Benito's blog

I wanted to see how replacing 25% of the flour with whole red fife might affect the rise and the quality of this milk bread compared to my previous recent bake.  I thought 25% was a good place to start and if this is good I’d consider increasing that whole grain portion to 50-75%.  Whole red fife is actually a nice mild whole grain flavour without any of the bitterness I associate with some whole wheats.  Although it has good gluten potential, which you can feel while doing folds during bulk, it is fermentation intolerant.  I suspect this is due to high natural amylase levels in this particular grain so I would generally avoid adding any diastatic malt to it.  Now in this bread I wasn’t too worried about gluten degradation because I fully developed the gluten upfront and I eliminated the overnight cold retard also hoping to reduce any sour tang that an overnight cold retard might add.

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I included the photo above to illustrate something I’ve learned.  When you’re placing the rolls of dough into your pan, if you alternate the directions of the rolls, it can help get a better rise.  I believe it helps, have a look at my previous bake and the current one today.

For one loaf 9x4” Pullman pan 

Ingredients

Sweet Stiff Starter 

• 53g bread flour 

• 24g water 

• 18g light brown sugar 

• 18g sourdough starter ~100% hydration 

Tangzhong classic 1:5 ratio

• 89g milk 

• 18g Whole red fife flour   

Dough Dry Ingredients 

• (252g) bread flour or 222 g and use 30 g to mix with butter

      · 108 g whole red fife       

• 59g sugar

• 7g salt 

Dough Wet Ingredients 

• 149g milk (increased by 10 g for the whole wheat)

• 59g egg beaten (about 1 ⅕ of a large egg)

• 67g butter softene but do not melt.  Combine with 30 g of flour to make easier to add to dough.

Total flour = 431 g

Total weight 899 g

Pre-bake Wash 

• 1 egg beaten

• 1 Tbsp milk

Post-bake Wash 

• 1 Tbsp butter

Instructions

Starter 

Mix the starter ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 50% growth.

Press down with your knuckles to create a uniform surface and to push out air. This reduces drying and allows you to see actual CO2 aeration over time.

At room temperature, it typically takes 7-9 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.

Dough 

In the bowl of a stand mixer, briefly whisk the dry dough ingredients, and then add the sweet stiff starter, separating it into 5-6 portions as you add it to the bowl.

Now pour/scrape in all the wet ingredients (including the tangzhong), with the melted butter last. With the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed for a minute, scrape down the sides, and then mix on medium speed for 15-20 minutes. The dough will seem very soft, but as you approach the 15-20 minute mark, it should not stick to your hands and should pass the windowpane test.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, form it into a ball, flip it smooth side up, cover and let rise for 6-12 hours depending on room temperature. If you refrigerate the dough, plan for longer rise times. See photo gallery for approximate dough expansion during the bulk fermentation.  I placed the dough into the fridge to chill the dough for about 1.5 hours, this makes rolling the dough easier.

Prepare your pans by greasing them or line with parchment paper.

Scrape the dough out onto a clean counter top. Lightly flour the bench. Press the dough into a rectangle and divide it into four.  Shape each tightly into a boule, allow to rest 5 mins.  Using a rolling pin roll each ball out and then letterfold.  Turn 90* and using a rolling pin roll each out to at least 8”.  Roll each into a tight roll with some tension.  Arrange the rolls of dough inside your lined pan alternating the direction of the swirls.  This should allow a greater rise during proof and in the oven.

Cover and let proof for 2-4 hours (more if you put the dough in the refrigerator).  I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350F and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.

Bake the loaves for 50 minutes or until the internal temperature is at least 190F. Cover if your loaf gets brown early in the baking process.  After 50 mins remove the bread from the pan and bake a further 5 mins by placing the loaf directly in the oven on the rack.  If you loaf is super tall like mine was, I gave it another 7 mins with the oven turned off to really ensure that the side crust was firm enough to hold its shape.  You can brush the top of the loaf with butter if you wish at this point while the bread is still hot.

After the bread is completely cooled, store it in a plastic bag at room temp for a week or longer.

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This is the bread I am going to bring our friends who we are seeing for the first time in over a year.  They do seem to prefer a softer bread so what better than a sourdough Hokkaido milk bread with Tangzhong.  This is the second time I am making this bread and I hope they enjoy it.

The recipe that follows is for a 9”x4”x4” Pullman pan open.

Ingredients

Sweet Stiff Starter 

• 53g bread flour 

• 24g water 

• 18g light brown sugar 

• 18g sourdough starter ~100% hydration 

Tangzhong classic 1:5 ratio

• 89g milk (adjusted down to 1:5 ratio from original)

• 18g bread flour   

Dough Dry Ingredients 

• 360g bread flour or 330 g and use 30 g to mix with butter

• 59g sugar

• 7g salt 

Dough Wet Ingredients 

• 139g milk 

• 59g egg beaten (about 1 ⅕ of a large egg)

• 67g room temperature butter

Total flour = 431 g

Total weight 899 g

Pre-bake Wash 

• 1 egg beaten

• 1 Tbsp milk

Post-bake Wash 

• 1 Tbsp butter

Instructions

Starter 

Mix the starter ingredients in a jar or pyrex container with space for at least 100% growth.  At room temperature, it typically takes 7-9 hours for this sweet stiff levain to be at peak.

Tangzhong 

In a sauce pan set on med-low heat, whisk the milk and flour until blended. Then cook for several minutes until thickened, stirring regularly with a spoon or heat-resistant spatula. Let cool in the pan or, for faster results, in a new bowl.

In the meantime, mix butter with 30 g of flour, this will make the butter much easier to incorporate into the dough for mixing by hand or by machine.

Dough 

Mix the following in a bowl, milk, egg(s), sugar, salt, tangzhong and stiff levain to combine and dissolve/breakup the stiff levain.  Add bread flour and knead until good gluten development.  Then gradually add the butter flour mixture until fully combined and full gluten development.  The dough should pass the windowpane test.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, form it into a ball, flip it smooth side up, cover and let rise for 6-12 hours depending on room temperature. If you refrigerate the dough, plan for longer rise times.  I did cold retard for 26 hours.

Prepare your pullman pan by greasing it or lining it with parchment paper.  Transfer the dough to the countertop and divide into four equal parts rounding each into a small boule.  One by one roll each dough ball into a long rectangle and do a letterfold.  Turn 90* then roll out again into a long rectangle.  Finally, roll into a tight roll.  Once you have rolled each dough ball into a roll place them into the pullman pan so that their swirls alternate.

Cover and let proof for 2-4 hours (more if you put the dough in the refrigerator).  I proof until the top of the dough comes to within 1 cm of the top edge of the pan.

Preheat the oven to 350ºF and brush the dough with the egg-milk wash.  Just before you place the dough into the oven brush again with the egg-milk wash.

Bake at 350ºF for 50 mins rotating halfway through.  Keep an eye on the crust and be prepared to shield it if it is getting too dark.  After 50 mins of baking take the bread out of the pan and place it back into the oven for another 5 mins to crisp up the crust.  Remove from oven and let cool on a rack.  Enjoy!

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This babka recipe is by Maurizio Leo I’ve made few changes to it except that I added a small pinch of IDY because this dough can be very very slow to ferment and I didn’t want the dough to be too sour if it took that long to proof.

I did not do an overnight cold retard instead retarding only for about 1.5 hours to make the dough cooler for ease of rolling.

Vitals

Total Formula

Dough Mix

My final dough temperature for this dough was 76°F (24°C).

2. Mix

Before mixing, take out the butter called for in the recipe and cut it into 1/2″ pats. Let it sit at room temperature until called for.

I used my KitchenAid stand mixer to mix this dough. To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook attachment, add the mature levain, flour, whole milk, large eggs, salt, and half of the sugar. Set the mixer to low and mix until everything is incorporated. Let the dough rest, uncovered, for 10 minutes.

After the 10 minute rest, turn the mixer up to medium and mix for 5 minutes until the dough starts to pull from the sides of the mixing bowl. At this point, slowly stream in the remaining sugar while the mixer is running. Mix for another 1-2 minutes until the dough comes back together.

With the mixer still set to medium, add the room temperature butter, one pat at a time, waiting to add the next until the previous is absorbed into the dough. It might take around 5 minutes to mix all the butter into the dough. After all of the butter is added, continue mixing for another few minutes until the dough smooths out and once again begins to cling to the dough hook. The dough should be almost fully developed at this point (it won’t completely pass the windowpane test, but almost).

Transfer the dough to a container for bulk fermentation, cover, and keep somewhere warm—78-80°F (26-27°C)—in your kitchen for bulk fermentation.

3. Warm Bulk Fermentation – 2 hours. (or longer, as needed)

During this time, give the dough 2 sets of stretch and folds where the first set is 30 minutes after the beginning of bulk fermentation and the second set is 30 minutes after the first. After the second set, let the dough rest, covered, until the next step.

4. Cold Bulk Fermentation – (next day)

Assess the dough: has it risen a little in the bowl during the warm bulk fermentation? It should be a little puffy and smoothed out. If it looks like there’s no activity at all, give the dough another 30 minutes to 1 hour and check again.

Once you see some rise in the dough, place the covered bulk fermentation bowl into the refrigerator overnight.

Same day option: 

I much prefer making this over the course of two days, but you could make this all in one day: let the dough finish bulk fermentation for 2-3 hours on the counter. When the dough has risen around 50% and feels puffy, proceed with the rest of the steps below. However, I do recommend placing the dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour after this warm bulk fermentation to chill before rolling out!

5. Roll, freeze, cut, and shape 

Before taking the dough out of the refrigerator, make the fillings, if making jam prepare a day ahead to allow it to cool.

Divide the dough into two, shape tightly into balls.

On a lightly floured surface roll one dough ball into large rectangle 16” x 12”, first spread half of the jam, cocoa, butter mixture on, then sprinkle half of the chopped chocolate sugar mixture.  Roll into a tight roll then transfer onto a cookie tray.  Repeat for the other dough.

Important: 

Place the rolled-up log on a baking sheet and place it into the freezer for 15 minutes (this makes it much easier to cut and braid).

After the 15-minute freezer rest, take the baking sheet out of the freezer and return the dough log to the counter. Using a sharp knife, cut the log to split open the log from one side to the other. Pinch the two top halves together and braid the dough one strand over the other. At the bottom, pinch the two halves together again. Don’t worry if filling spills out or things get messy — it’s all good.

After the dough is braided, pick up the braid and place it on the parchment right in the middle, then pick up the sides of the parchment and lift the dough up and drop it into the pan.

Cover the pan and place it somewhere warm, ideally, 78-80°F (26-27°C), to proof.

6. Proof 

This dough can be slow to rise at this point. Give it the time it needs to rise up to about 1/2″ below the rim of the Pullman pan. For me, at 78°F (26°C), it took about 3.5 hours. See the image below for how high my dough filled my pan.

7. Bake 

Preheat your oven with the rack in the middle to 350°F (176°C) — no fan assist (no convection). When the oven is preheated and the babka dough is fully proofed, place the pan on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (to catch any sugar spilling over). In a small bowl, whisk together one whole egg and 1 Tbsp water and brush a thin layer of the egg wash on the top of the dough. Then, slide the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 55  minutes until the center of the babka reaches 200°F (93°C) then leave in oven with the oven off for another 5 mins.. Keep an eye on the babka in the last 10 minutes of the bake, if it’s coloring too quickly drop the temperature to compensate.

Once out of the oven brush a layer of the raspberry syrup on the babka.

Raspberry Jam

400 g frozen raspberries

425 g sugar (should reduce a bit more still very sweet)

½ lemon juice

Mash together raspberries and sugar in a saucepan on medium heat.  On sugar dissolved add juice of ½ lemon.  Gradually bring to a boil.  The jam should reach 221ºF for the pectin in the lemon juice to thicken the jam if not using jam sugar.

For the Filling 

• 3/16 cup raspberry jam
• 1 tbsp. cocoa powder
• 1 tbsp. unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 4 oz. 113.4 g bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped 
• ⅛ cup sugar

Syrup

• 1⁄8  cup sugar
• ½ cup fresh raspberries, mashed
• 1 tbsp water

Make the filling: 

Combine jam and cocoa powder in a small bowl; using your fingers, add butter until moist and crumbly and set jam mixture aside. Combine chocolate and 1⁄8 cup sugar in a bowl; set chocolate mixture aside.

The jam mixture is the first to be spread on the rolled out dough, then the chocolate sugar mixture is sprinkled on top.

Make the syrup: 

Combine raspberries, remaining 1⁄8 cup sugar, and 1 tbsp. water in a 2-qt. saucepan over high; reduce heat and simmer until sugar has dissolved, 1–2 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand 10 minutes; strain through a fine mesh sieve, discarding solids

This is a 60% whole Kamut 80% hydration sourdough loaf I put together testing what I believe works well for pH guided dough development.

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Because I didn’t do an overnight saltolyse I did add 0.5% (2.48g) diastatic malt to the dough at the time of wet aultolyse.  By wet autolyse I mean I mix all the water with all the whole Kamut and diastatic malt without the salt, bread flour or levain.  The idea here is that I want to quickly hydrate the bran while also making it easier to add the stiff levain to this 1 hour later.  I believe this is working well for me although this bake is just the second time trying it.

The overnight levain was cool room temperature fermented with a low hydration of 60% to ensure that it wasn’t overfermented by the morning.  The pH of the levain at the time of use was 4.04 and had risen almost 4x.

After the 1 hour wet autolyse I added the levain and salt mixing it in the wet batter like slurry of the dough.  Once well incorporated which took like time, I add the bread flour and mixed until no dry flour remained.  After a ten minute rest I reassessed the dough and added the hold back water and mixed.  After another ten minute rest slap and folds were done to moderate gluten development (700).  pH at this point was 5.42

At 30 minute intervals first a bench letter fold was done, then three coil folds until the dough felt strong and wasn’t relaxing.  This was done at warm room temperature of around 78-80ºF.  Bulk was ended at a pH of 4.47 corresponding to an aliquot rise of 50% and the dough was shaped and placed into a banneton and left to ferment further until a pH of 4.07 was reached.  At this time the aliquot jar showed >90% rise.  The dough was then placed in a 3ºC fridge and left to cold retard for 20.5 hours.  

The next day (19.5 hours later) the oven was preheated to 500ºF with the dutch oven inside.  After 1 hour when the oven was up to 500ºF the dough was removed from the banneton onto a sheet of parchment.  The pH at this point was 3.97 using my automatic temperature control pH meter.  Some of the rice flour was brushed off and the dough was scored.  The dough was transferred to the dutch oven and baked as usual.  20 mins at 450ºF lid on, then 10 mins 420ºF, then lid off 15 mins 420ºF.  

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This is the index for the bakes that I have posted in my blog.  I will keep it updated as I add new recipes or bakes.  The newest bakes will be at the top of the list.

Follow me on Instagram bread_md

My YouTube channel.

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25% Whole Red Fife Hokkaido Sourdough Milk Bread

Sourdough Hokkaido Milk Bread

Raspberry Chocolate Braided Sourdough Babka

60% Whole Kamut Sourdough

Blueberry Miso Crumble Cake

Tiger Stripe Neapolitan Ice Cream Sourdough

Danish Sourdough Rye Rugbrod - Southern Ground - Jennifer Lapidus

Seven Grain Porridge Sprouted Whole Wheat

Sourdough Ciabattas again

King Arthur yeasted burger buns

Blueberry Rhubarb Pie with Whole Red Fife Pastry

Brandy soaked blueberry toasted walnut spelt sourdough

Yorkville Sourdough Baguettes

Speck, Parmigiana Reggiano, Peach and Arugula Sourdough Pizza

pH guided dough development and baking decisions

Whole Einkorn Whole Red Fife Sourdough

Black and white sesame seed encrusted Yorkville Sourdough Baguettes

Hokkaido sourdough milk bread

100% semolina black and white sesame seed 83% hydration sourdough

Kamut Sourdough Baguettes 75% hydration

100% Semolina Black and White Sesame Seed Bee Striped Sourdough 81% hydration

Sun dried tomato pesto sourdough knots

Quadruple seeded country sourdough - pH and aliquot guided

Country Sourdough - aliquot jar and pH correlates

Marinated vegetables and mussels sourdough pizza

Purple Sweet Potato Black Sesame Tiger Stripe Sourdough Milk Bread

Triple seeded country sourdough

Miso Nori Sourdough

Black Sesame Seed Country Sourdough

Quadruple Seeded Country Sourdough

Matcha Anko Swirl Sourdough Milk Bread

Shisaido black sesame sourdough

Ichigo Daifuku (Strawberry Mochi)

Lemon Sugar Sourdough Rolls with Yuzu Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing

100% whole stoneground red fife take five!

Sesame Sourdough

Yuzu Lemon Cake

Sourdough Cha Siu Bao 叉燒麵包

Purple Sweet Potato Black Sesame Swirl Sourdough Milk Bread

100% whole red fife sourdough

10% Whole Kamut Sourdough Baguettes

Lazy 29% Whole Rye Sourdough Poppyseed Crusted Sandwich Loaf

Anko, Black Sesame Swirl Sourdough Milk Bread

100% whole wheat honey sourdough

Quadruple Seeded Country Sourdough

Southern Living Carrot Cake

Black Sesame 100% whole stoneground red fife sourdough

Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler

Greek Sourdough Focaccia take two

40% whole Kamut 40% whole spelt sourdough

Greek Sourdough Focaccia

75% whole stoneground red fife honey sourdough 85% hydration

Matcha, Black Sesame, Swirl Sourdough Milk Bread

Sour Cherry Raspberry Pie and half Palmiers

Black Sesame 40% Whole Kamut 85% hydration Sourdough Loaf

Irish Mist Soaked Sour Cherry Hazelnut Chocolate Chunk Cocoa Sourdough

Seven Grain Sourdough

Rum Soaked Apricot Toasted Walnut Sourdough

Sourdough Pizza

Benny’s Country Sourdough 80% hydration

Purple Sweet Potato Black Sesame Sourdough 84.5% hydration

Semolina CB - Benny’s Bakes

Matcha Black Sesame Sourdough Babka Wreath with Yuzu Glaze

Six Grain Sourdough (my riff on Hammelman’s Five Grain)

Maggie Glezer’s Sourdough Challah

My First Sourdough Focaccia

Red Miso Furikake (Sesame seeds and Nori) Sourdough

2020

Poppyseed Crusted Yorkville Sourdough Baguettes

Rum Soaked Cranberry Walnut Sourdough

Cardamon Sourdough Sticky Rolls

Poppyseed crusted Tangzhong Purple Sweet Potato Sandwich Loaf

Pompe å L’Huile

Cranberry Apple Rum Spiced Christmas Cake

Black Sesame Red Fife Sourdough

Sesame Seed Crusted Semolina Sourdough Baguettes

Eric’s Poppyseed NY Deli Rye Bread

Cranberry Orange Walnut Sourdough Babka

Tangzhong Sesame Seed Crusted Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Multigrain Sourdough Mini MIche

Sesame seed Crusted Purple Sweet Potato Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Poppyseed Crusted Purple Sweet Potato Sourdough Sandwich Bread

Ciabattas for CB

Country Sourdough Experiment No. 2

Marinated Vegetables, Pecorino Romano Cheese Sourdough Pizza

Chocolate Bouabsa Baguettes

Country Sourdough attempt No. 1

Poppyseed crusted Yorkville Sourdough Baguettes No. 2

Purple Sweet Potato Black Sesame Sourdough

Anis Bouabsa Sesame Seed Baguettes

Sundried Tomato Shallot Herbs de Provence Sourdough Boule

Poppy Seed Crusted Yorkville Baguettes

Cinnamon Spiced Rum Raisin Sourdough

Yellow Miso Furikake Sourdough

Sesame Semolina Sourdough Baguettes Set No. 2

Butter Mashed Potato Rosemary Black Pepper Sourdough

Sesame Semolina Baguettes au Levain no. 1

Kamut Sourdough 30%

Blueberry Rhubarb lattice crust pie

20% Kamut sourdough

Baguettes au Levain set no. 15

Blueberry Rhubarb Galette

Red Miso Toasted Black and White Sesame Seed Sourdough

Homemade Miso

13th set of baguettes au levain

Nectarine Blueberry Galette with all butter crust

Koji Rice Porridge Sourdough

25% Whole Red Fife Sourdough

Red Miso Furikake Sourdough

20% Kamut Sourdough

Einkorn Red Fife Sourdough No. 4

Einkorn Red Fife Sourdough No. 3

Einkorn Red Fife Sourdough Batard No. 2

Spelt, Red Fife and Rye Sourdough

Marinated Artichoke Olive Sourdough Pizza

My second set of baguettes

My first baguettes

Furikake 振り掛け / ふりかけ Sourdough Discard Crackers

Black and White Sesame Seed Sourdough

Sourdough Buttermilk Cheddar Biscuits - Recipe for Discard

Butterfly Pea Flower Sourdough

Tuna, Artichoke, Sun-dried Tomato, Onion, Mozzarella Sourdough Pizza

Smoked Cheddar Apple Sourdough

Double Olive Walnut Herbes de Provence Sourdough

Purple Sweet Potato Pecan Einkorn Sourdough No. 2

Scallion Sourdough Biscuits (using sourdough discard)

Purple Sweet Potato Pecan Einkorn Sourdough

Sweet Potato Walnut Pecan Einkorn Sourdough

Einkorn, Red Fife Sourdough No. 1

Spelt Red Fife Rye Soudough No. 4

Spelt, Rye and Red Fife Sourdough No. 3

Spelt, Red Fife and Rye Sourdough No. 2

Spelt, Red Fife and Rye Sourdough

Hamelman’ a Five Grain Sourdough

Cranberry Walnut Sourdough

Hawaiian Sourdough Pizza

2019

Sourdough Pain de Mie Maurizio’s Recipe

74% hydration soughdough

Cranberry Apple Bourbon Pie

Adjusting my methods for Sourdough loaf

Bravetart Apple Pie

Beginner’s Sourdough - Another time

Maurizio’s Beginner’s Sourdough - Again

Olive and Artichoke Marinade Sourdough Pizza

Sourdough Pizza - Balsamic Marinated Arugula, tomatoes, egg and avocado

Sesame and Flax Sourdough Crackers

Sunburst Bourbon Peach Melba Pie

Maurizio’s “Beginner Sourdough”

Seeded Sourdough

Tomato Sourdough Bread

Grana Padano Sesame Sourdough Crackers

Plumcot Ginger Pie with Whole Red Fife Crust

40% Whole Red Fife Sourdough

Sourdough Seed Culture

To celebrate my 365 d fermented homemade red miso I decided to try something I’ve never done before.  For ages I’ve seen recipes that use some miso in desserts so I decided to make this crumble cake that uses miso in the crumble topping.  Instead of the white miso is substituted my red miso and because it is much stronger than white I used only 2 tbsp of it in the crumble topping.  

If you’re curious about how to make miso from scratch this is the link to my post from a year ago.

CRUMBLE

¾ cup (94 g) whole wheat flour

½ cup (packed; 100 g) light brown sugar

4 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted

3 Tbsp. white miso

CAKE

1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted, slightly cooled, plus more for pan

1¾ cups (219 g) whole wheat flour, plus more for pan

1½ tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. baking soda

2 large eggs

1 cup (packed; 200 g) light brown sugar

1 cup plain whole-milk Greek yogurt

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 pint blueberries

(Zest of 1 lemon - my addition)

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT: A 9"- spring form pan 

CRUMBLE Mix whole wheat flour, brown sugar, butter, and miso in a small bowl to combine. Set aside.

CAKE Preheat oven to 350°. Butter pan, then lightly dust with whole wheat flour, tapping out excess. Whisk baking powder, salt, baking soda, and 1¾ cups whole wheat flour in a large bowl to combine. Whisk eggs, brown sugar, and yogurt in a medium bowl to combine. Add vanilla and 1 cup butter; whisk just to incorporate. Using a rubber spatula, mix in dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix, then gently fold in blueberries. Scrape batter into prepared pan and spread out evenly. Top with reserved crumble.

Bake cake, checking after 30 minutes and tenting with foil if crumble is getting very dark (some color is fine), until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 60–70 minutes. Let cake cool in pan at least 2 hours (so it firms up and is easier to slice).

DO AHEAD: Cake can be baked 3 days ahead. Store tightly wrapped at room temperature.

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I’ve been thinking about ice cream a lot lately since it has been so hot here in Toronto, really sticky humid.  Going back to my childhood where we never had a single flavour ice cream in the house, it was always Neapolitan because no one could agree on a flavor.  I was finally able to find freeze dried strawberries which is what I thought might work for the strawberry flavor and colour without adding too much liquid to the dough.  For chocolate I used alkalinized dark cocoa powder.  As I’ve done before I made one dough which is divided early on after French folding until full windowpane (I hand mix everything now).  To one divided dough I mix in the freeze dried strawberries which I processed to a powder and to the other I add the cocoa powder.  The three doughs are then rolled out, laminated and rolled out again.  Strips are cut, twisted and then the whole thing rolled up.

The following for baking in a 9 x 4 x 4” Pullman pan no lid 

11 g freeze dried strawberries process to a powder.

7 g dark cocoa powder (5%) with 10 g sugar

Overnight sweet levain

1:4:4

20 g starter 80 g water 80 g bread flour and 20 g sugar

fermented overnight at 70-72ºF 

The next morning mix the following except for the butter.

282 g bread flour i

1 large egg

30 g sugar

126 g skim milk

30 g 2% plain Greek Yogurt

8 g salt

180 g levain 

Total flour = 402 g

You will need an additional egg for an egg wash 

30 g room temperature butter. Take out first thing in the morning.

After the butter hass softened mix it with 30 g of flour because this will make the butter far easier to incorporate.

Mix until fully incorporated and then rest to allow the flour to fully hydrate 15 mins.  French folds until gluten fully developed.  Then gradually add the blended butter flour slapping and folding until smooth.

Shape into a ball and divide into approximate thirds.  Shape the largest third into a boule and set aside covered with a towel.

Take one dough ball and gradually add the strawberry powder, slap and fold until the strawberry is fairly even throughout the dough.

Take the final dough ball and gradually add the cocoa/sugar mix, slap and fold until the chocolate is even throughout the dough.

Lightly flour a work surface and the plain dough boule.  Roll out to at least 12” in length and almost as wide as the length of your pan, set aside.  Continue to do the same with the other two balls next rolling the strawberry dough out to 12” and placing that on top of the plain rolled out dough.  Finally rolling the chocolate dough out again to 12” and finally placing that on top of the strawberry dough.

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Using a ruler and pizza cutter, cut the dough into evenly wide strips about 1.5-2 cm wide along the length of the dough but leaving about 2-4 cm of dough uncut at the end furthest away from you.  When all the strips are cut, twist the strips in alternating directions, clockwise and then counter clockwise.  Once all the strips are twisted, roll the whole thing into a log starting furthest away from you getting a nice tight roll at the start.  Once rolled transfer to your pullman pan on a parchment sling with the ends of the strips at the bottom.

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At about 30 mins before you think your dough will be at 1 cm below the edge of the pan, preheat your oven to 355ºF with a rack or baking steel/stone on the lowest rack.  At this time prepare an egg wash and gently brush it on the top of the dough.  When the oven is ready 30 mins later, brush the top of the dough again with the egg wash.  Bake for 45 mins turning once halfway through.  Keep an eye on the top crust and be prepared to shield it with either aluminum foil or a cookie tray above if it is getting dark too soon.  After 45 mins remove from the pan to check for doneness.  Place the bread back in the oven for another 5 minutes to ensure that the crust on the sides is fully set and baked.

Remove from oven and place on a rack to cool completely before slicing.

The dough is in the proofer now and I’ll update this post when it is baked.

Benny

There have been quite a few posts lately regarding various rye breads, after finally getting my hands on a barley malt syrup, I decided I would try to bake one myself.  I had borrowed Southern Ground by Jennifer Lapidus and decided to try baking her Danish Rye bread since I had almost all the ingredients.  Being from the south of the US she includes sorghum syrup which I understand is common there, so I subbed the barley malt in for it.

Her recipe created a lot more levain than one needs, I didn’t check the calculations ahead of time and only realized that when the levain was being weighed, I’ve adjusted the recipe so there wouldn’t be any waste with future bakes. Her recipe was also for a 8x4” pan where I have a deep 9x4x4” Pullman so I think I would want to increase the final dough weight  even more than I already have in the future to get a slightly taller loaf.  That being said, it would be smart to actually taste this bread before baking it again in a larger size, I haven’t had a 100% rye bread in many many years so I don’t recall if I actually like them or not.

I wondered if I had underproofed the loaf given its short stature, but I think it would have torn as it baked if it was underproofed.  The final proof went much faster than the recipe estimated taking only 2h45min instead of the 4-8 hours.  When I saw a few holes appears on the top crust I started the oven and put the dough into the fridge to try to slow it down to avoid overproofing.  As always the crumb will be most important and I won’t slice it open until tomorrow afternoon at the earliest.

Because I keep such a small amount of starter I added a first stage levain build in order to make enough levain.  The ingredient weights for the 8x4” pan are from her book without adjustment other than adding the first stage.  The weights for the 9x4” pan are my adjusted to fit a 9x4” pan but not yet increased to make a larger/taller loaf.

YIELD: 1 (8 X 4-INCH) PAN LOAF

First stage 

10 g starter

40 g water

40 g whole rye flour

LEAVEN (8 TO 12 HOURS)

150g water

75g starter

100g whole-rye flour

SOAKER (8 TO 12 HOURS)

150g hulled pumpkin seeds

75g hulled sunflower seeds

100g cold water

DOUGH

100g warm water (about 85°F)

200g leaven

200g whole-rye flour

1½ teaspoons sorghum syrup or light molasses, I have barley malt

10g fine sea salt

soaker (above), drained

For 9x4x4” Pullman

First stage 

6 g starter

24 g water

24 g whole rye flour

LEAVEN (8 TO 12 HOURS) I’ve recalculated the levain so there isn’t waste.

106g water

52g starter

71g whole-rye flour

SOAKER (8 TO 12 HOURS)

169g hulled pumpkin seeds

87g hulled sunflower seeds

113g cold water

DOUGH

113g warm water (about 85°F)

226g leaven

226g whole-rye flour

1½ teaspoons sorghum syrup or light molasses, I have barley malt

11.3g fine sea salt

soaker (above), drained

I would increase the ingredients by 50% if you wanted to fill the Pullman. 

1. Make the leaven: Measure the water into a small clear container with a lid, such as a widemouthed 1-quart mason jar, then add the starter. Using a spoon or your fingers, break apart the starter into the water. Add the flour and mix until fully incorporated. Cover and let stand at room temperature for at least 8 to 12 hours (it’s possible to let it go even longer, say, 14 hours), until fully developed (see image on this page).
2. Make the soaker: In a container with a lid, stir together the sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, and cold water. Cover and let stand at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours, then drain and set aside.
3. Make the dough: Once the leaven is fully developed, measure the water into a large bowl, then add the leaven and dissolve it in the water, breaking it apart with your fingers. Add the flour, sorghum syrup, salt, and drained soaker and mix until fully incorporated, squeezing and mixing all the ingredients together vigorously to make a smooth, claylike dough.
4. Final rise: Grease an 8 x 4-inch standard loaf pan with olive oil or butter (if you’re not vegan, the butter is more commonly used in this Danish bread).
5. Place the dough directly in the prepared pan, using wet hands to smooth the top of the loaf. Cover with a cotton or linen kitchen towel and proof at room temperature for 4 to 8 hours, until small holes appear in the top of the loaf. (The final proof time depends on how active your leaven is and the temperature of your kitchen.)
6. Bake: Preheat the oven to 450°F. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the oven temperature to 350°F and bake for another 45 minutes, or until the internal temperature reads 206°F.
7. Remove from the oven and immediately transfer the bread from the pan to a cooling rack. Let cool completely, ideally for 24 hours, before slicing. If you would like a softer crust, remove the loaf from the pan and let cool for 10 minutes, then return it to the pan and let it cool completely.

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I received a wonderful surprise this week when I opened an unexpected package sent to me by Anita’s Organic Mill.  They were kind enough to send me the flours, cereal and swag in this photo.

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Butter toasted seven grain porridge sourdough is a new recipe I put together to highlight the wonderful steel cut organic seven grain cereal and organic sprouted whole wheat flour from @anitasorganic  The cereal is toasted with butter and then cooked but still left al dente.  

I used a stiff levain of 60% hydration to help handle the heat of the summer yet still allow an overnight fermentation.  I wanted to give time for the whole wheat to fully hydrate but also wanted to make adding a stiff levain easier so in the morning 1 hour before the levain was ready I added the sprouted whole wheat to all the water.  When the levain was ready pH 4.09 I added it to this slurry and easily incorporated it. Next I added the salt and rest of the bread flour.  The porridge was cool when added during the first set of stretch and folds.  

Bulk fermentation was ended when the dough reached a pH of 4.22 corresponding to an aliquot rise of 40%.  After shaping bench proofing continued until a pH of 4.0 was reached corresponding to an aliquot rise of 60%.  The dough was cold retarded at 3ºC overnight.  In the morning at the time of baking the pH had dropped to 3.89.

I’m very pleased with the oven spring and bloom on this loaf.  I think I’ve found the right pH values to aim for with my rye starter and my flours.  As always the crumb will tell the final story.

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I think ciabattas have been my kryptonite LOL.  Mostly the problem has been dough sticking to the couche.  I now have a 100% flax linen couche.  I used it once previously after seasoning it by rubbing flour into it and then baking baguettes and there was no sticking.  With that experience it was time to bake ciabattas again.  Using the same recipe but trying out Alan’s shaping as per his youtube video.  I needed a bit more flour on the counter but other than that the shaping went well.  Oh I did change a couple of things, no IDY was used and I decided to use a 76% hydration starter to match the hydration of the dough.  I should have stretched the dough more during transfer from the couche to the peel.

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