When properly performed, the techniques of scoring and steaming both serve to improve the quality and esthetics of the finished bread. Scoring provides a place for the controlled expansion of the loaf during the oven spring phase of baking, thus contributing to the lightness of crumb and visual attractiveness of the loaf. Steaming during the first few minutes of baking serves a dual purpose; it delays the setting of the crust so that maximum oven spring can be achieved and it helps gelatinize the starch at the surface, giving the loaf a beautiful, shiny crust.
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Tags: scoring, steaming
Posted in Techniques | 3 Comments »
40% Rye Bread with Caraway Seed
As a young boy growing up in Brooklyn, NY, it was always a rare treat to enjoy a meal at one of the many area restaurants. I remember particularly looking forward to eating at the local pizzeria (hence my attempt at recreating New York-style pizza), the not-so-local Chinese restaurant (my foray into Chinese cuisine can be the topic of a whole separate blog!) and the kosher delicatessen. As far as deli was concerned, for me, sandwiches of corned beef or beef tongue piled high on Jewish rye bread with mustard and a kosher dill pickle on the side just couldn’t be beat.
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Tags: caraway, rye
Posted in Lean Doughs | 2 Comments »
With an oval form whose length can be anywhere between that of a baguette (60-70 cm) and a boulot (20-25 cm) [ref: The Taste of Bread, p 74], the batard along with the boule are perhaps the two most commonly used shapes for free-form breads. The batard gets its oval form through a classically two stage shaping process; first the upper half of a flattened round of dough is folded inward towards the horizontal center line using two or more folds, then the dough is rotated 180° and the identical action is performed on the other half of the flattened dough round. This serves to build up dough bulk at the center of the loaf, and thus produce an attractive expansion of the dough during the oven spring stage of baking.
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Tags: batard, shaping
Posted in Techniques | 4 Comments »
Pain au Levain
When it comes to pain au levain, I have to admit that I am a bit of a snob. Why else would I call it pain au levain rather than sourdough bread, as most people do? I’ve never much cared for the name “sourdough”. Once something carries that moniker, all sorts of lip-puckering, eye-watering attributes are expected. Instead, I believe that a good pain au levain should have a complex, subtley sweet and nutty flavor. Yes, there are acidic notes present but, in my opinion, they should only serve in background to help enhance the natural flavor of the grain.
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Tags: bread, levain, sourdough, starter
Posted in Lean Doughs | 5 Comments »
NY-Style Pizza
Whether it be the crisp, light crust of an authentic Neapolitan, the thick, focaccia-like crust of a Sicilian or the crunchy, chewy crust of a New York-style, pizza is one of the few foods that is almost universally loved. As a “breadie”, I judge the quality of a pizza by its crust; the texture of the crust should be appropriate to the style of pizza being made and the flavor of the crust should be able to stand on its own, even without the, dare I say, “distractions” of the toppings. If the remnants of a pizza repast are littered with uneaten crust, then great pizza was not served.
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Tags: pizza, shaping, sourdough, starter
Posted in Rich Doughs, Techniques | 8 Comments »
An Active Starter
While bread leavened with baker’s yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) is an integral part of any baker’s repertoire, that repertoire would be incomplete without the complex flavors that can only come from naturally leavened bread. Known as sourdough bread here in the U.S., this type of bread relies on the wild yeast and bacteria naturally present on the grain to provide both leavening and a unique, mildly acidic flavor profile. However, before they can be used in the production of bread, these wild yeast and bacteria first need to be activated and cultured. This is the process of creating a sourdough starter.
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Tags: levain, sourdough, starter
Posted in Techniques | No Comments »
Cinnamon Raisin Bread
If I had to choose one bread whose aroma while baking consistently makes my mouth water, it would have to be cinnamon raisin bread. Unlike baguettes or pan de campagne, which are made from lean doughs (i.e., doughs with little or no fat), cinnamon raisin bread is made from a rich dough. The fat used here is butter (in this case, about 20% in baker’s percentage) and it gives the cinnamon raisin bread its distinctive soft crumb and luxurious texture.
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Tags: bread, cinnamon, folding, raisin, shaping
Posted in Rich Doughs, Techniques | 12 Comments »
Pain de Campagne
Pain de campagne, or “country bread”, is bread baked in the style of the rustic loaves found throughout the French countryside. There really is no one correct way to bake a pain de campagne loaf; the formulae are as varied as the traditional ways of shaping the loaves. Pain de campagne can be made with a natural leaven or with baker’s yeast. Some prefer to add a small percentage of rye flour to their dough while others prefer whole wheat. Traditional loaf shapes include fendu (split), couronne (crown), tabatière (snuffbox), and bouton d’or (buttercup), to name a few.
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Tags: bouton d'or, bread, pâte fermentée, shaping
Posted in Lean Doughs, Techniques | 4 Comments »
I’m a firm believer that >95% of the problems encountered by bread bakers originate at the mixing stage. The main objective of proper mixing is to develop the gluten sufficiently so that it can effectively trap the CO2 produced during fermentation. Overmixing should be avoided since it can lead to an overly strong dough which can result in a loaf with poor volume and a tough crumb.
It has also been emphasized by many professional bakers that overmixing can also cause the oxidation of compounds present within the dough which contribute to the flavor and color of the bread. While I don’t doubt that this can be a real concern at the commercial scale, where highly efficient dough mixers can quickly incorporate too much air into the dough if left unchecked, at the scale of the home baker I found that I had to look for ways to actually increase air incorporation. At appropriate levels, the air is beneficial in that it contributes oxygen which is used, albeit rather quickly, by the yeast during its aerobic reproduction phase. Small air bubbles in the dough also acts as nuclei for alveoli production during fermentation.
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Tags: air incorporation, hand mixing
Posted in Techniques | 10 Comments »
It’s been said that the baguette, although one of the simplest breads (being comprised of only flour, water, yeast and salt), is perhaps the most difficult bread to make well. A good baguette has a thin, crisp crust, a light and airy crumb having a distribution of both large and small air pockets (alveoli), and a slightly sweet, almost nutty flavor. Being the perfectionist that I am, I would also add that a good baguette has to look enticing, being a feast for the eyes as well as the stomach.
La Grigne
The baguette formula used here is a modification of the Baguettes with Poolish formula described by Hamelman on page 101 of Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes (see book for baker’s percentages). The main changes were in the method of mixing (see Musings on Mixing…), the amount of yeast used in the final dough and the elimination of the folding step.
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Tags: baguette, bread, poolish, shaping
Posted in Lean Doughs, Techniques | 9 Comments »
