While waiting for the sun to rise this morning, I happened to catch this video from the “Chow” network featuring the Chairman of the Bread Bakers Guild of America, Craig Ponsford. He has some pretty straightforward words for those of us striving to make the perfect loaf. Enjoy!
I’m still making slow progress on the kitchen. One day, more loaves will come from it.
Made the bread pictured here this morning from all-white dough that I’d had in the fridge for a day. 70% hydration.
Proofed at room temperature for about two hours on lightly oiled parchment paper.
Slid parchment paper right onto inverted aluminum baking sheet in the oven and baked at 500 degrees for 25 minutes.
Cooled for 1/2 hour before cutting.
Final result – nice chewy/creamy texture with large crumb and some good holes. Very soft, but not doughy at all. Thin, soft, well browned crust. Not as crusty as dutch oven loaves I’ve made, but very good nonetheless.
I tried a couple new tricks with this batch. First, I bought a new cast iron dutch oven the othe
r day, and I’ve been dying to try it out. I believe it is a new model in the Lodge line-up. It has a lid that doubles as a skillet. I got the 5 quart model from Amazon.
Second, I used 500 grams of my standard Costco flour and 500 grams of Hodgson Mill Organic Whole Wheat less the 1/3 cup of Bob’s Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten that I added to make 1 kilogram total, with a 75% hydration. The Vital Wheat Gluten is often recommended for course whole wheat flours to help hold in the gases during fermentation. I didn’t do the window pane test, but will next time. I’d like to try this VWG for pizza dough.
I made the dough right after work yesterday and let it set on the counter, covered in a plastic container. I heated up the oven this morning around 3 AM and baked the boule first at 475 (convection) in the pot and after 20 minutes removed it for browning. It didn’t rise as much as I expected. I haven’t cut into it yet, but I’m sure it will be good. But could be better. I may use more dough next time. This was roughly half of the whole batch.
I formed the epi last, and it had more time to rise. It came out fantastic. I had a hunk of it for breakfast with a second cup of coffeee. The picture only shows about half of it. I used the rest of it for sandwiches for lunch. Is it noon yet?
People have been making bread since
the stone age. Of course, with better equipment and knowledge, it gets better all the time. Up to a point. Most of today’s store-bought breads, made in factories across the country, sliced and ready to eat, are barely recognized as food to the artisan bakers, let alone a good source of nutrition.
With our busy schedules, an easy solution is to stop at the grocery store and pick up a loaf when you didn’t plan ahead. A loaf of decent bread costs anywhere between $2 to $5. Further, it gets stale quickly and has little flavor.
Last week I made some dough and didn’t follow through according to best practices. I didn’t have the right size bowl available, and it was too large to fit in the refrigerator, especially along with all the other stuff already in it. So, I left it on the countertop covered with plastic wrap which is acceptable for reasonably short periods of time. I can only say I got lazy and didn’t plan ahead.
When I returned from work, I found the dough busting out over the top of the bowl and generally making a mess. I punched it down and split it into two batches. With the first batch, I made some pita bread and a couple of small baguettes. They didn’t come out too badly, but certainly nothing worthy of a magazine shoot.
Yesterday afternoon, we decided on spaghetti for dinner and I thought I’d try to use the remaining dough, now a week in the frig, to make some bread for dinner. I mixed it with a fresh batch and after a couple of hours, it was somewhat usable. The picture here is of the remaining loaf. We ate most of the first one and had the rest of it toasted this morning. It was better than any bread you can buy in the store. But was it ever ugly!
So, here is my point. People have been making bread for 12,000 years. Without thermometers. Without kitchens. Without electric or gas ovens. Without precise measuring devices or fresh water on tap, without salt, without store-bought yeast. On rocks. Sure. The first breads were not much more than a paste poured out onto a rock and left in the hot sun. But for hundreds of years, people have been making great bread without any of the conveniences we have today. And they were great, nutritious breads.
Today we have cookbooks with color pictures and step-by-step instructions. We have YouTube videos that show the entire process. And you only need four ingredients, flour, water, salt, and yeast. Four (4). No more. No less.
That is about thirty cents worth of stuff. Maybe less.
And yet, there is this fear of failure. What if I don’t mix it right? What if it doesn’t rise? What if? What if?
With today’s quality ingredients available nearly everywhere, you really can’t get this wrong. It might not be perfect. It might be pretty ugly. You might not think it looks anything like what you’ve seen before. But, it will be better than anything you can buy in the store!
Make a batch of dough today. Make a loaf of bread tomorrow.
You’ll love it. And you’ll be loved for it.