A Week of Whole Grain Baking, Day 5: Sweet Spelt Sourdough

I figured that the easiest way to get rid of a whole bag of spelt flour was to make a loaf of bread. The only spelt bread recipe that I found in the Whole Grain Baking book was the Sweet Spelt Sourdough bread. Having been thinking about it all week, in preparation for Shabbat, I pulled out my sourdough starter. Let me tell you, that thing was severely neglected. Nevertheless, I discarded the nastiness that was on top of it, and began nourishing it anew with spelt flour. I seemed to be getting little action, which is not surprising as it had gone abandoned for so long and I didn't give it long enough to ferment properly. In any case, I disregarded this and proceeded with the recipe. In the end, I spiked the dough with 1 tsp of instant yeast to help it along. And it helped it along marvelously. (So much so, that should I ever want to make a spelt loaf, this is the recipe I'll use, adapting it as needed for a regular yeasted loaf.) The only other change I made was to use oil instead of melted butter. Additionally, I gave this loaf a rise in the fridge instead of baking it straight away. How did it turn out? AMAZING! that's how! With the very first bite, I tasted the sweetness of the spelt flour. The loaf had great, moist texture, perfect for sandwiches- and that's not just because the slices were nice and tall. The loaf didn't scream sourdough at all, but it was definitely there, the last thing you tasted in the loaf. Visually, this bread is one of my best yet; it slashed beautifully (I think because I was quick and confident!) and didnt collapse. The slashes opened up beautifully in the oven and I got a deep brown color on the crust. Pretty much, what I'm trying to say, is that I loved this bread, both by the slice and topped with dip. This one gets a repeat. I'm sending this off to Yeastspotting!

Friendship Sourdough Coffee Cake

For a very long time, I've had my eye on the Friendship Sourdough Coffee Cake recipe from Marcy Goldman's A Passion for Baking. Last night I decided it was time to whip out the sourdough starter and put it to good use. As it is, I'm always looking for alternative ways to use my starter so I dont know why it took me so long. I took out my neglected starter and fed him the night before. There must be some strong yeasts in there because he was ready to use right away. I gave him a bit extra "food" yesterday so that by the time I got home I could bake right away. I always wonder what the starter actually contributes in terms of flavor but all I can say is that the collective response to this cake was YUM. I get nervous that the sourdough flavor would come through, but I need not have worried. Here are my notes on the recipe. I used walnuts instead of graham cracker crumbs in the topping and would make 1 1/2 times of the recipe because I thought it was a bit scant. As for the cake itself, I cut back the margarine to 3/4 cup, the brown sugar to just one cup and omitted the apple/pumpkin pie spice. Regardless of the changes, the cake turned out moist and dense, but definitely nowhere near dry. I was disappointed to see that the topping sunk into the cake so next time I would bake the cake without the topping until the cake sets on top and then add the topping. Because the crumble sunk and wasnt so evident, I decided to throw together a glaze which I think was a nice touch that elevated it a tad. I'm sending this over to Yeastspotting this week!

Greenstein's Pumpernickel Bread

Happy blogoversary! As I mentioned yesterday in my post, today is the birthday of this blog. It was only two years ago that I sat in my room in the dorms in Bar Ilan and decided to create this site, a place to share my love of all things baking. Many pounds of flour, sugar, margarine and eggs and a couple of hundred posts later, this blog is still going strong. To mark this anniversary, I thought it fitting to tell you about a bread that I made a bit ago but have not told you about. As the blog's name indicates, bread is the thing that I love to make most (dont worry, there is much love for everything else!) and the thing that I get most satisfaction from. So I bring to you this Pumpernickel Bread that I have adapted (out of necessity) from George Greenstein's Secrets of a Jewish Baker. I had recently raised starter and acquired rye flour, so it seemed the perfect opportunity to make this. The changes I made were as follows: I omitted the altus, as I had no other rye bread laying around, I used 1 tbsp cocoa powder instead of the caramel color, omitted the caraway seeds, both because I didnt have any around and because I wanted the unadulterated rye flavor to come through. In addition, I used regular all purpose flour instead of the first clear flour and omitted the cornstarch glaze out of sheer laziness. The bread is probably unrecognizable from the original but it was no less enjoyed. I ended up making one loaf and two rolls. The dough was easy to make and rose beautifully. Perhaps because my starter wasnt mature enough, the sourdough flavor was not evident at all. Nice and chewy, it still made an excellent accompaniment to tuna fish and eggplant spread. This is definitely an easy recipe worth repeating once my starter has acquired more mature flavor. It just struck me to use the rest of this bread that is leftover in the freezer to use as altus for another experiment..... Stay tuned!

Hamelman's Semolina Sourdough

I made this loaf a while back, one of the first after my starter reached maturity. I had been long wanting to make a semolina sourdough but something always came up- either I didnt have semolina, or I didnt have a starter, or a less time consuming semolina loaf came up.... But now that I had just lovingly cultivated a starter and had semolina flour to finish up, I couldn't put off making this levain loaf from Hamelman's epic Bread any longer. And I'm glad I didn't. With the help of my (sister's) trusty KA mixer (don't tell!) this bread came together in no time at all. After the bread cooled, I wrapped it and stashed it in the freezer and only took it out to have a taste before the ninth of Av fast that was just last week, as per my bread only on special occasions rule. I reheated the bread and was very impressed with it and I can only imagine how it would have been fresh. It's not that it tasted much of levain but it was one of the most delicious crusts I've had on a bread coupled with a nice, yellow, chewy crust that made this bread so yummy. If I had sliced it like a civilized person, one would be able to see a nice hole structure, but that obviously wasnt me. If I had more semolina accessible, (maybe the next time Im in Tel Aviv..) I just might try it again... this time with a sourdough starter that has even more character. I only made a half recipe because that's all the semolina I had but do make the full recipe! I also didnt add the sesame although Im sure it would have made it even better as semolina and sesame are a classically delicious combination. This bread has been Yeastspotted!

Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough

Shavua tov! It's the start of another summer week in the Gush- hopefully it will be a meaningful (we observe the fast of the ninth of Av this week) and productive (I have a final this week!) one. This past weekend was spent in Bar Ilan with my friend Sara, who graciously hosted me. Sara is one of the few fortunate students in the area with air conditioner. Let me just say, the luxury of it can not be overstated. It is inconceivably hot and humid and sticky over there and the air conditioner was a saving grace. And it was so nice to be spending the weekend with a friend I rarely get to see. (Sara, if you're reading this, thanks again and take the hint!) Anyway, in terms of the blog, Shabbat means that I've tried some of the breads I made and baked some desserts as well, so lots of good posts coming up. I had these sourdoughs in the freezer and knowing how Sara enjoys my crusty breads, I brought them over. I'm learning that nothing beats fresh and that the freezer doesn't do the breads much good. The original crunch of the crust is pretty much irretrievable. In any case, the flavor on them was sour, but not too sour at all and the crumb was creamy and even with a few large holes here and there. Nothing too glamorous. It tasted almost identical to the other Vermont Sourdough that I made a while back. The steaming went well; I heard some soft "singing" when they came out, which made me happy. I think that my slashing on these loaves were great and the oven spring was pretty impressive, too. I'm very pleased with the way they turned out overall. I used a mixer, now that I have one at my disposal!, and this bread could not have been easier to put together. This bread has been proudly Yeastspotted!

Vermont Sourdough

from Hamelman's Bread

Levain:

1 cup bread or all purpose flour

3/4 cup water

1 tbsp mature liquid culture

Final Dough:

5 1/2 cups bread flour

7/8 cup rye flour

1 7/8 cups water

1 tbsp salt

all of levain minus 2 tbsp

The night before baking, place the levain in a container. Pour the water over it and stir to loosen and dissolve it. Add the flour and stir until smooth. Cover and let sit over night.
The next day, place the levain and all of the dough ingredients into the bowl of a mixer.
Put the mixer on medium and mix until the dough comes together, about two minutes.
Allow the dough to ferment for two and half hours. Fold half way through.
Here's my folded dough.
Scale the dough into two portions. Round them and place them on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Allow to proof for 2 to 2 1/2 hours. Towards the end of proofing, preheat the oven to 460, preparing the oven for steam.
Slash the loaves.
Bake for forty minutes. Carefully remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Clayton's Oatmeal Sourdough

A new week, a new loaf. A couple of weeks ago, I began raising a sourdough starter. This is not my first starter, as I've had a couple in the past, but for one reason or another I always eventually get rid of it, whether for moving reasons, or Passover, etc. But now that I have finals and some time on my hands and a kitchen to experiment in, I figured why not give it a go again. The starter, whom I have not and will not name for fear of growing too close ;), took quite a while to show signs of life and strength but after lots of patience, love, flour, and water, began doing what it was born to do last week. And so, the sourdough baking began. Because I eat bread only on the weekends, I stashed all of the loaves in the freezer to be taken out as needed. So why make it all if I cant eat it all? Well, for the fun of it, of course! I NEED to bake! And better bread then cake and cookies. I'm sure you understand. Anyway, this Oatmeal Sourdough loaf bread comes from Bernard Clayton's New Book of Breads. It is the first recipe that I have made from it. I made it in to a loaf and shaped two rolls as well, the rolls being what I ate on Shabbat, the loaf still being in the freezer. The bread is made using a sponge, which builds off the sourdough, and instant yeast, making this a quick loaf to prepare. It was easy to knead and a good riser. The resulting bread had excellent texture and was quite nutty from the oats. That was the most dominant flavor profile, the sourdough having contributed little to its flavor. Which is totally fine. I used soy milk instead of the water and non fat miYlk and I also omitted the honey and replaced the one tbsp of sugar with two of brown sugar. After tasting, I realize that I would not do that again and I would leave the honey in because I think it would add a lot more to the final flavor of the bread. Honey adds a delightful flavor and I dont know why I thought to switch it up. Anyway, if I try this again, I will update this post. Here is the recipe as appears in the book. Sending this bread over to Susan's wonderful and inspiring weekly Yeastspotting.

Oatmeal Sourdough

from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads

Sponge:

1 cup liquid sourdough starter

1 cup warm water

1 1/2 cups bread or all purpose flour

Dough:

1 cup water

1/2 cup milk powder (I used 1 cup soy milk)

2 tbsp honey

2 1/4 tsp dry yeast

1 cup quick oatmeal

1 tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

2-4 cups all purpose flour, as needed

The night before baking, place the sponge ingredients in a bowl. Stir to make a smooth batter. Cover and let sit overnight.

The next day, add all of the ingredients to the starter, except for the flour.
Whisk to blend.
Add the flour a bit at a time, stirring to make a shaggy dough. Turn out onto a floured surface and knead until a cohesive dough forms.
Here is my kneaded dough.
Place the dough in a bowl and set aside to rise until doubled in size. This recipe makes two eight by four inch loaves but I made a nine by five and two rolls. It's your call. Make sure to grease your pans.
Shape the dough as desired and set aside to proof once again. Towards the end of proofing, preheat the oven to 350.
Slash the loaf and place in the oven.
Bake until a dark golden brown, at least 30-40 minutes. I wish I had timed it!
Remove from the pans and set on a wire rack to cool completely. Enjoy with some jam or butter.

Sourdough Carrot Bundt Cake

University, as previously mentioned is in full swing. I'm going in three days a week, every other day and taking nine courses all together. All the traveling is well balanced by in between off days- I come home so tired from [boring] classes and all that time spent on buses and in tremps. Besides sleeping, I find that baking, as it usually does, helps me unwind. I've unofficially begun to designate Monday and Wednesday as baking days. After I refreshed my starter (after using it for Pain Au Levain- more on that later), I decided to use some of it in a sweeter application and since I'd made the sourdough chocolate cake and had some carrots sitting in the fridge, I decided to make this Sourdough Carrot Cake from the KAF site, a recipe that I printed with the intent of making ages ago, but only just got around to making. The hardest part of this was grating the carrots. After that, it came together smoothly. I thought the sourdough would be difficult to incorporate but everything smoothed out once the eggs were added in. I omitted all the extras that were called for, including the pineapple and nuts because IMHO, carrot cake should be about unadulterated carrot flavor and not be hidden by lots of extras. That's why I liked the coarsely grated carrots- they add texture and allow you to actually taste the carrot. Needless to say, I omitted the frosting, too. It's hard to know exactly what the sourdough adds, but I will say that the cake turned out super, super moist, and really yummy, if a bit crumbly. The cake pretty much disappeared, which is a good thing, because, due to my total lack of patience, I flipped it too soon, thereby dismembering the entire half of the cake.... No laughing, please! Anyway, this was a fun one to make- try it sometime when you have some sourdough toss off to use and the itch to bake!

Sourdough Carrot Bundt Cake

adapted from the KAF site

1 1/2 cups vegetable oil

2 cups sugar

1 cup sourdough starter

2 cups grated carrots

3 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

2 1/2 cups flour

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

Preheat the oven to 350. Generously grease a large bundt pan, two nine inch pans or a nine by thirteen inch pan.

If you havent already, grate the carrots; set aside.
Place the oil and sugar in a bowl,
and whisk to combine.
Add the sourdough starter,
and whisk is vigorously as you can to break up the starter as much as possible.
Add the eggs one at a time,
blending well after each addition until you have a smooth, homogeneous batter.
Add the carrots and vanilla,
and whisk.
Add the dry ingredients,
and gently combine them without overmixing.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan.
For the bundt bake about 60-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Try to let the cake cool for at least twenty minutes before trying to unmold, lest you get something that looks like this.... At least it was still good.....

Adventures with Rye Part 5: Sourdough Rye Bread

This is my most recent rye bread, made with the addition of my newly revived sourdough. I recently decided to make the switch from liquid starter to stiff, the upsides of the change being, less smelly, gross liquid to deal with, and being able to track fermentation more easily. (However, I do foresee needing to switch back and forth being a bit annoying. But Ill cross that bridge when I get there.) The recipe comes from The Bread Bible (Rose's, of course) and I've been meaning to make this sourdough version ever since I made the regular rye. I got too lazy to follow her directions so I just fed my starter as usual, let it ferment, and then measured out the amount called for, with no issues. The rest of the process was pretty smooth sailing- kneading dough, fermentation, a stretch and fold here and there, and regular baking. No surprises here. The dough kneaded beautifully and turned out to be silky smooth. I wasn't in the mood to wait for the dough to finish its fermentation so I just baked it and was rewarded with nice oven spring and a beautiful crumb anyway. Although the sourdough flavor wasn't readily apparent, it was just barely detectable. Of course the bread was so yummy and full of caraway goodness. The texture was nice and soft and the crumb was creamy and open. I baked with steam, but I think I need to figure out a more effective steaming technique to use in my toaster oven. Although the crust was superb, I would like the look to be a bit more..... artisan-al, I suppose. Next time. Check out this week's Yeastspotting for more yeasty goodness! Have a good weekend!

Sourdough Rye Bread

adapted a bit from The Bread Bible

360 grams ripe stiff sourdough starter

230 grams all purpose or bread flour

95 grams whole rye flour

232 grams water, at room temperature

14 grams caraway seeds

10.5 grams salt

Tear the sourdough starter into four pieces and place in a mixing bowl. Add the water. Stir to dissolve the starter as much as possible.Add the remaining dry ingredients but taking care to reserve a few tablespoons of flour for kneading.

Mix the dough and give it a rest for about ten minutes. Knead the dough until it is smooth and silky, tacky but not sticky. Use the reserved flour to help you knead, if necessary.

Set it aside in a clean bowl to rise for one hour.

Remove the dough from the bowl and give it two stretches and folds. Return to the bowl and let it rise one hour more.

Shape the dough into a round and place it on a sheet of parchment. Place the parchment on a baking sheet.

Allow the dough to proof for a few hours. Towards the end of proofing time, preheat the oven to 450 and prepare the oven for steam. Slash the bread decoratively.

Bake the loaf with steam for five minutes. Turn the temperature down to 400 and continue baking for fifteen minutes. Open the oven door and place the loaf directly on the baking stone. Bake for an additional thirty five minutes until a thermometer inserted registers 190 degrees. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.

Slice and enjoy....

Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough with Whole Wheat

I can't entirely recall what the circumstances were regarding this bread. So all I have to tell you is that aside from the way they look (because my slashing on this was dismal) these loaves were delicious. Coming from Hamelman's trusty Bread book, this bread made use of my sourdough starter and resulted in a crusty, light and mildly tangy bread with a delicious crumb. I can't copy over the recipe now as it's moving day and everything is packed. But once I'm settled I'll be back with more posts and details about what's going on here. For now, enjoy the series of pictures that depicts the bread making process!!

Update- July 2010-Recipe Added

Vermont Sourdough with Whole Wheat

from Bread

Levain:

4.8 ounces flour

6 ounces water

1 ounce mature liquid levain

Dough:

1 lb 8 ounces flour

3.2 ounces whole wheat flour

14.8 ounces water

1 tbsp salt

all of levain minus 2 tbsps

The night before, place the levain ingredients in a measuring cup or bowl. Stir to make a cohesive mixture. Allow to rise overnight.Here is the risen starter.Place the levain in a bowl.To this add the remaining ingredients except the salt.Stir to make a shaggy dough. Allow to autolyse for twenty minutes to an hour. Add the salt and knead to make a cohesive dough.Allow to ferment for two and a half hours, folding once after an hour.Here is the risen dough.Scale the dough into two equal portions.

Round and place on a parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to proof for about two and a half hours. Towards the end of fermentation, preheat the oven to 460 with a stone inside.Here are the proofed loaves.

Slash the loaves- better than this I hope. Bake with steam for about 40-45 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack. My ugly ducklings were really lovely inside..

and tasted yum-o!