Farine

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SFBI – Whole Grains Workshop – Day 2

What a day again! In incredibly hot weather (and the lab isn’t air-conditioned) we baked millet bread, corn bread, 100% whole wheat bread, oatmeal pan bread and flax seeds bread. I particularly adored the millet bread. Very easy to make and extremely tasty and light. Didier said that it is a good bread to bake for a restaurant as it can be sliced and put in a bread basket where it adds a beautiful touch of yellow offsetting the brown of other breads’ crusts.

I will make it at home when I get back and post the recipe then. Meanwhile, speaking of Didier, our instructor, if I had to sum up his advice to us in two words, I would just say: “More water!”. Whenever he passes by a mixer and checks the consistency of the dough, those are the only two words he utters, to the point that we now look at each other when he comes by and almost mouth them with him.
Of course it has been very hot these past two days and the whole grain flours we are using are pretty thirsty to begin with but still I have a feeling that “more water” is Didier’s mantra and when I see him add one or two cups full of water to a dough that looks perfectly hydrated to me and when I see the dough absorb the water and become all the better for it, I tell myself that I have much to learn – which is why I am at SFBI this week. 🙂
Anyway Steve B. requested more info on the shaping of the pear buckwheat bread and since the corn bread we made today got shaped in exactly the same way as the pear buckwheat (at least right to the point when it was ready to get into the oven), I took a few pictures along the way. I hope they will be descriptive enough. If you still have questions, please let me know. 
Like the corn bread, the pear buckwheat bread is pre-shaped into a tight ball, then it rests 20 to 25 minutes (longer of course if the room temperature is cold). It then gets flattened into a disk.

One side of the disk is folded over like this:

Align Center

Then the other side gets folded. It is essential that the two folds overlap and that a triangle be formed.

Then the two sides are gathered at the bottom:

And, lastly, the bottom part is folded over:

The only thing left to do at that point is to flip the bread over and tuck in the sides to make it puff up a bit in the middle:

After proofing and right before baking, the loaf can be shaped either into the pear buckwheat bread:

or into the corn bread:

Double Fennel Loaf

I love fennel in all its guises. I love it in nature with its lacey yellow flowers, the elegance of its long stems, its fragrance which reminds me of wild childhood summers spent camping in Corsica, and I love it in the kitchen, roasted, boiled in a soup, steamed for an aïoli, slowly cooked into a confit, etc. And now I love it in bread!
I had seen a recipe for a triple fennel bread in a French baking book. The recipe called for commercial yeast. It also called for something I didn’t have and have never seen in the stores, fennel pollen.
So I opted for double fennel instead of triple and for liquid starter instead of commercial yeast. We loved the result. The bread was moist and fragrant, a great accompaniment to soup but lovely also for breakfast (at least for palates like mine which favor savory breads).
For a delicious picnic, I plan to add to the dough tiny bits of fennel sausage, slowly sauteed in a pan until almost crisp. (In case you are interested, there is a great recipe for fennel sausage in David Tanis’ A Platter of Figs).

Ingredients:

  • 325 g unbleached all-purpose flour
  • 140 g rye flour
  • 30 g water
  • 250 ml milk
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • 150 g liquid starter (100% hydration)
  • 2 fennel bulbs
  • 2 tsp fennel seeds
  • 10 g salt

Method:

  1. Crush the fennel seeds either in a mortar with a pestle or with an electric grinder. Do not overprocess as the seeds should just burst open, not be ground into a powder
  2. Pour the milk in a little saucepan and heat it up
  3. When it starts boiling, remove from the heat and add the fennel seeds
  4. Let steep for 2 hours
  5. Turn on the oven (350 F/177 C)
  6. Clean and dice the fennel, put it in an oven dish and drizzle olive oil over it. Add salt and pepper and mix well
  7. Cover with foil and roast for about 45 minutes or until the fennel turns golden and tender
  8. Remove from the oven and let cool on a plate covered with a kitchen towel
  9. When the fennel-infused milk is ready, strain it through a mesh colander to remove all seeds or fragments of and pour it into the pan of the breadmachine (if using. If not using the breadmachine, use a mixer as this very wet dough may be difficult to mix by hand)
  10. Add all the other ingredients, except for the fennel pieces, in the order prescribed by the manufacturer (in my case, all liquid ingredients must go first)
  11. Start the dough program but stick around as you will need to check the consistency of the dough to make sure it isn’t too wet
  12. When the machine beeps, add the fennel and check the consistency again (I had to add some flour as the dough had become very wet)
  13. When the programme ends, remove the dough from the bread machine, put it on a lightly floured counter and mix it by hand for a few minutes. It will be very sticky
  14. Put it in an oiled dough bucket (or a big bowl), cover and let rise until doubled in size, doing two folds (one every 45 minutes). For a video on how to fold a wet dough, check out this page of Susan’s blog, Wild Yeast)
  15. When the dough is ready (when the imprint of your finger springs back really slowly), take it out of the bucket and put it on the lightly floured counter
  16. Pre-shape it into a boule (ball) and let rest about 20 minutes under a damp cloth
  17. Shape into a boule and place in a well-floured banneton (or basket). Put the banneton inside a large clear plastic bag, blow once into the bag and tie the end tightly
  18. Let rise 1 hour and a half to two hours at room temperature
  19. When the dough is ready (when the imprint of your finger springs back really slowly), take it out of the banneton, turn it over (so that the bottom is up) on a well-floured parchment paper (as the dough had somewhat stuck to the banneton, it wasn’t easy to take it out. Maybe next time I will just let it ferment on the paper like a ciabatta) and score it
  20. Using the parchment paper as a sling, transfer to a Dutch-oven (cast iron or pyrex), close the Dutch oven tightly and put in the cold oven
  21. Turn on the oven to 470 F/243 C and bake for 45 minutes
  22. Remove the Dutch oven from the oven and the bread from the Dutch oven (using the paper as a sling). Lower the temperature of the oven to 450 F/232 C and put the bread back in the oven for 10 minutes, directly on the baking stone if using one. If necessary, tent foil over the bread to prevent scorching
  23. Turn off the oven and let the bread dry for about 10 minutes in the oven with the oven door ajar
  24. Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool on a rack.

This bread will be submitted to Susan, from Wild Yeast, for Yeastspotting.

100% whole grain multigrain baguettes

If you are already a reader of Bombance, my other blog (the one in French), you may have noticed that our family is quite keen on whole grain, or rather, the grown-ups are. The kids do not care one bit about the nutritional benefits and they are harder to convince.
So I am always on the lookout for breads that everybody will like and that will still be 100% wholesome.
Since we all love baguettes, kids included, I decided to try making whole grain ones to see whether or not they would do the trick and I looked in Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads: New Techniques, Extraordinary Flavor for an idea.
I like Reinhart’s indomitable energy and endless quest. Being one of the best-known bakers/bread book writers in the US, he could rest on his laurels and just develops new recipes but he doesn’t. He’s always on the lookout for new methods, patrolling the border between baking and bread science. I love it!
As Michel Suas, President and co-founder of the San Francisco Baking Institute) put it in his phone interview with Jeremy from Stir the Pots , bread baking is like a treasure hunt. You spend a lot of time looking but it is all made worth while when you make a find.
Well, the Bombance/Farine family surely enjoyed this particular treasure. The baguettes are delicious. They are no stand-ins for the traditional Parisian baguettes made with a poolish, levain, a sponge or any other fermented dough. They are a different animal altogether, a breed in themselves. Good, crusty with a delicately nutty taste.
We found that they go very well with cheese (we didn’t have any Brie but I bet they would be amazing with a runny cheese) as well as with orange marmalade or honey at breakfast. My son-in-law loved them with his avocado-lime salad.
Reinhart’s secret is that he uses two pre-ferments, a soaker which stays at room temperature for 24 hours and a stiff levain (a biga can also be used and Reinhart provides the instructions for that as well) which spends some time in the fridge.
The time the levain spends in the fridge stimulates enzymatic activity and the development of taste without exhausting the yeast or the sugars (present in the flour). The addition of instant yeast at the end makes for a shorter second rise without compromising the taste (since the taste has already been maximized by the preferments).
The book contains many recipes. I picked the Multigrain Hearth Bread partly because I had some cooked kamut grain which I wanted to use but mostly because I just love the combination of tastes and textures.
I could have made two loaves or bâtards but, as mentioned above, I chose to make baguettes to trick the kids into eating a 100% whole grain bread and it worked! Thank you, Peter Reinhart!

Ingredients (pour 4 baguettes): 

For the soaker: 

  • 25 g whole wheat flour (organic and stone-ground if possible)
  • 170 g of a mix of cooked and raw grains (the large grains such as wheat, kamut or spelt must be cooked, smaller ones like millet, quinoa, amaranth, etc. can go in raw but Reinhart prefers to cook them) (for this interpretation of his recipe, I used: 70 g cooked kamut, 43 g raw sunflower seeds, 37 g uncooked 10-grain cereal and 20 g kamut flakes straight out of the bag)
  • 4 g salt
  • 170 g water

For the final dough:

  • 398 g stiff whole wheat starter (hydration rate: 75%) (this starter had spent 12 hours in the fridge. I took it out 2 hours before I mixed the dough)
  • 401 g soaker (in other words, the whole thing)
  • 565 g whole wheat flour
  • 5 g salt
  • 7 g instant yeast
  • 14 g oil (I used extra-virgin olive oil)
  • additional whole wheat flour as needed

Method:

  1. Mix all the ingredients of the soaker with the water and let stand at room temperature for 24 hours
  2. One day later, divide the soaker and the stiff levain into a dozen small pieces with a metal dough cutter. Sprinkle whole wheat flour on these 24 pieces to avoid their sticking together
  3. Put them in a large bowl with all the other ingredients (except for the additional flour) and mix vigorously with wet hands until incorporated. The dough should be slack and sticky (add flour or water as needed)
  4. Sprinkle flour on the counter. Put the dough on it and roll it in the flour. Knead for 3 or 4 minutes, adding just enough flour so that it doesn’t stick any more
  5. Shape into a rough boule (ball) and let rest 5 minutes. During that time, spray oil into a bowl or dough bucket
  6. Knead again for one minute or until the dough is developed enough to pass the windowpane test (for more info on the windowpane test, see this page of Susan’s blog, Wild Yeast) (I had to knead for quite a few minutes to reach that stage, maybe because I only used 20 g of additional flour. I always find it very difficult to determine how much is too much when an author tells you to add flour without giving you an idea of how much and I often err on the side of not quite enough)
  7. Place the dough (shaped as a boule) in the bowl or bucket, cover and let ferment at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes (this is Reinhart’s recommendation. Since I had to go out, I set the dough to rise in a cold room – not the refrigerator though – for about 3 hours and since it wasn’t very developed, I gave it a fold after 40 minutes before leaving the house. Ideally I should have given it another fold but I wasn’t around to do it. For more info on folding dough, please refer to Susan’s blog again)
  8. Take the dough out of the bowl or bucket and place it on the counter (lightly sprinkled with flour). Divide it in 4 pieces
  9. Form each of the pieces into a rough cylinder. Let rest 20 minutes under a damp towel
  10. Shape 4 baguettes trying not to deflate the dough
  11. Put the baguettes either on a floured couche or in a floured baguette pan. Place in a large clear plastic bag. Blow into the bag once and close it tightly
  12. Let rise at room temperature for about 45 minutes
  13. Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F/260 C twenty minutes before baking time after putting in it a baking stone and an empty metal pan
  14. When the second rise is over, take the baguettes out of the bag, sprinkle them with whole wheat flour and score them (make three parallel cuts length-wise at a 45-degree angle taking care not to cut diagonally)
  15. Pour one cup of cold water into the empty metal pan (taking care to avert your face and to protect your hands as the steam will be very hot) and place the baguettes directly on the baking stone (if using a couche. If using a baguette pan, set the pan on the stone)
  16. Spray water in the oven (taking care not to aim at the lamp). Spray again heavily two minutes later
  17. Lower the oven temperature do 450 F/232 C. Do not open the oven door for the next 20 minutes
  18. After 20 minutes, rotate the baguettes (if using a pan, take the baguettes out of it and set them on the stone). Bake another 15 minutes
  19. Take the baguettes out of the oven and set them to cool on a rack before eating.

We had just started dinner when the baguettes came out of the oven, so we only waited 20 minutes before slicing open the first one. As our house isn’t very warm in this season and the baguettes are rather skinny, it had cooled down enough.

Nantucket Crown

This bread doesn’t have much in common with the quaint island that lies off the coast of Cape Cod. Rather it takes its name from the blend of dried fruit and nuts I used, which is sold at Costco under the name “Nantucket Blend”.
You will notice that, being calorie-conscious, I used very little of this blend, just enough to give the bread its fruity and nutty flavor.
Since this loaf contains 70% whole-grain flours, I added a bit of yeast to the starter. I could probably have done without but then I would have had to make the fermentation a while longer.

Ingredients:

  • 250 g white whole wheat flour
  • 150 g all-purpose unbleached flour (I use Whole Foods 365 Organic)
  • 50 g sorghum flour (spelt or kamut flour can be substituted) 
  • 50 g dark rye flour
  • 50 g coarse yellow cornmeal 
  • 300 g water 
  • 170 g liquid starter 100% hydration
  • 55 g Nantucket blend (or other)
  • 26 g raw wheat germ
  • 11 g salt
  • 12 g almond oil (canola or sunflower oil can be substituted)
  • 4 g instant yeast (I use SAF)

Method:

  1. Put all the ingredients (except the fruit & nut) in the bread machine in the order specified by the manufacturer (in mine, liquid ingredients must go first)
  2. Select and start the dough program
  3. Check the consistency of the dough as it is being kneaded (for best results, reserve a tenth of the water at the beginning and add it or not according to the needs of the dough)
  4. When the machine beeps, add the fruit and nut mixture
  5. Let the dough program run its course till the end of the rising period
  6. Take the dough out of the machine and divide it into 8 equal pieces
  7. Pre-shape each of these pieces into a rough boule (ball) and let rest 20 minutes under a damp towell
  8. Shape each piece into a boule and put the 8 boules in a circle on a baking sheet covered with semolina-sprinkled parchment paper
  9. Put the baking sheet in a big clear plastic bag, blow into the bag once and close it tightly
  10. Let rise at room temperature for about an hour and a half
  11. Twenty minutes before baking time, turn on the oven (450 F/246 C)
  12. Put in a baking stone with an empty metal pan on the rack below it
  13. Before baking, score or stencil the loaves (or do both as on the photo) and pour a cup of cold water in the hot metal dish (taking care to avoid getting the steam in your face or on your hands)
  14. Open the oven again and slide the crown (still on the parchment paper) directly onto the baking stone
  15. Spray the oven heavily with water (taking care not to aim at the lamp to avoid cracking) and close the oven
  16. Spray again two minutes later, then lower the oven temperature to 450 F/232 C and do not open the oven for the next 30 to 35 minutes
  17. Take the loaf out of the oven and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

This loaf would look good with a buffet-style dinner, or even at Easter on the brunch table. Each of the “little” boules is big enough to be thinly sliced and served with a runny goat cheese or with a Brie or camembert. It is also very good at breakfast with butter and honey or jam.

SFBI: hand-mixing demo

Frank was my instructor at SFBI in January for the Artisan I and Artisan II workshops. Here he does a demo of his favorite hand-mixing method. He likes this method best because it requires almost no effort. He says that even at 95, we should be able to do it. 🙂
The photos are stamped Bombance instead of Farine because I first published them here on my French-speaking blog.  For a 2-kg miche, Frank puts in a big bowl:
900 g unbleached bread flour

628 g water @ 78 degrees F (26 C) for a 75% dough hydration rate (levain water included in the calculation)
449 g levain @100 % hydration
22 g salt
1 g instant yeast (he adds some in class to make sure the loaf will be ready to go into the oven as scheduled but at home there is no need to use any)

First he takes the water temperature. Since hand-mixing doesn’t heat up the dough as much as a mixer and since the temperature in the lab is 66 F/20 C, he decides that the water temperature needs to be 78 F /25.6 C for a desired dough temperature of 73 to 76 F (22 to 25 C). The levain is at room temperature.
When mixing dough at home, it is much less important to calculate the desired dough temperature exactly than in a bakery where fermentation times must be respected and loaves must look as much alike as possible from one day to the other.

Frank weighs the water then adds the levain to it.

He mixes the flour into the water-levain mixture…

…until a dough starts to take shape.

When a rough dough is obtained, he places it on the table…

…and starts hydrating it, a very important step which, in this method, takes the place of the autolyse.


To hydrate the dough, he spreads it on the table with the palm of one hand, then folds it over itself with a dough scraper.

He does that 3 or 4 times.

Then he gathers the dough…


…into a mass which he will stretch and fold (north to south, then east to west, then south to north, then west to east = one fold) for about 10 minutes, taking care to incorporate into the dough the little globs which fly away. There is no need to slap the dough against the counter.

The dough remains very sticky and wet but it relaxes progressively and we can see the gluten chains become more extensible and elastic.


Frank checks the development of the dough by stretching a little piece (gluten window). It is still a bit soft but he is going to let it rest and to fold it three times during the first fermentation (which will last 2 1/2 to 3 hours).

First fold :

The dough has become more stretchable. Frank folds it upon itself like an envelope, north to south, then east to west, then south to north, then west to east, then he sets it back in the bowl.

Last fold: the dough is now strong enough, so the last fold is only a half-one (north to south, then south to north).

The first fermentaion is over. The dough will be put into a big basket heavily sprinkled with a mixture of bran, bread flour and rice flour. The mixing lesson is over.