alfanso's blog

Felila posted a link to an article in the Washington Post newspaper on baking with a newly developed flour, Kernza.  During the summer I visited with a friend in Vermont who was gifted a small bag of Kernza flour, apparently promotional as the one pound bag has no markings on it other than the Land Institute logo and "Kernza Perennial Grain Flour".  Not even the weight of the contents.  And handed it over to me.  The bag was placed on the back burner, but Felila's posting had me commit to baking with it.

 Kernza is a very low gluten flour, and so requires a high protein flour to keep the final product from likely pancaking out.  I still had some King Arthur Bread Flour at 12.7% protein.  Enough to make the two levains and the first dough.  After that I relied on Gold Medal Bread Flour at a slightly lower protein, 12% for the final dough mix of the second bake.

I used the published formula, mostly, and it is a very wet 80.5% overall hydration dough.  The dough was quite "flabby", slack and unruly during the French Folds and subsequent Letter Folds due to it's hydration, and was initially sticky, the way rye flour can be, I wasn’t so pleased at handling it.  But over the course of a few hours it more or less settled down before being placed in retard for the night.  A morning divide and shape proved to be modestly less challenging, and I was pretty unsure as to how it would eventually bake up.  It turns out fine, but the flaccid nature of this dough, at least for hand mixing and then baguette shaping, is not all that pleasurable.

So I did it again today, the next day.  But this time I dropped the hydration down to 75%, which still made for a wet dough, but much more manageable.  And again, had a fine bake.

Changes I made to the published formula were to bump the pre fermented flour to 20%, and then to mostly ignore the author's steps, following my own compass instead.

Apparently the grain is quite expensive, and it tasted like nothing more than a similar profile Whole Wheat bread, maybe a tad sweeter.  So for right now I’d classify this as a boutique type of grain.  Whether it gains traction and becomes more accessible and affordable, we shall see.

The formula normalized for 1000g of flour

Both doughs were scaled out at 1200g.  All things being equal, I  don't see much difference in the final product, but I'd stay with the lower hydration version for ease of manipulation.

These are from the first, 80.5% hydration bake

And from the 75% hydration bake

and still kinda get away with it?  Answer - a lot.  

Background is rooted, but barely, in my recent enjoyment of an 80% PFF biga version.  I was refreshing the regularly neglected 75% mixed flour levain along with the workhorse 100% AP levain when I suddenly had this "brilliant" idea.  Why not change a few things at once so that I won't know what may have worked and what didn't?  

Things that changed, some not necessarily on purpose:

• 3 hour countertop autolyse became a 6 hour countertop autolyse, became an overnight retarded autolyse.
• 3 stage build of a 75% AP levain became an overnight retarded build on the 3rd stage. 
• Pushed the levain percentage in the dough from 20% to 40%.  Just because.
• Didn't allow retarded components to return to near ambient temperature. 
• Autolyse and levain went into the mixer at refrigerator temps, therefore ciabatta dough emerged from the mixer at near retard temps.  Not a good thing!  Don't try this at home without parental supervision.
• Prior to mixer, I did my standard 100 French Folds to the dough, with a 5 minute break halfway between.  The dough felt quite "mature" and ready for BF, but dropped it into the mixer anyway.  Probably shouldn't have and just gone straight to BF. 
• The very low dough temp. created a much longer Bulk Ferment than typical.
• Eliminated the olive oil and IDY from this run, 40% PFF levain be sufficient to compensate for the lack of a final IDY add.

Once the dough had BF'ed the remainder was biznez as usual, although my shaping should have been better.  I also must not have paid attention during the period in life whereby one learns to successfully eyeball a block of dough and get close to a three-way even divide.

Despite my dark thought that I had no idea what might or might not work due to myriad changes listed above, the bake came out just fine with two distinct differences.  The loaves took on a sheen that is pretty uncharacteristic for my own ciabatta bakes, but I like the look.  The other and odder difference is how closed the crumb is for a ciabatta.  

Considering how things were off during the process, I'm fine with the results however odd, and the bread is as tasty as ever.  I'd like to try this again with the obvious corrections applied.

1500g total, supposedly divided into ~500g each.  But we know that ain't the case, Sherlock.

Our building's A.M. is retiring at the end of this month and we wanted to give her something to take home in the most alfanso way.  Sesame Semolina and Ciabatta.  

My wife's contribution were her fabulous orange chocolate chunk meringue cookies.

Someone recently posted about their woes with their ciabatta having too much raw flour on them post-bake.  It doesn't have to be so, as can be seen on both the topside and underside.  I suspect that the OP is completely over-flouring them after the bulk ferment has completed.

happycat posted about his Yudane bake mere days ago.  I'd never heard of Yudane before but he mentioned that  it is another Tangzhong type of scald - typically for enriched breads, I would guess.  On the back burner for quite some time I still hadn't gotten around to baking with Tangzhong yet.  And then happycat posted his Yudane bake.  Time to give it a whirl. 

With the exception of his posting that 20% of the flour should be from the Yudane, I was flying blind on the formula.  So I decided to just construct something that seemed to be about "right", with 20% rye to go along with the remainder as AP flour.  20% pre-fermented flour from my AP levain as well.  Whole bunch of "20" going on here!

I've dealt with preferments that were a bit difficult to incorporate, and assuming this would meet that criterion, I added the Yudane to the water first and then broke it up best I could by squishing it between my fingers.  That seemed to do the trick and from then on it was smooth sailing.   The first 50 French Folds were stiff, but after the 5 minute covered rest, the final 50 were delightful.  By the first Letter Fold at minute 50 of the ~2 hr. BF before retard, the dough was completely pliable and extensible.  By the second LF my hands could feel the way the dough was developing further, this time with a loft much more present than at the first LF.

Not knowing what to expect, I'm pleased with what emerged from the oven.  The bread has a nice crunch to the dark-baked crust.  However, the crumb is surprisingly tight considering the significant oven spring - anything to do with the Yudane or just with me?  It was also too moist by the time I cut into it, an indication that the Yudane had perhaps corralled moisture that it wasn't ready to let go of by the time the crust had darkened.  My remedy for a next time would be to bake at a lower temperature for a longer bake allowing the crumb to dry out more. 

I am tasting something "different" from this bread, but unsure of what it is yet.  I don't know if the Yudane is taking responsibility.  As of this moment it doesn't seem to add such a significant flavor factor, however pleasing the overall taste is.

Far from a negative, for the first time out of the chute, I'm happy with the results.  And as usual, I've hopefully learned a thing or two about a thing or two for the next time.

 I have an ironclad rule to not peek in the oven door window during the steaming half of the bake, and it was only after that when I released the steam did I have my first peek at the bread.

410g x 3 baguettes/long batards.

Posted before as big batards, so first time out of the chute as baguettes.  

We were eating grilled pork chops with polenta a few evenings ago, and that reminded me of this bread that I'd made twice in succession back in Feb. for the first time.  

This time, aside from the baguette shape I rejected using the mechanical mixer instead opting for a hand mix.  

These "require" no autolyse, incorporating the cooled creamy polenta after the initial mix of F W S Levain and a 5 min rest.  50 French Folds after polenta incorporation, another 5 min rest and then 40 more FFs.  A 2.5 hr. Bulk Ferment with letter folds at 60 & 120 min.  Retard, divide, pre-shape and shape much later, then onto floured couche where they will shed a lot of moisture back in retard again.  

Bakes at 475dF with 15 min steam up front.  Formula is in the linked posting above.

A light sprinkling of cornmeal for the look and the eventual vacuuming them up off the floor.  These are baked dark to ensure the moisture is baked off and because I like them that way.  The crust is as crunchy as the day is long.  

310g x 4 baguettes/long batards 

Yes, posted before and guilty as charged!  However, I'm here to sing the praises of this extraordinary bread.  And can't think of a better way than to put it in front of your eyes again.  After these came out of the oven and cooled, and we'd had a few slices, I said to my wife - if I had only one bread that I would be able to bake forever, I think this would be the one.

Those who know what I've posted in the past know that I have a strong leaning toward both semolina/durum breads with sesame seeds and deli-like rye breads with caraway seeds.  Those could be leading candidates for the "forever bread" for me.  But I have the feeling that this particular bread right here is the Secretariat* of them all.

If you haven't yet gotten around to this dandy bread, I suggest that you do.  Most likely you will not be sorry.

310g x 4 baguettes/long batards.

Baked 13 minutes with steam, another 13-15 minutes after releasing steam and rotating loaves, and an additional 2 minutes of venting with the oven off.

I realized as I was assembling the components that I was out of sunflower seeds, but did have just enough pumpkin seeds on hand.  They worked out just fine.

*Secretariat was the greatest horse in USA racing history winning the American Triple Crown of racing in 1973 by the still incredible distance of 31 lengths.

Edit.  Crumb shot added.  This bread, like the Hamelman 5 Grain, is very hearty and so there really isn't a lot of place for me to coax a much more open crumb.  Others may very well be better at it, but getting a good open crumb has occasionally been an elusive skill. 

While in NY last month, I noticed this irresistible Sourdough Bread Making Kit in the window of a "health foods" store.  I resisted. 

We visited with my brother and sister-in-law last week in New Mexico.  Sandra wanted to bake a few different breads than those she had made before and wanted to try her hand, and taste buds, on these two.  I brought out much of the goods and formulas for her, and off she went...

Hamelman SD Seed Bread.

My version of Amy's Bread / Susan's Wild Yeast Semolina with pine nuts, fennel and golden raisins.

She wanted to mix and bake both concurrently.

The eastern view from their house.

The sunset view from their house.

 A pleasant time was had by all.

I'm infrequently in the habit of reposting breads from the past without a change of something or other.  However I can't seem to find any prior reference of mine on TFL of having posted this one here before.

The background: My initial levain, true and trusted friend all these years, was this 75% mixed flour affair, and from that grandpa sprouted all subsequents.  These past two years I seem to always bake with the 100% hydration AP levain, and occasionally work some other levain requirement off that.  

I've been ignoring my old friend, which my notes say was criminally last refreshed in Sept. 2020, and even then only as a recurring courtesy.  I didn't wish to take the minimal risk of refreshing that ancient and waylaid levain, so I did the unconscionable and sadly relegated it to its final resting place it, making a new two stage levain from my trusty 100% AP.

Looking to get the new gal off to a start, I found this WW Levain Baguette formula quietly sitting in my ever thickening looseleaf binder bursting with those compatriots I've made in the past.

I make it my duty to always post who was the original author or inspiration for all my breads, but I could find no reference to anyone other than me, so I guess this is the rare "original" alfanso.

A third build was in store to create my levain for this bread.  As there was no method associated with the formula, I just followed rote.  

• Autolyse all ingredients for 20 minutes,
• 50 French Folds, 5 minute rest, 50 FFs.  
• Oiled covered container for 2 hours with bench top Letter Folds at 40 & 80 minutes.   This dough was incredibly extensible.
• Retard for ~12-16 hours with shaping, then onto couche sometime around the halfway point.
• Bake in 460dF oven with steam for 13 minutes, remove steam, rotate loaves, bake 12 minutes more, 2 minutes venting at end.

The taste is hearty with 25% whole grains there is a slight tang and nose to the levain, something that infrequently comes through in my other bakes. 

310g x 4 baguettes/long batards

Two words I had never thought of stringing together before yesterday.  

But just for the fun of it I hand mixed the Bouabsa dough at its normal 75% hydration with it's quite low iDY at 0.16%.  Modifying the remainder of the method, the dough was BF'ed for ~100 minutes with "ciabatta-like" folds in the vessel at 30 60 & 90 minutes.  Then off to retard for ~20 hours.

Today the dough was pulled from retard and allowed to warm up for ~100 minutes.  Treating the dough as I would for ciabatta I emptied onto a floured surface, folded it in half alla Cyril Heitz and then shaped it as I do for the Scott MeGee version I adhere to, and couched seam side up.  A tad sloppy on the shaped ends.  45 minutes to prove and then stretched onto the baking peel.  15 minutes with steam at 480dF, then rotated for another 13 minutes and finished off with 2 minutes venting.

For a first time out of the gate I'm pretty pleased with this experiment.  The first two slices off the end yielded a tight crumb, which for even a Bouabsa baguette is unusual.  But the further into the loaf I cut, the more open the crumb became.  The crust carries the coloration that I crave.

Considering the minuscule amount of IDY I can't say anything bad about it.  My next bake will be the same but with a significant boost of IDY, but not nearly as much as a typical IDY ciabatta takes.  I should be able to better emulate a more traditional ciabatta dough with more oven spring.  At that point it will no longer be a Bouabsa ciabatta, rather a Boufanso ciabatta.

500g x 2 ciabatta loaves

"Ciabatta are like geodes, their true beauty is hidden until you slice them.".  Don, our superb baker MTloaf, provided this wise comment recently.  

Lately I've been on a ciabatta reign of baking terror, starting last month with the Kingdom Bakery version a pair of times.  Then returned to my levain version of Scott MeGee's ciabatta.  Most recently moved back to my biga version of same.  With 40% PFF at 66% hydration, I've had good results with these.

However, tinker I must and decided to double the PFF to 80% for the biga while maintaining the same 66% hydration.  Only once before had I used such a high percentage of PFF - a few years ago with Abel Sierra's 90% PFF very very stiff biga (think Piergiorgio Giorilli's ciabatta), but that was for his boule formula.  The major differences in those two bigas vs. this 66% hydration biga are the simpler initial biga mixing, shorter maturation time and ultimately a much much easier handling preferment and incorporation into the final dough.  This biga triples in about 12 hours, so the growth is easy to judge.

And I have to say that the dough felt better at every step of the way.  The first change noticed was a big one - during the mixing phase. 

Once all are incorporated I mix on high speed until I get a strong gluten development that slaps the sides of my 35 year old Kitchen Aid J-hook mixer's bowl.  This action may take somewhere about 15-17 minutes total with both the levain and biga versions, total time including the multiple stops to clear the sides of the bowl and the hook. With this 80% PFF mix, the entire phase including starts and stops, took just under 7 minutes.  Almost immediately I could see the gluten develop and when I emptied the mixer the dough strength was quite apparent.

All three folds in the tub indicated a stronger dough, as did the divide and shape.  The resultant bake showed a greater loft, few large holes, and a more delicate lighter sweeter crumb.  My taste-testing neighbor, an Italy born and raised gal, declared this version my best yet.  I might find it hard to disagree.

*With this 80% PFF version, the biga does not have to be chilled as the mixing friction is reduced greatly by the faster gluten development.

The lighting on this last picture is off, as the true color is more accurate on the previous pictures.

~500g x 3 ciabatta loaves