11/10 Cheesy Jalapeno Sourdough

Trying less water this time to make up for the oil and moisture in the cheese and jalapenos…

  • 380g water
  • 320g starter
  • 600g white bread flour
  • 200g wheat flour
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 1 1/2 cups shredded strong cheddar cheese
  • 1 large jalapeno pepper de-seeded (leave ribs in for hotness) and diced

We’ll bake 1 round at 425F for about 35 minutes (cloched the first 20) and 1 loaf in the machine for 1 hour

Post bake update: The pan loaf turned out great although next time we’re going to try 2 1/2 cups of cheese, maybe some Parmesan and 2-3 jalapenos. The times on both seemed just right and produced brown and tasty crust. The less seemed good too (so far, we’ve only cut into the machine loaf). I think his is going to be a favorite, especially once we perfect the recipe.

10/25 Sourdough and Cranberry Walnut breads

We made Sourdough with the 420/320/800 recipe, doing a 3 hour first rise and a 4 hour second rise. We also made the Cranberry Walnut bread from the Zojirushi cookbook. It didn’t have much sugar and just a few walnuts and dried cranberries but it was pretty good. The sourdough turned out great. 30 minutes for the round and 35 for the loaf as usual.

 

10/23 More Sourdough – Recipe 420

We tried a new recipe today:

  • Water: 420 g
  • Starter: 420 g
  • Flour: 800 g (600/200 white/wheat)
  • Salt: 2 tsp
  • Sugar: 2 tbsp

This makes 2 loaves. We’re baking at 425. We did a 3 hour proof in the bread machine and then a 4 or 5 hour proof in the loft (probably a little long). The round took 30 minutes in the cloche (15 with the cover on) and the loaf took 35. This time we did not preheat the cloche. Not sure it matters. We’ve been creating steam for the loaf with ice in a preheated pan on the bottom shelf and by spraying the pan and sides of the oven with a squirt bottle.

 

10/21 Best looking loaves yet!

We’ve been baking some good bread lately. Our current house recipe is:

  • Water: 420 grams
  • Starter: 320 grams
  • White flour: 600 grams
  • Wheat flour: 200 grams
  • Salt: 2 tsp
  • Sugar: 2 tbsp

We let the bread machine knead the dough with the following settings:

  • Rest: 10:00
  • Knead: 20:00
  • Shape: Off
  • Rise 1: 3:00
  • Rise 2: 2:00
  • Rise 3: 2:00
  • Bake: 0:00
  • Keep Warm: OFF

The dough can be pulled at any time. For this batch we made the dough last night and put it in the fridge overnight for a long slow proof. This morning we pulled it out and let it warm a bit. We then punched it down, warming it a little more with our hands. I think we may put it back in the machine for a faster warm up and punch down next time. (Rest 10:00, Knead 2:00, Shape: ON). We then cut it in half, placing half in our boule proofing basket and the other half in our large pyrex loaf pan. We baked them one at a time at 425 F. The round we baked 20 minutes covered and another 10 minutes uncovered. For the pan loaf we put a pan on the lower shelf and misted it with water and added a few ice cubes, creating steam in the oven. After 30 minutes the internal temperature was only 160 degrees even though the crust was brown so we let it go another 5. So the boules take 30 and the loafs 35. We are also preheating our cloche now. Our rounds have been coming out much nicer since we started putting some flour on the outside of the dough ball before shaping it and heavily dusting the proofing baskets and loaf pans.

 

 

10/18 Olive Sourdough

Another Olive loaf attempt today. We went with the Irish Guy’s recipe (less 30 grams of water) and added 1 cup of sliced olives.

For two loaves kneaded in bread machine:

  • White Bread Flour: 600 g
  • Wheat Flour: 200 g
  • Water: 430 ml (~430 g) (down from 460 g)
  • Salt: 10 g
  • Starter: 320 g
  • Sliced/chopped olives 1 cup
  • Rest: 10:00
  • Knead: 25:00
  • Shape: OFF
  • Rise 1: 3:00
  • Rise 2: 200 (optional, usually remove after punch-down)
  • Rise 3: OFF
  • Bake: OFF
  • Keep Warm: OFF

Add the olives for the last five minutes of kneading. Cut  in half, shape two loaves and let rise another 3-4 hours. Bake in the cloche with the cover on for 20 minutes (or some means of steaming) at 450 F. Then uncover and bake another 15-30 minutes depending on ingredients.

We’ve been looking at different recipes. Here are a few…

400 g (3 + 1/2 cups) bread flour
10 g (2 tsp) salt
200 g (3/4 cup) warm water
300 g (1 + 1/2 cups) sourdough starter (100% hydration)
4-5 ounces black olives (preferably Kalamata, pitted and chopped in large pieces – roughly 1 cup, loosely packed)

BLACK OLIVE SOURDOUGH BREAD

 

10/12 more Sourdough!

We made white sourdough last night and today we’re making wheat bread with 300 grams wheat flour and 500 grams white flour (ok, not whole whole wheat). Yesterday we went back to our pyrex loaf pan (small one) and again today (big one better). Yesterday we baked the second half in the bread machine and tonight we’ll bake a round in addition to a pyrex loaf. We did a very long second proof. I’m thinking 5-6 hrs upstairs in the heat. We are definitely not catching it on the rise. We’ll have to play with a 2nd punchdown (3 proofs to coax out the sourness. Oh we’re also thinking of trying a new recipe with 400 grams starter, 750 grams flour and 400 grams of water. Last night we baked the loaf for 31 minutes and it barely made 195 degrees. That seemed to cut it close as the inside seemed just barely done. Maybe we’ll make 35 with the wheat. Yikes we didn’t make it 30 and it started to burn on top. We pulled it and it read 297 so I think we’re ok but we’re going to reduce our oven to 400 degrees. I don’t know if it’s our oven or what but they are baking too fast.

We also want to try some tricks Barbara read about like throwing ice into the hot pan instead of boiling water. Something about spraying a mist of water inside (on the walls?) to create more steam. I think we’ll try a new recipe called the Three Four Hundreds. 400 grams starter, 400 grams water and 750 grams of flour. We’ll stick with 2 tsp of salt and 2 tbsp of sugar and bake it all at … you guessed it, 400 degrees. So we now have our first 400 degree, cloched boule in the oven for 15 minutes with the cover and …. yikes, well we baked it for an hour because it wasn’t browning. Maybe 400 is too low. OK, back to 425 I guess. Barbara liked the round. She likes the crust and the wheat. Me, not so much. Maybe do the loaves at 400 and the rounds at 425. Ugh.