Bread - Number Two

Bread – Number Two: Variation on Bread Number One

Themes Emerge (well, that is if one can accept that two constitutes a large enough number from which one can derive a theme)

Dedicated to Brad and my husband; Brad because he is my baking muse and my husband because he is still waiting for his home-baked baguette.

To give credit where credit is due, many of the ideas below are from the book Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day book, with details below the recipe.

Ingredients

7 cups whole wheat or white whole wheat flour

1 ½ tablespoons yeast

1 tablespoon kosher salt

3 ½ cups water (they say lukewarm, but the only difference is amount of time for the dough to sit out)

½ cup olive oil

Small handful of dough from Bread Number One batch

Instructions

1.      Keep a handful of dough from a previous batch in the bowl (in this case from Bread Number One). It is the lazy sourdough starter. (More on sourdough later.) Do not clean the bowl. You heard me. Just scrape whatever small amounts are on the sides of the bowl into the handful.

2.       Add the liquids, the water and oil, to the starter. Scrape again. In fact, really all the scraping could wait til now.

3.      Take out an immersion blender. The best thing to do is to if you do not have one is to go out and buy one. It is not expensive and you will love this tool. Just put the immersion rod end right into the handful of that dough, the starter, sitting on the bottom of the bowl. Turn it on and in less than 30 seconds, you will have a soupy mix.

4.        Separately, mix the dry ingredients and mix well, which I did not (hoping a mediocre mixing job will not ruin the result).

5.        Add dry ingredients to liquid gunk.

6.        Mix and mix  and mix until a cohesive dough encompasses all of the dry and wet ingredients. You will see some flour at the bottom of the bowl. Keep mixing until you don’t. This whole operation will take about five minutes. gunk.

7.        Rising: An alternative to figuring out whether the dough is done with rising and is in the right condition to be put in the fridge is to leave it out overnight. There is no harm and you don’t have to drive yourself crazy figuring out if the dough is sufficiently flat, particularly if you were too busy to notice when the rising peaked and that it is now post-peak. One thing I noticed, perhaps because of the starter or because it was left out overnight, is that seemed to be more of a stretchiness and air worked in at the top.

8.       Put the bowl in the fridge, where I would suggest you do not leave it more than five days. Though the recipe in the book said seven days, at that point mine had possibly (totally unsure) become a tiny bit post peak. That is why I was careful to take a handful from the bottom and to examine closely whatever was on the side of the bowl before using to make the current dough. (At day six, I ended up throwing out half of the first dough batch.)

9.      For baking, take out as much dough as you want; the amount will only affect the baking time. Lightly sprinkle flour on the dough when separating and sprinkle some flour on the dough. Shape the dough into a boule or oblong, or whatever. If using parchment paper, place is on the pizza peel and then place dough directly on the parchment paper. Let rise, lightly covered with plastic, for 90 minutes.

10.   Continue as with Bread Number One: Preheat oven to 450 degrees about an hour before placing bread in oven. Make sure baking stone is on the middle rack and a pan is somewhere else in the oven, probably below, meaning in a place where you will not accidentally pour the water or ice onto the baking stone or the dough instead of into the pan. (Really the stone can be anywhere, depending on your preferences.)

11.   When the 90 minutes is up, and there is no shame in being addicted to kitchen timers, use the pastry brush to brush the dough with water; then use the serrated knife to cut into it about a quarter inch thick a few times. (I went overboard this time and did end up with a bit of a cartoon-like loaf.) Slide dough and parchment paper onto baking stone. Quickly, pour one cup of water or ice into pan. Make sure not to drip liquid or ice directly onto the oven door (an expensive misstep). Use a towel to cover the opened oven door. I always forget that. Remember to remove it before closing the oven door.

12.   If using parchment paper to slide dough onto baking stone, take out the parchment paper after 20 minutes and leave dough directly on the baking stone for the rest of the baking time to get a good crust on the bottom. 

13.   Baking time for a quarter of the dough is 30 to 35 minutes. Add more for a larger bread. Make sure that bread is crusty, even dark brown, when removing it from the oven. You will be taking a risk if you, like I am doing this time, ask someone else in the household to remove the bread from the oven as that person might not wish to be entrusted with the task of determining whether the crust is at the right point for removal of the bread from the oven.

14.   After removing from oven, let the bread sit for at least half an hour. Some authorities, meaning websites or books I have glanced at, say to let sit for a few hours.

What constitutes a sufficient variation for another notch in the 108?

Okay, this is a very small variation from Bread Number One, but this is my project and that is what I want to do. What constitutes a sufficient difference to count as another bread on the 108 list might not make sense or be consistent.  The suggestions for the lazy sourdough starter and not cleaning the bowl are from the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day book. You can sue them when you are poisoned. (Being sarcastic. The authors might not find that funny.) The other suggestion, which also constitutes a change from Bread Number One, is leaving the dough out overnight for the first rise.

Other possible variations involve types of grains and less yeast, both of which I intend to try, probably still using this book, though improvising. However, I don’t want to spend too long on this book. There are so many others to buy and so many websites to visit. Well, 108 is a nice large number; there is plenty of time for resting on one approach for a while before moving on.

Right now, my dough is on the second rise, the hour and a half sitting out before going into the oven. I have to make sure to have the pastry brush, serated bread knife, water and cup of ice ready for the preparation and quick toss of everything into the very hot oven. Later: Just put in dough, which, even with parchment paper, did not exactly slide off, as I pulled the paper onto the stone, making sure not to burn myself, and, after dumping the ice cubes into the pan, made sure to take the towel off the oven door and not leave it in the oven during baking.

Tiny tidbit on sourdough

While the bread is baking, let me very briefly define sourdough. Google will do for more information. Indeed, a Google result provided my brief definition. “Leaven for making bread, consisting of fermenting dough, typically that left over from a previous batch.” Translation: Use old dough to make new, without using yeast. That is why my old dough was a lazy sourdough – I also used yeast.

When creating a new starter, without old dough, there are methods that involve yeast and those that do not. The more old-fashioned way would be eschew store-bought yeast. Translation: Maximizing the artisanal quality and ancient bonafides of the bread will require doing without yeast much as your great-great-great grandmother did not have a supermarket or yeast in packets or bottles at her local store. Okay, yes, that was sexist, as your paternal ancestors might have been bakers, or owned bakeries, or made bread at home.

Some people tend the same starter for years, which involves feeding the starter and a whole complicated, and cult-like, set of rituals, which I will not go into here. Just dipping my toe in the sourdough ocean with this bread. Please slap me if I refuse to go on vacation because the sourdough starter’s life force will dwindle, evaporate or otherwise cease to exist.

Friend and encouraging a fanatic

Now, for Brad. He is a mutual friend of my friend Rebecca, for whom I dedicated this project. The bread I made this afternoon is for him. It is not big and it does have a somewhat funny appearance because I too-enthusiastically cut those slats with the serrated knife. After I baked, Brad and I took a long walk; we have an actual route we always take; and we talked about Rebecca and the latest news of our friends. He bakes with me sometimes and cooks for us occasionally. He is especially wonderful when making a new, intimidating recipe because he retains his composure and has a sense of humor that stays active even when he is busy in the kitchen. He introduced me to fanatic (yes, that is fanatic) bread making with the book 52 Loaves, and he refers to me as a baker, which I treasure, even though I don’t feel like any kind of an expert.

As for my husband, I am about to go into the kitchen to take out the dough for the baguette, something very intimidating. He will give me a completely honest, perhaps negatively-tinged, assessment when he eats it later. He says that this means that I know he really likes something when he says so. He knows nothing of this plan and as today is Sunday, he is so involved with football that I could have an entire harem of women walk through the house naked and he might not notice. Actually, he would notice that and tell them not to block the TV. This will be a surprise.

Results

Brad’s bread, which he shared with us, was good, nice crumb (interior) and Rick (my husband) said the crust was better than Bread Number One. I agree and am sure it was attributable to the longer baking time. All around we liked it better, which, I will just credit to the lazy starter dough.

The baguette for my husband came out looking fine, but I made the same mistake as with Bread Number One: I did not bake it for enough time. What am I scared of? Dryness? With this oven, have to err on the side of longer baking times. Anyway, for a bread it is decent; just not a great baguette. Rick ate some, but stated he did not want any more of it.

Rest of the dough and other post scripts

P.S. On the last batch of Bread Number Two dough, I did a slow rise in the refrigerator for the second rise. So instead of shaping the dough and leaving it out for an hour and a half, I shaped it, put it on parchment paper on a cutting board, and put it in the fridge overnight. Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day suggests doing such a rise all day so that one can pop the dough in the oven, basically, soon after getting home from work. In the morning, I took out the dough, so it could return to room temperature, and turned on the oven to 450 degrees. Only I must have not hit “start” because it was not on an hour later. I am hoping, an hour later, that the extra time the dough will be sitting out will not do serious harm.

P.P.S. Brad was not so enamored of his bread.; he is not the biggest whole wheat fan. He left it at our house and I made him a favorite bread of his, taking out the bread machine for that dough, and making up for experimenting on him with Bread Number Two.

P.P.P.S. And Bread Number Three? With going away next weekend, it will be the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day book’s basic recipe, which has about a third regular flour to two thirds whole wheat, and has no fat of any kind. A big reason to the basic recipe is that the dough will last up to two weeks in the fridge.

Bread – Number One

Bread – Number One: A 100 Percent Whole Wheat Bread
Woohoo! I Think

Dedicated to my bowl and plastic wrap. May you work your magic on the dough I am about to make, and, I hope, bake.

Okay, football is on, which is noisy, but at least not using that or other excuse not to start. Football noise would be a valid excuseas would vacation, cleaning, paperwork, design magazines, sleepiness, friends, obligations or other reasons to delay starting.  Starting immediately on the first bread, which is out of the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day book. Yes, also watched their video and took notes. That in itself was an excuse because I have the book and watched the video before. Also took 30 minutes to watch a five-minute video as I kept watching parts of it over.

Ingredients

7 cups whole wheat or white whole wheat flour
1 ½ tablespoons yeast
1 tablespoon kosher salt
¼ cup vital wheat gluten
3 ½ cups water (they say lukewarm, but the only difference is amount of time for the dough to sit out)
½ cup olive oil

Keep saying it's easy

Basically the same recipe as my own recipe except there’s no honey. No reason for anxiety. The whole reason to commit myself to all of these breads is to experiment and experimenting implies – indeed, opens one up to – failure and learning.

 

Today is only preparation of the dough, which should rise in two to three hours, and then will bake tomorrow evening. This is an easy foray because few ingredients and it is baking made simple. All of the panic-inducing steps of rising and kneading have been done away with via wet dough and long gestational periods (that’s not the technical term).

This recipe is promoted as making four loaves, though the amounts are just double what I usually bake for a single loaf. Well, guess that is fine for the down-sized household. Already had to look up the tablespoon/teaspoon equivalents. No, that was not the stupidest thing I have ever said.

 

Instructions

1.       Dump dry ingredients in a bowl and mix a bit.

2.       Add wet ingredients.

3.       Mix and mix and mix, or, if you prefer, use a machine to mix. I wanted to be one with the dough, ha ha, and used a spatula and then my hands (best to first take rings off).

4.       Cover bowl or bucket with plastic wrap or lid – not tightly - and let sit on counter for a minimum of two hours; more will not ruin the dough. After the dough has risen and either fallen or become flat – and that is not an easy determination – put in refrigerator for up to a week, overnight minimum. (The regular bread dough can be left up to two weeks.)

5.       You will not be able to tell when the dough has become sufficiently flat. Put mine in the fridge after about five hours. Still mid-process, so do not yet know results.

Go to sleep and try not be anxious. It is only dough. No one will be maimed or killed if a lousy bread results. Yes, actually told myself this. A childhood of being told to get good grades and listen to teachers makes for a difficult transition many years later when embarking on an unjudgmental experimental bread fest.

Next evening - baking rules made obvious

Learning lessons that are painfully obvious. Maybe the teaspoon/tablespoon stupidity above indicative of my deficits.

Rule #1: A process that is touted to take five minutes will take at least 15 the first time, possibly a half hour if one (yes, me) rereads everything multiple times before moving forward.

Rule #2: First, clean hands and any tools that are needed, but have not been used for a long time. The directions called for kitchen shears with which to cut the dough. Mine are usually employed for cutting plastic and they were a little grimy, certainly not something one would want for commencing a long bread project. Actually turned out that the shears were an unnecessary conceit as well-floured hands did the job just fine. Really like the idea of the shears used this way and looks very cool in the video as well as in person.

Rule #3: Without any pressure whatsoever, outside of one’s comfort zone it is always possible to be anxious.

Rule #4: Do baking tasks first and write afterward. Otherwise, baking will be delayed and possibly dropped altogether. STFU and get the show on the road. Yes, actually said that to myself as well.

Back to instructions 

6.       Take dough out of fridge, cut off a piece, very easy, and do the little bit of fondling (is that an inappropriate word or perfect?) described in the book. Basically tucking in the sides of the dough to get a boule shape. Can do other shapes as well.

7.       Put on a pizza peel – important – either covered with cornmeal or parchment paper. In the interest of time, avoidance of anxiety that the cornmeal would not sufficiently assist later on when sliding the dough from peel to bakers stone in the oven, and my love of parchment paper, up there with post-its on my personal list of greatest inventions, used parchment paper.

8.       Wait 90 minutes, a good time to write or start dinner. Also have hand wash to do and any number of chores; closet having gotten messy seemingly all on its own, needs neatening.

9.       Actually, before an hour passes, heat oven to 450 degrees, first making sure that baking stone and pan (to be used a nanosecond after putting dough on stone as a receptacle for water to “make steam”) are where you want them in the oven. I use a timer as those household chores, writing, closet cleaning, really anything, can be deceptively engrossing and would forget completely to turn on the oven enough time before other timer goes off to indicate the 90 minutes is up.

10.   Before baking: Have on hand a kitchen towel and one cup of water or ice use right after placing dough on baking stone. Alternative to water is ice, which I find easier to dump in the pan than water and less likely to drip onto the glass oven door that you, your spouse, significant other or partner, do not wish to replace when it cracks. Use the kitchen towel to cover said oven door when dumping the H₂0. (Okay, actually forgot the kitchen towel part every time.)

11.   Take pizza peel and whisk that dough onto the baking stone. Quickly fill pan with water or ice, taking care not to get glass oven door even a bit wet. Leave in oven for 30 to 35 minutes. If you are me, which you aren’t, I understand, you will be impatient and take out too soon. My bread turned out wonderful, with a “but” that it could have used 33 or 35 minutes instead of 30.  I was mesmerized by the glamorous, bakery-looking crust and could not wait any longer. Also was fearful of dry interior.

[Somewhere near where the wheat grew, perhaps?]

And?

The taste was solidly good and a fantastic start, totally encouraging for going onto to breads two, three and four. Now, for breakfast, a couple of slices of my bread with some butter, maybe honey, and tea.

Yummy and will later this week use the rest of the dough to make a nice big loaf for my friend Brad, who is my baking muse, encouraging voice, and someone wonderful to bake with. He will be appearing in stories of many of the future breads, I am sure, and will be getting plenty of his own dedications.

P.S. Used part of this dough for what the authors of call a lazy sourdough. That is bread number two.

Bread – Zero

Bread – Zero

Can’t I start already?

Dedicated to my trusty bread maker, which never complains, and always does well, though I am abandoning it on a bread journey.

Zero - in bread terms 

Zero means nothing, no bread, though I find myself contemplating a recent bread with the old recipe, but baked according to the bread-guru recommended high temperatures. Zero because step one has not taken place and I am too busy to start. Zero because the baby is leaving for college and no children will be in the house. Zero because my parents are gone, which really was lousy of them if you ask me. Zero because I find myself rethinking practically everything at a time I should be completely settled. Zero because I am on the precipice and so want to take that first step already.

Zero is impatient with obstacles.

Not that the last few weeks of being at zero bread wise has meant inactivity. Baking for holidays and care packages and having people over and going elsewhere. Baking with an ambitious schedule and goal of sending care packages to my daughters with favorite homemade breads and treats. Maybe baking just to bake, to feel my grandmother’s rolling pin in my hands, to use the lovely blue circle-design bowl my sister gave me, to compare recipes ad infinitum on things I am trying out, and then the lovely aroma of butter and flour and vanilla filling the air. And cooking soon one of my mother’s recipes, actually an ancient recipe, perhaps a thousand years old, handed down from my grandmother, who made it until she was no longer able, a connection to generations of mothers I come from, whom I wish I knew.

Zero prompts whys and wherefores 

And zero because I really do not know why I am doing this. Why should I embark on baking on whole lot of new breads? I want to volunteer, to go back to the novel I stopped writing seven years ago, to buying cute clothes, to taking classes, to reading for hours without end. After making bread for so many years, back about 13 years, and now with my husband hardly eating bread and no kids who need sandwiches, really cannot answer why. Because.

I am capable of much. Evidence the recent triumph of walk-in closet cleaning that took four months, maybe an extra month, okay at least an extra month, when Rebecca, my friend who passed away, was in dire straits and then, when the miracle was one of friends supporting her and her family instead of the miracle of a cure, I had no patience for closet cleaning. Still I went back later and finished cleaning the closet. Looks fabulous, organized, redecorated and with new containers. And baked for over a month. And shopped and shopped for the college preparations, as if buying a trousseau, except with jeans. 

Success at parenthood is like success at dating: the accomplishment renders the skill set obsolete.

Zero is (actually, was - this was weeks ago) at the point of taking a long-planned vacation with my husband, after the trip to bring our daughter to college, so that I don’t want to start baking and stop when I get some momentum. But due to the vacation and weekends away for so long after we get back, family obligations, when the heck will I progress beyond zero? Zero is not knowing whether after bread one or two or three, I will be done with this and never reach 108. Maybe when I get to number one I’ll explain why 108. Now it’s time to make dinner, which reminds me I pretty much hate to cook and I love to bake and I don’t know why.

One month later

– Remain at zero due to timing.  Going out tonight and not confident there is enough time for the first step of the first bread. Do not want to rush and bread will not be where it needs to be before dough goes into fridge. It’s enough that I have barely educated myself in the bread making process, well, bread making without a bread maker machine. Still, have picked out a recipe from the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day book, a nice whole wheat with olive oil, which approximates what I made before. Number one will be incremental from negative one. Takes time to dip one’s toe in the cold ocean and to jump in. Should watch the bread video again.

And to my bread maker, my machine of comfort, the next bread, the first in the 108 bread journey might not be too much of a bread; to my bread maker, I am filled with gratitude. You laid the ground work for this, whatever happens.

Bread - Negative One

Bread – Negative One

And a Memorial to My Friend Rebecca

Ingredients

1 cup water, maybe a tiny bit more

¼ cup oil (I use olive or canola)

1 tsp salt

¼ cup honey or sugar (if honey, add with liquids)

3 ½ cups whole wheat or white whole wheat flour (I use King Arthurs)

1 tbspn yeast (make a little well in the flour for the yeast; make two if adding sugar instead of honey)

Instructions

In a bread machine, the dough will take two hours to be ready, so you can be lazy and avoid kneading and rising; or, like me, bread making seems too intimidating and you have no idea what yeast bubbles or proofed dough or dough consistency should all look like. When the bread machine has been mixing for five minutes, open the top to check the dough. Sometimes I put in the wrong amount of liquid or flour and the mistake can be corrected without any consequences at that point. But the flour varies with each batch and with the seasons. Sometimes the 3 ½ cups requires a little more water, maybe a tablespoon or two, or sometimes it has a slightly wet appearance, or worse, sticks to the sides. Then the dough needs some more flour, a heaping tablespoon or two, or very rarely a quarter cup.

Preheat the oven to 325 at an hour out so the oven is nice and hot. Use a baking stone or a cookie sheet with parchment paper. When the dough is ready, take it out, adding some flour or putting flour on a wood cutting board if it is sticky (not a technical term, but has a tangible meaning). Good to fold the ends under for a nice boule, or to cut slits in the top, though unnecessary. Fine if the bread is oblong as shape is an aesthetic preference.

Total baking time is 40 minutes. Do that the first time at one temperature and see what your oven tells you in terms of more or less time, and what you want your crust to look like. I bake for 32 minutes, then turn around the bread and up the temperature to 400 for eight minutes. The oven will only be up that high for a couple of minutes, but the crust looks better.

Starting lower than zero

That’s the recipe I’ve been making for seven years. I stayed happy with my one recipe. I’m not ambitious. I have one good cake, some good cookies; don’t care if there’s more. I made 800 cookies for an event, including some funny black and whites that were tasty, but did not look like the neat half and half design one sees in bakeries.

Start of a bread 

Then my friend Rebecca was sick and her rounds of early testing required a no-iodine diet – for weeks, which not only meant certain foods were allowed and certain ones were prohibited, but that certain ingredients, salt in particular, required special attention. You can’t go out to eat when you have to ask what type of salt is being put into foods and Rebecca loved to eat and to eat out. So I made her a whole wheat bread she could eat.

  

The bread was good and started to make it for my kids, who ate it and gave up the disgusting potato bread we’d been making sandwiches with. I’ve been making it once or twice a week ever since, well once now that the last daughter is away at college now. Lately, reading about what bread should be like and what ingredients it should only have, and wondering if I am up to the task, and curious to expand (can I even call it) my repertoire, I want to embark on 108 breads. Not sure I will get there and knowing this will take – indeed designing this journey to take – more than a year, probably two and maybe four, if I don’t quit.

And I dedicate this to the memory of Rebecca, who passed away a few months ago, after she could not eat or drink and lived through years of drugs and testing. She got me on my way to make a good bread. I hope, Rebecca, that wherever you are, you are enjoying fun, delicious meals and choosing wine for the table, with good conversation and lots of laughter. 

Finally doing this! 

Oh, and I forgot to say that I’m going to blog it, and maybe tweet, and that I haven’t started any of that yet either, and that’s why this is bread negative one. Climbing up to zero.

Editor's Note: Posting the first few breads in rapid succession because actually wrote this weeks ago.