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Jacqueline’s Walnut Flax Seed Boule

Walnut Flax Seed Boule baked by Jacqueline during my stay

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Jacqueline’s notes

* I find scaling the yield to 650 g is a nice size for a medium-size boule.
* I usually don’t score this loaf, as it doesn’t seem to require help expanding in the oven. Perhaps the milk, honey, and walnut oil tenderize the dough, allowing it to expand evenly in the oven without ripping.

 

  1. Boil the water. Combine the water and oats. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes. The oats will absorb water and soften, so the crumb will be soft and tender.
  2. Chop the walnuts. In a frying pan, toast the walnuts over low heat until they become fragrant. For best flavor, remove the walnuts immediately from the hot pan. Set them aside to cool.
  3. Check that the soaker has cooled.  (If it’s too hot, it may harm or kill the yeast. To test whether it’s cool enough, you should be able to comfortably leave a finger in the soaker for 10 seconds.)
  4. In a large bowl, combine the soaker and all other ingredients. Knead by hand until you can feel the gluten coming together.
  5. Add the walnuts and flax seeds to the dough. Mix gently and thoroughly.
  6. Cover the dough. Ferment it overnight in the refrigerator.
  7. In the morning, shape the dough into a boule and proof it for 2-3 hours at room temperature. Pre-heat the oven to 460˚F (240˚C).
  8. Bake the loaf for 20 minutes at 460˚F (240˚C), then for another 25 minutes at 430˚F (220˚C).

 

My notes
  • This formula is part of the sample formulas included with the BreadStorm software.
  • Jacqueline made the bread on that particular day with fine whole wheat form Fairhaven Organic Flour Mill in Washington State which I had given her. As she was mixing it, she reflected that the dough was much drier than it is with the organic whole wheat from Bob’s Red Mill which she normally uses. She had to up the hydration to 82.5%. Different flours absorb water differently, so she was expecting having to adjust the hydration. She started by adding 1% water and increased the amount incrementally to 2.5% (8 g) until she got the consistency she was looking for.
  • A lovely bread with a nutty flavor. The taste of the grain shines through as well.

Jacqueline’s Egg Bread

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Easter was in the air the week I visited with Dado and Jacqueline Colussi in Chicago and Jacqueline baked these two gorgeous breads with the holiday in mind. She used beets to color the eggs. The formula is one of the sample ones included with the BreadStorm software.

Jacqueline’s notes

  • I find scaling the yield to 650 g is a nice size for a 3- or 4-strand braided loaf. 
  • Syrup: In a saucepan, combine the butter, milk, water, sugar, and salt. Cook over low heat until the butter is melted, and the sugar and salt are dissolved. Set aside to cool.
  • Egg Mixture: Whisk together the eggs and sour cream. Set aside.
  • Dry Ingredients: Sift together the flour and the yeast. 
  • Mixing: Once the syrup has cooled to room temperature, whisk it into the egg mixture. Add this mixture to the dry ingredients. Mix well, then knead vigorously by hand for 5 minutes, or until gluten develops.
  • Bulk Fermentation: Cover the dough with a cloth. Ferment for 1 hour. Punch down. Ferment for a second hour. 
  • Shaping: The dough is ideal for braiding, and works well as a 2-strand twist, or a 3-, 4-, or 5-strand braid. 
  • Proofing: Proof the loaf under a cloth for 30 minutes to 3 hours, depending on the ambient room temperature.
  • Pre-heating: Pre-heat the oven to 425˚F (220˚C). 
  • Egg Wash: With a fork, whisk together the egg yolk, a pinch of salt, and a few drops of water. Just before baking the loaf, brush it with egg wash up to 3 times. This will give the loaf a shiny, mahogany crust. (Leftover egg wash can be stored in the refrigerator for up to a week.)
  • Baking: Just before placing the loaf in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 380˚F (195˚C). Bake for 25-35 minutes, depending on the size of the loaf. Cool completely before slicing.
My notes
  • Jacqueline’s egg bread is based on a taste memory (her grandma used to make it). She wanted consistency of a challah without the kosher constraints. So there are eggs and butter in it.
  • Jacqueline likes to experiment with different sugars. In this version of the egg bread, she used muscovado sugar (which explains the pale brown color of the dough). She normally uses 16% turbinado sugar. She seems to remember that she reduced the sugar amount to 10% in this version because the muscovado is much more flavorful than the turbinado but it could have been 12%.
  • The eggs were dyed with beet dripping (from peeling cooked beets). Jacqueline hard-boiled them in that liquid with a splash of vinegar.
  • Jacqueline found the dough stickier than usual. Maybe because muscovado sugar absorbs water differently?
  • She used the Craig Ponsford technique of egg-washing the proofed loaves dough three times, letting them dry in between. The method locks the steam in and yields a gorgeous gloss.





Jacqueline’s NYC Deli-Style Farro, Fruit, and Nut Pull-apart Rolls

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Jacqueline’s notes

Formula inspired by organic Bluebird Grain Farms emmer farro gifted to us by MC.

* Scaling this formula to 250 g of total flour yields 11 rolls of approximately 85 grams each.
* I like to bake the rolls packed loosely together in a round springform pan of diameter 23cm (9 inch). The rolls gently grow together when proofing and baking, to form a pretty disk of pull-apart rolls.

  1. Combine farro with its water. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 50 minutes. Cool.
  2. Boil water for oat-raisin soaker. Pour water over oats and raisins. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes or until cool
  3. Sift together Final Mix flours, salt, and yeast.
  4. Combine the 2 soakers with Final Mix water and molasses. Mix gently.
  5. By hand, gently knead the soaker mixture into the dry ingredients, until the dough comes together. It will be a bit sticky.
  6. Gently mix in whole hazelnuts.
  7. 7. Bulk ferment dough for 1 hour at room temperature.
  8. Divide the dough into pieces of approximately 85g.
  9. Dust baker’s bench with a generous helping of whole wheat flour. Roll each piece of dough in the flour to coat its surface; this will make shaping this sticky dough easier, as well as encourage a rustic texture on the surface of the rolls.
  10. Gently de-gas and shape each roll into a tiny boule.
  11. Loosely pack rolls into a springform pan, so that they don’t quite touch one another. (They will grow together as they proof and bake.)
  12. Cover springform pan tightly and cold ferment overnight.
  13. In the morning, bring rolls to room temperature. Pre-heat oven to 425F.
  14. Bake rolls with steam for 10 minutes, then 10 minutes without steam.

My notes

  • The formula was also inspired by pull-apart rolls Jacqueline used to buy from a deli when she lived in New York City (hence the name).
  • Oven space is at a premium when both Dado and Jacqueline are baking and Jacqueline’s organizational skills come in handy. She knows which dough can wait and which has to be baked immediately when proofed and she plans accordingly. Dado had barely taken his Chicago Sourdough loaves out of the oven that the farro rolls went in: the percentage of molasses, the raisins, the high hydration, all conspired to make the dough super active.
  • Jacqueline used osmotolerant yeast, a yeast developed for use with sweet doughs (10% or more sugar).
  • The rolls were lovely, perfect for breakfast or an afternoon snack.

Jacqueline’s Bagels

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Jacqueline’s notes

  • Scaling to 250 grams of total flour yields 4 bagels of approximately 100g each.
  • Shaped bagels may be cold-fermented for up to 48 hours, before boiling and baking.
  •  Before baking, simmer bagels in water for 45 seconds on one side, 45 seconds on the other. While wet, set bagels face down in a plate of sesame seeds, to thoroughly coat one side of each bagel with seeds.
  • Bake at 425F for 20-25 minutes. They’re done when they begin to blush like peaches.

My notes

  • Jacqueline bakes bagels weekly to try and perfect her routine.
  • For reasons I can’t fathom, I seem to have lost the pictures and videos I took of said routine except for this one:
  • Jacqueline sent me on my trek back home (I had a very long layover somewhere between Chicago and Seattle) with several homemade treats, including one of these plump little breads. It brought back memories of our life back in New York when we had fresh bagels from an old-fashioned artisan bagel store every Saturday and Sunday. When the baker retired and sold to a chain, the bagels stopped (for us). Thank you Jacqueline for making me a Proustian bagel!

Dado Colussi’s Chicago Sourdough

Chicago Sourdough Bread baked by Dado during my stay



Related post: Meet the Bakers: Jacqueline and Dado Colussi

Dado’s notes
Scaling note: I like to scale this formula to 500g of total flour.

LEVAIN:
1. Dissolve the starter in the water.
2. Add the flour, and mix until homogeneous. Let ferment for 12 hours at room temperature (approximately 20ºC/68ºF).

AUTOLYSE:
3. Dissolve the levain in the Final Mix water.
4. Add the bread flour, and the whole-wheat flour, and mix until homogeneous. Let rest for 30 minutes.

BULK FERMENTATION:
5. Add salt to the dough, then stretch and fold.
6. Ferment for 2 hours and 30 minutes at room temperature, or until mature.
7. Stretch and fold twice at 50-minute intervals.

SHAPING AND PROOFING:
8. Preshape into a boule. Let the dough rest for 15 minutes.
9. Shape into a boule or batard, and place on a piece of baking paper.
10. Proof for 45-60 minutes.

BAKING:
11. Preheat the oven to 260ºC/500ºF.
12. Transfer the bread into a pre-heated Dutch oven.
13. Bake for 15 minutes, covered with a lid.
14. Remove the lid, and reduce the oven temperature to 230ºC/445ºF, and bake for another 30 minutes.

COOLING:
15. Transfer the bread to a cooling rack, and let the bread cool for a few hours before slicing.


Crumb from the Chicago Sourdough bread baked by Dado during my stay

My observations

  • Dado doesn’t go for a specific dough temperature: he uses room temperature water as he has no way to keep his dough warmer than room temperature after mixing anyway
  • He usually bakes in a Dutch oven but during my stay, as he experimented baking with two different types of flour (bread and all-purpose) and his oven wasn’t big enough for two Dutch ovens, he improvised an interesting “cloche”: he made a stack of large books to the dimensions of his oven, he carefully covered those books with foil, and when he lifted the shaped foil, he had a home-made steam chamber with which he covered his two loaves after placing them in the oven.




  • Dado relies on gravity to fold his dough (“air-folding”)

I won’t expand on Dado’s experiment with the two kinds of flour as it wasn’t conclusive: at the folding and shaping stages, the all-purpose flour dough was strikingly more extensible than the bread flour one but the oven rise turned out to be better with the bread flour. Dado didn’t put much stock in the difference which he attributed to oven hotspots. He gets pretty stable results when he bakes in his Dutch oven.
The folding pictures above show the bread flour dough. The ones below show the all-purpose one. Same percentages, same weights. Notice the difference?

Using the starter Dado kindly gave me to take back (see Prairie Loaf), I made his Chicago Sourdough bread (with all-purpose flour) when I got home.

I was very pleased with the results. An excellent bread for everyday eating…