recipe

Peanut Butter & Jelly Babka

Since this is the year of the babka, I have taken it upon myself to discover new ways of enjoying this wonderful treat. Last time, the cinnamon bun babka was so good it didn’t last more than a day. This one didn’t last too much longer before it was all gone! This recipe makes 2 babkas, one for you and ~~another one for you~~ one to share.

Most of the time for me, it’s all about the process. The babka making process is fairly therapeutic. The dough is easy to work, it’s easy to shape, it’s just a stress-free pleasure trip. This babka is the epitome of a comfort food. It has the PB&J flavor while not being overly sweet. If, for some reason, the babka ends up at room temp put it in the toaster for a reheat and enjoy!

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This recipe yields two 9 inch Babka’s and is best done in a two step process. The first step is to make the dough, then it goes in the fridge for a few hours so that it is easier to roll and cut once it’s filled.

Dough

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Filling

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Glaze

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Process
In a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook, add all the dry ingredients. Heat milk to 100˚F and add to the mixer and stir gently. Add the yeast and stir until it’s incorporated as much as possible. Add the melted butter and the two eggs and mix gently until it’s a nice smooth ball, maybe 5 minutes tops.

Cover the mixing bowl with plastic and let it proof, undisturbed, for about an hour to 90 minutes.

Quickly turn the dough in to a ball and cover with plastic wrap that’s been sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.

Place in the fridge for up to 48 hours.

When you are ready to cook, get your baking pans ready and spray with non-stick cooking spray and pre-heat oven to 400˚F.

Make your glaze:
Put jelly and water in a small saucepan and bring to a low boil. Mix the water and the jelly and add the sugar. Boil until sugar is fully dissolved. Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer to another container where it can cool for about 20 minutes.

Remove the dough from the fridge. On a lightly floured surface divide your dough in two. Roll our the dough in to a large rectangle that’s just slightly longer than your baking pan. Spread the peanut butter all over the dough, leaving a small margin. Tightly roll your dough and cut the babka down the middle. Twist and braid the babka and transfer to your baking pan. See the video to see how I do it.

Once both babkas are ready to bake, use a pastry brush and generously spread the jelly glaze all over the tops of your babkas.

Place in the oven in the middle rack and cook for 40-50 minutes, rotating the babkas every 15 minutes to promote even cooking.

6.11.15 By nick Leave a Comment

Black Pepper Yeasted Loaf

Everyone bakes for a reason. For some people it’s to literally put bread on the table. For some it’s a fun way to spend a few hours. For me, however, it’s about expressing my creativity in a form that is hopefully enjoyable and sometimes unexpected. Take this week’s bake, for example. I started out with just a few spare hours and ended up with something I had never baked or seen before.

Most of the time, before baking, I like to research a loaf and learn what others have done to achieve a successful bake. Be it extended fermentation in the refrigerator or spritzing the loaf with water before baking, there’s always something to be learned from others. That’s why I surprised even myself when I decided to just “wing it” with this bake.

Since my starter hadn’t been refreshed yet, I decided to make a nice loaf with a tad of black pepper for a little extra ‘oomph’. After baking and tasting it, I thought “wow, that’s not too bad! I bet others have tried this too.” After going online and looking it up, I did see a few variations (which look amazing, and even better!) of a sourdough loaf with thyme and black pepper. I might have to try those next time but for now, this is how this loaf came together.

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This is a loaf that can be put together and ready to serve in less than 4 hours – I call this a ‘relatively quick’ bread and will file it under ‘easy’.

Ingredients:

500g ap flour
300g water
50g apple juice
1 tbs black pepper
1.5 tsp sugar
1 tsp active dry yeast
t tsp salt

Procedure:

Combine the flour, water, juice, sugar and the yeast and mix until incorporated. Let sit for 5 minutes and mix in the salt & pepper.
Place the dough in a bowl and cover until the dough roughly doubles in size, about an hour-ish.
Remove the dough and place it on a lightly floured surface and pre-shape the dough. Let it rest for 5 minutes to allow the dough to relax a bit.
Turn on your oven and pre-heat to 425˚F
Shape you dough and place it in your proofing basked and let the dough proof for another 45 minutes or so.
When your dough and the oven are ready, turn the dough on to a floured peel, score, and load the bread in the oven.
Turn the bread after about 20 minutes and let it finish baking, another 15-20 minutes.
Let cool and enjoy!

2.10.15 By nick Leave a Comment

Sourdough Challah

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.

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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!

11.08.15 By nick Leave a Comment

Pain Au Levain with Whole Wheat

When 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.

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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

Mix the levain and let it mature for 8-12 hours.
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.
Break up the levain and add it to the mixture, mix and knead until well incorporated. Add the remainder of the water.
Add salt and knead until well incorporated.
Add a little more water if desired and knead until fully incorporated.
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.
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.
Divide the dough and pre-shape, then shape as desired.
Proof for an hour and a half at room temperature or up to 12 hours in the fridge.
Add your baking stone to the oven and pre-heat the oven to 450˚F
When the oven is ready, bake under steam for 15 minutes. Rotate after 15 minutes and let bake another 20-30 minutes until done.

submitted to YeastSpotting

3.08.15 By nick Leave a Comment

Oatmeal and Rye Sourdough

It’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.

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!

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.