After my success with the whole wheat bread yesterday I bit the bullet and created my own pumpernickel bread recipe based on what I learned yesterday and two other recipes. The results were excellent. (Whew!)
INGREDIENTS • 2 ½ cups warm water (100°-110°F) • ¼ cup vegetable oil • 2 Tbl molasses • ¼ cup honey • 3 ½ cups (400g) pumpernickel flour • 2 Tbl unsweetened cocoa powder • ¼ cup Vital Wheat Gluten • 1 Tbl lemon juice • 1 ½ tbl (13.5g) instant yeast • 1 tsp (6g) salt • 2-3 cups (240-360g) bread flour • rolled oats (for dusting loaves)
METHOD
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, stir together water, oil, molasses, and honey until mixed well.
Add pumpernickel flour to water mixture.
Add cocoa, yeast, and salt, Vital Wheat Gluten, lemon juice and stir until blended.
Let mixture sit for 10 minutes.
Stir in bread flour, one cup at a time, until dough clings to hook and almost clears the sides of mixer, about 3-4 minutes.
Continue to knead with the dough hook for 6-8 minutes
Turn dough out on a lightly greased counter and knead by hand for 5-8 minutes until the dough is smooth and supple.
Divide dough by weight into 8 equal portions. Mine were 192 g each.
Place each portion into a mini loaf pan and dust with rolled oats.
Allow dough to rise in until it is about 1 inch above the the edge of the pan, about 30-60 minutes. Take note of how high the bread is before starting proof. Mine was almost an inch to begin and I let it rise to 1 1/2 to 2”. There was a lot of oven spring also.
Toward the end of the rising time, preheat oven to 350 F.
Bake at for 18-25 minutes. (Internal temp should be 190-200 deg. F)
While on vacation I stopped by King Arthurs store in Norwich, Vermont. They had lots of real cool stuff that I didn’t need, so only bought a shopping cart full. One pan that I didn’t need and bought was their mini-loaf pan. There will be more cool stuff to come.
I have a new recipe for soft, light, fluffy whole wheat bread. I rarely have any luck in making whole wheat bread light and fluffy, but keep trying.
This pan was excellent and the recipe even better. I believe one ingredient and two method instructions make the difference. The ingredient is Vital Wheat Gluten. I use this with any flour that doesn’t have high gluten content such as wheat, pumpernickel, etc. I needed to replenish my supply and luckily the KAF store had it in stock. (OK, this was one thing I needed.) The two method steps that helped were to let the dough rest for 15 minutes before adding the balance of the flour and second, after the mixer finishes kneading the dough, give it a 5-10 minute hand kneading.
INGREDIENTS • 5-6 cups whole wheat flour • 1 1/2 tablespoons instant yeast • 1/4 cup vital wheat gluten (see note) • 2 3/4 cups warm water • 1 tablespoon lemon juice (bottled or fresh) • 1/3 cup oil • 1/3 cup honey • 1 tablespoon salt
METHOD
In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, mix together 3 cups of the whole wheat flour, yeast, and gluten. Add the warm water and mix well. Cover the bowl and let the mixture rest for 10-12 minutes.
Add the lemon juice, oil, honey, and salt. Mix on low speed.
With the mixer running on low speed, continue adding flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl (don’t over-flour! A little stickiness is ok as long as the dough forms a ball and doesn’t leave a lot of residue on your fingers).
Let the mixer knead the dough for 5-6 minutes until the dough is soft and smooth.
Turn the dough onto a lightly greased counter and divide in eights. (I found each loaf to be 159 g.) Shape each half into a taut loaf and place in a lightly greased mini-loaf pan (8 loaves per pan.)
Cover the loaf pan and let the loaves rise until they are 1-2 inches above the edge of the loaf pan.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Make sure an oven rack is in the middle/center position. Bake the loaves for 28-32 minutes until golden and baked through (an instant-read thermometer should register 180-190 degrees in the center of the loaf).
Turn the bread onto a wire rack. Brush the tops with butter, if desired. Let cool completely.
NOTES Letting the Dough Rise: this bread recipe does not require the dough to rise before being shaped into loaves and letting the loaves rise in the bread pans. However, if you find your bread is a little dense after baking and cooling, letting the dough rise after kneading may help with that, as well as making sure the dough isn’t over floured.
Vital Wheat Gluten: is often found in the baking aisle at the grocery store (near the flour). Many brands of vital wheat gluten have Vitamin C added; those are ok to use in this recipe. I buy mine at KAF.
RASPBERRY/PLUM JAM
Left: Simmering Fruit. Center: Spider Strainer Removing Skins. Right: Gel Test
INGREDIENTS • 1 lb raspberries (454 grams) • 3 lbs plums , sliced and pits removed (leave skins on) (1360 grams) (picked from our tree) • 5 cups granulated sugar (1000 grams) • ½ cup bottled lemon juice (120 ml) • Zest of 1 orange (picked from neighbors tree)
METHOD
Combine the raspberries, sliced plums, sugar, lemon juice, and orange zest in a large heavy-bottomed pot. Place over medium high heat and stir frequently as the sugar dissolves and the fruit begins to release its juices.
Continue to cook, stirring frequently as the jam simmers and thickens. Skim any foam off of the surface with a spoon.
While the jam is simmering, remove plum skins with a spider strainer. Clean the strainer often to reduce the amount of jam removed.
Place a plate in the freezer and when the jam thickens wipe a little on the plate and return to the freezer for 2 minutes. Repeat until the jam stops running and has the consistency you want. Mine heated to 220 deg F.
Once the jam is reduced and thickened, remove from heat and ladle jam into sterilized jars. Top with a lid and screw on with a ring. This recipe made 7 half pints.
Process jars in a water bath for 10 minutes (15 minutes for 5,000+ ft elevation). Remove from water bath and let cool. Check that lids have sealed by pressing down into the center of each one. It should not move.
Store jam in a cool dry place like a pantry and consume within 1 year.
Pugliese is not the easiest of breads to make, but is one of the tastiest with wonderful crumb and crust. The recipe below calls for durum flour, but I substituted what I had on hand, which is Soft Wheat Flour Tipo “00”. This is a high hydration dough which means it is very hard to handle. It is very soft and very sticky and you don’t want to add extra flour to make it easier to handle as you will reduce the hydration.
Typically pugliese is made in round loaves, but I made one round and one batard, as those are the Dutch Ovens I have. Anyway, if you are up to it, and have some time, give this a try. It is one of the best breads I have ever made.
This is approx 82% (the recipe 3 X’s is approx 84%) total hydration dough. The recipe comes from Rose Levy Beranbaum ‘the bread bible’
INGREDIENTS Biga
225 g – All purpose flour
3/16th tsp – 0.6 g instant yeast
177 g – water, at room temperature (70F to 90F) Dough • 213 g – All Purpose flour • 213 g – Duram Flour – or Soft Wheat Flour Tipo “00” • 1 ½ tsp – 4.8 g Instant Yeast • 15 g – salt • 354 g – water, at room temperature (70F to 90F) about 12 oz METHOD 6 hours or up to 3 days ahead, make the biga. Use the “Ultimate Flavor” method (let the biga to ferment for 12-24 hours at 55-65 deg, then store in the fridge.)
Combine all the biga ingredients in a large bowl and stir the mixture until smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl…3 to 5 minutes. Should be sticky or tacky enough to cling to your fingers. Cover the bowl, with oiled plastic or lid and set aside until tripled and filled with bubbles..about 6 hours. Stir it down and use it, or refrigerate it up to 3 days.
In a large bowl, dissolve the biga in the water… a few little undissolved pieces are ok.
Whisk together flours, yeast. Add salt and whisk again.
Add the flour mixture to the biga and water and mix until wet and combined.
Autolyse (self digest) for approx 50 minutes
Stretch and fold 3 times.
Repeat stretch and fold 3 or 4 times -30 minutes apart,
After dough forms good gluten strands, (I cut the dough in half here as I didn’t have a proofing container big enough to proof this large a recipe,) form a ball, and cover, letting it rise in a (ideally 75F to 80F) until tripled…about 2 hours.
Preheat oven and Dutch ovens to 500F.
1 hour before baking pour the dough out of the bowl onto lightly floured surface…cut it in half.. and with very few gentle motions pull it over itself into a rough ball. Gently pick it up and drop it seam side up into the floured banneton. Sprinkle top lightly with flour, and cover with oiled plastic wrap. Allow to rise until it has increased by about 1 ½ times, up to 1 ½ hours. It will just start to push up the plastic. Dust with a little flour and score the top with 3 or 4 large slashes.
Bake with steam turning down the oven after the first five minutes and then continue baking with steam for 12 minutes total at 450F or adjusting your ovens temperature to bake the loaves for approx another 20 minutes, until deep golden brown….leave loaves in off oven with door ajar for 5 to 10 minutes
I saw this video on FB last week. A baker from Turkey demonstrated making these small, round, enriched bread loaves. The method was so simple and the final product so beautiful I couldn’t resist trying my hand.
The video was in the baker’s language, but it was captioned either with automatically created captions (I hope) or by someone who was very obviously neither a baker or a native English speaker. In honesty, the computer’s, or human translator’s, mastery of English is far better than my translation to any language other than igpay -atinlay.
Luckily, and oddly, the recipe ingredients were listed below the video. Oddly in that they were listed in US and Metric units. The method was pretty standard and required little adjustment. I made a few modifications to the original recipe. I mixed and kneaded the down in my stand mixer, rather than my hand. I divided the dough into 7 pieces of 150g each. Next time, I will make each 175g and make 6 loaves as reflected below. This batch of loaves were 5” diameter and 2/5” high. I would like them a little bigger, maybe 6×3”.
The cutting board in this photo was made by my father, or me, I cannot remember, but it is still our day to day cutting board ‘lo these 40+ years.
Enriched Bread – Small Round Loaves
INGREDIENTS • 200 ml warm milk • 200 ml warm water • 10 g (1 Tbl) sugar • 10g (1 Tbl) instant yeast • 30 g (2 Tbl) melted butter • 600g (5 cups) flour • 8 g (1 tsp) salt • 25g butter cut in strips to lay on cut rolls before baking
METHOD
Add milk, water, sugar and yeast to the bowl of a stand mixer and mix until combined
Add 300 g flour,butter, salt and mix
Add remaining 300 g of flour and knead until a smooth dough forms, about 8 minutes.
Form the dough into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. (I spray olive oil into the stand mixer bowl.)
Cover and let rise for 45 min
Gently deflate the dough and divide into six 175g pieces
Roll each piece into a ball, tensioning the surface by rolling with a cupped hand on a clean surface. Each ball should be approx 3” diameter
Pat each ball down to flatten and place, well spaced, on a parchment paper lined baking tray. Oven spring will double the size of the loaves
Cover and let rise for 15 – 20 minutes until it passes the poke test
Dust lightly with four, cut a deep slash all the way across the ball with a lame or razor blade or very sharp knife.
Lay a strip of butter, about 0.5”x0.5”x3” long in each slash. (Cut a stick of butter lengthwise into ninths.
A couple of days ago we were discussing variations of the breads I bake. While not a fan of nut breads, different grains, such as todays selection of oats, are great.
This recipe creates a very slack dough. Rather than shape it, you basically pour it between containers. (I whine about that and explained how I handled this problem in the body of the recipe below. ) I need to devise a ‘sling’ to move it from the second rise to the Dutch Oven.
Despite the challenges in the method of this bread, it is among the best I made during this challenging year. Great crumb, crust and flavor. Next time, I am going to use more flour and fold and shape as I do with the high hydration honey bread. Stay tuned.
INGREDIENTS • 469g (3 ¾) cups all purpose flour • 81g (1 cup) oats • 2¼ teaspoons active dry yeast instant or rapid rise yeast also works • 1½ teaspoons salt • 85g ( ¼ cup) honey • 474g (2 cups) warm water just above room temperature • more flour for shaping the loaf
METHOD
Stir together the flour and oats in the bowl.
Add the yeast to one side of the bowl and the salt to the other side.
Stir the yeast into the flour on its side of the bowl first and then stir the salt into the flour on its side of the bowl, then give the whole mixture a few good stirs to make sure everything is combined.
In a small bowl, add the honey to the water and stir to combine.
Pour the honey/water mixture in and stir. The dough will be rough and a bit sticky, but that’s normal.
Stir until all the flour is moistened. This is not normal bread dough (there’s no kneading involved in this recipe.) Make sure the ingredients are combined well.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. It’s a good idea to ensure there’s adequate space left in the bowl for the dough to at least double in size. Place the bowl in a warm, draft-free place and let it rise for about 1½ hours.
After the dough has risen, preheat your oven to 425 deg F. (If your Dutch Oven is light colored heat to 450 degrees Fahrenheit.) Place your Dutch oven with the lid on in the cold oven and let it heat up with the oven.
Place a piece of parchment paper on the counter and dust it with flour. I put two long narrow pieces in an X and a larger square piece in the center of the X. Even with this, the dough was so slack it ran onto the counter. I also liberally floured the counter anticipating this, making it easier to fold those portions back into the main loaf.
Rub flour on your hands and scrape the dough away from the sides of the bowl. The dough is very slack and will not hold a shape. Shape and fold it into a circular loaf on the parchment paper. Don’t worry if it still looks a little rough in places. This lends to the rustic look of this loaf.
Once shaped, the dough needs to undergo a short (30 min) second rise. Handle the dough as little as possible at this stage because any amount of tugging can cause it to deflate after its second rise.
Sprinkle a little bit of flour over the top, along with some oats, and loosely cover it with a clean kitchen towel. The flour you sprinkle on top also prevents the towel from sticking to the dough so when you take it off at the end of the rise, it doesn’t disturb the dough and wreck the rustic shape you’ve created. Try to gently fold and shape the risen dough without deflating any more than necessary.
Remove the preheated pot from the oven and transfer the dough into the pot as carefully as possible by handling only the parchment paper. Place the lid on the pot and return it to the oven for 30 minutes. Don’t open the oven during this time, and certainly don’t take the lid off the pot; the crispness of the crust develops because of the steam that builds up in the pot during this 30 minutes.
After 30 minutes have passed, remove the lid from the pot and continue baking for another 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes have passed, remove the pot with bread from the oven and place the bread on a wire rack to cool. You’ll probably hear the loaf crackling as it cools – this is normal.
If you can, resist the urge to cut into the bread until it has pretty much cooled completely. The bread continues to bake on the inside even after it has been removed from the oven and cutting it too early could result in the inside becoming gummy or rubbery.
Back to the experiment and on to Part – 3 the Final. This Part was supposed to be completed last week, but due to an unfortunate brain freeze I used the wrong flour. This time I used the First Clear Flour instead of the AP flour used by mistake in Part 2a. (Ahhh, to be 65 again!)
However, this time I also used a Dutch Oven instead of baking uncovered. The rationale is I want the best combination of crumb, crust and flavor. The Dutch Oven provided the traditional chewy ‘Deli Rye’ crust. This recipe and method is a winner!!
So the recipe remains the same as Part 2, except I used a Dutch Oven. I used First Clear and Pumpernickel flours. I used an egg wash when there were about 15 minutes left in the bake. In my case I added it when the internal bread temperature was 195 deg. F.
Caraway Rye Bread KAB – Final
https://www.kingarthurbaking.com/recipes/caraway-rye-bread-recipe INGREDIENTS • 1 cup (227g) lukewarm water • 1 cup (106g) white rye, medium rye, or pumpernickel flour • 4 teaspoons (14g) sugar • 2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast • 1/2 cup (113g) sour cream (low-fat is fine; please don’t use nonfat) • 1 to 2 tablespoons (10g) caraway seeds, to taste • 1 1/2 teaspoons salt • 2 1/3 cups (280g) First Clear Flour • 3 tablespoons (25g) vital wheat gluten
METHOD
In a medium-sized mixing bowl or the bowl of your stand mixer, combine the water, sugar, rye flour and yeast, mixing to form a soft batter. Let the mixture rest for 20 minutes; this allows the rye flour to absorb some of the liquid, making the dough easier to knead.
Add the remaining ingredients, and mix and knead the dough together — by hand, mixer or bread machine — until it’s fairly smooth. The nature of rye dough is to be sticky, so don’t be tempted to add too much flour.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl or large (8-cup) measure, cover, and let it rise until noticeably puffy, 60 to 90 minutes.
Gently deflate the dough, knead it briefly, and shape it into two smooth oval or round loaves; or one long oval loaf. Place them on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet.
Cover the loaves, and let them rise until they’re noticeably puffy, about 90 minutes. Towards the end of the rise, preheat the oven to 350°F.
Just before they go into the oven, spritz the loaves with water, and slash them about 1/2″ deep. The oval loaves look good with one long, vertical slash; the rounds, with two or three shorter slashes across the top.
Bake the loaves for 35 to 40 minutes, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center reads 205°F to 210°F. The single, larger loaf will bake for 45 to 50 minutes. If the bread appears to be browning too quickly, tent it lightly with foil after 25 minutes of baking.
Remove the loaves from the oven, and transfer them to a rack. While still warm, brush them with melted butter, if desired; this will keep their crust soft.
So, what do you do as you are waiting for your dinner rolls to proof? Well, If you have an 11 pound bag of chocolate, 60 pieces of 1”x1” caramel, making salted chocolate covered caramels is a good way to pass the time.
I cut the caramels a day ago, tempered the chocolate, dipped and drained the coated caramel and sprinkled some Maldon flaked sea salt on each.
The chocolates were setting as the first proof of the rolls completed. The proofed dough weighed 1,553 grams, so to make 24 rolls, each had to weigh about 63 g. I weighed each, formed them into a small ball and rolled them on the counter to tension the surface of the roll.
I arranged them 4×6 in a glass baking tray and baked at 375 deg until the internal temperature was 180 deg. (about 20 min.) Once out of the oven, a light brush with melted butter and boom. Excellent dinner rolls! The recipient and methods for both the dinner rolls and chocolates are found elsewhere in this blog.
I was going to continue the experiment with Part 3, but wanted to try this new recipe I found at ayearinbread.blogspot.com. It’s interesting as it uses bread flour, molasses and citric acid. It had a good flavor, crumb and a great crust. Oh, I also needed to make a few (3) loaves of white sandwich bread for PB&J lunches. The oddest thing happened with the white bread. Two of the loaf rose nice and round, but one fell. No idea.
• INGREDIENTS • rye flour 1 c 146 g • bread flour 2 1/4 c 330g • instant yeast 1 tsp • wheat gluten 1 1/2 tbsp • citric acid (sour salt) 1/4 tsp • caraway seeds 2 tbsp 20g • molasses 1 1/2 tbsp • butter melted 1 tbsp • table salt 3/4 tsp • water 1 c + 2 tbsp 256 g
Egg Wash • egg 1 • water 1 tbsp
METHOD
In the bowl of a stand mixer using the paddle attachment, mix together the yeast, gluten, citric acid, caraway seeds, rye flour, and 2 cups (280g) of bread flour. Add salt and mix in. (Note, the salt is added after mixing the original ingredients to minimize it’s direct contact with the yeast, which it can kill).
In a measuring cup, mix together water, molasses, and butter using a small whisk. With the motor running at low speed, pour liquid into dry ingredients. Once moistened, switch to the dough hook and finish blending. The dough should be moist and sticky, add just enough additional flour, a tablespoon at a time, to have dough clear the sides of the bowl. Increase speed to medium and knead for eight minutes. (Note, dough will clear sides but stick to bottom, scrape it up with a rubber spatula every couple of minutes.)
Scoop dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead lightly a few times then form into a ball. Place the dough in a bowl sprayed with cooking oil, spritz top with oil, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to rise until doubled in bulk — about 1 1/2 hours.
Gently deflate dough, scoop onto a lightly floured surface, fold a few times, and allow to relax for about five minutes. Shape dough into a loaf and place on a piece of parchment on your peel or on a baking sheet. Lightly spritz tops with oil and cover with plastic. Allow to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. In the meantime, heat oven to 400F (200C) and place rack in center position. (Note: it’s important to give the oven a long preheat before baking, particularly if you’re using a baking stone.)
Whisk together egg and 1 tablespoon of water in a small bowl. Brush loaf with egg wash and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate rack front to back and continue baking 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. The interior should read 190F on an instant read thermometer.
As I said in Part 1, this variation will simply substitute First Clear Flour for the White Rye in Part 1. I added an egg/water wash to this loaf to increase the color of the bread. I did not coat the finished warm bread with butter, which darkened the Part 1 loaf. I also baked it in the bottom of a Dutch Oven to help keep its shape. (No real difference.) I won’t publish the recipe again, just go to Part 1 and make the change noted above.
Part 2 Rye Bread
Manufacturing reports the crumb may be a little better. The holes are slightly larger and more evenly distributed. The crust is a little chewier and darkened just about right. The rise was higher. QC has yet to report.
Part 3 will substitute Rye Bread Improver for the Vital Wheat Gluten. I am thinking Part 4 will be the winner of Parts 1-3 and substituting pumpernickel flour for the other rye flour. Stay tuned.
I saw a picture of an elongated bread roll, like a hot dog roll, but slashed with a lame and the slashes were filled with lemon curd before baking. Well, I couldn’t find the recipe so decided to create my own. This is the first time I have stepped out of my chemist-trained-recipe-following comfort zone.
I also decided, since I don’t really care for lemon curd, I would instead roll chocolate ala pain au chocolat but using an enriched bread dough instead of puff pastry. This was also an excuse to use some of the 11# of chocolate I bought a couple of weeks ago.
Finished Roll
Fresh From Oven
Rolled Dough
1st Stripe of Chocolate
Rolled over Chocolate
Ready for Fridge
Ready for Oven
The photos more or less follow the method below.
The QC department suggested a less bitter chocolate (64% cacao) and sparkling sugar topping (good suggestion.) QC will have to live with 64% as I do have 11 pounds. Manufacturing suggested no chop the chocolate so small. Something the size of chocolate chips should melt fine and be easier to handle.
Chocolate Filled Bread Buns
INGREDIENTS • 2 teaspoons active dry yeast • 1 cup barely warm milk • 3 cups all-purpose flour • 2 tablespoons butter, melted • 3 tablespoons sugar • 1 teaspoons salt • 2 eggs, one for dough, one for egg wash • 1 tablespoon orange zest • 165g, about 1 cup (4-6 ounces) bittersweet chocolate chopped fine (pulse in a food processor)
METHOD
In a large mixing bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm milk and let sit for 5 minutes.
Add 2 tablespoons melted butter, sugar, salt, egg, and orange zest. Stir until blended and fragrant.
Add 3 cups of flour and mix until the dough comes together. It will be sticky! On a lightly floured surface knead the dough until soft and elastic (about 8 minutes), adding more flour to keep the dough from sticking if necessary. Do not add too much flour! The dough will become more workable the longer you knead. Or, if you have a standing mixer, knead the dough with the dough attachment for 5-7 minutes, or until elastic.
Transfer the kneaded dough to a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and a clean kitchen towel. Let the dough rise in a warm area until it doubles in size, about 2 hours.
Punch dough down, divide into 12 equal portions, and shape each portion into a round ball. Flatten into an oval then roll to ¼ “ thick rectangle.
Place a stripe of chocolate ½ “ from long end of rectangle. Roll to cover chocolate and place a second stripe of chocolate. Roll up and seal edges and all seams.
Place rolls a on baking sheet coated lightly with cooking spray. Cover with a kitchen towel and let it rise for another 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Slash diagonally 4x with lame.
Brush 1 egg wash over the rolls. Sprinkle with coarse sparkling sugar.
Bake for 8-12 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve warm or at room temperature.
aBatteredOldSuitcase 