BBA Challenge #19: Marbled Rye Bread

The takeaway quote on this bread (provided by, who else, my husband) is:  “what’s going on with this bread?  It looks like plate tectonics in here.”

So you may have already guessed that the “marbling” process on this BBA Challenge bread did not go so well, but otherwise the bread was delicious.  Let’s not be superficial about how the bread looks, okay?

The most interesting thing to me in making this bread is how LITTLE kneading time is required.  I threw the ingredients into my kitchenaid, flipped it on, and walked away (half expecting that it would require more kneading than usual as we were not dealing with pure wheat, meaning that we’d really need to “activate” the gluten).  Then I tidied up the inevitable flour spills, (and inevitable little e spills that I had only just noticed–who knows how long they’d been there), looked at the book and saw that it said to only knead FOUR minutes!  I hadn’t yet gone over the limit, luckily,  but I turned off my mixer pretty soon after that.  It turns out, as PR explains in his margin notes, that a particular quality of rye makes it quite gummy if it is overkneaded.  What’s more, once you’ve gone gummy, you can’t go back; adding additional wheat flour just won’t help. 

You repeat the process adding one of various options to color the second batch of dough a darker hue (I went for cocoa powder, after I saw that my granulated coffee–purchased for cooking, don’t worry–had gone past its date).  You add a healthy measure of caraway to both loaves too–how could you have real rye bread without that most Central European of flavors?  Then let them rise, side by side!

Now for the marbling!  PR suggest two ways to do it:  one which we could call a more “abstract” approach and one which we might designate a more classical style.  Since this recipe makes two loaves, I figured I try one of each.  In both cases you cut your dough into multiple pieces, but in the first method you “smush” it all together (that’s the technical term) and in the second you roll each piece out with a rolling pin, stack them up, and form that into a loaf (“bullseye”).

I didn’t do the best job of putting humpty dumpty back together again.  Maybe my dough should have been a tad bit wetter, or maybe I wasn’t thorough enough in forming my loaves.  In any case I sort of hoped that when the loaves were set out to rise again, the disparate pieces would grow together into one.   (As I write this post, I realize I should have just rolled them along the counter to smooth out the rough edges.  Oh, now you tell me….)

Well, they didn’t really.  (In contrast, see some prettier loaves here and here).  But they went into the oven anyway.

And looks aside, they turned out really well.  Evidence of the potentially graver misstep of overkneading–gummy dough–was not in evidence.  I’d love to make this again though given how these turned out aesthetically, I don’t think I’ll bother with the marbling.  It’s the flavor for me!  I have always liked rye bread, maybe it always seemed somewhat exotic to me (Maybe this sounds crazy to say about a humble rye bread, but “New York Style Jewish Deli Rye”?  Practically every component of that name would sound unusual to someone growing up in Oklahoma. )  Also, is it just me, or does rye bread tend to be a bit drier than other breads?  Not a complaint, but just an observation.  Probably makes it so great for sandwiches as that drier nature allows it, perhaps, to be a bit sturdier as well and allow those toppings to be piled on. 

In closing though, I suppose I must admit that they do look a bit as if, deep below the surface, some subterranean force is quietly causing the loaves separate and grow apart from within…

BBA Challenge #18: Light Wheat Bread

The bread baking continues…now for something a little more “healthy”–wheat bread, whole grains, fiber, all that.

My dough at first was fairly rough; it’s pretty heavy too.  Maybe it’s just my imagination, but it felt heftier in my hands than an equivalent amount of earlier doughs (or am I essentially asking which weighs more, a  pound of feathers or a pound of lead?)

In any case, after the kneading it formed a nice dough.  I used regular bread flour (you can use high gluten flour) because it’s much easier to come by.  But my understanding is that whole grains have what it like little scissors that cut the gluten strands (which “rough edges” are removed in white flour); thus I think you compensate by extra gluten.  This is the reason whole wheat breads are typically so dense.  The extra gluten boost is the same idea behind vital wheat gluten that you might see with all those specialty flours.  (I had always wondered what “vital wheat gluten” is — what a name–vital to what?).  I imagine vital wheat gluten is a good way to gift some lift to your loaves if you are on a whole-grains only diet, for example.  

Here’s my loaf rising in the pan.  As I mentioned, given how heavy this felt to me, it was surprising to me that you only get  one loaf.

Risen…

And out of the oven!  This bread was good, but I think not as “whole wheat-y” as I would like.  I definitely like the flavor of whole wheat breads, though not necessarily the denseness.  So maybe I’d prefer a medium wheat bread.  Or maybe I’ll get Peter Reinhart’s Whole Grain Breads for Christmas….

This is not doubled

In the hopes of Christmas pannetone, I started early and am trying to make a “seed culture” which then is converted into a “barm” which is basically cultivated yeast (as opposed to yeast from a packet–i.e. what people did before Fleischmann’s).

By Day 3 I am supposed to have a doubling of the seed culture.  If not Peter Reinhart (he of the Bread Baker’s Apprentice)  says to wait another 24 hours.  But what if still  nothing has happened?  (The masking tape marks where the dough started from.  I.e. it’s not totally dead but not much is going on).

BBA’ers, anyone–what do I do now (I”m on my second try!)

BBA Challenge #17: Lavash

I was really excited about making these crackers.  Yes, the BBA Challenge includes crackers.  And interestingly enough, crackers made with yeast.  (who knew?).  While crackers are a nice variation from all the breads (especially since I made these over thanksgiving as well!), I also thought playing with all the spices would really be fun.

The amount of dough you actually make is quite small, but you do let it ferment–since this is a cracker, I assume it’s to build flavor rather than for loft!  I wasnt’ sure about my ability to roll the dough out thin enough, but I managed–as you can see it just fits the pan.

Then what I thought was the fun part!

Here’s the spices I used.  Essentially half was “middle eastern” and the other half “central european” (continuing our round the world bread journey from prior posts!)

For the middle east–nigella seed and za’atar

For central europe–poppy seed, paprika, and caraway

And Maldon sea salt all around!

Because I didn’t have a mister, I don’t think the spices adhered particularly well. I tried using a pastry brush to moisten the surface of the dough before adding the spices, but it didn’t seem to work all that well–only the salt really gripped on well.

As for the final crackers, I was disappointed.  While in parts they were nice and crunchy as a cracker should be, in other spots they were rather chewy, almost as if I hadn’t rolled the dough out enough.  (But my pan, and oven, were no bigger, plus I got it to the size recommended in the book!  What went wrong?!).  While I certainly didn’t take them out early, perhaps I should have left them in longer than the recommended time to crisp them up better.  Also, as noted, the spices didn’t really hold on well to the cracker, but they were pretty.  My family enjoyed them well enough, but I’ll have to do some research into other BBA-ers’ experience before I try this again.  That’s one of the benefits of this collective challenge, after all!

BBA Challenge #16: Kaiser Rolls

As mentioned in my last BBA post, I powered through some BBA Challenge breads over the Thanksgiving weekend (and in typical fashion, am late in posting the results!)  Recently we’ve had France and Italy featured, now onto Germany in the form of Kaiser Rolls!

It was actually a really good time to make them.  As my mother-in-law pointed out, kaiser rolls are perfect for making turkey sandwich leftovers.  But she upped the ante as she reminisced about the lovely bakery in Floral Park NY (half in Queens, half in Nassau County/Long Island) where she grew up that made wonderful kaiser rolls.  She then sadly noted that her only available kaiser rolls nowadays, i.e. the supermarket version, are nothing more than a glorified hamburger bun.  Peter Reinhart, the gauntlet has been thrown!  (OK, we already know that this recipe will turn out better than supermarket Kaiser Rolls.  There’s really no suspense here, is there?  As for the Floral Park bakery, that’s another story).

First the dough.  Once again, the recipe called for diastatic barley malt syrup, which I didn’t have.  As this time round, it was not an optional ingredient, I decided to give up on these being bakery quality.  But given Reinhart’s explanation of what the purpose of this additive is (caramelization and crust), I figured it would be good enough without.  On the other hand, I knew they would not be as lovely as the picture in the book.  I don’t have a link to the photograph, but they really are the “Platonic ideal” of a kaiser roll.  (I realize that is a completely bizarre comment, by the way.  But my mother-in-law, ex-philosophy major, will hopefully enjoy me linking kaiser rolls to the great Greek thinkers).

Oddly enough, my dough was quite wet–I say oddly enough because not only did I add a tad less water than necessary, I also did not include the diastatic barley malt syrup which would have provided even more moisture.  (Also, this is in contrast to my experience with foccacia and ciabatta where I have added more than the required amount of liquid, which wasn’t always enough).

After the dough rose came the shaping.  Not owning a special kaiser roll stamp, I rolled these by hand.  Once I got the hang of it, it was pretty easy–I tied my “knot” too close to each end of the dough rope at first so had a hard time folding them back over each other, but after a few rolls that got better.  Once formed, the rolls are left to rise, are flipped, and allowed to rise some more.  I was a bit surprised that they are turned over halfway through–I thought this might flatten out the distinctive shaping of the bun, and isn’t that what makes them kaiser rolls?  It didn’t seem to matter  in the end; I still wonder why this is done, however.

So here’s the final rise, giant pillows of risen kaiser rolls.

With an obligatory sprinkle of poppy seeds!

And baked.  Much like the Italian bread, the crust on these was a bit “blah” and dry looking.  Must be that diastatic barley whatchamacalit.  Lacking this not-so-commonly-found-in-kitchens ingredient, I probably could have used an egg wash to make a prettier, more tender crust, but I only thought of that now as I am typing.   (Not so helpful a revelation for me–but I’ll mention just in case anyone else out there is contemplating the “challenge” without this recommended ingredient!).

However, I must report that my mother in law thought they were great, even if I did not follow the recipe precisely!  And yes, they were used to make some turkey sandwiches, more than once.

BBA Challenge #15: Italian Bread

I made some real progress on the BBA Challenge over Thanksgiving weekend–I have three, yes three! BBA related posts from the holidays.  This is the first, and I hope to get the rest updated in a timely fashion (as opposed to oh, a month later, when I hardly remember what I made).

I made this bread on Wednesday, figuring we could use the loaves as an accompaniment to dinner the  next day (and for nibbling on before that).  Like the French Bread, this dough starts with a pre-ferment by way of a biga–it’s much like pate fermentee in that it’s a pre-kneaded dough, but only bread flour is used this time (as compared to the mixture of bread and AP flour in French Bread).  As with all pre-ferments, you let it rise, punch it down and pop it in the fridge overnight.  Then you cut it into small pieces and mix in more flour, water, and yeast.

Here’s the risen dough–pretty impressive (though because I was working from home and got distracted, a bit more voluminous than it probably should have been).

Now shaped into batards.  I’m still getting this down–I don’t think I manage to create quite the amount of surface tension that is required (though usually the eventual rising seems to take care of that).  The batards are just the first step in shaping, as they rest for about 5-10 minutes before…

you stretch them out to the length of your baking sheet.  Compared to the pre-elongated batards above, these look kind of sad and spindly.  However…

They plump up nicely (ah, the magic of yeast!).  I scored them with my lame and in they went to the oven.

Voila!  (Or, I guess, since we’re in Italy now, “Ecco!”) 

I’ll admit the crust looks a little “blah’ in these pictures.  Besides never having enough light to get a good non-flash photo, I didn’t have any non-diastatic barley malt powder on hand (what, don’t you?) which is an optional ingredient, and which I expect gives you a much nicer crust.  Also, if I made this again I might try baking at the lower temperature that Reinhart suggests for a thick-crusted loaf.  I would think that serving this bread alongside a nice Italian meal that had great pan juices or sauces that beg to be sopped up with good bread warrants a bread with a rustic, substantial crust.  (I’m not sure why baking at a lower temperature produces this effect.  I haven’t seen him mention it for other breads but it is interesting to know, I’m sure it would work in any case).

We all enjoyed the bread.  It is sort of that standard Italian bread you get as a side at Italian take-outs or buy frozen pre-lathered with garlic butter, but as is the experience with other BBA breads, much better than those artificially quick-leavened loaves.  Also, due to the copious baking that was going on over the past week, we still have half a loaf left.  And while it’s certainly not at its freshest, it’s still rather easy to slice and makes a fantastic toast.  That alone is pretty impressive to me!