Sourdough seed rye: Mellow Bakers finale

Well here we are at the end! (again) When I was nearing the end of the BBA Challenge and wondering, "What in the heck am I going to do without a new bread to bake every week?!" Paul suggested a Mellow group...a group of bakers who would spend two years baking through Jeffrey Hamelman's amazing book Bread. Even though I wasn't quite finished with the BBA, I happily jumped on board.

And here we are...94 weeks and 64 breads later.

I've thoroughly enjoyed participating on the ever-helpful Mellow Bakers forum and meeting so many wonderful bread bakers. And of course trying so many new bread formulas and techniques. I feel like the BBA introduced me to bread baking and taught me so many basics. Baking through Bread turned me into a bread baker. My confidence has improved a ton, as well as my knowledge, and not many recipes intimidate me anymore.

My top recipes from the book (all of which have been made repeatedly) are:

Rustic Bread
Bialys
Brioche
Whole wheat multigrain levain
Pain de mie

There is some talk on the forum about choosing a new book and starting a new challenge. At this point, I think I will probably purchase whichever book is picked so that I can bake along occasionally, but I will not plan to bake my way through another bread book. My family is really excited about the possibility of getting to pick their past favorites and have me actually be willing to bake them again because I'm not so worried about finishing breads for a challenge! :) And I'm excited to be able to bake things that look/sound good from various sources.

So the last bread I baked was actually a December bread that I missed with all of the holiday baking last month. Having just made the roasted garlic (which hubby says makes the most excellent eggs in a nest, FYI) and the 66% sourdough rye, and knowing how anti-seed breads my kiddos are, I only made a 1/4 of the recipe, enough for one small loaf. I made the levain and the flax seed soaker late at night, and then mixed the dough together after work on Friday (bread flour, rye flour, toasted sesame and sunflower seeds, the flax seed soaker, the levain, salt, and water). The dough was quite wet, but developed a lot of strength after two stretch-and-folds. (Never one to let bread dough get in the way of life, this bread actually came with us to the Children's Museum. It had a lot of fun watching the kids play, and I folded it at 50 minute intervals...after thoroughly washing my hands of course!) :) Once we got home, I shaped it into a round loaf and, as JH recommends, left it in the fridge for an overnight rest. Surprisingly, it took the full 40 minutes to bake the small loaf; I'm guessing because it was still cold from the fridge. The bread is quite dense, with excellent flavor from the toasted seeds.

bread dough playing at the Children's Museum

66% Sourdough rye (Mellow Bakers)

I made this bread (a Mellow Bakers from December) over the weekend, while making the roasted garlic levain, but I passed it on to my official sourdough rye taster (my dad) and had to wait for his report. (My first December bread was the unkneaded six-fold French bread, which I made this past summer.)

The 66% sourdough rye was similar to many of the other sourdough ryes we've made. Actually the enormous number of sourdough ryes has been my biggest struggle with this challenge, since it is not a favorite bread around here and there are just so many different versions.

I made the sourdough starter and let it ripen over night. The next morning, I mixed everything (rye flour, bread flour, some vital wheat gluten to fill in for the high-gluten flour, water, salt, and a pinch of instant yeast) together in my stand mixer. I often have the problem of my dough hook refusing to mix ryes, especially when I've cut down the recipe and there's not much dough in the bowl. The hook ends up mashing around on top of the bowl without ever actually doing much kneading. So I tried a new technique: I saved a little of the bread flour and sprinkled it around the outside of the dough. It seemed to do the trick, giving the dough hook a little something to latch on to, and the dough actually kneaded well.

Once everything was kneaded, this was actually a really quick bread, with two very short rises and then a quick bake. After a 24 hour rest, my dad reports that the bread was delicious with butter for breakfast along with his tea. Nothing unusual about it, just another good sourdough rye. My dad will definitely be the only one in the family sad to see the end to all of these rye breads.

Roasted garlic levain (Mellow Bakers)

Here we are at the final month of the Mellow Bakers...hard to believe! I actually made the other two January breads already, the semolina in December when I was looking for a quick one-day bread for dinner one night and the five-grain levain over a year ago.

This weekend I refreshed my starter in preparation for my last three breads (my last January bread and two December ones that I missed). When it was good and bubbly, I mixed up sourdough builds for all three (I later realized that I forgot to make the soaker for the sourdough seed bread, so I only ended up making the 66% sourdough rye and this one, roasted garlic levain).

I followed the instructions from KAF for roasting heads of garlic (I needed less than half of one for the half recipe, but I made two heads and dumped the rest of the cloves in a baggie with some olive oil and stuck it in the freezer).

I mixed all the ingredients in my stand mixer (bread flour, whole wheat flour, olive oil, water, instant yeast, salt, garlic, and the levain). I let the bread rise for two hours with a fold in the middle. I shaped the loaf into a long oval and then life got in the way. I ended up changing our dinner plans and the loaf went into the fridge for 24 hours. The loaf exploded in the fridge. I was nervous about slashing it, but decided to risk it, and sure enough it started deflating immediately. Happily, it recovered somewhat in the oven.

We ate the bread with our favorite chicken-veggie-noodle soup. My little guy who usually only likes white breads of the ciabatta/French bread/dinner roll variety actually gobbled up two big pieces. Hubby loved it (no surprise there). The garlic flavor was consistent but not overpowering, and it paired especially nicely with the soup.

Semolina bread (Mellow Bakers)

Even after all of this time, sometimes the miracle of bread baking just gets me. Tonight, sitting at the dinner table, eating yummy winter veggie soup and pillowy fresh semolina bread, I kind of couldn't believe that the idea to have bread and soup for dinner hadn't occurred to me until 9 a.m. this morning!

When the dinner idea occurred to me, I searched my final five! remaining Mellow Bakers for a nice one-day recipe; there was one left: semolina (duram) bread. There was also an option with a whole-grain soaker, but the kids aren't been fans of seeds, so I went with the simpler version.

I made the sponge out of duram flour, bread flour, warm water, yeast, and sugar. I let it rise for a little over an hour, and then combined it with the rest of the duram flour, bread flour, water, and some salt and olive oil. The dough was given one fold half-way through the bulk fermentation. Inspired by the BBA pane siciliano, I shaped this into a long baguette and then curled it into an S.

We loved it! The bread was soft and pillowy with an excellent flavor; it paired beautifully with the soup.

Five-grain sourdough with rye sourdough (Mellow Bakers)

My final November Mellow Bakers bread is a five-grain sourdough made with a rye sourdough. At the same time that the sourdough is prepared, a soaker is also prepared: flaxseeds, rye flakes, sunflower seeds, oats, and salt are all soaked in water.

After an overnight rest, the sourdough and soaker are combined with high-gluten flour (I used bread flour and vital wheat gluten), instant yeast, honey, and water. My dough was quite wet and I was a little nervous, but after an hour's rise (with no folds), the dough was actually easy to shape. I made a 2 pound loaf for my oval banneton and then two 2-ounce dinner rolls (I'd made a half-recipe).

The kids didn't like the bread, which was no surprise; they don't like seeds in breads. I really love multigrains, but found the rye flavor a little too strong; it was okay, but not a favorite. Hubby really enjoyed the bread with soup, as eggs in a nest, and with Thanksgiving leftovers.

Mellow Bakers: Golden raisin and walnut bread (November)

Well, my first November bread for Mellow Bakers came with me to daycare and work; this one came with me to the grocery store. It was the only way we could fit in shopping and still get the bread shaped and baked in time. So there I was in the parking lot, oiling up my hands and preshaping...... What we do for our breads! :)

I made a third of this recipe, which was enough for one medium loaf. The bread was made with a stiff biga (bread flour, whole wheat flour, water, and instant yeast), more bread flour, more whole wheat flour, salt, water, instant yeast, and golden raisins and walnuts.

This challenge has definitely changed my family's opinion on breads with fruit and nuts in them. While we used to dislike every one, we've really enjoyed the last couple, and this one was no exception. The walnuts gave a great crunch and the flavor of the bread was really enhanced by the sweetness from the golden raisins. A tasty accompaniment to dinner!

Ceremonial mask bread (Mellow Bakers: fougasse with olives)

Hubby thought it looked like a ceremonial mask

My first November Mellow Bakers bread is an olive fougasse. I made half a recipe, which made one loaf, and I could've easily made the whole thing as the entire loaf was demolished in no time.

This bread got squished into life; it's the first time I've ever taken a bread-in-progress with me to work. :) I made the paté fermentée at dinner time and mixed the dough together the next morning before work. (Luckily it was fast to knead the bread flour, whole wheat flour, water, salt, instant yeast, olive oil, paté fermentée, and olives, as hubby was shooting me dirty looks because I was making us late!!) Carrying my little measuring cup of dough, I brought it to daycare drop-off and then to work. Right before the students arrived, I scrubbed my hands, did a quick stretch-and-fold, and threw my dough into the fridge. At the end of the day, I pulled the dough and let it come to room temperature during our faculty meeting. I preshaped the dough into a round while I was picking up the kiddos from daycare, and then we headed home. There I rolled out the dough, let it rise while I made the night's soup, and then baked it up. It was finished in 20 minutes and ready to eat five minutes after that.
As I said, a big hit with the fam, and while scheduling was interesting, it wasn't too challenging to make for a quick bread and soup dinner.

Fougasse with green olives

Mellow Bakers: Sunflower seed bread with paté fermentée

This was one of those clean-out-the-pantry recipes; I was short on a couple of ingredients, so I made a few changes.

Our final October Mellow Baker bread is sunflower seed bread with paté fermentée; I made the paté fermentée first thing in the morning so it would be ready when I wanted to mix up the bread in the evening.

For the soaker, JH calls for rye chops; I used the end of a bag of rye berries (chopped) and the end of a bag of cracked rye. Based on Joanna's comments that the four-hour soak didn't soften the rye chops enough, I used boiling water. This seemed to soften the rye perfectly.

The rest of the dough was made with bread flour, water, salt, instant yeast, malt syrup, and sunflower seeds. My second clean-out-the-pantry was for the seeds: I toasted the end of a bag of sunflower seeds, the end of a bag of pumpkin seeds, and flax seeds.

I made a third of the recipe, which made five large rolls. We really enjoyed them with butter; they reminded me of my favorite seeded dinner rolls at one of my favorite restaurants. A surprise win!

Sesame bread sticks (Mellow Bakers) and winter veggie soup

My second Mellow Bakers bread for October is a rarity in my bread baking books: the kids and I mixed up the dough for sesame bread sticks when we got home (about 3:00), and we ate the bread sticks for dinner at 5:30....talk about fast!

The dough is made from bread flour, salt, instant yeast, water, olive oil, and malt syrup, mixed together in the stand mixer for about four minutes. It rises for an hour, and then is scaled into 24 pieces weighing about 3/8 ounce each. These rest for 15 minutes and then comes the fun part; Natashya commented that little kids would love to help roll the "snakes," and she was absolutely right. My kids were thrilled to roll the pieces into long snakes, which I lengthened a bit, rolled on a wet cloth, and then rolled through a plate of sesame seeds. They're baked immediately for 20 - 25 minutes (ours were a little fat, so took a little longer).

These were a huge hit, and a perfect accompaniment to one of our new favorite soups. Next time, I'll probably skip the plain sesame seed topping. The kids made me scrape them off so they could eat the bread sticks plain, and the hubby and I preferred the "everything" version I made when I ran out of sesame seeds (sesame seeds, dried garlic, dried onion, and poppy seeds). I kept the sticks in a large zip baggie, and they were still good days later.

And now the soup! Several weeks ago, I was looking for a way to use up some leftover ham and a huge amount of CSA vegetables. I found this recipe, which I doctored based on what we needed to use up. Even if this soup wasn't delicious (which it is!), I would seriously make it just for the gorgeous array of colors in the bowl!

Winter veggie soup
adapted from Cooking Light

2 tsp olive oil
4 oz (125 g) chopped ham or turkey ham
1 large onion (125 g), chopped
2 tsp minced garlic
4 c (520 g) peeled, cubed acorn squash
2 c (315 g) peeled, chopped potatoes
1/2 c (80 g) carrot, chopped
1 tsp dried basil
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp dried thyme
1/8 tsp crushed red pepper
28 oz tomatoes (I've used cans of stewed, diced, whole, and even fresh), drained (or not)
4 - 5 c chicken broth
4 cups (130 g) chopped greens (my favorite combination is kale, spinach, and red cabbage)
15 oz can small white beans (I've used pinto, great Northern)

1. Heat the oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add the ham and sauté for 3 minutes.
2. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for another 3 minutes.
3. Add the squash, potatoes, carrot, and spices, and cook for 4 minutes.
4. Add the tomatoes, and cook for 2 minutes.
5. Stir in the broth and bring soup to a boil. Simmer for 8 minutes.
6. Add greens, and simmer for 5 minutes.
7. Add beans, and cook for 4 minutes.
8. Serve.

makes about 8 servings (2 cups each)

Handmade loaves: Berne Brot Winston knot

My friend Di, host of the most excellent Virtual Cookie Exchange last winter and Sundae Sunday this past summer, decided that now that the weather is finally cooling off, it's time to bake bread! Her autumn event is dedicated to handmade loaves.

My first Mellow Bakers bread for October is Berne Brot, a Swiss challah-like braided bread. Unlike challah, Berne Brot uses butter and milk. This is a quick one-day bread; I started mixing the ingredients when I got home from work and baked the bread before bed. I couldn't decide on the type of braid to use, and almost went with a simple three or four strand braid. But as I was paging through the Bread chapter on braiding, I re-encountered the Winston Knot, a braid I had tried with challah...unsuccessfully. My biggest problem back then was that I didn't roll the strands long enough, so I ran out of dough before I was through.

This time, I followed the wonderfully clear instructions Celia offers in her Winston Knot tutorial...and it worked! Hurrah!

I made a half recipe, which made about 840 grams of dough; six balls of 140 g, rolled out to about 60 - 65 cm (24" or 25"). I tried to err on the side of too-long, so that I wouldn't run out like last time. My dough was a lot softer than challah; in his braiding section, JH suggests dusting the braid strands with the tiniest, lightest dusting of flour to help prevent softer dough strands from baking into each other; it seemed to work.

The taste was similar to challah or a less-buttery brioche, so as we always do with both of those, we made French toast.

Berne Brot
adapted from Jeffrey Hammelman's Bread

425 g bread flour
30 g vital wheat gluten
204 g milk, warmed
1 egg yolk
1 egg
61 g unsalted butter, softened
26 g sugar
9 g salt
3 g instant yeast

1. Stir together the flour, vital wheat gluten, and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk the yeast into the warmed milk, and then stir the milk, eggs, and butter into the dry ingredients. Stir (I used my dough whisk) until it all comes together in a large, shaggy mass.
2. Knead in a stand mixer or by hand for 3 or 4 minutes, until the dough has developed.
3. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for an hour. Stretch and fold the dough, recover the bowl, and let rise for another hour.
4. Split the dough into equal-sized balls, cover with plastic wrap, and let rest for 15 minutes. Then roll each ball into a long strand and proceed with braiding. If you're interested in trying the winston knot, I strongly recommend checking out Celia's tutorial.
5. Place the braid on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Cover with baker's linen and plastic wrap. Let rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours. (JH warns against letting the braid rise fully before baking; he recommends letting it rise to about 85%.)
6. Thoroughly brush the loaf with an egg wash.
7. Bake at 375º for 35 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 200º.
8. Cool on a rack.

Head over to Di's blog later this week to see the handmade loaf round-up!

Mellow Bakers: Whole wheat and whole rye (September)

My third Mellow Bakers' bread for this month is whole wheat and whole rye, a not super-accurate name for a loaf that's actually made with a rye levain, whole wheat flour, and high gluten flour. Other than that, just a bit of salt, a tiny pinch of yeast, and some water.

I let this one rise for almost double the final rise time because I'd forgotten to preheat the oven beforehand, and I think that actually helped me a ton. It was very well-risen, had great oven spring, and I'm happier with my scoring than I've been in a long time.

The bread is very pleasant tasting with a hint of rye and a hint of sourdough, but no real strong flavors.

Mellow Bakers: Whole wheat bread with golden raisins and pecans (September)

Boy, it's been a long time!

School started up again last week, so it's back to my normal schedule of rushing: rushing to get the kids up and dressed and breakfasted and delivered to Grandpa Daycare, rushing to school and mentally switching from Mom Mode to Teacher Mode, getting ready for the day, greeting and teaching 160 10th grade students, coaching debaters, and then rushing back home, switching back into Mom Mode, slapping together some dinner, getting the kids bathed and in bed, and slipping one last time into Teacher Mode to try to figure out a lesson for the next day. It's not left me with a lot of time to bake or keep up with my cooking/baking challenges.

However, this weekend, I was able to squeeze a Mellow Bakers bread in. It's a straight dough, thankfully, which meant I didn't have to do anything ahead of time and could just bake. (That's been a problem; on several occasions, I've had both the time and inclination to bake a loaf of bread, but haven't fed my starter or made a preferment or.....) My second September bread (thankfully I baked the first in August, knowing how busy September would be) was whole wheat bread with golden raisins and pecans (and a tiny bit of regular raisins and a tiny bit of walnuts, because apparently I hadn't checked to make sure I had enough of either ingredient).

This bread was quick and easy; the dough behaved exactly as promised. I made a half recipe, which yielded two pounds of dough, which I stuck in a loaf pan.

JH says to bake it with normal steam, and I'm never quite sure how to adapt that for a loaf pan. I spritzed it with water and covered it with an roasting pan for 15 minutes, but it was still a really pale loaf. I've had that happen with other JH loaves when I've baked them in a loaf pan. Any ideas out there??

We enjoyed the bread with butter tonight, an accompaniment to winter vegetable soup (appropriate fare for our last 90º day of the season, huh?). Hubby really, really liked it, which is saying something, since normally we aren't big fans of fruit and nuts in our bread.

Hopefully I'll be able to regain some sense of how to balance baking, life, and work, and get back to posting more frequently. I'd better figure it out soon...both hubby's coworkers and my own have already started asking where the treats are!

Mellow Bakers: Black bread (August)

My final Mellow Bakers bread for August is black bread. This is a sourdough rye made with an old bread soaker (rebaked mixed-flour miche mixed with hot water, coffee grounds, and vegetable oil), rye flour, high gluten flour, salt, instant yeast, and sourdough.

The dough was fairly crumbly (there's no water added other than the water in the soaker and the sourdough), and my mixer couldn't seem to bring it together. However, after a few minutes of kneading by hand, it formed a workable dough and I was able to proceed. The bread has a relatively short bulk and final fermentations.

We tried the bread with a little butter. It had a really interesting, complex flavor, and we could definitely taste the coffee. We gave the rest of the loaf to my dad, the designated sourdough rye-eater.

Mellow Bakers: Mixed-flour miche (September)

September? What? But I haven't finished August's Mellow Bakers breads yet!

Too true. But my last August bread (black bread) calls for using an old bread soaker, and unfortunately I haven't baked bread in soooooo unbelievably long (with the exception of hamburger and hot dog buns) that I don't have anything to use. So I decided to make a September bread that would fit the bill and maybe have a couple of pieces left over for the old bread soaker.

When I pulled Austin (my sourdough starter) from the fridge, I really couldn't remember the last time I'd fed him. He was gray and hoochy, and smelled very chemically. I refreshed him twice a day, and while he smelt better by the end of the first day, I decided to give him a few extra days to really get back in gear (continuing to refresh twice a day). I think it worked, as this bread rose more than any other pure-sourdough I've ever made. Wahoo!

The levain is made the night before with Austin, water, rye flour, and whole wheat flour. After a twelve hour rise, it's combined with more whole wheat flour and rye flour, bread flour, water, and salt. I let it proof for two hours with three folds, and then shaped it into a round. Without bothering to set a timer, I left it on the counter...pure sourdoughs (without any additional pinches of instant yeast) always seem to take longer...and was shocked to discover that it was rising really well!

The only downside was that when I went to put it into the oven, I realized that I'd prepped for pizza baking instead of hearth baking (pizza stone on the floor of the oven and no steam pan), so I had to do some quick adjusting of oven shelves with my welding gloves on, while yelling at the kids to stay away from the open oven, and then use the fake-steaming method, and my slashing suffered severely as a result of my frantic-ness.

We waited about eighteen hours before slicing into this bread, and this is definitely one of the tastiest breads I can remember from the levain section. While you can taste the sour, it isn't too sour; the flavor of the whole grains is clearly there, without the dense rye-ness of the sourdough rye breads. Yep, this one is a keeper!

Focaccia con formaggio (Mellow Bakers)

The ciabatta with stiff biga recipe makes a little over three pounds of dough, perfect for the two 9" focaccias that we devoured I made yesterday plus just enough left over for focaccia con formaggio, our other Mellow Baker focaccia choice for August.

The focaccia con formaggio is a less-time consuming recipe than the regular focaccia. You go straight from bulk fermentation of the ciabatta dough to dividing and forming the focaccia to the oven to eating (JH says to eat it warm). I imagine the entire process could take less than an hour, as there are no additional rise times.

I, of course, had actually made the ciabatta yesterday, so I pulled the remainder of the dough out from the fridge, divided it in two (about 13 ounces each), and rolled each ball into a rectangle-ish shape. One rectangle is placed on a sheet pan covered with parchment paper; it's then spread with ricotta, olive oil, coarse salt and pepper, and toasted fennel seeds. Then the second piece is plopped on top, the edges are crimped, the top is brushed with a little more oil, some vents are cut, and the whole thing bakes on a preheated pizza stone.

Because I was also cooking dinner, my focaccia con formaggio actually got some rise time while the oven was busy. I'm not sure if that's why, but mine took an additional five or so minutes before it was golden on top.

This tasted much more like ciabatta than focaccia to me. Hubby and I both thought that it was really good, but that the fennel was really strong and unexpected (and I actually only used half of the specified amount because a tablespoon seemed like too much). I can see making something like this and using garlic or...some other spice inside. I served it with a salad, fruit, and a vegetable (non-noodle) lasagna ~ a recipe I'll continue to work on and hopefully perfect and post soon ~ it's a must for dealing with all of these CSA summer squash!

Everyone in the family preferred last night's focaccia, and we really like the normal ciabatta recipe, too, so I'm not sure we'll make this one again...but not because it wasn't delicious!

Mellow Bakers: Focaccia (August)

My second bread for August for the Mellow Bakers is actually two new recipes in one: our official recipe is focaccia, but it is made with the ciabatta with stiff biga from earlier in the book. When ciabatta came up last December, I chose the one made with a poolish (which we loved), so this one was new to me.

Last night, I whipped up the biga (bread flour, water, and yeast) and let it rise overnight. This morning, I measured out the rest of the ingredients (more bread flour, water, salt, instant yeast)...and my scale errored right in the middle of weighing the water. Gr! I really need a scale that measures above three pounds, but it's so hard to justify getting something new when you have something that works perfectly well, you know?

But I digress. So I added a few more splashes of water and I think I added a bit too much as this was a very wet dough, maybe the wettest I've ever worked with, but I just did a few extra stretch-and-folds and they worked their magic: after two hours of bulk fermentation, I had a workable (although still really sticky) dough. Then I needed to go to book club, so I stuffed it in the fridge while I was out.

When I got home, I put about 400 g of dough into two 9" cake pans coated with oil. I stretched them into circles, put them on the counter to rise, and ran off to the Children's Museum. Even though I hadn't allowed them their proper rest after preshaping and they didn't fit the pans when I left, by the time I'd gotten home, they filled the pans beautifully.

JH doesn't give a lot of specific instructions about topping the foaccia, so I ended up using an herb-infused olive oil (which we loved on the BBA focaccia). I poured some olive oil in a small skillet, dumped in some Italian seasonings, kosher salt, and pepper, and warmed them. Then I added some sliced onions and one sliced mushroom. We are not usually very good at being minimalist with our toppings, so I worked extra hard at it today. I used the infused oil on both focaccias and then sliced onion, mushroom, a tiny bit of pepperoni, and a tiny bit of cheese (mozzarella and parmesan) on one; green olives, pepperoni, and cheese on the other. They baked for 20 minutes. (Note: The focaccia was very challenging to remove from the pan, even with all of the olive oil. Next time, I'll line the pans with parchment as well.)

As for the taste? Isn't a picture worth a thousand words?

Oh yeah, it was as good as it looked. We served the bread with a lovely salad (CSA greens, avocado, hard boiled egg, and pancetta with this buttermilk dressing) and a fruit salad (perfectly ripe nectarines and blueberries). Isn't it nice when a simple little supper puts a smile on everyone's face?

Mellow Bakers: Oatmeal bread with cinnamon and raisins

Well, what do you know...I needed a cinnamon-raisin bread for a French toast recipe I'm trying out, and when I checked the Mellow Bakers' recipes for August, guess what was on the list? Oatmeal bread! (with the possible addition of cinnamon and raisins)

This bread should be a simple one-day bread; however, I'm single-parenting this week and life got in the way...twice, actually. So the bread got two rests in the fridge: one for the bulk fermentation and one just prior to baking. Also, since I only needed one loaf, I scaled the recipe (which makes three loaves) back.

The bread is made by mixing oatmeal (soaked briefly in the water to soften it), high gluten flour (I used bread flour and a little vital wheat gluten), whole wheat flour, milk, honey, oil (I used safflower), salt, instant yeast, and ground cinnamon. The raisins (which have also been soaked in water to prevent burning during baking) are added at the end. This is the first time that I've seen a cinnamon-raisin bread where the cinnamon and raisins are baked right in the main part of the dough, rather than done as a swirl.

JH says that a 1.5 pound loaf should fit in a 9x5 pan; my loaf was about 780 g (so a little over 1.5 pounds), but despite a really, really long rise, the pan still seemed too big. (My 9x5 has often given me problems; I think it's actually a little bigger than normal.) Next time, I'd use one of my bigger 8.5" loaf pans.

I brought this bread up to the cabin with me, and we had a little taste before assembling the French toast. I think we were all a little disappointed. The cinnamon and raisins were definitely both present, but, as my dad said, "There's just too much bread flavor getting in the way!" My stepmom added that, if she's going to eat cinnamon raisin bread, she wants the sugar in there, too! So I think we all agreed that cinnamon raisin bread needs to have the traditional cinnamon sugar swirl; I doubt I'll make this one again.

UPDATE: I take back my "meh" report...this made delicious toast (with a little butter) for breakfast this morning!

Cinnamon raisin bread turned into a baked French toast

Mellow Bakers: Three-stage 80% sourdough rye

It's flashback time for me. Let me take you back to January with the Mellow Bakers' three-stage sourdough rye. This bread has more time and temperature requirements than any other bread I've ever baked, and since most of the temperatures required are around 85º, I was not willing to try it in the midst of winter in the frozen tundra where we live.

The other day, however, my kitchen table maintained a pretty constant 85º all day long, so I was able to make this bread without stressing over creating the perfect bread environment.

I actually started almost a week ago by turning a bit of my normal starter (Austin) into a rye starter. Then I began the three-stage process:

1. Freshening: combining a teeny tiny bit of my rye starter with water and more rye flour to create a paste, which ripened for five hours.

2. Creating a basic sour: mixing the freshening paste with water and more rye flour to create a stiffer starter, which ripened for about 18 hours.

3. Creating a full sour: mixing the basic sour with water and more rye flour to create a stiffer than the first, looser than the second, paste that ripened for three hours.

4. And finally, mixing all of the other ingredients: full sour with more rye flour, bread flour, water, and salt. I heeded the other Mellow Bakers' advice and left out the optional commercial yeast.

The dough is very paste-like, so I used my wet hands to knead it briefly, and then let it rest for its short 20 minute bulk fermentation.

Because I'd only made a half-recipe, I didn't divide the dough. I just floured my board and shaped the dough into a round, which I placed in my round banneton. Following Joanna's advice, I ignored the instructions for an hour final fermentation, especially given the fail I'd had earlier in the day. I let the dough rise fully, for probably close to five or six hours in an 80º room, before docking the dough with a bamboo skewer and baking it at 480º for 10 minutes and 410º for 35 minutes.

The bread appeared to have very little, if any, oven spring, but I'm guessing it's because it had such a long rise time. As for the flavor? I don't know; I haven't tried it yet. =) My dad is the one who loves the dark ryes, and he was on his way to a cabin for a week when the bread came out of the oven. So I wrapped it in linen and sent it with him. His report after about 36 hours of waiting: "Bread  is less complex than some of the other dense breads you've made. No embedded grains, seeds, etc. Predominant flavor is sourdough, with a strong sour. I will certainly eat it all, in the morning, with butter,  but don't feel like you need to make this again soon." I'll have a chance to try it when I join him at the cabin on Wednesday.

It feels good to be caught up, finally! Here are the other Mellow Bakers' three-stage sourdough ryes.

Mellow Bakers: Olive levain (July)

Here's my last Mellow Bakers' bread for July: olive levain, the first fail I've had in a while.

The bread is made with a liquid levain (left out for 12 hours), bread flour, a little whole wheat flour, salt, and water, and then some olives are added at the very end of kneading. My kids love olives but aren't fans of sourdough, so I just made a tiny loaf again. It had a 2 1/2 hour bulk fermentation and then went into the fridge overnight. I tend to let pure sourdoughs (ie, without any extra added yeast) rise for much longer than JH specifies because I've had this problem before. However, I know from other breads in this book that the loaves can be baked straight from the fridge, so that's what I did. There was almost no oven spring, and when I cut it later, the texture was not good; it reminded me of one of my first-ever attempts at baking a basic sourdough. Although it reached an internal temperature of over 200º, it did not look cooked; the inside was doughy, gummy, yucky.

I think, despite the texture issue, that the bread tastes how it's supposed to: very strong sourdough flavor, clear salty olive taste. I'm sad that it didn't turn out, but given the flavor combination, I doubt I'll try it again.

Mellow Bakers: Sourdough rye with walnuts and raisins

Just could not get excited about this Mellow Bakers bread, so I scaled the recipe down and made one small loaf. Even my hubby, who normally looks forward to pretty much any new recipe I make, said, "You know, you can't just dump walnuts and raisins into a recipe and call it something different. This is just like all of the other sourdough ryes." I think we're both getting a little tired of this genre of bread, even with some that have been surprisingly good.

With a constant heat index of 110º F for the past three days, I couldn't bring myself to preheat the oven and my baking stone for an hour, so I decided to bake the bread at a lower temperature in a small loaf pan. It baked for 30 minutes at 350º F, and, with no steam, it was one of the most anemic-looking loaves I've ever made.

We tried it toasted, with a little butter; the sourdough, rye, raisin, and walnut flavors were all very distinct. It seemed a little weird to combine the sweetness of raisins with the strong sourdough rye flavor, and hubby called the walnuts "startling" (not in a good way). At any rate, it wasn't bad, but we were not big fans.