It's a "cheap thrill."
I don't seem to habituate to the high from taking a beautiful loaf (or two, or four) out of the oven.
"Overnight Country Brown" loaves from FWYS
I finally remembered not to seal my seams too well and to proof the boules seam-side down in the bannetons!
Last week, my breads had a more or less "command performance" in the Italian language class my wife and I are taking. I've been a bit uncomfortable taking food since the class meets in a deli/cafe/wine bar. Anyway, I decided to let it be on the teacher's head. I took a large wicker basket with half slices of 3 breads - a seeded sourdough Italian bread with 20% durum flour, a walnut-dried fig bread based on my San Francisco-style sourdough and a "Overnight Country Brown" from Ken Forkish.
Last week, I got a nice private message from a TFL member who had just made and enjoyed the Sourdough Italian Bread about which I blogged back in 2008. That bread was Peter Reinhart's Italian bread from BBA with the biga converted to a biga naturale, AKA firm sourdough starter.
That message reminded me that in 2011 I developed another “Italian Bread” formula that I actually preferred to the 2008 version. Coincidentally, my Italian class classmates have been harassing encouraging me to bring some of my breads to class for them to sample.
As previously advertised, I turned to the rye side this week. I baked a couple loaves of Greenstein's Jewish Sour Rye, which is still a favorite, especially toasted. The loaf in the photo is a 4 lb loaf of Hamelman's 3-stage 80% Rye Bread. It was baked this afternoon and is presently cooled and wrapped in baker's linen, "curing." I will not slice it for at least 36 hours. Crumb photos will follow.
Brother Glenn and I so often seem synchronized. Get this: I'm still baking bread too! But, then, I am not going to Scotland any time soon.
This week, I took a break from my adventures in Forkishland and baked some old favorites.
San Francisco-style Sourdough with diamond scoring
Continuing my explorations of Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast, yesterday I baked his "Pain de Campagne" again, but with a difference. Forkish's formula for Pain de Campagne is, basically, a white bread. It has about 10% whole wheat. However, in his introduction to this bread, Forkish encourages the reader to experiment with increased whole wheat and rye and says that his own favorite version of this bread has 70% white flour, 20% whole wheat and 10% rye. Well, that sounded pretty good to me, so I did it.
I thought about titling this entry "With failures like these, who needs success?" This morning, I baked another new-to-me bread from Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast. It is called "75% Whole Wheat Levain Bread," and it is a 75% whole wheat sourdough bread with a little instant yeast but otherwise just - You guessed it! - Flour, water, and salt.
Overnight Country Brown with modifications
September 8, 2013
My exploration of Ken Forkish's breads from Flour Water Salt Yeast continued this week. Hoping to get my timing closer to the ones he describes in the book, I needed to slow down fermentation. I made another large loaf of Forkish's “Overnight Country Brown.” I used filtered water at 63 ºF rather than at 80-90 ºF which Forkish prescribes, and I used 8% pre-fermented flour rather than the 12% called for in the published formula.
Ken Forkish's “Pain au Levain” and “Overnight Country Brown”
September 2, 2013
I continued my test baking of the formulas in Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast last weekend. I baked two new (to me) formulas. One calls for an overnight bulk fermentation and the other for overnight cold retardation of the shaped loaves.
Pizza Bliss Redux
August 26, 2013
My first batch of Ken Forkish's “Pizza Dough with Levain” (See Pizza Bliss) produced the best pizza crust and, after freezing, some of the worst I've had. But I did learn a tremendous amount from the comments and the information generously shared by other TFL members, and my second batch will exploit what I have learned.
