Dan Leapard's Crusty Potato Bread

The recipe came from Dan Lepard’s The Handmade Loaf that I bought few months ago. I haven’t got around to bake anything from the book until now. Too many baked goods I want to try, so little time.

I made potato bread several times with mash potato and baked potato but never made one with grated potato which was used in this recipe. I was curious to find out. I was tempted to tweak the recipe a little by including rosemary, olive oil, nigella seeds and/or garlic as but I remembered the word of wisdom, “not to tweak the recipe when you make it the first time”. So, I struck with the recipe, well sort of. I replaced some of the bread flour (15%) with rye (5%) and whole wheat flour (10%). I also increased the hydration a little.

The dough was rather wet as grated potato continued to release its water into the dough which was somewhat a challenge to work with. I had to do stretch and fold in the bowl several times to achieve proper gluten development.  In hindsight, I should have struck with Lepard’s original hydration (50%) or may increase the hydration to 55% instead of 60% in this recipe. Umm, I just couldn’t help myself to tweak the recipe.

The bread was nice and moist. Grated potato was cooked and disappeared into the dough and gave the moisture to the crumbs. Honey (about 5% in term of Baker’s Percentage) gave slight hint of sweetness. The crust was browner than usual due to honey (I believe). The brown caramelised crust also added flavour to the bread.

Wheaty Sourdough with cracked wheat, wheat berries and wheat germ

I picked up a bag of bulgur and wheat berries from the grocer few weeks ago and plan to make multigrain bread from it.

Seeing wheat berries somehow made me feel connected to the food source. It was also interesting to see that most grain seeds looks almost identical, to name a few, wheat, rice, barley, etc.

I wanted to make bread with many forms of wheat in it. Wheat products I got in my pantry were wheat berries, wheat germs, bulgur, whole wheat flour, wheat brans (that I didn’t use in this bread). Most of them were included in this recipe. Yes, you’ve got that right, another baking week with toasted wheat germ!

Mixed Flour Sourdough with Wheat Germ - made with 7 types of flour!

Follow up on my previous post; multigrain pan bread made with 6 different types of flour, I wanted to find out the true flavour profile of mixed flour alone without the distraction of seeds and grains. This week’s bake was the result of that curiosity. The multigrain pan bread was really flavoursome, which I think was a result of tasty grains and seed mixtures. I also like to think that the flour mixture contributed to the bread’s exceptional taste as well. So, I set out to bake with just the same flour combination to find out.

I also upped the flour mixture to seven, by adding corn meal into the mix, which was all the kinds of flour in my pantry. Actually, there was one type of flour that got missed out, Italian Tipo 00 flour! Never mind, next time.  Seven different flour types in the recipe were bread flour (64%), whole wheat flour (15%), rye flour (5%), durum flour (5%), corn meal (polenta flour) (5%), rice flour (3%) and soy flour (3%). I also included toasted wheat germs (can’t help myself with my favourite) at 2.5% in the recipe.

Vermont Sourdough with Increased Whole Grain

Vermont sourdough is one of my favourite bread. It is a flavourful plain sourdough made with wheat and rye flour. It is one of the most loved bread by many, especially among the artisan bread making community. I heard about the bread and its rave reviews before I bought Bread cookbook by Jeffrey Hamelman. As soon as I got the book, it was the first recipe I jumped to make.

I made both Vermont Sourdough and Vermont Sourdough with Whole Wheat several times in the past year but this was the first time I attempted this recipe (Vermont Sourdough with Increased Whole Grain).

There were serious typos in the formula for home-bake. Mixing the dough by following the ingredient list, I ended up with a pancake batter. I have heard about the big errata sheet for the book, but this was the first time I came across the recipe error myself. Thank God that at least there was no typo in Baker’s Percentage and liquid levain built. At least, I prepared starter built correctly and I corrected the ingredient errors by using the Baker’s Percentage.

Bourke Street Bakery's Spiced Fruit Sourdough - love it, love it, love it

Generally, I don’t make fruit breads often. Not that I don’t like them. I just have the tendency to bake more seeds and grains breads. I have two big bags of golden raisins and dried cranberry (about 1.5 kg each) from CostCo sitting and taking room in the pantry that I so wanted to use them up. Hence, there have been and will be more fruit bread baking in the coming months.

Come to think of it, I think I should stop shopping at CostCo. We’re a family of only two moderate eaters. It would take us efforts to finish those big packs of food. Apart from two big bags of dried fruits, I also have 1.5 kg of baking chocolate chips, 250g of vanilla paste, 1 kg of cultured butter, these will take us weeks, if not months to finish them. By the way, I’m thinking about those 1-kg bags of dried blueberries. I’m wondering what it would be like in bread. Sighhhhhh…don’t’ think I will get over the CostCo addiction anytime soon.

Pain au Levain with wheat germ - shaped into 3Bs, boule, batard and baguette

I discovered toasted wheat germs in bread through a wonderful post by David Snyder (Dmsnyder)’on The Fresh Loaf. After having the first toasted wheat germ sourdough, I was hooked and have been trying different recipes with it since.

I made another wheat germ sourdough weeks ago and loved it. This time, I wanted to increase the amount of water (hydration) and included rye flour in the dough.

Instead of calling them wheat germ sourdough, I’d like to call it Pain au Levain with wheat germs (pain au levain is literally sourdough bread, only with fancier name). Taking the idea from Susan at Wild Yeast Blog, I shaped the dough into 3 Bs, three basic shapes; boule (round), batard (oval) and baguette.

Cranberry and Walnut Celebration Bread - fit for any festive occasions

I have a 1.2-kg bag of Craisins (dried cranberries) from CostCo that I am trying to use it up. Apart from enjoying them as a snack (they are tart, sweet and juicy and just nice as is), I also wanted to make bread from them.

I made cranberry and walnut sourdough some weeks ago, which I enjoyed the flavour and texture. This time, I wanted to make enriched bread with cranberry and, again, walnut, one of the classic pairing.

The cranberry and walnut celebration bread from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker's Apprentice: Mastering the Art of Extraordinary Bread caught my attention with its attractive double braided shape. Though, there wasn’t anything to celebrate, well, it’s not Christmas, it’s Easter, it’s none of those festive seasons, I decided to make the bread anyway. Any day can be a special day. Any day can be celebrated, nonetheless.

Soy and Linseed Sourdough - full of goodness and texture

Soy and linseed bread is supposedly good for heart health, at least it’s what the bread manufacturer is trying to tell us which I believe it has some merits. The bread is a healthy choice as it contains soy beans, soy flour and linseeds which  high protein, high fibre and omega-3.

I made this same bread before some months ago combining Jeffrey Hamelman’s method and Bourke Street Bakery recipe (not entirely). This time I followed Bourke Street Bakery’s recipe closely. Umm, closely, I actually increased the amount of both soy beans and linseeds substantially (double the amount for both soys and linseeds), upped the amount of water a little (hydration percentage) and replaced 10% of bread flour with whole wheat flour.

The recipe called for soy flour, which I didn’t use in my previous bakes. I didn’t think that I was able to find the flour and I was not a fan of buying a big bag of ingredient specifically for one recipe. However, I also like to experiment with new things/new flours and I came across soy flour at Asian grocery store. The flour has very interesting texture. It was moist, creamy and mushy. It felt almost like the blended soy beans, only drier.

Sourdough Pancake with Poached Pear

I’ve been wanted to try making sourdough pancake for quite sometimes. It was regularly suggested by sourdough bakers as a good way to use the starter discard from the feedings.

I make pancake rather often. And I was curious to find out how well sourdough starter would leaven the pancake batter and the taste it would give.

I used the recipe from King Arthur website. The recipe is for sourdough waffle and also good for pancake. Looking at the photo on the site, I was tempted to get the waffle iron. Well, pancake will have to do for now. Unfortunately, I don’t have space in the kitchen for more gadgets.

Apple and Oat Sourdough - fresh fruit toast for a change

I still had some leftover apples from S’ dad’s home-grown. They were delicious, juicy and slightly tart. I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of apples they were. My guess would be ‘Golden Delicious’ because of its golden colour and sweet yet tart flavour. I was pleasantly surprised that the apples were still lovely after being sitting at room temperature for over a month.

We quite enjoyed the apple bread I made couple of weeks ago, from Dan Lepard’s Exceptional Bread. This time I wanted to try different recipe and my heart was set at apple and oat sourdough from Bourke Street Bakery cookbook. The apples that we had would be just enough for the bread.

Wheat Germ Sourdough - a flavourful plain sourdough

I wasn’t aware of wheat germ before until I was introduced to it through the fantastic SFBI miche by a TFL member, which I also jumped onto the band wagon and made the bread sometimes ago (the post is here).

Wheat germ was toasted and added to that recipe. Toasted wheat germs produced sensational aroma and lovely nutty and creamy taste. I liked it so much that I was planning to make more bread with it. Thing was, I got a long long list of things I wanted to try baking, but so little time.

Now, few months later, I finally got around making wheat germ sourdough. I used a simple sourdough recipe with mixed flour starter (wheat and whole wheat) and included 2% of toasted wheat germ (in Baker’s Percentage term, 2% of total flour) in the recipe. The recipe also contains 10% whole wheat flour and 68% hydration.

A note in Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book recommended 2% as maximum amount of wheat germs in a recipe. The book suggested too much wheat germs can have a negative effect on gluten development. Apparently, a wheat kernel also contains 2% if wheat germs naturally, before it is processed, where germ and bran are removed.

I toasted the wheat germs longer this time, until it was golden brown. The texture and colour resembled crushed Wheatbix. The aroma was even more wonderful heavily toasted. It stayed in the kitchen long after the toast. The dough was so aromatic from the wheat germ and made the hand kneading rather pleasant.

I have been quite slack with adhering to the desired dough temperature lately. When temperature was around 20 -22 C, DDT (desired dough temperature) doesn’t matter much. However, the weather is now getting cooler in Melbourne. The evening and morning temperature (when I mix starter and final dough) are around 10 – 14 C. I started to notice that the starter wasn’t ready when it should be, the dough didn’t get fermented within the expected timeframe. Now, I am back to measure the temperature of all ingredients before mixing and change the water temperature to make sure that the final temperature will match the DDT.

Note: To calculate the desired dough temperature (source: Bread: a Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes),

- Multiply DDT with the number of ingredients in the recipe and

- Add friction created by kneading (20F, for example),

- For example, a dough require DDT 76F that have 4 ingredients with friction from kneading of 20F = (76 x 4) + 20 = 324.

To start with, you have to measure the temperature of all ingredients except water, add them all up with the friction, then subtract that total from total DDT, to get the temperature of water. The goal is to manipulate the water temperature to get the DDT.

Ingredients	Actual Temperature
Flour	60 F +
Starter	60 F +
Salt	60 F +
Friction factor	20 F +
Total before water	200 F -
Total DDT	324 F =
Water temperature	124 F

This bread was a great every day kind of bread. It made great sandwiches. It had a pronounced acidity from mixed flour sourdough starter. The crumb was open, chewy and moist. It had a fantastic creamy sweet aroma from the wheat germ and whole wheat, plus great health benefit of wheat germ. The wheat germ doesn’t last long once it is opened (because of its high natural oil content, it will go rancid relatively quickly). I’ll have to try making more bread with it before it is off. So, there'll be more of baking with wheat germs on the way. I'm already eyeing for something.  

Wheat Germ Sourdough
make 2 large loaves

INGREDIENTS

	Overall Formula	Baker’s Percentage
Bread flour	817 g	90%
Whole wheat flour	90 g	10%
Water	617 g	68%
Salt	17 g	2%
Wheat germ	18 g	2%
Total	1.56 kg	172%

Sourdough built

Whole wheat flour 68 g

Bread flour 68 g
Water 170 g
Mature culture 28 g

Final Dough
Bread flour 749 g (I used flour with 12.5% protein)

Whole wheat flour 22 g
Water 433 g

Salt 17 g
Wheat germ, toasted 18 g

Sourdough starter 306 g (all less 28 g for future use)

METHOD

Prepare sourdough built:  Mix all ingredient together until well-combined about 12 – 16 hours before mixing the final dough. Leave it in a covered container at room temperature. Desired temperature 21c (70F).

Mixing: Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl, except salt and wheat germs.  Mix until the ingredients are incorporated. Leave it to autolyze in a bowl covered with plastic bag or wrap for 15 - 30 minutes. Desired dough temperature 24C (76F).

Meanwhile, toast wheat germ in a small heavy-based saucepan over medium heat until it is very aromatic and golden brown. Leave them to cool in a bowl.

Wheat germ: before and after toasting

Sprinkle salt and wheat germ over the dough surface and mix on the first speed for 3 minutes. Continue mixing on second speed for further 3 – 4 minutes, until a medium gluten development is achieved (the dough can be stretched gently, stay intact and doesn’t tear).

I kneaded the dough by hand and it took around 15 minutes to get medium gluten development.

Bulk fermentation: - Leave the dough in a lightly oiled container and cover the bowl with plastic bag or wrap for 2.5 hour until doubled in size. Do stretch-and-fold twice at 50 minutes interval (first fold at 50 minutes, second fold at 100 minutes).

Divide the doughs into two equal portions. Pre-shape the doughs into rounds and let them rest for 10 – 15 minutes under a tea towel.

Shape the doughs into oblong (batard) or boule (round) and place into proofing baskets/bowls. Slip the proofing basket into a large plastic bag. Retard the dough in the fridge overnight or proof at room temperature for 2 hours or until almost double in size.

Baking: If retarding, take the dough out of the fridge and leave them at room temperature for 60-90 minutes before baking. Preheat the oven to the highest temperature and prepare the oven steaming.

Bake at 235C for 15 minutes with steam, reduce temperature to 220C and bake for further 25 – 30 minutes (total baking time is 40 45 minutes).

I usually leave the loaves to dry off in the off-oven with the door open for 5-10 minutes. This helps the crust to brown up a little more and stay crisp for longer.

Submitting this post to YeastSpotting.

Semolina Sourdough with sesame seed - this time with durum flour

Now that I finally found (the elusive) durum flour (after been making semolina bread with fine semolina all along and I posted a blog about my quest for durum flour here.), I wanted to find out what semolina bread with sesame seeds would really taste like with the durum flour, not fine semolina.

I made the semolina bread from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread cookbook a few times before with fine semolina as I wasn’t able to find the durum flour required by the recipe back then. I wanted (and hoped) to be able to make a comparison with flavour, texture between the same bread made with fine semolina and durum flour.



Fine semolina on the left and durum flour on the right



I found there were few differences that fine semolina and durum flour produced with  this bread, i.e. texture, keeping quality, dough structure and oven spring. In fact, there could be many more differences but these were the ones noticeable to me.

Taste-wise, I couldn’t tell the differences, however, the bread made with fine semolina was a relatively distant memory as well. The bread texture was similarly chewy and both tastes lovely with sweet creamy flavour.



Semolina mutigrain bread made with fine semolina months back



One big difference was the dough texture and structure. Fine semolina contributed to slacker dough as it hardly absorbed the water. The bread also staled quicker as a result.

Dough made with fine semolina tends to be flatter. I didn’t get much oven spring from fine semolina. With durum flour, the loaves appeared to be quite flat when they were taken out of the proofing baskets but they achieved great oven spring and better volume during the bake. This could be the result of better gluten structure which supported better rise.

Fine semolina worked in the recipe however durum flour would produce bread with better rise and crumb structure. Personally, if I can’t find durum flour, I’ll be happy with this bread made with semolina as well.

This dough was pleasant to work with. It has smooth and satiny texture. It was almost effortless to have gluten developed. In fact, Hamelman stated that durum flour had high gluten which can develop quickly. The gluten can also be unknit as quickly, care needs to be taken not to over-mixing the dough.

This bread is one of my favourite. I love the aroma and texture of sesame seeds in bread (or in anything really) and the durum flour also add sweet creamy flavour to the bread, and tender crumb. I used black sesame seeds instead of white as I find the black sesame seeds is more flavourful. I love its smoky flavour. I toasted the seeds in the pan instead of oven. It is something I enjoy, doing thing with my hand, and inhale the aroma of food as I go along.

Semolina Sourdough Recipe

Adapted from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread: a baker’s book of techniques and recipes

Make 2 large loaves

Ingredients	Overall formula	Baker’s Percentage
Bread flour	363 g	40%
Durum flour	544 g	60%
Water	607 g	67%
Salt	17 g	2%
Sesame seeds, toasted	45 g	5%
Total weight	1576 g	174%

Liquid levain build

Bread flour 136 g

Water 170 g

Mature culture (liquid) 28 g

Final dough

Bread flour 227 g

Durum flour 544 g

Water 437 g

Salt 17 g (1T)

Sesame seeds, toasted 45 g

Liquid levain 306 g (all less 2 T)

Method

Liquid levain: Make the final build 12 to 16 hours before the final dough. Leave levain in a covered container and leave it at room temperature.

Mixing: Add all the ingredients to the mixing bowl, except salt and sesame seeds. Mix until they are combined and form a dough ball. Leave the dough in bowl covered with plastic wrap or bag for 30 minutes to autolyse.

Sprinkle salt over the dough surface and mix well. Mix on low-medium speed for 5-7 minutes until moderate gluten is achieved. I knead the dough by hand and it took about 15 minutes.  

Be careful not to over-mix the dough as durum flour gluten will quickly unknit if the gluten is overly developed.

Bulk fermentation: Leave the dough in a lightly oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap or bag for 2 hours or until it is doubled in size. It took 2.5 hours for me to fully ferment the dough.

Folding: Do one stretch-and-fold after 1 hour.

Dividing and shaping: Divide the dough into two equal pieces. Pre-shape into rounds and let the rest under a tea towel for 15 minutes for gluten to relax.  Shape the dough in round (boule) or oblong (batard).

Final fermentation: Approximately 2 hours or until it is about 1.5 of its original size.

I retarded the shaped loaves overnight in the fridge for 9 hours. After I took the shaped loaves out of the fridge, I let them  sit at room temperature for two hours before baking. The weather was getting cooler in Melbourne. It used to take only an  hour during late Summer.

You can apply untoasted sesame seeds on the surface of the bread by lightly spraying the top surface with water and press sesame seeds on the surface just before baking.

Baking: Baking at 235C for 40 -45 minutes, with steam for the first 15 minutes.

Submitting this post to YeastSpotting.