Isand66's blog

   Spring is finally here so along with grilling hamburgers and hot dogs and steak it was time to crank up the grill and make some pizza.

My pizza set-up allows me to get the temperature over 700 degrees.  I'm not sure how hot is really get since my thermometer only goes to 700 degrees so I would say it's probably closer to 800 or higher.

I made a basic dough recipe using instant yeast this time since I didn't have time to make the starter version I made last time and I used mainly type 00 Caputo flour along with a little bit of freshly ground whole wheat.  For the basic recipe you can refer to my previous post here.

I made 3 different personal size pies this time with the first being a simple version using fresh tomato sauce, fresh mozzarella and some shaved Parmesan.  Unfortunately my wife ate most of it before I had a chance to photograph it, so no pictures.

The second pie was made using my wife's left-over meat sauce along with some fresh mozzarella and shaved Parmesan.

The third and last pie of the night was a white pie which we used a garlic butter spread, caramelized onions, fresh mozzarella and shaved Parmesan.

All three came out great with a nice charred crust just like I like it.  They were so good we ate all of them except one slice.

Enjoy.

  I love potatoes in my bread and rolls so I figured it was time to try them in pretzel rolls.  I had to make this recipe twice as the first time I didn't compensate enough for the moisture in the potatoes and the dough was way too hydrated.  The rolls didn't come out the right consistency so I made them again and cut the water back and they came out perfect.

I also added a small amount of freshly ground whole rye flour to give it a little extra flavor and I do have to say these are flavorful rolls with a crazy open moist crumb.  I made some turkey burgers with caramelized onions, fresh mozzarella and bacon for dinner and these held up great.

I made the rolls a little bigger to be used for burgers so instead of the 110 grams below I made them 135 grams, but feel free to adjust the size to your liking.  I also made a few with fresh Parmesan cheese instead of salt just to be interesting.

Caution:  When using the Lye make sure you wear gloves, long sleeves and protective eye gear. Also, never add Lye to hot water or it will bubble over and probably burn you.

Main Dough Ingredients for 14 rolls at about 110 grams each or about 13 at 135 grams each

For Lye Bath (3.5% Solution

2 Liters (1836 grams) of Cold water

70 grams Sodium Hydroxide Crystals

Make the Levain

Add your seed starter (20 grams) to the indicated amount of flour and water and mix until incorporated.  Cover and let sit out at room temperature of in your proofer until nice and bubbly around 6-10 hours depending on your temperature.  Use immediately or refrigerate for a few days until ready to mix the main dough.

Procedure

Add the diastatic malt powder to the water and stir.  Add the flours in your mixing bowl and slowly add the water mixture.  Mix for about 1 minute until combined.  Cut your starter in pieces and lay on top of the flour mixture and cover and let rest for 30 minutes to 1 hour so the flour can absorb the water.

Next add the salt and potatoes and mix for 6 minutes on low.    Place the dough in a slightly oiled bowl and do a couple of stretch and folds.  Cover the bowl and let it rest for 10-15 minutes.  Do another stretch and fold in the bowl and let it rest another 10-15 minutes.  Do another stretch and fold and let the dough sit out in the covered bowl for another 1.5 hours.  Place the dough in the refrigerator until ready to bake the next day.

When ready to bake take the dough out and leave it covered in your bowl for 2 hours.  Next divide the dough into pieces that are 110 grams each or 135 grams for larger rolls .  Shape as rolls and place on a baking sheet and cover with either a moist towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.  Let it rest for around 60 minutes to about 1/2 proof.

While the rolls are proofing, fill a large stock pot with 2 liters of cold water.  Measure out the Lye and slowly add it to the cold water.  (DO NOT EVER ADD LYE TO HOT WATER).  Cover the pot and bring it to a rolling boil and then shut off the heat.

Pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees.  When the rolls are proofed sufficiently, prepare to dip them for about 15 seconds in the lye bath upside down.  Let them drain on a bakers rack over a cookie tray covered with a towel or parchment paper.  After draining for a minute you can transfer them to a cookie/baking sheet that has been sprayed with cooking spray.  You want to use a stainless steel cooking sheet as aluminum may react with the lye and peel.  Note: do not ever use parchment paper as the rolls will get stuck to the bottom.  I know this from experience and I had to cut off the bottoms of half the rolls I made.  I actually use my Silpat non-stick sheets which work like a charm.

When ready to bake, score each roll with an "X" on the middle and sprinkle with pretzel salt.  Make sure you use pretzel salt if you want authentic rolls.  As I said previously I used some fresh Parmesan in place of the salt on a few rolls and they were awesome.

Bake for about 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown and register about 200 F in the middle.  Let them cool on a bakers rack until you can't wait any longer!

Note: you cannot store these in a plastic bag or covered really otherwise the salt will react with the moisture in the air and you will end up with soggy tops.  I place them in a paper bag and leave it open so the air circulates.

Enjoy!

  This was supposed to be a high extraction whole wheat loaf but I'm having trouble milling my flour course enough to actually have much bran left to sift out.  So, instead I basically used freshly milled whole wheat and added some fresh whole rye flour along with some whole spelt and a whole bunch of caramelized onions.

Usually I would only bulk ferment the dough for around 12 hours but I ended up bulk fermenting this one for around 36 hours which caused the onions to meld together in the final dough.  In hindsight I should have folded the onions in at a later time but I wasn't originally planning on baking this one 2 days later.

I built the starter up in 2 stages starting off with my AP 66% hydration mother starter and added WW and Rye.

The final bread came out very tasty with an unbelievably moist crumb from all of the onions and the high amount of water added to the dough.

Levain Directions

Step 1

Mix all the levain ingredients together  for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled.  I used my proofer set at 83 degrees and it took about 4 hours.

Step 2

Mix the flour and water with all of the levain from step 1 and let it sit at room temperature again until it is doubled.  At this point you can either use it right away or put it in the refrigerator and use it the next 1 to 2 days.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours with the main dough water for about 1 minute.  Let the rough dough sit for about 20 minutes to an hour.  Next add the levain and salt and mix on low for 3 minutes and speed #2 for another 2 minutes or by hand for about 5 minutes.   Now add the caramelized onions and mix on low for 1 minute to incorporate them completely into the dough.  You should end up with a cohesive dough that is slightly tacky but very manageable.  Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.  (Since I used my proofer I only let the dough sit out for 1.5 hours before refrigerating).

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and shape as desired.

The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature and will only rise about 1/3 it's size at most.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 5 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for 35-50 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 205 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

  Finally the weather is starting to turn and actually feel like Spring after one of the longest and coldest winters we have had in a long time.  It was time to fire up the grill and make some hamburger and hot dogs to really make it feel like a new season.

I decided to use the basic formula for my popular Onion Parmesan Rolls which I posted about here but change things up a little.  I didn't have any cheese powder left so I used some fresh shaved Parmesan which certainly could only help matters.  I also wanted to use some Caputo 00 flour in place of some of the European style flour.  The idea would be to make the rolls a little harder similar to the German style rolls I had made last year which came out just like Kaiser rolls.  I also added some fresh ground Red Winter Wheat and since I didn't have Durum flour I used the grainier Semolina version.

The other main change I made to the recipe was to use minimal mixing and stretch and folds along with a bulk fermentation in the refrigerator.  I was going to bake these the next day, but I caught the stomach flu so the dough rested for 2 days before I finally had the strength to bake them off.

I also increased the hydration by adding 144 grams additional milk to compensate for the thirstier Caputo 00 flour as well as the freshly milled whole wheat and spelt.

If you want a soft fluffy roll than don't use this recipe, but if you want a nice semi-hard style roll that goes great with a burger than you will like this formula for sure.  I've been eating them for breakfast everyday this week with a little cheese or butter and I'm sorry that I just ate the last one a few minutes ago.

Directions

Bring the milk up to a boil in a heavy-duty sauce pan and let it simmer for a couple of minutes.  Take it off the heat and let it cool to room temperature before using.

In the mean time leave your butter out at room temperature or soften in your microwave.

Mix flours with yeast to combine.  Next add remainder of the ingredients and mix on low for 1 minute and let the dough rest for 5 minutes.
Next, knead on medium-low speed (or with hands) for 2 minutes. Dough should be supple and still a little bit sticky (adjust with water if needed). Continue kneading for 4 more minutes, increasing speed to medium-high for last 30 seconds.

Take the dough out of your mixer and form it into a ball and place in a well oiled bowl or dough rising bucket.  Let it sit for 10 minutes and then do a set of stretch and folds.  Repeat the same procedure a total of 3 times within 40 minutes.  Place covered bowl with dough in your refrigerator overnight or up to 3 days.

On baking day, take the dough out of your refrigerator and let it sit at room temperature for around 2-3  hours until the dough is nice and puffy and has completely doubled from the original size.

Next gently deflate the dough and form into rolls and place on cookie sheet with parchment paper.  Cover with a moist towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.  Let it sit at room temperature for about 2 hours until the rolls have almost doubled in size and pass the poke test.

Around 30 minutes before ready to bake the rolls, pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees and prepare your oven for steam as well.  I use a heavy-duty pan in the bottom shelf of my oven and pour 1 cup of boiling water in right before placing the rolls in the oven.

Right before you are ready to bake the rolls prepare an egg wash, paint your rolls and add  your topping of choice.

Bake the rolls at 450 degrees for the first 5 minutes and lower the oven to 425 degrees until they are nice and brown.

These should take about 25 minutes to cook thoroughly.  When done  let them cool on wire rack for at least half an hour before digging in if you can wait that long.

  Back in December, Varda posted a request for an authentic Portuguese bread recipe for Broa.  I did a quick search on the internet myself and came up with a couple of interesting options.  The one I baked the other day was very interesting in regards to how the dough is actually shaped which is what convinced me to give it a try.  After the dough bulk rises you divide and roll the dough around a bowl that has been filled with water and then lightly floured.  It was very simple and fun to try and came out pretty good.  The original recipe was posted here.

The recipe is not very specific in regards to all of the ingredients so I converted everything to grams and converted my starter to an almost 100% hydration one.  I usually like to bulk ferment the dough in the refrigerator but I decided to follow the recipe and let it sit overnight at room temperature which was around 68 degrees.  I think next time I would bulk retard the dough in the refrigerator to get some additional flavor.

This recipe also calls for a corn meal "scald and a multi-grain flour mix.  The original recipe used rye, wheat and barley but I changed it up a bit and used rye, spelt and red winter wheat.

I think the final baked dough came out pretty good with a nice sour tang and you can definitely taste the corn meal influence.  Give this one a try if for nothing more than to try the unique shaping technique.

Levain Directions

Mix all the levain ingredients together  for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled.  I used my proofer set at 83 degrees and it took about 4 hours.

Corn Scald

Pour 351 grams of boiling water over the 224 grams of fine corn meal and mix to form a mush.  Let it sit and cool for around 20 minutes.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours and levain with the cooled corn scald for a minute.  Next add the salt and the remainder of the water and mix for around 5-6 minutes until a soft dough has been achieved.  Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  Let the dough sit out in your covered bowl overnight for around 10-12 hours.

The next morning you should have a nice puffy dough that has doubled in size.  Carefully transfer the dough to your work surface and divide into 4 equal parts but be careful not to deflate the dough.

Prepare a large mixing bowl by filling it with cold water and pouring it out.  Next dust the inside of the bowl with flour so it is completely covered.

Now for the fun part!  Take the first piece of dough and carefully place it in the floured bowl and swirl it around for around 15 - 20 seconds until it starts to get roundish.  Place it on a parchment covered baking sheet and dust with flour.  Repeat for the other 3 pieces and cover with either a moist lint free towel or sprayed plastic wrap.Let the dough sit at room temperature for around 2 hours.  The dough should puff up and spread out so don't be alarmed.  Do the poke test to make sure you don't over-proof them.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

Immediately lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for 15-20 minutes and then lower the temperature to 400 degrees until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 210 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

Lexi trying to score some flour.....

   One of my good baking friends from "Brot & Bread" and The Fresh Loaf posted her version of the Plotziade challenge which is to use the same exact %'s of flour and salt to build a bread.  The kicker is you can use yeast, a starter, biga, etc. and any hydration you would like.  You can see Karin's amazing bread here,  Below is some more information I borrowed form Karin's post (I hope she won't sue me for plagiarism :))

Plötzblog is one of Germany's best bread baking blogs.  Lutz Geißler (author of "Brot backen") invited all to his blog-experiment: "Wir bauen uns ein Brot" (Let's build a bread).

Each participant has to bake a loaf, roll or small bread with these ingredients and these amounts:

• 450 g (90%) wheat flour Typ 550 (or bread flour)
• 50 g (10%) whole rye flour
• 10 g (2%) salt
• sourdough and/or yeast
• water

And that's it: nothing else should be added.

But there are no restrictions on how to make your bread - method, level of hydration and leaven are entirely up to you.

I decided to do a pretty high percentage hydration loaf with a starter using both bread flour and rye flour.

The final loaf came out great.  It's a nice soft bread with a perfect crust and a crumb that has enough holes in it to make you wear a bib when eating a slice with just about anything!  The small amount of rye really adds a nice nutty flavor along with the moderate sour tang from the starter and overnight bulk retardation.

I built the starter up in 2 stages starting off with my AP 66% hydration mother starter.

Levain Directions

Step 1

Mix all the levain ingredients together  for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled.  I used my proofer set at 83 degrees and it took about 4 hours.

Step 2

Mix the flour and water with all of the levain from step 1 and let it sit at room temperature again until it is doubled.  At this point you can either use it right away or put it in the refrigerator and use it the next 1 to 2 days.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours with the main dough water for about 1 minute.  Let the rough dough sit for about 20 minutes to an hour.  Next add the levain and salt and mix on low for 4 minutes and speed #2 for another 2 minutes or by hand for about 6 minutes.   You should end up with a cohesive dough that is slightly tacky but very manageable.  Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.  (Since I used my proofer I only let the dough sit out for 1.5 hours before refrigerating).

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and shape as desired.

The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature and will only rise about 1/3 it's size at most.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 5 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for 35-50 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 205 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

  It doesn't get much better than this.  A pretty simple ingredient list....for me at least put together with TxFarmer's amazing 36 hours method and you have an amazing loaf of bread.  When you can just eat the bread without anything else, you know you have done something right.

If you don't have any of the French style flour from KAF you can substitute AP flour or bread flour.  I used some excellent Parmesan that we bought from Costco and some dried Shallots.  If you don't have dried you can use fresh or substitute some onions.  I didn't rehydrate them but instead just added them to the flour and water that hydrated in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

As always this formula is pretty wet but not too hard to handle if you use wet hands and the crumb comes out amazing.

Directions

 Starter

Mix ingredients in a bowl until thoroughly combined.  Cover the bowl and let it sit at room temperature for around 8 hours.  The starter should almost double when ready to proceed.  I actually mixed it up at the same time as the flour and water mixture for the main dough and let it sit overnight.  I used my 66% seed starter and basically converted it to close to a 100% hydration levain.  You need the final levain/starter to be like this so it is easy to mix into the main dough.

Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours and the ice water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Next add the  scallions and mix until incorporated.  Put the dough in a slightly covered oiled bowl and put in the refrigerator for 12 hours.

The next day add your starter, Parmesan cheese and salt to the dough and mix by hand or in your mixer on low speed until it is thoroughly mixed and evenly distributed.  Due to the high water content in the 100% hydration starter this dough is very easy to mix by hand and is very silky and smooth.

Bulk rise at room temperature for 2-3 hours until it grows around 1/3 in volume doing stretch and folds every half hour until it has developed the correct amount of strength.

Put the dough back into the refrigerator for around 20-24 hours.  I took it out about 24 hours later.

When you take the dough out of the refrigerator you want it to have almost doubled in volume, but if it doesn't don't worry as it will end up okay anyway.  Let it rise at room temperature for around 2 hours or until the dough has doubled from the night before.

Next, divide the dough and shape as desired and place them in their respective basket(s).  I made a bâtard and a boule and placed both of them into my proofer set at 82 degrees F. for 1.5 hours.

Score the loaves as desired and prepare your oven for baking with steam.

Set your oven for 550 degrees F. at least 45 minutes before ready to bake.  When ready to bake place the loaves into your oven on your oven-stone with steam and let it bake for 5 minutes and then lower the temperature  to 450 degrees.    When the loaf is golden brown and reached an internal temperature of 210 degrees F. you can remove it from the oven.

Let the bread cool down for at least an 3 hours or so before eating as desired.

The first signs of Spring! Who would know it with the freezing weather we still have.

 Just in time for St. Paddy's Day I figured I would make another bread using beer along with some freshly milled flours.  I had bought some Farmers Cheese meaning to make pierogi again but have not had a chance to do so yet, so into the cauldron it went :).

I wanted a sour, sour dough and nothing in my experience makes a bread more sour than mixing beer with rye flour and letting it bulk ferment overnight in the refrigerator.  To make sure the dough wasn't as sour as a barrel of pickles I added some Kamut flour and white winter wheat  to round off the flavor profile.

The Farmers Cheese has a pretty high water content which I tried to account for in the formula below by breaking out the water separately so this dough was really wet.  Unfortunately I was preparing this dough along with my last bread and working at the same time and I didn't re-flour my basket before putting the dough in it.  When I un-molded the dough part of it stuck to the bottom so this is not going to win any beauty prizes.  It does however taste pretty good with a nice sour tang.  You can definitely taste the addition of the beer so if you if you don't like beer, this one is not for you.

I'm not sure if the way I added the water and beer along with the additional water content of the cheese was calculated correctly.  Actual beer for recipe was 361 grams plus 64 grams of water to the main dough.  The starter was built up in 2 stages with 75 grams of water added in stage one and 92 grams added in stage 2.

(Note: I just updated the formulas with some help from Jacqueline from BreadStorm.  She helped me add the starter hydration and the water from the farmers cheese correctly.  Please note that the total amount of Farmers Cheese is 213 grams.)

Formula

Levain Directions Build 1

Mix all the Levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled.  I used my proofing box set at 82 degrees and it took around 5 hours.

Levain Directions Build 2

Mix the 75 grams of Kamut with the 52 grams of WW along with 92 grams of water to the first build and let it ferment until doubled.  Since I used my proofing box at 82 degrees again it took about 4 hours.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours, beer and water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes.  Next add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces), , and Farmers Cheese, and olive oil and mix on low for 6 minutes.  Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and shape as desired.  I made 1 large boule shape.   Place your dough into your proofing basket(s) and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.  The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 500 degrees and after another 3 minutes lower it to 450 degrees.  Bake for 35-50 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 210 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

This is my second and third attempts at making this bread.  I really love the sweetness the dates impart to this bread so I've been meaning to make it again for a while.  Version 2 I made last week and I rushed the dough into the oven and it was definitely under-proofed.  It had some nice fissures and the crumb was much tighter than it should have been.  It still tasted good but I had to make it again the right way.

The third time it came out much better and was worth making it again.

I changed some of the flour from the first bake and used Durum instead of Einkorn Wheat and also added some Spelt.

If you can try to bake this one, I highly recommend it.  The dates add a wonderful sweetness to the bread and create a dark crust.  This a perfect bread with cheese or great for a steak sandwich.

I used a 2 step build for the starter mixing Durum flour with a Hard White Whole Wheat.

I'm still learning the BreadStorm program and I broke out the water and flour in the seed starter separately.  Hopefully it calculated it correctly.

The dates are simmered in part of the water used for the main dough and instead of chopping them up like I did last time, I just mushed them a little in the bowl which worked out fine.

Levain Directions

Step 1

Mix all the levain ingredients together  for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled.  I used my proofer set at 83 degrees and it took about 4 hours.

Step 2

Mix the flour and water with all of the levain from step 1 and let it sit at room temperature again until it is doubled.  At this point you can either use it right away or put it in the refrigerator and use it the next 1 to 2 days.

Date Preparation

Make sure there are no pits in the dates and do not trust the package like I did which claimed they were pitted dates.  Simmer the dates in 226 grams of water until they are soft.  After you remove them from the heat, add 100 grams of cold water and let the dates sit until they come back down to room temperature.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours with the remainder of the water for about 1 minute.  Let the rough dough sit for about 20 minutes to an hour.  Next add the dates, butter and salt and mix on low for 2 minutes and speed #2 for another 2 minutes or by hand for about 6 minutes.   You should end up with a cohesive dough that is slightly tacky but very manageable.  Remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.  (Since I used my proofer I only let the dough sit out for 1.5 hours before refrigerating).

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and shape as desired.  I made 1 large Miche for this bake.

The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature and will only rise about 1/3 it's size at most.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 500 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for 35-50 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 205 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.

   I've added cocoa to bread before and it gives the final product a nice dark complexion with a subtle chocolate flavor that resides in the background.  I also added some chocolate infused olive oil and chocolate flavored balsamic vinegar to make it interesting.

I used a mix of freshly milled flour along with some French Style flour from KAF and added some left-over mashed potatoes to round out the formula.

The final dough had a deep dark crust and interior with a soft open crumb.  You can taste the chocolate undertones from the different chocolate flavored ingredients and the multi-grain mix makes this a healthy and tasty bread.

I used my BreadStorm program on my IPAD again to produce the formula below.  I broke out the seed starter flour and water separately as you can hopefully see below.  I'm really starting to get the hang of this program and once you figure it out it's a pleasure to work with and pretty simple.

Formula

Levain Directions

Mix all the Levain ingredients together for about 1 minute and cover with plastic wrap.  Let it sit at room temperature for around 7-8 hours or until the starter has doubled.  I usually do this the night before.

Either use in the main dough immediately or refrigerate for up to 1 day before using.

 Main Dough Procedure

Mix the flours, black cocoa and water together in your mixer or by hand until it just starts to come together, maybe about 1 minute.  Let it rest in your work bowl covered for 20-30 minutes.  Next add the salt, starter (cut into about 7-8 pieces), potatoes, oil and balsamic vinegar and mix on low for 6 minutes and then remove the dough from your bowl and place it in a lightly oiled bowl or work surface and do several stretch and folds.  Let it rest covered for 10-15 minutes and then do another stretch and fold.  Let it rest another 10-15 minutes and do one additional stretch and fold.  After a total of 2 hours place your covered bowl in the refrigerator and let it rest for 12 to 24 hours.

When you are ready to bake remove the bowl from the refrigerator and let it set out at room temperature still covered for 1.5 to 2 hours.  Remove the dough and shape as desired.  I made 1 large boule shape.   Place your dough into your proofing basket(s) and cover with a moist tea towel or plastic wrap sprayed with cooking spray.  The dough will take 1.5 to 2 hours depending on your room temperature.  Let the dough dictate when it is read to bake not the clock.

Around 45 minutes before ready to bake, pre-heat your oven to 550 degrees F. and prepare it for steam.  I have a heavy-duty baking pan on the bottom rack of my oven with 1 baking stone on above the pan and one on the top shelf.  I pour 1 cup of boiling water in the pan right after I place the dough in the oven.

Right before you are ready to put them in the oven, score as desired and then add 1 cup of boiling water to your steam pan or follow your own steam procedure.

After 1 minute lower the temperature to 450 degrees.  Bake for 35-50 minutes until the crust is nice and brown and the internal temperature of the bread is 210 degrees.

Take the bread out of the oven when done and let it cool on a bakers rack before for at least 2 hours before eating.