my ongoing frustration, I decided to grab a fast 20 minute "power nap" that extended itself into 75 minutes. Within less than 15 seconds after emerging into consciousness and totally unplanned for, I had one of those moments of clarity that resolved my question. I've been using a half sheet pan in the oven on the rack underneath the baking stone. Not only was it blocking heat getting to the baking stone during preheating but when I threw 5 or 6 ice cubes on the tray, the action added insult to injury for the bread. At least it looks like that was what was happening.

Two solutions have come to mind. First, not bother with steam at all since the oven door has some venting which probably limits any contributions from attempts at steam. This seems to be the easiest approach to confirm whether or not I was the primary problem cause. The second solution is to put the half sheet pan on the oven floor where it won't divert any heat from the baking stone. That's an easy approach as well. I'll be starting a new loaf tomorrow where I'll bake without steam to see if I'm on the right track.

The wine red tips of the peony plantings emergence are showing up over the entire yard. The high temperature forecast for Tuesday is 70F, quite warm for the beginning of March, so more signs of Spring are on the way. I may even get the opportunity to wash my car in the driveway on Tuesday. The bamboo plants at Rob's house across the river are already leafed out. No migratory birds have shown up in the yard as of yet and the juncos, our winter guests, are feeding heavily. The most recently identified bird is the northern flicker, which is a type of woodpecker that is a year round resident in the area. This afternoon, I saw a couple of bald eagles flying over the fields just east of the bridge over the Missouri River. They're usually just passing through the area as they follow the river according to the seasons. A few reside year round at the Federal flood control reservoirs here on the eastern side of Kansas.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

Almost Gardening Season and a Starter Conundrum

I'm still on the learning curve with the starter that I was given by Paul. It is every bit as vigorous as presented, being able to quadruple in size in less than 10 hours and with a fine flavor as well. Just to do something different, I've taken to keeping a small, less than 50g, amount of very firm starter in the fridge rather than the 120-150g of 100% starter that I used to keep. It's been really reliable.

This most recent loaf is an example of my problem in that I'm getting blowouts using formulas that were dependable before. The latest psomi was my first encounter. Another troubling aspect is that the crumb on the bottom of the loaf is compressed relative to the rest of the loaf. There are three courses of action to be investigated.

The first is to simply use less starter which could affect the pH of the dough and its effects on the gluten structures. Whitley's book, "Bread Matters" suggested this course though I don't presently recall his reasoning.

The second course is to utilize much larger slashing, going down the length of the loaf rather than three shorter slashes.The reasoning behind that is to present a larger path to relieve the pressure of the gases built up before the yeast dies. Nothing original in that action.

Finally, I could just lower the starting bake temperature from 450F to 425F and bake longer.

There's still the possibility that I just need to improve my shaping skills but that doesn't sound like as much fun as my pseudo-scientific approaches. I'll start another loaf tomorrow so I still have time to fret and rationalize over any course of action I might take.

Outside, the yard is almost ready for some lackadaisical efforts on my part to prepare for Springtime blooming. There are no dandelions in bloom but the first crocus has opened up. I checked the garlic "plantation" and there are quite a few stalks that have emerged from the ground already. I've thinned out the wheat straw-what else would you expect?, canopy to let in a little of sun and fresh air. I need to move some day lilies that are being overshadowed in their present locations. Just for the amusement that a little bit anarchy can bring, cuttings from our Shasta Daisies and Black Eyed Susans will be transplanted among some Little Bluestem grass that I put in the alley way behind the house. It will be next year before I can start moving Purple Coneflower cuttings closer to the garden to attract the bees that will help in vegetable production.

All my bird friends are in the neighborhood presently. The robins are particularly fat this Spring and the pair of mourning doves are usually around in the morning and late afternoon. The red bellied woodpecker is making his appearances and the hairy woodpecker is dropping in regularly as well.They are amusing but they can't quiet down the neighborhood dogs yet. That would be something to observe.

A little recognition is due for the page viewers from Malaysia, Latvia, and the Ukraine. I hope you don't take my scribblings too seriously.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

A Miche or a Boule? The Return of Turkey Red Flour

It was a hot time around the oven yesterday as I finished out some ideas that had been percolating in the back of my mind. The first idea was to try my hand at baking a miche with some of my Turkey Red flour from Heartland Mill. Since it's a bolted flour, some of the bran has been sifted out, I decided to skip soaking the flour. Because I had some 165g of 75% starter bubbling up, I used all that as well. I figured that shooting for a 72-75% hydration level would complicate it all and make it closer to the usual high hydration level of Hamelman's miche from his book "Bread", about 82%. With only two truly bad loaves in the past 30 months, I could take a chance on a fail without too much humiliation or hurt.
Starter:
165g of 75% hydration white flour starter

Dough:
All of starter
267g bread flour
133g Heartland Mill bolted Turkey Red flour
280g water at 85F
9g kosher salt

After a 20 hour retarded proofing and about 2.5 hours at room temperature to warm up, this loaf spread out like a pancake on the baking stone. 15 minutes into the bake, when I removed my water pan, there was good oven spring made evident by the rounded edges of the loaf.

With no experience at using so much starter in a loaf, I didn't expect to find so many big holes in the loaf. I'm interested in how much further the holes go. As an experiment in wet dough, I think it worked out well as far as taste goes and it leads me to think that I could easily use a regular WW or WWW flour with even more hydration. That may be a stretch of my ignorance but there's no harm in trying it out. If it's that ugly, no one will know if I don't post pictures.

The last picture is a loaf that I baked for my mother-in-law. It's a simple 35%
white whole wheat/ 65% bread flour loaf made with a poolish.

Poolish:
60g white whole wheat
60g bread flour
120g water
1/2 tsp active dry yeast, about 2.5g

Dough:
320g bread flour
80g white whole wheat
266g water at 85F
9g kosher salt
8g honey

1/4 tsp active dry yeast

Since the loaf is now in Omaha, NE, I don't have a crumb shot but I'm sure Mrs PG will fill me in on whether or not her mother approved. Delores has asked me to try my hand at baking a potato bread loaf or two for her. I'm hoping that she'll dig up her recipes from her old cookbooks so I can replicate them. I know there are plenty of potato bread recipes available online but I'd rather use hers to be able to pass it along to her other children and grandchildren when they ask.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

Salt Creek Sourdough

The old Salt Creek school district is just about four miles north of my keyboard, past the Leavenworth Minimum Security Facility- part of the Leavenworth Federal Prison, the west gate of Ft Leavenworth, and over a hill that was once cut out for a narrow gauge railroad almost one hundred years ago. These days , it's mostly farm land with with low output oil wells and some natural gas wells too.

The old Route 7 that led into Atchison, KS through Salt Creek has been bypassed by a new and wider stretch of highway. It may be much more quiet these days, but history tells us that wasn't always the case. The location probably was chosen for its distance from town. Before the US Civil War 1861-1865, the Russell, Waddell, and Majors company sprawled out across the area with its almost 4,000 horses and mules used in their transportation operations that spread out across the prairie before Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado achieved statehood. The end of the Civil War brought the railroads. Buffalo Bill Cody was born before statehood in the Salt Creek area.

I decided to call this particular formula the Salt Creek Sourdough in a foolish effort to start organizing my loaves into families. This loaf would be in the "country loaf" family because it uses bread flour, whole wheat flour, and rye flour. Rye, enriched, and whole wheat would be included along with "white" breads as an indulgent afterthought.

Perhaps when I get cognizant that I'm baking essentially the same loaf, I'll try something new. I do feel an active dry yeast formula starting to surface for next week.

This particular loaf utilized the last 15g of the South African starter that Paul gave to me. I used Heartland Mill AP flour in a two stage build that took a little extra time but was quite vigorous when I started to mix it in. I saved about 30g and mixed in another 8g of AP the make the starter firm, like a low hydration dough, before refrigerating it. Using firm seed starters to build up levains is another one of my harebrained and unscientific pursuits for this time of year. If it works, great. As long as I don't lose my starter, and I do have some back up dried starter, I'm good to go.

There were other aspects of this loaf that forced me into improvising solutions for silly problems that I created for myself. My starter was somewhere around 70% hydration so I just did some crude and rude estimates for water to bring about the same hydration overall for the bread. Things were dandy until I added 25g of wheat germ. That addition caused me to add another 20g of water during the dough mix. I don't have an explanation as to why that happened or if I would've avoided that by soaking the wheat germ with the WWW. As I've said before, I'd never make it in the real world as a baker.

Here are the ingredients that I used to make this loaf happen

Starter
140g 70% white flour fed sourdough starter.
Soaker
80g White Whole Wheat Flour
20g rye flour
70g water

Dough
All of starter
All of soaker
300g bread flour
196g water at 85F
9g kosher salt
25g wheat germ
Additional water to adjust dough consistency and flour for work surface.

I did do an overnight retarded proof in a refrigerator. The oven and baking stone were preheated to 450F along with a half sheet pan for ice for steam generation during the first 25 minutes of baking. The oven was lowered to 425F after the first 15 minutes of baking. At 25 minutes, I pulled the sheet pan and turned the loaf around. At the end of the next 20 minutes, the loaf looked good enough that I broke my rule and didn't check the internal temperature. While the loaf cooled on a wire rack, I could hear the loaf crackling away without putting my ear to the loaf.

When I finally sliced the loaf, my confidence was rewarded by a thoroughly baked interior and a moist, tasty crumb. With a little work on the appearance aspect, the formula is good to go for judging at the County Fair.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

A Psomi to learn from

This isn't the same psomi loaf formula that did so well for me back in August. I went about this loaf with the idea of trying some things out to see if they'd work. It doesn't look like much but I did get some knowledge gains despite my rather unscientific approach. The first thing that was different was the use of some stone ground whole wheat flour from Dakota Maid Mills, a hard red winter wheat flour as opposed to the white whole wheat used in August 2011. The other deviation from my August project was to skip using a soaker for the WW flour and to do a 30 minute autolyse of all the flour to be used before adding any of the starter.After that, I added the starter, salt, olive oil and honey, mixed the dough and then went into bulk ferment.

After the bulk ferment, I shaped the dough into a boule and placed it in a well oiled 8" cake pan for proofing and baking. That's where I made the mistake that led to the misshapen loaf. I covered the dough with a floured towel and placed the cake pan in a large plastic bag for the proofing stage but when I put the bag down on the surface, I forgot to check to see if the pan was resting level. Consequently, the dough slid and wasn't centered as it rose. As soon as I saw what had happened, I tried to compensate but obviously, to no avail.

The results are what they are. The blow out on the bottom is a result of the sliding dough. If you look at the bottom of the front slice of bread from the loaf, you'll a big difference in the density of the crumb. It wasn't in the eating but not a satisfactory result. The procedure for baking the psomi calls for a 400F oven and a longer bake time of 45-50 minutes. No slashing is specified.

Right now I'm thinking that a black pan, such as the pans used for deep dish pizza, might be a better choice for this loaf. The trick will be to find a good black finished pan for the purpose rather than use a cheap pan that will have to be replaced in a year or two. Such a pan could also be used for making a small batch of rolls for a dinner. As for the taste of the bread, there was no problem. It was a moist, tender crumb with no bitterness from the hard red whole wheat flour. The same ingredients could be shaped for a pan loaf or for dinner rolls and get good results. I'm not sure when I'll use this formula again as I prefer the results I got with using the white whole wheat flour. It's a matter of taste.

We had our first real snow that actually didn't melt away by the late afternoon. the snow that fell early this morning accumulated to a meager 3". I got to use my new snow blade at last but I quickly found out that it's still no fun to deal with wet snow no matter how well equipped I might be. There haven't been any new varieties of birds at the feeders in the last couple of days, just our usual suspects. The red bellied woodpecker hasn't been around for quite a while now. My suspicions are that it visited due to the feed we were using. It had dried cherries and raisins that the red bellied woodpecker especially enjoyed. The current bird food is eaten by the birds but there are a lot of seeds dropped on the ground that I need to identify so I can avoid buying feeds that contain the rejected seeds. Given their eyesight and lack of a sense of taste, I didn't expect birds to be gourmets at the feeders. They must believe that there are such things as free lunches.

Some of the interesting countries that have been reported for page views lately have been Moldova, Iraq, and Zambia. If there are real people and bakers behind those unexpected page views, leave your town and nation on the comment page.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.

Late Super Bowl Sunday Sourdough Recipes

I thought it over and decided to post my ingredients and a few notes about the breads that I baked for yesterday's Super Bowl. I'm skipping most of the procedures since I expect that anyone who looks at the ingredients and bakes bread will use their own. People who don't bake probably aren't interested in my obscure blog so there's little risk in offending them. As for the members of my family and friends who keep current with this blog, I know you'll forgive me because you've put up with greater eccentricities and have let me live despite them.

150g active sourdough starter at or about 100% hydration

25g white whole wheat flour
20g whole rye flour
355g bread flour
266g water at 85F
9g kosher salt

After a 3 hour bulk ferment with a couple of stretch and folds, I shaped the boule and placed it in a well floured towel inside a colander. I used a plastic bag to cover my contraption and let it rest on the counter for about 45 minutes before I put it in the fridge for a retarded proof. The loaf needed about 2.5 hours to warm up on the counter before baking.

The oven was preheated to 450F and turned down to 425F after loading. The loaf baked at 425F for 15 minutes when I pulled out the parchment paper, turned the loaf around and turned the temperature down to 400F for 25 minutes. The internal temperature read 206F at that point so I turned the heat off and left the loaf on the stone for 5 minutes with the door cracked open.

I bake this sourdough walnut and raisin loaf every now and then. To me, it's more of a holiday bread for desert or for toast at breakfast. I might have "borrowed" the formula from a book but I suspect that it just fell into place one day and people liked it so I bring it out for occasions.

133g active sourdough starter at 100% hydration

320g bread flour
60g white whole wheat flour
20g rye flour
56g chopped walnuts, toasted at 350F for 10 minutes
56g raisins, raisins were soaked for 1 hour before mixing
20g brown sugar
260g water at 85F

This particular loaf didn't get my usual soaking of the WWW flour since I expected that the raisins would bring some moisture of their own to the dough. During the bulk fermenting, stretch and folds aren't called for due to the walnuts and raisins in the dough. My large loaf pans are 9.25" x 5.25" and usually swallow up the amount dough but I found that baking at 400F, rather than 450F brought about better oven spring in the loaf. The loaf baked for 20 minutes when I turned it around and left it to bake for another 25 Minutes to get the pictured results. Internal temperature was 205F when pulled from the oven. It is on the sweet side in taste so reducing the brown sugar by half might be something to consider for a baker using a 100% poolish instead of a starter. Unsalted butter makes a nice addition this bread though if you've got a better than average cream cheese by all means try that.

Comments, humor, and questions are welcome.