Bread recipes

This month marks the one-year anniversary of taking a breakmaking class.  In the past year I have made over 100 loaves of many different shapes & sizes.  While there have been 1 or 2 bread-fails, the rest have been tasty, if not spectacular!

bread fail

The failures were oddly exciting because I learned from experimentation what to do & not do again.  A big part of the successes have been using a journal .  

Having the right tools also helps: 

- 2 cast iron dutch ovens with lids  (iron gets nice & hot)

- digital scale (the key to a successful breadmaking experience)

- "Red Star" dry yeast

- coarse sea salt

- homeground whole wheat kernels (ground in Vita-Mix)

- Levain (starter)

Here are the 2 bread recipes I learned, reprinted with permission from chef Brad Williams (flour ratios my own).  Each recipe makes 2 loaves:

No-Knead Bread

350g white flour

150g whole grain flour (or whole wheat)

5g yeast

10g salt

350g water

1.  In a large bowl mix all ingredients together until no lumps remain.  

2.  Cover with a tea towel & let rest for 12 hours on the counter, or 24 hours in the fridge.  

3.  Heat oven to 475 degrees F, warming the Dutch oven inside the oven.  

4.  Knead dough lifting right edge onto left edge & rotating bowl a quarter turn.  Repeat 3 times.  
5.  Remove dough from bowl and place on floured surface while oven warms (at least 30 min).  

6.  In a 2nd bowl with clear water, rinse off bits of wet dough stuck to your hands.  You don't want this dough to go down the drain.  In the bowl of water the dough will sink to the bottom so it's easy then to put in the garbage.

7.  When oven is at 475, remove the empty Dutch oven & coat bottom lightly with flour.  

8.  Drop dough inside the Dutch oven, replace lid & bake in oven for 40 minutes.   Lower temperature to 450 after a few minutes.

9.  The bread is ready when e the kitchen smells like fresh bread and you can knock on the bread top.  Remove bread from Dutch oven & cool on countertop.  Resist the temptation to cut the bread while warm.  It is still cooking at this point & will sag without reaching its full bread-awesomeness potential.

Levain Bread

Same ingredients as above, add 250g of Levain.  Get some from a friend, store, bakery.  There are also some recipes on the Internet on how to start some.

This bread is more work but more moist so well worth the effort.  

1.  In a large bowl mix all ingredients together until no lumps remain.  

2.  For the next 2 hrs, roughly every 15 minutes, knead dough lifting right edge onto left edge & rotating bowl a quarter turn.  Repeat 3 times.  After every kneading, in a 2nd bowl with clear water, rinse off bits of wet dough stuck to your hands.  

3.  Then let dough rise for an hour.  A few times I've forgotten about it then went for a hike and it still worked out fabulously.  It's only bread so it's very forgiving.  

4.  After the hour, heat oven to 475 degrees F, warming the empty Dutch oven inside oven. 

5.  Remove dough from bowl and place on floured surface while oven warms (at least 30 min).  

6.  When oven is at 475, remove Dutch oven & coat bottom lightly with flour. 

7.  Drop dough inside the Dutch oven, replace lid & bake in oven for 40 minutes.   Lower temperature to 450 after a few minutes.

8.  Remove bread from oven & Dutch oven, & let cool on countertop.
9.  The bread is ready when e the kitchen smells like fresh bread and you can knock on the bread top.  Remove bread from Dutch oven & cool on countertop.  Resist the temptation to cut the bread while warm.  It is still cooking at this point & will sag without reaching its full bread-awesomeness potential.

Lessons learned:

- Remove bread from the oven after cook time.  Like a failed soufflé, the steaming-hot bread will collapse if left in the container when cooling.

- Wait until the oven is at the correct temperature before putting the bread in.  If the Dutch oven is not hot enough the dough will really stick to the bottom.  The bread itself will not cook properly either.

I hope these instructions make sense.  

Journals

When I was 12 years-old I was homebound for 2 weeks with a nasty bout of Chicken Pox.  During these 2 uncomfortable weeks I read "The Diary of Anne Frank" from cover to cover.  Anne's writing inspired me to start my own Journal in which I wrote for the following 10 years.  Now that I'm all grown-up, journaling is no longer to record feelings but rather to keep track of various activities.

These days my Bread Journal gets the most use.  In this I keep 2 basic slow-rise recipes.  I also record every batch and loaf made.  My bread instructor (Brad Williams) suggested keeping a journal to keep track of successes & failures.  It comes in handy to remember how much water to use with certain flours.  Brad also suggests to record weather because this can affect the dough.  Keeping a bread journal has helped me to try again after failures by varying the amounts of certain ingredients.

My Knitting Journal is where I used to detail projects yarn, pattern, needle sizes, etc., however, since discovering Ravelry, project details are now online.  This paper journal is mainly a place where I glue yarn labels & samples.  I also glued a paper ruler (inches & cm) on the inside cover to measure swatches when travelling.  There's always a printed glove pattern in the back pouch for when the Internet is not accessible.

My newest journal is a Soap Journal where I record soapmaking adventures.  I keep track of the scents, colours, and bits which were used in the soaps.  I only need this one 2x/year so it's usually difficult to find.

I really enjoy the tactile feeling of writing on paper and looking back at past entries but sometimes it's just more practical to use a digital version.  I wonder whether paper journals will soon become a thing of the past.  Luckily, bookstores still sell beautiful notebooks.  My favorites are Moleskine Grid Journals.  Project journals, whether high or low-tech,  are excellent auxiliary memory devices.  Their real purpose is to write notes to my future self to improve on what I just did.

Bread class #2

Bread class #2 at Cook Culture yesterday with Brad Williams.  This Breakfast Breads class literally had me on the edge of my seat for 4hrs+.  I took way too many notes and probably asked too many questions too.

Rolls stuffed with Leeks & Cream, proofing in a couche

Things I learned:

1.  My dough is too wet.  I should be using 75% water to flour, while I have been using a 1:1 ratio of water to flour.  It works for cast iron bread, but makes shaping dough for baguettes nearly impossible.  

2.  Windowpaning dough, useful to see whether the gluten has formed properly.  Also, that dough out in the open too long without wrapping will develop a thicker crust.

Our bounty:  Round Frittata in center, Rolls stuffed with Leeks & Cream surrounding Frittata, rectangular Cinnamon Buns, English Muffins in frying pan

bread lessons

Like most people nowadays, I have taken a step back from wheat products in the past few years.  Couple that with weak cooking skills, it's a miracle that a friend was ever able to take me to a bread-making class at Cook Culture last November.

I had planned on watching from a safe distance.  Even when the instructor, Brad Williams, promised that any 9 year-old could make this bread, I was still doubtful.  Brad took us through a history of yeast products.  He explained that today's commercial breads are nothing like their ancestors because they are now made so quickly.  By contrast, using yesteryear's slow-rise techniques yeast enzymes have more time to digest, therefore they are better for our guts, he says.  This bread is very moist and does not get moldy, just stale.  It stays fresh for days.  One memorable quote:  "Beer is liquid bread and bread is solid beer".

I learned how to make a levain (sourdough) bread in 4.5 hrs, and a No-Knead bread in 24 hrs.  I was surprised at how easy and amazingly good it is.  One slice is a meal in itself.  Add peanut butter & honey and I'm in heaven!

I have fallen in love with making this bread.  Since November I have made over 50 loaves of various shapes/sizes/ composition.  My favourite is still a whole grain/white flour mixture.  I mill my own whole wheat flour with a Vita-Mix.  My boys like the cheese bread.

Kneading reminds me of gardening without gloves.  I do a lot of knitting and play classical piano, however I haven't been so proud of making something with my own hands in a long time.   I just wish I could make more so I could share it with more people.  It disappears very fast!

I encourage anyone to purchase artisan bread from a market and experience the difference!

Key factors in my own bread success & fun have been:
- using a digital scale to weigh ingredients
- cooking with a cast-iron Dutch oven
- keeping a bread journal & to learn from my mistakes
- cutting with a long bread knife