I've been monkeying about with fermentation lately, you know, how long I can ferment the dough, how long it can handle fermentation in pretty warm weather, and all that jazz. Yesterday I set out to make Tartine's next loaf, whole wheat with Gruyere, one of two variations on whole wheat before the last loaf in this chapter which happens to be rye (I can't wait).
I decided to do something different with this bread because I was not in the mood for a loaf of whole wheat, I needed something lighter, plus I'm not quite done foolin' around with my City Bread, trying to get the whole wheat to white ratio just right, and again, taking advantage of our Indian summer to understand the affects of weather on my burgeoning dough. And I remembered one of my favorite little cheese breads from a fabulous cheese shop called The Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley, and decided to set my bread locomotive in that direction instead of adding the cheese to a boule and baking it that way. The little rolls are much more conducive to sharing, and the way that the cheese, a mixture of Asiago and cave-aged Gruyere, oozes out over the top of them is almost insane, it's so good.
As for the dough, I decreased the whole wheat a hair, and this time I accomplished the full bulk fermentation at room temp, quite a feat given that the mercury was buoying somewhere in the upper 80s. Coupled with the high hydration, I was definitely pushing the issue a little bit, because the dough spread pretty quickly on the peel, and it was almost impossible to slash. Slashing, by the way, is an art form in and of itself, aside from the bread, so don't feel bad if you don't get it right away. I've only properly slashed a few loaves myself, and it's probably those loaves that were the best that I've ever baked. I feel as though the better we get at bread, the better our slashing capabilities become. And once we're slashing like pros, we can be assured that it's probably one fine loaf altogether that's receiving such stellar treatment.
Onward.
The bread itself came out really well considering the way that I bullied it into existence. As you can see, the slashes are all wild like, and the loaf rejected the idea of an ambitious oven spring, yielding a moderately elevated loaf. But lo, the crumb was still really lovely and open, it was uber moist and tender to boot, and the flavor was pretty divine. Full gelatinization was realized, and the crust shattered like glass, I dare say.
What I've learned from this bake is that these cheesy rolls will drive you to craziness they're so good, especially right out of the oven, or crisped before eating if you have some left over the next day. In this weather, I highly recommend doing a partial fermentation in the fridge. If you've been following my experiment, you will remember that I've been doing 2 hours cold, two hours at room temp. I would play with at least the final hour under refrigeration if you want to push the envelope of fermentation at room temp. And I would definitely keep up with a refrigerated proof until it starts to cool down if you happen to be in southern CA, or share warm summers like we do.
We are almost done with the first chapter of Tartine. After the next loaf we move into baguettes and all renditions thereof, brioches, croissants and English muffins, Tartine style.
Without further ado, here are the details of our cheesy rolls and a City Bread boule from levain through the bake.
The necessities:
FOR THE BREAD AND ROLLS:
levain, about 200g (see below)
750g + 50g h2o
750g KA all purpose flour, but you may use bread flour
250g KA whole wheat flour
20g salt
150g Asiago cheese, grated (or 300g if you plan to make both halves of dough into cheese rolls, read below)
150g cave aged Gruyere cheese, grated (or 300g if you plan to make both halves of dough into cheese rolls, read below)
Olive oil for brushing the rolls
FOR THE LEVAIN:
15g active starter, I used my trusty rye
100g h2o
50g dark or medium rye flour
50g all purpose flour
1) Create the levain: Mix the starter with 100g water, 50g rye flour and 50g all purpose flour. Cover with a towel and let it bloom overnight.
2) The next day your levain should be good and poofy. Dissolve all of it in 750g of water, then mix in both flours until you arrive at a shaggy mass. Cover with a sheet of plastic or a wet towel, or do what I did and pop a glass lid over the top so you can see what's going on from autolyse through bulk fermentation. Autolyse for 1 hour.
3) Add the salt and remaining 50g of water to the autolysed dough and mix thoroughly until you arrive at a smooth mass.
4) After 30 minutes, perform your first series of turns. Do this by scooping your hand under the dough and bringing the bottom over the top. Turn the bowl 1/3 turn and repeat until you have folded the dough from bottom to top three times. PS, no need to rough-house the dough. The structure of the dough occurs via fermentation, your turns, while they do strengthen the dough, are meant to 'organize and lengthen the gluten molecules', for long, smooth strands.
You will perform 3 more series of turns, one every 30 minutes, for a total of 4 series, which will comprise the first 2 hours of your bulk fermentation. After the 2 hour mark, if you live in a cool environment, by all means, ferment the dough at room temp for another 2 hours. If you live in a warmer climate, you may want to pop the dough into the fridge at this point, or in another hour. Whichever way you decide to go, ferment the dough for another 2 hours, you can push it to 2.5 if you decide to pop it in the fridge straight away.
5) turn the dough out onto a work surface. I use olive oil, but you may flour if you wish. Divide in half, shape into loose rounds, cover with a couple of bowls and bench rest for 15 minutes.
6) At this point, shape one of the halves of dough into a boule like we normally do. Get it into a linen-lined bowl that has been dusted with rice flour. Pop in the fridge to proof for 4 hours. Roll out the second measure of dough, flouring the surface as necessary so it does not stick to the rolling pin. Your work space should be lubricated well enough with olive oil or flour, whichever you chose. Let the weight of the rolling pin do the work for you. Avoid mashing the dough. It looks like I rolled mine out to about 1/2" thick. Try to get it as rectangular as possible.
A NOTE: You may want to proceed making both halves into the addictive cheese rolls instead of turning one into a boule. If that is the case, follow the instructions below with both portions of dough. It will be easiest to work in halves, unless you have a really long work space and consider yourself a bad ass. In which case, roll out the whole measure of dough and make one really long cheese roll as directed below.
7) Spread the cheese over the dough as above.
8) Roll the dough into a neat log using your bench scraper to keep it all tight and uniform.
Be sure to leave the lip naked so that you can crimp the roll closed like this...
9) Slice the log into 1.5" thick slices with a very sharp knife.
10) Get the slices onto a flour dusted couche. It's OK if they touch a bit now and when they begin to proof. You can hack them apart with a bench scraper later.
11) Proof for 3 hours, room temp, or until they expand in size by 50%. About 15 minutes before you want to bake them, preheat the oven to 450 degrees with your baking stone inside.
12) Line your peel with a piece of parchment. Using a spatula, transfer the rolls onto the parchment and tighten reshape them with your hands if necessary. Brush the cheese-less sides with olive oil. Slide the parchment with the rolls into the oven. (Refrigerate the rest of the rolls while the first batch is baking. It's OK to bake the successive rolls straight from the fridge).
13) Mist the rolls heavily with water using the MIST setting on your squirt bottle, close the door, then twist the nozzle of the bottle to STREAM, open the oven door just a hair, and squirt the right wall of the oven until it stops hissing, repeat on the left side. Close the oven door swiftly. Repeat this steaming method after 5 minutes, then again after another 5 minutes, and again after another 5 minutes for a total of 15 minutes with steam. Then bake for 10 minutes, turn the parchment so that you rotate the rolls from back to front, and bake till completion, another 10 - 15 minutes for a total of 35 - 40 minutes, or until the rolls are golden.
14) Cool on a wire rack, then repeat with the remaining rolls. The rolls are delicious warm, and they happily reheat the next day as well, although I really like them at room temp too!
1) After the four hour proof, preheat the oven to 500 degrees with your combo cooker inside for at least 20 minutes.
(Note, if you are still working your cheese rolls and you have opted to do a room temp proof, at the four hour mark, pop the boule into the fridge until you are ready to bake it).
2) Invert the boule onto a peel lined with parchment or a thin layer of semolina. Score. Slide the boule into the shallow portion of the combo cooker, immediately cover with the deeper portion of the combo cooker, lower the oven to 450 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.
3) After 30 minutes, remove the lid from the combo cooker and complete the bake, another 30 - 40 minutes.
VERDICT
Crust: shattery and lovely Crumb: largely open, fully gelatinized Flavor: Really wonderful and developed. A good tang, but not overly so. Ease of handling dough: Challenging. It was really warm here and the dough is super hydrated. Notes: I would definitely do the final hour or two bulk fermentation in the fridge when the temp soars to the mid-eighties. It was in danger of over-fermenting, and I was a little surprised that it came out as well as it did considering. I might also decrease the hydration just a hair, maybe by 25g or so. But it might not be necessary if you do a 1/2 ferment in the fridge. Whichever you choose, please email me and divulge your findings!
To the staff of life!
This cheesy post was sent off to Wild Yeast Blog's Yeast Spotting.
I decided to do something different with this bread because I was not in the mood for a loaf of whole wheat, I needed something lighter, plus I'm not quite done foolin' around with my City Bread, trying to get the whole wheat to white ratio just right, and again, taking advantage of our Indian summer to understand the affects of weather on my burgeoning dough. And I remembered one of my favorite little cheese breads from a fabulous cheese shop called The Cheese Board Collective in Berkeley, and decided to set my bread locomotive in that direction instead of adding the cheese to a boule and baking it that way. The little rolls are much more conducive to sharing, and the way that the cheese, a mixture of Asiago and cave-aged Gruyere, oozes out over the top of them is almost insane, it's so good.
As for the dough, I decreased the whole wheat a hair, and this time I accomplished the full bulk fermentation at room temp, quite a feat given that the mercury was buoying somewhere in the upper 80s. Coupled with the high hydration, I was definitely pushing the issue a little bit, because the dough spread pretty quickly on the peel, and it was almost impossible to slash. Slashing, by the way, is an art form in and of itself, aside from the bread, so don't feel bad if you don't get it right away. I've only properly slashed a few loaves myself, and it's probably those loaves that were the best that I've ever baked. I feel as though the better we get at bread, the better our slashing capabilities become. And once we're slashing like pros, we can be assured that it's probably one fine loaf altogether that's receiving such stellar treatment.
Onward.
The bread itself came out really well considering the way that I bullied it into existence. As you can see, the slashes are all wild like, and the loaf rejected the idea of an ambitious oven spring, yielding a moderately elevated loaf. But lo, the crumb was still really lovely and open, it was uber moist and tender to boot, and the flavor was pretty divine. Full gelatinization was realized, and the crust shattered like glass, I dare say.
What I've learned from this bake is that these cheesy rolls will drive you to craziness they're so good, especially right out of the oven, or crisped before eating if you have some left over the next day. In this weather, I highly recommend doing a partial fermentation in the fridge. If you've been following my experiment, you will remember that I've been doing 2 hours cold, two hours at room temp. I would play with at least the final hour under refrigeration if you want to push the envelope of fermentation at room temp. And I would definitely keep up with a refrigerated proof until it starts to cool down if you happen to be in southern CA, or share warm summers like we do.
We are almost done with the first chapter of Tartine. After the next loaf we move into baguettes and all renditions thereof, brioches, croissants and English muffins, Tartine style.
Without further ado, here are the details of our cheesy rolls and a City Bread boule from levain through the bake.
The necessities:
FOR THE BREAD AND ROLLS:
levain, about 200g (see below)
750g + 50g h2o
750g KA all purpose flour, but you may use bread flour
250g KA whole wheat flour
20g salt
150g Asiago cheese, grated (or 300g if you plan to make both halves of dough into cheese rolls, read below)
150g cave aged Gruyere cheese, grated (or 300g if you plan to make both halves of dough into cheese rolls, read below)
Olive oil for brushing the rolls
FOR THE LEVAIN:
15g active starter, I used my trusty rye
100g h2o
50g dark or medium rye flour
50g all purpose flour
1) Create the levain: Mix the starter with 100g water, 50g rye flour and 50g all purpose flour. Cover with a towel and let it bloom overnight.
2) The next day your levain should be good and poofy. Dissolve all of it in 750g of water, then mix in both flours until you arrive at a shaggy mass. Cover with a sheet of plastic or a wet towel, or do what I did and pop a glass lid over the top so you can see what's going on from autolyse through bulk fermentation. Autolyse for 1 hour.
3) Add the salt and remaining 50g of water to the autolysed dough and mix thoroughly until you arrive at a smooth mass.
4) After 30 minutes, perform your first series of turns. Do this by scooping your hand under the dough and bringing the bottom over the top. Turn the bowl 1/3 turn and repeat until you have folded the dough from bottom to top three times. PS, no need to rough-house the dough. The structure of the dough occurs via fermentation, your turns, while they do strengthen the dough, are meant to 'organize and lengthen the gluten molecules', for long, smooth strands.
You will perform 3 more series of turns, one every 30 minutes, for a total of 4 series, which will comprise the first 2 hours of your bulk fermentation. After the 2 hour mark, if you live in a cool environment, by all means, ferment the dough at room temp for another 2 hours. If you live in a warmer climate, you may want to pop the dough into the fridge at this point, or in another hour. Whichever way you decide to go, ferment the dough for another 2 hours, you can push it to 2.5 if you decide to pop it in the fridge straight away.
Dough after first series of turns
Dough after 4 hour room temp fermentation, she's seriously toeing the line here
5) turn the dough out onto a work surface. I use olive oil, but you may flour if you wish. Divide in half, shape into loose rounds, cover with a couple of bowls and bench rest for 15 minutes.
6) At this point, shape one of the halves of dough into a boule like we normally do. Get it into a linen-lined bowl that has been dusted with rice flour. Pop in the fridge to proof for 4 hours. Roll out the second measure of dough, flouring the surface as necessary so it does not stick to the rolling pin. Your work space should be lubricated well enough with olive oil or flour, whichever you chose. Let the weight of the rolling pin do the work for you. Avoid mashing the dough. It looks like I rolled mine out to about 1/2" thick. Try to get it as rectangular as possible.
A NOTE: You may want to proceed making both halves into the addictive cheese rolls instead of turning one into a boule. If that is the case, follow the instructions below with both portions of dough. It will be easiest to work in halves, unless you have a really long work space and consider yourself a bad ass. In which case, roll out the whole measure of dough and make one really long cheese roll as directed below.
7) Spread the cheese over the dough as above.
8) Roll the dough into a neat log using your bench scraper to keep it all tight and uniform.
Be sure to leave the lip naked so that you can crimp the roll closed like this...
9) Slice the log into 1.5" thick slices with a very sharp knife.
10) Get the slices onto a flour dusted couche. It's OK if they touch a bit now and when they begin to proof. You can hack them apart with a bench scraper later.
11) Proof for 3 hours, room temp, or until they expand in size by 50%. About 15 minutes before you want to bake them, preheat the oven to 450 degrees with your baking stone inside.
12) Line your peel with a piece of parchment. Using a spatula, transfer the rolls onto the parchment and tighten reshape them with your hands if necessary. Brush the cheese-less sides with olive oil. Slide the parchment with the rolls into the oven. (Refrigerate the rest of the rolls while the first batch is baking. It's OK to bake the successive rolls straight from the fridge).
13) Mist the rolls heavily with water using the MIST setting on your squirt bottle, close the door, then twist the nozzle of the bottle to STREAM, open the oven door just a hair, and squirt the right wall of the oven until it stops hissing, repeat on the left side. Close the oven door swiftly. Repeat this steaming method after 5 minutes, then again after another 5 minutes, and again after another 5 minutes for a total of 15 minutes with steam. Then bake for 10 minutes, turn the parchment so that you rotate the rolls from back to front, and bake till completion, another 10 - 15 minutes for a total of 35 - 40 minutes, or until the rolls are golden.
14) Cool on a wire rack, then repeat with the remaining rolls. The rolls are delicious warm, and they happily reheat the next day as well, although I really like them at room temp too!
VERDICT
These little rolls tasted just like the ones that I remember from The Cheese Board Collective. They are utterly addictive, and I recommend that you give them away to your friends or you will certainly eat the whole batch on your own in no time!
NOW FOR THE BOULE
1) After the four hour proof, preheat the oven to 500 degrees with your combo cooker inside for at least 20 minutes.
(Note, if you are still working your cheese rolls and you have opted to do a room temp proof, at the four hour mark, pop the boule into the fridge until you are ready to bake it).
2) Invert the boule onto a peel lined with parchment or a thin layer of semolina. Score. Slide the boule into the shallow portion of the combo cooker, immediately cover with the deeper portion of the combo cooker, lower the oven to 450 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.
3) After 30 minutes, remove the lid from the combo cooker and complete the bake, another 30 - 40 minutes.
VERDICT
Crust: shattery and lovely Crumb: largely open, fully gelatinized Flavor: Really wonderful and developed. A good tang, but not overly so. Ease of handling dough: Challenging. It was really warm here and the dough is super hydrated. Notes: I would definitely do the final hour or two bulk fermentation in the fridge when the temp soars to the mid-eighties. It was in danger of over-fermenting, and I was a little surprised that it came out as well as it did considering. I might also decrease the hydration just a hair, maybe by 25g or so. But it might not be necessary if you do a 1/2 ferment in the fridge. Whichever you choose, please email me and divulge your findings!
To the staff of life!
This cheesy post was sent off to Wild Yeast Blog's Yeast Spotting.
