cfraenkel's blog

I was intrigued with this recipe from foolishpoolish

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/7433/brioche-au-levain-recipe

and also had been poking through my Baking with Julia book and noticed that Julia does her brioche in the mixer.  Well if it's good enough for Julia Child, it's good enough for me.  I modified the recipe, added Orange Blossom water and it came out great.  (A little more orange blossom than I would have liked, it smells like eating flowers,) but the taste is great and the crumb is soft and fluffy, just like it should be. Next time I'll try it the purist way (no flavoring) I think I'll be happier. My 14 month grand daughter couldn't get enough!

Crumb shot:

Starter:

100g AP flour
50G water
50 g active starter (100% Hydration)

Let sit about 5 hours

Mix:

200 g AP flour
80g sugar
7g salt
3 eggs, plus one yolk

to form a shaggy dough, sprinkle with 200g all purpose flour and wait for the top to appear cracked. About 30 minutes.

Mix:
15 g Orange Flower Water
85 g milk
Starter

In the bowl of a stand mixer add starter mixture to dough mixture. Mix on low speed until just incorporated.  Turn speed up to Medium and let mix for 15 minutes until the dough wraps around the hook and slaps the side of the bowl.

Work 150g butter until it is about the same consistency as the dough. Add the butter to the dough while running at low speed about 2 tbl at a time. When all the butter has been added increase speed to medium and run the mixer until the dough comes back together and slaps the side of the bowl again.

Transfer to a buttered bowl and let it rise until doubled.

Deflate the dough slightly in the bowl and cover tightly and refrigerate overnight

Divide in two, shape each piece into 6 balls and place into loaf pans. Two rows of 3.  Spray a piece of plastic wrap with coconut oil (what I have) and cover pans. Let rise until doubled at room temperature. this took about 5 hours for me.

Preheat oven to 375dF
Brush with 1 egg beaten with about a t/l of water,  quickly slash tops of the balls with scissors. Bake 375 dF  about 30  minutes or internal temp of 200dF.

Since we are all about the bread....

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-wheat-baking-insight/bakers-farmers-struggle-to-make-any-dough-on-poor-wheat-crop-idUSKBN1E518Y

A friend brought me a butternut squash that weighed in at about 3Kilos.  It is a big squash!  So naturally I decided to try putting squash in bread.  

Here is what I did,

AP flour 225g
Red Fife 70g
Squash puree (baked  the squash and then pureed it) 100g.
Starter (100%) 115g
Water 150g
Salt 5g
Maple syrup 18g
Pumpkin seeds - toasted 75g.

1.  Mix all but seeds by hand Let sit for 30 mins. add in seeds and do Stretch and folds to incorporate.
2.  Rise at room temp for 2.5 hours with a couple of sets of Stretch and folds in the bucket
3.  pre-shape, reset and then shape into baneton overnight in fridge.
4.  Let warm on counter while the oven heats
5. bake in pre-heated dutch ovens 35 mins lid on 15 mins lid off at about 450.

I'm happy with the taste, but I wish I got more rise out of it.  Maybe I was impatient and should have let it sit out of the fridge for a while. 

The interesting thing here is that both loaves were from the same dough. You can't really see in the picture but the rise was very different. One proofed in a linen lined bowl and one in a banneton.  The one in the bowl didn't split for some reason and is much smaller.  They smell great though, hopefully they will taste good too.  I took my inspiration from Dani's current and honey loaf. I'm just starting to get brave enough to try putting my own spin on things. 

9g hemp hearts (what I had left in the bag) ,50 g chia seeds,50 g sesame seeds,50 g raisins (found some that I could eat! - these are just dried grapes, no oil added),25 g dried blueberries

Soaked all above in 30g honey and 200 g hot water for about an hour and a half.

Autolyse 550g AP flour, 250 g sprouted spelt, 200 g whole wheat with 50 g ground flax and 50 g kefir and 660 g water. I left it about 30 mins

Mix in 20g salt and 360 g levain - 3 sets of folds and let ferment for (not long enough because it was late and I needed to get up early) about 3 hours.  Shaped into banneton/bowl and left to proof in the fridge for close to 15 hours. 

Baked at somewhere between 450 and 410 (my oven isn't the greatest at regulating it's temperature) in DO with lid on 30 mins and lid off 20 mins.