Alpha Bakers: Swedish Mango Mixed Nut Bread

My to-do list is reaching frightening heights. Small tasks such as 'tidy the desk' and 'put away the laundry' are piling up under larger ones ('write book review', 'find new roommate,' 'do taxes') and even larger ones ('buy apartment,' 'improve job performance,' and 'evaluate books for major award'). I might be starting to panic a bit. In fact, the only time I make to-do lists is when I'm on the verge of panic. They do help, although I rarely remember to actually check things off. Not really a to-do list kind of person.

One thing I am quite good at, though, is making bread. Somehow, I had gotten it into my head that the Swedish Apricot Walnut Bread from The Baking Bible was a rye bread, and I held off making it for a week so I could get my hands on some good rye flour. And so I could traipse around frozen Chicago with a lot of librarians in brightly colored cardigans and cool tights. 

The Chicago thing went very well--I met some lovely people, ate and drank with some special people I've already met, got heavily snowed on, got a dose of Midwest nice (THANK YOU, Metra conductors who held the Sunday 6:12am train for me when I was on the wrong platform with my giant suitcase and there were 8 inches of snow and counting and the next train was not for two hours), and got to hear LeVar Burton and one of my library inspirations Scott Bonner speak. The Youth Media Awards were announced, including the Newbery and Caldecott Medals. There were some surprises, and as usual, some excitement. Here is a good roundup of what the children's librarians in your life were talking about last week. Here is a good round-up of what we'll be talking about for the rest of our lives if we do our jobs properly.

Speaking of jobs, here's the bread. As it turns out, the bread uses a miniscule proportion of rye flour to regular bread flour (or in my case Hecker's unbleached, which has a reasonably high gluten content). The dough begins with a biga starter, to which I added about 1.5T of leftover sourdough starter, for flavor. The biga then spent about 9 hours out on a table, followed by a few hours in the refrigerator. Then it was mixed into a dough with additional yeast, given a two hour rise, stretched and folded, and left overnight in the refrigerator for a second rise. 

I stretched it out, laid in a pattern of soaked dried mango (standing in for the apricots, golden raisins and mixed nuts had already been added to the dough), and folded and rolled the dough into a reasonable batard, which I then left to proof in the refrigerator while I was at work. Finally, I gave it a short time on the counter while I pre-heated the oven and the baking stone, slashed and baked, and there it was. I like this bread, but I would never make so small an amount again. If you're going to all the trouble of making a bread dough, make more than one wimpy batard. Also, if we're advertising this as a nutty bread that's good with cheese, I'd like a slightly more dense, rye-heavy bread. A friend has requested that we try out this Scandi Rye from Food & Wine next. Any ideas on good wheat-free replacements for the bread flour? She can have gluten, just not wheat.

Rye and Raisins

Just a quick shot of some recent rye sourdough with golden raisins and sliced almonds. Very soft and delicate despite the rough-ground local rye flour. 

Bread Baker's Apprentice: Basic Sourdough

I make sourdough nearly weekly at home, and ten to fifteen loaves of it at the bakery, so you'd think I could do a good job with it. And usually I do, but this time around my starter seems to have been a bit sluggish, or I didn't wait for it long enough. This little pot-loaf looks lovely and crusty on the outside, but it was dense and wet, with a few large tunnels but a largely sticky crumb. 

 

In fact, it looks a lot like some of the early loaves I made at the bakery, which didn't rise or spring properly for whatever reason. In this case, I'd put the blame on sluggish sourdough, and possibly too short a proof. It's edible, but could have been much better.

This one was baked for about 20 minutes at 450 in the pot, and then another 10 minutes with lid off. Probably would have benefited from a slightly longer bake, but it wouldn't have done much for the crumb. Amazing how the baker can make even lame bread look so good, though, isn't it? This one had flaxseeds and sesame seeds in it as well. Hopefully now that I've woken up the home starter a little bit things will get back on track. I have a 25-lb bag of wholesale flour to get on with.

Getting There

I've been moving forward on solving my oven spring problems at the bakery. Last week, I used a combination of techniques, and was more satisfied with the loaves than I have been by any so far. They're still not perfect, but I did get a complement from a Swiss man. Bread complements from Europeans really count.

After some reading, I concluded that the problem was, as I suspected, the fan in the oven, which was drying out the surfaces of my bread before it had a chance to expand, keeping the crumb tight and doughy and causing frequent and unsightly blowouts. The fan can't be turned off while the oven is on, but based on the comments of others facing similar issues on the Fresh Loaf forum, I tried a few things to mitigate it. The three basic techniques were: using very wet dough (I made successful Pane Genzanese), overheating the oven and then actually turning it off for a few minutes after the dough went in (scary, and probably would be more successful if baking on a hearth or stone), and covering the loaves with mixing bowls for the first 20 minutes or so of baking.  The last option, although kind of time consuming and odd, works pretty well on the dual principle of protecting the loaves from the wind, and allowing them to steam themselves within the small space. The crusts weren't as crispy as if I had steamed them properly in the oven, and the method is kind of awkward, but the results were encouraging to say the least.


Last week I made Pane Genzanese, challah, oatmeal sunflower seed, and Hamelman's Vermont sourdough (now Brooklyn Sourdough), both plain and with pecans and raisins. I added a touch of extra commercial yeast to the raisin doughs to help support them.

Daily Bread: Brooklyn Sourdough

Just look at that crumb. This version of Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough (Brooklyn sourdough now), an  'everyday' bread with white flour and a touch of rye, may have been some of my best loaves ever. The dough was mixed and then retarded overnight in the refrigerator. Because the oven was occupied by some knishes (coming up), I let the loaves proof a little longer than usual, until I could see bubbles under the surface, and the effect was great. Next up, rye sourdough with walnuts and raisins. Obsessed much? Me?

Explosions. The Earth is Moving.

I love making bread at the bakery. I love getting up early and opening the chain gate, turning on the oven and the proofer, and spending hours alone with the giant mixer, and hours chatting with Lily. People seem to be buying and enjoying the bread, too, and I really appreciate that. But I'm having a technical problem that I can't seem to get the better of, one that almost never happens in my home oven.

No matter how well I score them, almost all of my loaves are exploding, some picturesquely, and some much less so. I've tried underproofing, over-proofing, nothing really seems to work. I've baked with and without a baking stone, and it didn't seem to make much difference. The only major difference between the bakery ovens and mine is that the bakery ovens have fans, which make them hotter and move air around better. My new theory is that the fanned air is drying out the score marks before the bread gets to the expansion point, making them useless. Yesterday, I tried re-scoring a loaf partway through the bake, and while it wasn't the most aesthetically pleasing solution, it did seem to work somewhat.

Anyone who knows something about bread, I could use some help here...oven too hot, too cold, ways to deal with the fan (it can't be turned off), improve steam, etc...Any ideas are welcome, it's starting to drive me crazy that I turn out picture perfect loaves at home and can't do the same for paying customers. (I know the taste is outstanding, though, and that keeps me going).

This week, Christmas got in the way of my usual night-before preparations, so I made Hamelman's pain au levain (floured) from scratch yesterday morning (compare to the previous post for some indication of my aesthetic issue), as well as his pate fermentee baguettes, to which I added sunflower seeds. I did half the recipe as country boules (front, with crosses) and half as actual baguettes. They were a bit twisty, but I was actually quite satisfied with them, and plan to try again, although Lily prefers to call them 'breadsticks' in deference to baguette purists.

Marketing

My first attempt at a little branding.

This is a mixed-flour miche using Hamelman's formula--a little dark and dense, but perfectly shaped. I'm kind of obsessed now and want to stencil everything.

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Weekend Bread

Here are some of the breads that I made at the bakery and at home this weekend.

Hamelman's formula for 'Vermont' sourdough.

Caraway seeded rye. This one, one of my favorite breads, was soundly ignored, at least until around 2pm on Sunday.

I'm still having trouble with my loaves bursting, which very rarely happens to me at home. I had thought it might be a problem with too little steam (no freezer at the bakery means no ice to throw in the oven), but for the Vermont sourdough my hypothesis is underproofing, because I slashed it very nicely indeed.

I also made a little bread to have at home--Leader's buttermilk bread, which he makes with currents but I like with dried apricots. Matt took some up to the neighbors, and came down about 20 minutes later with a napkinful of sourdough waffles.

What Crickets?

It's been very quiet here lately, it's true.

First there was Thanksgiving, in Seattle, a town where I'm apparently unable to bake bread. Otherwise I liked it there, but really. Come on, Seattle.

Then there was all the flying, and the sleeping, and mostly the end of the semester. The Librarian has been much to the fore, and while she hasn't quite managed to elbow back the Baker, she sure as hell has routed the Blogger, by far the least central of my shifting identities.

Also, in by far the weakest excuse, my camera's batteries have run down and I apparently have a block against picking up a pack of double A's.

(Leader's Pain au Levain, unadorned)

I have been baking, though. I can't help it. Bread, quiche, toffee, sables, even a pear tart that was supposed to make it into a TWD post last week but never quite arrived (it was runny).

(a poor picture of a first attempt at Leader's Ganachaud Flote)

And, of course, I was back at Lily & Fig this weekend trying out new things.  This week's offerings were Challah (a slightly leaner and less sweet formula--I'll retrace and add a bit more sugar next week), Raisin Walnut Levain (bought straight off the cooling rack), Oatmeal Sunflower bread (a straight dough, with a little oil and honey), and my favorite, untasted, the Roasted Garlic Levain. This bread, with roasted and mashed garlic mixed right into the dough, smelled heavenly from the knead to the bake.

So far, the response to the bread has been so generous and positive, both in person and online. I can't help but feel that a shout-out on excellent local blog I love Franklin Ave really puts me on the neighborhood map. That's actually one of the things I'm enjoying most about this gig (aside from the opportunity to legitimately obsess and experiment with bread)--the opportunity to meet so many more of my neighbors, and to be, in whatever small way, a more real part of their lives, and they of mine. I've met dentists, gardeners, middle school students, and all kinds of cookie-hungry Crown Heights denizens, more good people than I could have hoped to encounter in years of just walking down the street, thanks to Lily's warm way with an introduction and the universality of baked goods.

I promise I'll buy batteries and finish all my homework soon, and be back with beautiful breads, cake, and my  new interest, slow-cooker turkey stew, soon. In the meantime, if you want to see a beautiful set of pictures of Lily & Fig, with my challahs featured in the case, visit this Flickr page.

Daily Bread: Starry Polish Cottage Rye

That's more like it. Above is Leader's Polish Cottage Rye, a nearly perfect bread made from a combination of a rye sourdough and wheat bread flour. This loaf was everything I could have hoped for and more: crackly crust, deep flavor, and soft, moist, irregular open crumb.

The dough is wet enough to require proofing in a bowl, basket, or banneton, which will make it more difficult to do at the bakery, but I think it's worth it. This loaf proofed in a napkin-lined colander, which left an unexpected starry pattern even through the cloth.

Daily Bread: Semolina Levain with Corn Flour

Sweet golden bread, two pretty little footballs. I replaced the 1/2 cup whole wheat in the last loaf with 1/2 cup fine semolina, and the 1/4 cup rye with 1/4 cup corn flour. In response to some customer comments, I also tried upping the salt a little. Brought one loaf to Democracy Now and it vanished before the bagels on the same table. Matt found it a little dry/chewy, and I know what he meant. I think if I'd given it another half hour or hour to proof it would have had a more open crumb, but the taste is excellent and the chewiness has its own attractions.

Now I have to practice making slightly larger loaves, as the ones I made last week for the bakery felt too small. Bulk production spreadsheets upcoming.

Going 'Pro'

Exciting news.
The week before last, I saw a sign on the door of Lily & Fig, the bakery down the block.

"Experienced Bread Baker Needed - Part Time"

Hmmm.
I'm a full time student. I work about 3/4 time at various freelance jobs. I'm a member of a theatre company.
But it looked good. Very good. And temptingly close to home. I'm baking all the time anyway, right? Why not learn more and let someone else pay for the ingredients...(All justifications, by the way--I got starry-eyed just thinking about perfecting my pain au levain, opening up the bakery in the dark dawn...I've been fantasizing about these things for years.)

I went in.

It turned out that they were indeed looking for low-volume, part-time bread, and they were willing to take a chance on me.  After one weekend, I hope they think that that chance was justified. I'm still learning, still navigating bulk production, big mixers, convection ovens, customer satisfaction, and consistency. I'll be learning a long time, slowly teaching myself with the help of bakery owner Lily, baker Karen, the books of Leader, Hamelman, et al, and weekly experience.

This is a small good new thing, a lucky chance. If you live nearby, or happen to be visiting, come try some bread--it's Franklin Avenue between Sterling and Park Place. For now, it will be challah on Fridays, and some combination of whole wheat, pain au levain, and other naturally raised breads, along with rustic Italian breads, on Saturdays and Sundays.

BBA: Anthos (Greek Celebration Bread)

Now they're coming thick and fast. The lack of rigid schedule for this BBA challenge is allowing my obsessions to get the better of me, and I'm baking at a too rapid pace. Still, I have guests this weekend, and they'd probably like some bread to eat while they're here.

They can eat Anadama bread. At least half of that loaf is still left, and I'm not sure that the puffy airy Anthos (Greek Celebration Bread), flavored with spices and almond and orange oil, will be lasting until they get here.

This bread is presented by Reinhart as a kind of base recipe for various kinds of Greek holiday breads, including the Easter loaf studded with red eggs, and the New Year's vassilopita. It is soft and sweet and rich, laden with eggs and milk and oil, as well as the aforementioned spices. It's also, thanks to the addition of commercial yeast and sourdough, perfectly light, and disappears very quickly. It's too rich for real every day bread use, but I can't imagine a better loaf for french toast or bread pudding or mushing up and eating with fresh slightly overgelled rhubarb jelly.

Weekly Bread: Polish Cottage Rye

This week's sandwich and toast loaf--a dark dense whole wheat version of the Polish Cottage Rye from Local Breads, with a handful of wheat berries tossed in. It could have baked about 5 minutes longer, but it was late and we were tired. This recipe always makes an exceptionally pretty loaf.

Weekly Bread

From San Francisco to the deep South to Ireland, I made three breads this week; San Francisco sourdough loosely based on Daniel Leader's recipe in Bread Alone, and skillet corn bread and Irish soda bread from John Thorne's recipes in Outlaw Cook and Serious Pig. It was a big week for buttermilk, especially with the (upcoming) Tuesdays with Dorie recipe. Each of these in its own way was so simple, and so delicious. It's bread month over at The Brooklyn Kitchen, and I guess they've either got the season pinned or are exerting an unhealthy influence over my flour consumption. Or every month is bread month here.

Pumpernickel Raisin Bread

I took another stab at Daniel Leader's Pumpernickel Raisin Bread from Bread Alone. Last time I made this, we found the molasses flavor too overpowering, so this time I upped the rye flour component, used about an eighth of the recommended molasses, and also used a bunch of stale bread crumbs, which I've heard is something that's done with pumpernickel. It was good. I still think the cocoa and molasses could be minimized a bit more (there's also coffee in it) but this is very acceptable toast bread. And Matt really likes it.

En Route

I'm gone to Uganda.
No updates for three weeks, but I'll bring back pictures.
Like the pictures of the San Francisco sourdough above.
Happy New Year in advance.

Pain de Campagne

It's been a while since you all got a look at some bread.
Feast your eyes. Very simple Pain de Campagne from Local Breads, made with all white flour with a touch of semolina because that's all I had (shame). I had my usual timing problems (i.e. not being home for nine hours straight, or in this case getting home too late to let the refrigerated dough thaw the two hours Daniel Leader wanted me to thaw it), and bread can't be rushed, so these aren't perfect loaves, but the interior texture is very good indeed, soft, with uneven holes. Almost more of a sandwich bread texture than a pain de campagne, but I have no complaints...dreaming of pappa al pomodoro in a day or two.

L'Shanah Tovah

I'm going with h's this year. Next year, in Jerusalem, it may be spelt L'shana Tova. Or I might have a Hebrew keyboard. If I were in Jerusalem, where the felafel may or may not be made by Jews.

While I'm here in Brooklyn, though, my plan is to stop with the spelling and just have a lot of people over to dinner to eat sweet things and round things and start 5759 together. So that's what we did.

The dinner menu was a little unorthodox, but there were plenty of sweet things and plenty of round, for a sweet year come full circle. For those wondering why certain foods are traditional on Rosh Hashanah, and even those who think they know, there's a great post about holiday foods usual and unusual here.

Appetizers:
Stuffed Mushrooms (Bittman)
Olive Tapanade (Bittman)
Lupini Beans
Cornichons
Brightly colored olives
Cucumbers and Radish and Tomato, sliced by the lovely Nicola
Meal:
Amanda Hesser's grandmother's macaroni and cheese, with tomato, from Cooking for Mr. Latte
Portuguese Fisherman's Stew, from Jasper White's Summer Shack book
Challah and Pane Genzanese
Desert:
Aunt Ida's Honeycake, by Jessica
Haagen-Daz Honeybee Ice Cream, which is delicious and may save all fruit on earth
Apples and Pears and honey

For the first time, I managed to invite more people than the table can hold, so it was a spread out affair. I loved that everyone was gleefully comfortable and made themselves very very at home, but next time I'd like to make sure that everyone can eat at the table together, it feels nicer. So if somehow you don't get invited to the next dinner party and you find out and feel left out, know that you'll be coming over soon, or just invite yourself the next day. We will make you sweet and round. And Matt's been muttering about tapenade-filled grilled squid, so don't miss out.

What do you see in the Rye?

Don't the markings on this loaf of Polish Cottage Rye just remind you of something...
Eyes and a nose? The fairy king brandishing a carrot? A tornado? Thoughts?

As I mentioned last time I made this bread, the dough is fairly sticky, so I decided that this batch would be best made in my new-old mixer. In retrospect, that wasn't the best idea, as I don't have a dough hook and so the mixture climbed right up the beaters and into their sockets. Cleaning job aside, though, the mixer handled the stiff dough very well, and the resulting product was easier to knead by hand. Definitely considering investing in a dough hook if I can find one that will fit this old mixer.