Make Bread

A bread blog for home bakers

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Sourdough Challah

Rounded Challah Loaf

Sometime between the end of August and now, things got really busy and it seems like I entered a time warp.  Since doing my last post I visited family in Boston, got bird poop on my camera, and made some really nice sourdough bread.  The highlight of the baking were the sourdough challah loaves and the rounded ones were by far the prettiest.  Since we eat with our eyes first, I guess they were the tastiest too!

Around this time of year I always end up baking quite a bit of challah.  They’re delicious, for one, but also very versatile.  French toast challah, ham and cheese challah, sour cream and challah, tea and challah, challah and honey, challah challah challah challah!  It’s one of my favorites to make and everyone loves to eat it so I decided to try my hand at a 100% sourdough challah loaf.

For this recipe the key ingredient was time.  From making sure the starter was good and ready to letting the loaves proof in the fridge before baking, the time spent in waiting was well worth the result.  These turned out with a nice sour flavor, slightly sweet, fairly low on the richness scale, and perfect for any occasion from cheese plates to breakfast main item.

A note on the starter:  As I mentioned, getting the starter good and ready was key.  I started 3 days in advance feeding the starter and waking it back up as I keep mine in the fridge during the ‘down’ times I don’t bake.  I fed my starter at first with 25g water and 25g flour, then 24 hours later with 50g flour and 50g water, then 12 hours later with 75g flour and 60g flour, and then one more final feeding 8 hours before using with 100g flour and 65g water.  This is roughly a 75% hydration starter and it worked very well for this bake.

The final formula looked like this:

  • 300g starter
  • 400-450g water
  • 950g flour
  • 60g sugar
  • 1 whole egg + 2 yolks
  • 50g oil
  • 20g salt

For the pre-bake wash, use one egg yolk and not quite all of the white + a little water to brush on your loaves.

[ezcol_1third]divided dough[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third]challah strands[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third_end]Challah loaf[/ezcol_1third_end]

Method

Mix all of the ingredients minus the salt and autolyse for 30 minutes.  Add the salt and mix until fully incorporated.  Let the dough bulk ferment and stretch & fold the mass every 30 minutes for the first 2 hours.  Let it ferment for another two hours in peace.

Divide the dough in to balls weighing roughly the same amount.  The number of balls and the weight will depend on how many strands you want.  For my 3 rounded loaves of 4 strands, I used 12 balls of about 125g each.  Cover in plastic and allow them to relax for 20-30 minutes.

Roll our the strands and braid your bread.  Place the bread in a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and cover with plastic.

Put in the fridge overnight (I had some scheduling conflicts so mine ended up in the ice box for about 14 hours…no adverse effects noticed).

Let them proof at room temp once again for an hour or two and pre-heat your oven accordingly to 375˚F.  Brush the loaves with the egg wash and sprinkle seeds, sugar, salt, or other toppings as needed and bake for about 35 minutes, turning the loaves half way during the bake.

Let cool and enjoy!

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Pain Au Levain with Whole Wheat

bread-finalWhen it comes to making bread, one of the things I really enjoy is trying to make it LOOK good as much as I enjoy making it taste good.  This bread is packed with a little bit of rye flour, a little bit more whole wheat flour, and the rest is AP or bread flour.  Paired with fairly low hydration, this combination of ingredients make a nice looking, easy to shape delicious loaf.

Jeffrey Hamelman is somewhat of a superstar these days.  Not only is he the man behind the bakery at King Arthur’s home bakery his book is also well reviewed and award winning.  The recipes in this book are available in three versions, one for commercial quantities in metric, another commercial size batch in imperial, and one for the home baker.  As a home baker I just take the commercial quantity and divide by 100 to get my weights in grams.

This recipe starts with building a stiff levain with rye and whole wheat, which is then added to your final dough.  This bread is a little less hydrated than most and I deviated a bit from the recipe by adding about 20g more water than what the book calls for.  My loaves ended up being crusty with a nice soft interior and good crumb.

[ezcol_1half]bread-levain[/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]bread-shaped[/ezcol_1half_end]

This recipe is based on Jeffrey Hamelman’s “Bread – A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes”

Levain:

  • 145g AP flour
  • 10g rye flour
  • 90g water
  • 30g mature starter

Final Build:

  • 605g AP flour
  • 200g whole wheat
  • 40g rye flour
  • 580g water
  • 18g salt
  • 250g levain
  1. Mix the levain and let it mature for 8-12 hours.
  2. When the levain is ready, mix the flours and add most of the water, reserving some for later.  Mix and let autolyse for 15 minutes.
  3. Break up the levain and add it to the mixture, mix and knead until well incorporated. Add the remainder of the water.
  4. Add salt and knead until well incorporated.
  5. Add a little more water if desired and knead until fully incorporated.
  6. Transfer the dough to a bowl and cover.  After 30 minutes stretch and fold the dough.  Repeat this two more times at 30 minute intervals.
  7. After an hour and a half of rest and stretching and folding, let the dough proof for another hour and a half to 3 hours.
  8. Divide the dough and pre-shape, then shape as desired.
  9. Proof for an hour and a half at room temperature or up to 12 hours in the fridge.
  10. Add your baking stone to the oven and pre-heat the oven to 450˚F
  11. When the oven is ready, bake under steam for 15 minutes.  Rotate after 15 minutes and let bake another 20-30 minutes until done.

bread-final2

submitted to YeastSpotting

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Oatmeal and Rye Sourdough

oatmeal and ryeIt’s been warm here in Central PA for the last few weeks so it’s a wonder that I concocted this recipe.  Oatmeal and Rye make me think that it would pair well with hearty soups or stews but, as it turns out, this light and tangy bread is a nice companion to PB&J, butter, eggs, or just about anything else.  The flavors are pretty subtle but definitely there.  It’s certainly a bread whose recipe I’ll keep around and I’ll probably try it again this winter, maybe with a hearty soup!

To make this loaf, I started with my mature levain, which is just a 100% hydration AP flour starter.  I added 25g of it to 100g of rye flour and 100g of King Arthur AP flour, resulting in what I dub the yin-yang starter for the weak AP flour and the strong rye.

starter

I then added enough water to make it a 100% hydration starter, or 225g.  After about 10 hours my starter was alive, bubbly, smelling healthy, and looking good!

rye starter

I then proceeded as follows.

  • 350g of the starter
  • 600g of KA AP flour
  • 100g of freshly milled oat flour
  • 425g of water
  • 25g of salt

Mix all the ingredients together and let sit for 30 minutes.  Stretch and fold every 30 minutes for the first 3 hours per the Tartine book method.  After the last stretch and fold, divide the dough and preshape.  Let the dough relax and shape, then place in your proofing basket.  I put my loaves in the refrigerator overnight but you could let it rise for another 2-3 hours and bake right away.  It was hot in our kitchen so I decided to wait until it was a bit cooler the next day.

  • Preheat your oven to 450°F.
  • Turn your proofed loaf on to a peel and slash the bread as desired.
  • Cook under steam for the first 15 minutes and complete without steam until done, roughly 30 minutes more.

 

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15% Whole Wheat Sourdough Table Loaf

whole wheat table loafFor this inaugural post, I thought it would be fitting to share with you something that is a little bit of me.  I have worked on this bread formula for a little while and at this moment in time, is my ‘go-to’ bread.  I make it often and the family loves it, so it this post is about my 15% whole wheat sourdough table loaf.

In future posts I will talk about creating and maintaining your own sourdough starter if you don’t already have one (you should!) but this assumes you already have a starter.

I am not great at master formulas yet so this post will be elementary in nature.  The more I write the more I’ll challenge myself to be more formal with bread recipes in these tutorials but for now, this will work.

I keep my starter in the fridge so the morning before I want to use it, I take it out and give it a feeding.  I’ll go to work and sometime that evening I’ll feed it again before going to bed.  The next morning I’ll give it one more feeding and to make sure I have enough starter for the bake and head off to work.

When I come home and the kids are all settled I’ll get my act together and mix things together and start the making process.

[ezcol_1third]First Feeding[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third]Second feeding of sourdough starter[/ezcol_1third] [ezcol_1third_end]Dough is ready to go after 2 feedings![/ezcol_1third_end]

This is what my process is like for making two 750g loaves of 15% whole wheat sourdough at 70% hydration.

  1. Weigh out 250g of starter on to a big bowl
  2. Add about 100ml of water and dissolve the starter
  3. Add 615g of King Arthur all purpose flour
  4. Add 130g of Whole Wheat flour
  5. Add remainder of water, roughly 380ml and stir until everything is wet and you can’t stir with a wooden spoon
  6. Use your hands and make sure everything is mixed and happy, then cover with a dish towel and let it get happy (i.e. autolyse) for about 30-45 minutes.
  7. After the autolyse, add 25g of salt and mix with your hands until you can feel the salt granules become saturated and absorbed by the dough.
  8. Pick the mass up with both hands and stretch it, knead it on the counter, and repeat for just a minute or two until you can form it in to a rough ball like this:Rough ball of dough
  9. Cover it and let it sit for 30 minutes.
  10. For the next hour and a half, remove the cover and do a series of “stretch and folds” every half hour so the dough develops a good amount of strength.  After the first hour and a half, I cover the dough and put it in the fridge until the next day.  If you plan to bake same night, let it proof for another hour and a half before dividing the dough and shaping.
  11. My procedure is to let the dough proof overnight.  The following day I will divide and shape the dough and put it back in the fridge until an hour before I bake them.
  12. About an hour before baking, remove the bread from the fridge and let it come up to room temp.  At the same time, turn on your oven to 500F and put in a baking stone.
  13. When the oven is good and hot and you’re ready to bake, turn the bread out on to a floured peel and slash the bread.  Slide it on to the hot stone, spray some water on it, and cover it.  I use either a big aluminum bowl I got from Sam’s club or a heavy clay lid from my le cloche.
  14. Let it bake with the lid for about 15-20 minutes and remove the lid for the remaining 15-20 minutes.

Your finished product is a hearty hearth bread, made with 15% whole wheat and 70% hydration! Let it cool and enjoy!

[ezcol_1half]whole wheat table loaf[/ezcol_1half] [ezcol_1half_end]

sourdough egg sandwich

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