City bread, round one
I've been wanting to make a bread that is not quite as hearty as Tartine's whole wheat, and definitely something with an earthier more wheaty flavor than the country loaf. I also like my bread with a bit of bite, though I know that in France that the mark of a great baker is one who produces loaves with imperceptible tang. I'm a San Franciscan. We can take a little sour with our bread, and frankly, the chewy texture that comes with long fermentations - which also leads to a more sour bread - is one of the primary reasons I started baking my own sourdough at home.
City bread, round two
I've not gotten around to trying to make my dream bread because I really wanted to keep moving along on the proper Tartine path. Alas, sometimes no matter how diligently we stroll down one path, there will always be another that beckons us, and sometimes we must follow, even if we don't realize why we've made the detour until we are half way down the road.
I think the Universe wanted me to work on this loaf in my mind, because I ended up making it when I made a chanterelle pizza for my last post by accident. Here's how it went: I know Chad's bread measurements for all of the breads up to the variations on whole wheat by heart, as well as the method that he outlines in his book. Last week I woke up at 6:30 in the morning to make the dough for my upcoming round of pizzas (I skipped over those, so I'm backtracking a bit). I was so tired that morning that I mismeasured the flours, et voila! I ended up with my dream bread. Sort of. The first round was the debut loaf, great for pizza crust, but as a boule, the method needed to be adjusted (and no, you will NOT see the pictures for that inaugural loaf!). I have since done two more rounds of the bread with adjustments, which are the makeup of this post.
City bread, round two, closeup
What I've come up with in this bread is one that is just wheaty enough, the crumb is open, it's chewy and with a touch of sour. Because I like my bread with a little tang, and with a chewier interior, I am going to continue to experiment with longer fermentation times and, primarily, fermenting and proofing in the fridge.
The thing I love best about baking bread is that it mimics life. No two loaves are the same, nor are two days, nor two moments for that matter. Bread, and life, can be begun over again, adjusted, manipulated, contemplated, a strategy forged to make it better suited to your preference. Each effort is a building block of self-understanding. There are no mistakes. Only lessons and new beginnings which are better than those before, because we've grown so much wiser than even one day ago, and can make better choices down this path. That is a monumental gift given to us that sometimes we forget. But when we remember, it reminds us of the malleability of our lives, the magnitude of our strengths.
City bread, round 1, closeup
This bread is my new City Bread, my fork in the road, something to call my own. I've been working hard to understand how to work with dough, how to yield to it and listen to what it needs rather than beating it into submission, or meeting it with deaf ears. I have been diligently following the Tartine book for a while now, and I needed some deviation, something that would give me permission to experiment, a strategy to alter the landscape of my life and remind me that I have many more choices than I've been willing to see. And I've needed some successes to lend my life some purpose.
This past week I've had multiple successes with my bread as well as my writing, I feel accomplished, and I've been able to share them, both, with my friends and now you. I think that it's crucial to design a life where you have daily accomplishments. Your spirit does not measure the size of them, all it knows is that you were successful. Hooray! And when we feel successful every day, it propels us to a place of continued striving. It allows a sense of purpose to fill us. The goal is to attain little accomplishments every day - a good workout, a loaf of bread - to keep up the momentum. And you have to acknowledge them too. There is no virtue in belittle an accomplishment or telling yourself that you could have done more. That tells your spirit, every day, that you aren't successful, or grateful for that matter. And I don't know about yours, but mine does not thrive in a dampened world. Our spirits need support and nurturing, we have to be kind to ourselves while we have the privilege of being here.
Crumb from round two
Here is to everyone who might find themselves at the fork in their road. Whichever route you take, may it lead you to a greater understanding of who you are. May you have successes every day that know no measure, and may you never forget to praise yourself for them. If you don't the accomplishment was not worth pursuing to begin with.
Here is my City Bread, in two rounds. Quite an accomplishment, if I do say so myself!
ROUND ONE
Begin this bread the night before with a levain. For round one I made a whole wheat levain, as I usually do, with my 100% hydration rye starter. Instructions are below.
700g bread flour
300g whole wheat flour
800g h20
200g whole wheat levain
20g salt
To make the levain, in a bowl, take one tablespoon of your active rye starter and mix it with 100g h20 and 50g each AP and whole wheat flour. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm spot in the kitchen to ferment overnight.
The next morning:
1) Dissolve the levain in 750g of water, then stir in the whole wheat and bread flours until it's a shaggy mass. Autolyse for 1.5 hours.
2) After autolyse, stir in 20g of salt and the 50g of remaining water. Vigorously mix this with your hand until all of the water and salt is incorporated, and the dough becomes a smooth mass. Let it rest for 30 minutes, our fermentation has begun.
3) After 30 minutes of rest, perform your first series of turns (there are four total). Dip your hand under the dough, then pull the bottom of the dough over the top, turn the bowl 1/3 turn and do this again. I fold the dough like this for a total of 3 times. Cover with plastic and rest for 30 minutes.
(turn two) After 30 minutes, repeat the turns as you did above. (turn three) For the third series of turns, be more gentle with the dough. As you can see, it has become more aerated, and the gluten structure is developing. You do not want to collapse those lovely gas chambers. (turn four) For the last series of turns, be very, very delicate with the dough. Perform your turns gingerly, or you risk deflating the dough.
Dough after the first two series of turns
Dough after the last two series of turns
The dough, during the turns, has been fermenting for two hours. Let it rest for 15 minutes at room temperature.
4) Pop the dough in the fridge and let it ferment for another 2 hours and 15 minutes.
A note on fermenting and proofing: The weather is hot where I live at the moment, which makes a huge difference in fermentation and proofing times and refrigeration is the best method to employ to keep the dough from overfermenting or overproofing.
5) The dough has been fermenting for a full 4.5 hours. Scrape it onto a workspace.
6) Divide the dough into two pieces, shape into loose rounds and let them rest on the bench for 15 minutes. It's hot here, anything more than that is too long, which is why we are preshaping very casually. If you want a longer bench rest, then preshape your dough a little more tightly.
Make sure you cover the dough while it rests on the bench so that it does not form a skin. I just inverted a couple of bowls over it.
7) Shape the dough into boules, then pop them into linen lined bowls dusted with rice flour. Pop the bowls into the fridge and proof for 3 hours 30 minutes. I had a guest coming over, so I cut the proofing time short. I really wanted to proof for at least 4.5 hours, but, well, there's that.
8) 20 minutes before you plan to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 550 degrees with your combo cookers inside.
9) When the combo cookers are hot, and the oven is sufficiently preheated, gently invert your bowl onto a peel that you have dusted liberally with semolina so that it will snap right off of the peel.
10) Score the loaves, then get them into the combo cookers, get the lids in place, turn the oven down to 450 degrees, and bake for 30 minutes to steam the loaves.
11) After 30 minutes, remove the lid of the combo cooker and bake for however long it takes to finish. I think mine took another 35 minutes. The temp of the bread upon removal was 215 degrees.
I apologize, but I didn't take proper pictures of the interior. All that was left to photograph was this chunk, and you can see that the side has gone dry. But I wanted you all to see the crumb nonetheless.
Verdict
Crust: super shattery. I gave a loaf to my friend, and a half loaf to my neighbor and they raved over the crust and the crumb. The bottom crust was awesome. Crumb: Open. It was tender and with just the right amount of 'sourdough chewiness', which is what draws me to this bread. Flavor: Earthy. Wheaty. The wheat was just assertive enough without being overpowering. I am looking for a bread that is bit more sour, which is why I did round two and increased the proof time by an hour. But this bread as it is is pretty perfect when you are looking for a loaf that is mildly sour. This loaf would be perfect with membrillo and manchego cheese. Ease of handling with the dough: Simple. Notes: I would love to see this bread with a little more tang to it. In round two, I increased the proof time a bit to see if I could accomplish this. See round two below
ROUND TWO
Begin this bread the night before with a levain. For round two I made a rye levain with my 100% hydration rye starter. Instructions are below.
On bake day, gather together these things:
700g bread flour
300g whole wheat flour
800g h20
200g rye levain (instructions just below)
20g salt
Make the Levain:
1) To make the levain, in a bowl, take one tablespoon of your active rye starter and mix it with 100g h20 and 100g of dark rye flour. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm spot in the kitchen to ferment overnight.
Levain, the morning after
The next morning:
2) Dissolve the levain in 750g of water, then stir in the whole wheat and bread flours until it's a shaggy mass. Autolyse for 1.5 hours.
Dough just mixed
Dough after autolyse
3) After autolyse, stir in 20g of salt and the 50g of remaining water. Vigorously mix this with your hand until all of the water and salt is incorporated, and the dough becomes a smooth mass. Let it rest for 30 minutes, our fermentation has begun.
Just salted dough
Dough after being salted and rested
4) After 30 minutes of rest, perform your first series of turns (there are four total). Dip your hand under the dough, then pull the bottom of the dough over the top, turn the bowl 1/3 turn and do this again. I fold the dough like this for a total of three times. Cover with plastic and rest for 30 minutes.
(turn two) After 30 minutes, repeat the turns as you did above. (turn three) For the third series of turns, be more gentle with the dough. As you can see, it has become more aerated, and the gluten structure is developing. You do not want to collapse those lovely gas chambers. (turn four) For the last series of turns, be very, very delicate with the dough. Perform your turns gingerly, or you risk deflating the dough.
Dough after first turn. Already developing great gluten structure
Gluten structure after the first turn
Dough after the second turn. Excellent gluten development
Gluten strength after the second turn
Dough after the third turn. Super aerated
Dough after fourth turn. Nice fermentation here
The dough, during the turns, has been fermenting for two hours. Let it rest for 15 minutes at room temperature.
5) Pop the dough in the fridge and let it ferment for another 2 hours, for a total fermentation time of 2 hours and 15 minutes.
After 2 hour refrigerated fermentation
6) The dough is ready to be turned out onto a workspace. I don't normally flour my workspace, but I did this time and I didn't like it. I don't like the risk of incorporating raw flour into my dough, so I scraped it up as best I could, and worked on a naked bench.
7) Divide the dough into two pieces, shape into loose rounds and let them rest on the bench for 15 minutes. It's hot here, anything more than that is too long, which is why we are preshaping very casually. If you want a longer bench rest, then preshape your dough a little more tightly.
8) Cover the dough with bowls to prevent it from forming a skin while it rests on the bench.
9) Shape the dough into boules, then pop them into linen lined bowls dusted with rice flour. Pop the bowls into the fridge and proof for 4 hours. I wanted to go longer, but I don't think the dough could handle it. I really pushed the fermentation at room temp with the hot weather today. When the weather gets cooler, I am going to push the proofing time to see what sort of flavor develops with lengthier proofs.
Dough in linen before proofing
Dough fully proofed
10) 20 minutes before you plan to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 550 degrees with your combo cookers inside.
11) When the combo cookers are hot, and the oven is sufficiently preheated, gently invert your bowl onto a peel that you have dusted liberally with semolina so that it will snap right off of the peel.
Dough on the peel
12) Score the loaves, then get them into the combo cookers, get the lids in place, turn the oven down to 450 degrees, and bake for 30 minutes to steam the loaves.
The two loaves after 30 minute steam
13) After 30 minutes, remove the lid of the combo cooker and bake for however long it takes to finish. These loaves took another 36 minutes. The temp of the bread upon removal was 215 degrees.
Verdict:
Crust: Super shattery. Very nice. Great bubbles. Crumb: Relatively open. And it was tender, a little more than the wheat levain based bread. It still had a lovely chewiness to it. This is the perfect egg salad bread.
Flavor: Beautiful. Earthy. A little more sourness than the loaves in round one. The rye definitely comes through in this bread, and I think it contributes to the tenderness of the crumb. Dough's ease of handling: Simple.
Notes: I really wanted to try a rye levain with this bread to see what sort of flavor it would contribute to the finished loaves, and to see what sort of latitude I had in handling the dough (i.e., how it would affect fermentation and proofing times). The rye was perceptible, but it made the fermentation and proofing time a little more precarious, simply because of the weather here (it's been close to 100 degrees). I would love to see if I can create a 'sister' bread to this one with a little more tang. This bread itself was perfect, and I would not change a thing (hang on to the formula above!), but if I wanted a more assertively tangy bread, I would reduce the room temp fermentation time in hot weather. Say, pop in in the fridge after the third turn when it starts to really take off. That way the fermentation time can be pushed (might be easier with the formula in round one, because rye ferments more quickly than wheat, though I think the small contribution of rye here would not pose too much of an issue for experimentation's sake), as well as the proofing time. I am going to experiment next with fermentation and proofing times, always in search of a bread with just enough tang and chewiness. I will post my findings as soon as those loaves are done. The temperature is supposed to come down quite a bit here in L.A., so that will affect room temp fermentation times. Keep this formula. It's definitely a winner.
To the staff of life!
This post was taken to Wild Yeast Blog's Yeast Spotting. These loaves were inspired by Tartine Bread book's breads.
