artisan bread baking

Sally’s Baking Addiction: September, 2019 Challenge: Homemade Cheese Bread

Well, this is different! I usually do not post my baking challenge experience until the last day of the month 😂 But this September is a little special. We are leaving soon for Greece 🇬🇷 ! We won’t be back until the first week in October, so I had to be a little faster with my baking this month!

Fortunately, this was a bread challenge, and aligned well with our family, the cooler weather and the Seahawks home opener🏈

Sally’s version of this homemade cheese bread is extra soft, as it is an enriched dough, made with buttermilk, egg and butter (and lots of cheese🧀).

The first step was to mix warm buttermilk, warm water, sugar and instant yeast.

This was left for 5 minutes to activate the instant yeast, then 1 cup of bread flour was added, along with the butter, egg and salt. Sally used garlic powder in her recipe but I did not since I was paring this with chicken chili for dinner 😋

The rest of the bread flour went into the mixing bowl, which was fitted with a dough hook.

I let the mixer do the work of kneading the dough. I do have to say that this was a wonderful bread dough to work with😊 It was soft and pliable and came together easily!

I formed it into a ball and placed it in a greased bowl so it could prove. It needed to double in size, which took almost two hours in my cool, Fall kitchen.

Before proving

Tucked in for the 2 hour rest

The dough was punched down, and rolled into a 9 X 15 inch rectangle

And this is where the cheese come into play 🧀 2 cups total! I chose to use sharp, white cheddar and smoked cheddar (1 cup each).

The cheese was pressed into the rectangle

This was where the processes gets messy! Starting with the long side, the dough is rolled into a log

If you have ever made a babka loaf, then you are familiar with this part. I have blogged about this before here. The log is cut, longitudinally and then wrapped around itself.

I needed both my hands for this, so I was not able to take my own pics. But, fortunately Sally had some great shots of this process!

From Sally’s Baking Addiction Site

Here is how mine looked

The loaf was placed into a greased 9 X 5 inch loaf pan and left to prove for a second time.

The loaf was brushed with melted butter and chopped parsley.

And into a 350F oven for 50 minutes

Very easy! And, more importantly, delicious 😍

And it went great with the chicken chili that night!

Another excellent Sally recipe 👩🏻‍🍳

Sally’s Baking Addiction: January, 2019 Challenge: Homemade Bagels 😋

Sally’s first challenge of 2019 finds us back into yeasted breads. Homemade bagels, yum 😋 Now, you probably have figured out that I do love to bake bread. However, I am not a huge consumer of bagels. Not sure why. It may have to do with the fact that they are too large and bready for my taste. But if I get to make them, well, then they can be any size I want! And, any flavor 😉

I kept it simple for this go around. I made her basic recipe, but if you want to change it up, Sally did provide a list of her other tasty varieties!

One item that is truly unique to bagel, or pretzel making for that matter, is barley malt syrup. This is what gives bagels their malt like flavor. You don’t have to use this of course, honey and/or brown sugar can be used instead. But, I decided to order it online, just to be authentic.

I also opted to do this overnight, as I was kinda busy during this time. Actually, allowing the dough to rise slowly, overnight, allows for a delicious flavor development 😄. So, I mixed up the warm water and yeast.

Once I saw it was activated, I added the barley syrup, bread flour and salt. And that’s it!

The mixer pulled the ingredients together, and then I kneaded it for another few minutes until the dough was firm.

This went into an oiled bowl, covered and left overnight in the fridge, to slowly rise.

The next morning, I allowed the dough to come to room temp, about 2 hours in my house that morning.

Sally’s recipe called for the dough to be divided into 8 “equalish” pieces. But, you know I can’t just do that! 😂 I did weigh the dough so that the bagels would be similar.

I weighed the bowl with the dough, removed the dough, and weighed the empty bowl to find the total weight of the mixture. 838g of dough, divided by 8 came to, a little over, 104g per bagel.

I divided the dough into 8 pieces and checked them on the scale. A little extra dough here, a little less there…. And, each was ready to be shaped.

The first step was to roll it into a tight ball.

Then flattened, and a 1-2 inch hole punched into the middle

Seven more later….

These were covered and allowed to rest while I prepared the water bath.

Yes, water bath! Bagels (and pretzels) need to be boiled prior to baking. This gives them the crusty exterior and helps them color properly.

The boiling water has more barley malt syrup, but you can use honey. Check out the color of the boiling solution with the syrup!

Once the mixture had boiled, I added the bagles and cooked them 1 minute per side.

It took a little time, but this step is quite important. Once all were boiled, an egg wash was applied. I decided to add some course salt to the top. We had been given a special sea salt from our yoga trip to Mexico last year, so I used that.

Now they were ready for the oven!

The bagles were baked at 425F for 20 minutes, until dark brown

After they cooled, we dug in! I know that most people associate bagels with cream cheese, and that is delicious. But I like mine with goat cheese and honey 🍯

A great start to this year of baking challenges 🤩 And this was not hard! It really is simple to make bagels at home, and they freeze well if you have extra😊💕

Give it a try, and let me know what you think! Or better yet, join me in the next challenge😁👩🏻‍🍳

Sally’s Baking Addiction, January Challenge: Conquering Yeast!

Well, actually we were supposed to make bread bowls. But Sally really wants this group to expand their abilities and provide us a successful way to learn the basics of bread baking.

Many of you know that I already love to bake bread and have had a lot of practice with artisan loaves. So, I wanted to try out her recipe but also play a little bit! As a result I did not bake the bowls but used a recent episode of “The Great British Baking Show” as part of my inspiration with this challenge.

Hubby and I have been watching the most recent season on Netflix, and in one episode the bakers made Fougasse bread for one of the technical challenges. Traditionally this bread is made with olives, but I detest olives! And, I had some leftover caramelized onions and roasted peppers from a pulled pork recipe earlier in the week (maybe you saw that sandwich on my Instagram?), so that was my flavor profile for the Fougasse.

I began with Sally’s bread bowl recipe which is a straight dough for the most part. I chose one of her recommended variations and added 2T of Italian seasonings.

The dough came together quite nicely.

The yeast is good and active, always a positive sign!

The dough was left to prove and double in size. It was a hot day here in Tucson so this only took an hour!

The final weight was 2 lbs 12 oz or 44 oz total. As I said before, I wanted to play so I divided the dough into two equal portions, 22 oz each (or 1 lb 6oz.)

Time to get out the leftovers and chop finely

I added the caramelized onions and yellow peppers to one portion of the dough. The tricky part is getting them incorporated as they do have quite a bit of moisture. I just kept at it! I was careful to not over knead the dough as I did not want it to be too tough.

This was shaped into a rough (so very rough!) oval and the Fougasse cuts were made.

The cuts need to be quite large so they don’t fill in during the second prove and subsequent baking.

I left this to prove for a second time and turned my attention to the second portion of dough. I kept this one a little simple and just formed it into a long baguette. I then used a pair of scissors to make the leaf sections.

This turned out to be too long for my sheet pan! So I had to cut it into two loaves

This also had to be set aside for its second proving.

Both types of bread needed a crunchy exterior so I did not use Sally’s egg wash and put them into a 400°F oven with steam. The results were pretty darn tasty!

One of my concerns was that the onions and peppers on the surface would burn, fortunately, that did not happen.

When we got inside it was baked through and retained the moisture from the vegetables, so it was not dry!

I was also pleased with the flavor and texture of the baguettes.

These froze well and made some wonderful sandwiches later in the week.

Overall, we liked both versions but really found the Fougasse to be extraordinary! My husband has not stopped talking about that one!

I do hope Sally continues with the bread challenges, my hubby hopes so too 🙂

Pulled Pork with Lemon and Garlic on a Potato Herb Roll

I have been making this pulled pork for quite some time. It is one of our favorite preparations and, if there is a healthier way to make a pork sandwich, then this is it. But, the real star of this dish is the potato herb rolls that I can customize with with any herbs that will complement whatever fillings will be in the sandwich. In this case the pork is made with garlic and lemon so I used thyme, rosemary, dried parsley and onion powder to flavor the rolls.

The pulled pork could not be easier, in fact I hesitate to call this a recipe. I take a 4-5 pound pork shoulder and trim off any excess fat. It goes into a slower cooker and I add several garlic cloves, 1 large lemon cut into quarters or two smaller lemons halved. To ensure the pork is not dry I add about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch of low sodium chicken stock. Thats it! It cooks on low for 8 hours or until it falls apart.

Near the end of the cooking process, I remove the lemons and garlic and reserve the latter for the sandwich. The garlic is perfectly roasted and spreads easily on the roll if you are interested in doing so-and I always do!

Of course, rolls form scratch do take a little more time and effort but are so worth it.

I use a 6 quart stand mixer with a dough hook attachment for these rolls. You can use a small mixer but note that the final dough will be about 4 1/2 pounds in weight. Most 4 quart mixers will be fine with that, but you could half the recipe if needed. I made 24, 3 oz sandwich rolls from that amount of dough, which would yield about 35, 2 oz dinner rolls. These rolls freeze very well and you could store the extra for several weeks and then refresh as needed.

You will begin by combining all the ingredients, minus the herbs into the mixing bowl and adding temperature controlled water (not shown). In my kitchen I use water at 100°F but anywhere from 80-100°F will work. Mix on low to incorporate then turn to medium to knead for 7-9 minutes. What you are looking for is what is called a “window pane”. This lets you know when the dough has reached its correct gluten development. There is no real mystery about this step. After ~about 7 minutes, turn off the mixer and pull out a small amount of the dough, it will be slightly sticky. Stretch the dough between your thumbs and forefingers into the shape of a rectangle. If the dough breaks it is not ready, the gluten strands are too short. Continue kneading. The dough temperature should be rising as well, and it will be near 77°F to 80°F when the dough is fully developed. Keep checking these two parameters. Eventually, your window pane will be strong, and transparent. Light should be able to show through the dough, without ripping or tearing, as it will be so thin it appears to be a “window”.

Add whatever freshly chopped or dried herbs you want and mix just until the additions are incorporated and evenly distributed.

Cover the dough and allow it to ferment until doubled (about an hour).

Now you can punch it down to degas and divide into the portion size you desire. Shape and place on a parchment lined sheet to proof until 70-80% larger in size.

Once proofed they need an egg wash and a sprinkle of sea salt. Since I was not adding salt to the pork, I was generous with this!

Bake, without steam, at 375°F for ~20 minutes or until golden brown.

These are wonderful on their own or with any type of sandwich you wish to build. The smaller dinner roll version is great with soups and stews as well.

Of course, we had pulled pork in the slow cooker! I shredded the pork and we built our sandwiches. We went with arugula and a grilled pineapple relish with candied peppers! An outstanding combination!

Let me know if you try either of these recipes!

Pulled Pork with Lemon and Garlic

Servings: 24, 3oz rolls
Time: 20 min prep, 8 hours cooking time
Difficulty: Easy
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This Pulled Pork has no added salt or sugar. The lemon and garlic add wonderful flavor

Credit: Invisible-no-more.com

Ingredients

-4 to 5 pound pork shoulder or pork butt, trimmed of excess fat

-5 to 6 whole garlic cloves, peeled

-2 small lemons, halved

-low sodium chicken broth or water

-grilled pineapple salsa

-arugula

-potato herb rolls (recipe below)

Directions

Place the pork shoulder, garlic and lemon halves into a slow cooker. Add broth or water to about 1/4 inch to 1/2 inch on the bottom. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours.
Near the end of the cooking time, remove the lemons and reserve the garlic for the sandwich build. Continue cooking the pork until if falls apart easily. Shred the meat with two forks and keep the meat warm in the slow cooker.
Build the sandwich with a potato herb roll spread with the reserved garlic (if using), add the grilled pineapple relish, pulled pork and arugula.

Potato Herb Rolls

Servings: 24, 3oz. rolls
Time: 1 1/2 to 2 hours
Difficulty: moderate
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These Potato herb rolls can be customized with any herbs you would like to use to complement your meal.

Credit: On Baking, Text book, 3rd edition

Ingredients

-2 lb 2 oz. Bread flour

-3 oz. Potato flour

-1 oz. Instant yeast

-21 fl. oz. Water, temperature controlled 80°F to 100°F

-2 Eggs

-1.5 oz. Dry milk powder

-2.5 oz. Granulated sugar

-3/4 oz. Salt

-3 fl. oz. Olive oil

Suggested Herbs:

-1 oz. Fresh Parsley, finely chopped or 1/2 oz. dried

-2 teaspoons Fresh Rosemary, finely chopped or 1 teaspoon dried

-2 teaspoons of Fresh Thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried

-1 teaspoon onion powder

-1 teaspoon garlic powder

-1 teaspoon Black pepper

-Egg wash, as needed

-Kosher salt or fleur de sel, as needed

Directions

Place flours, yeast, water, eggs, milk powder, sugar, salt, and oil in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Mix on low speed to combine then knead on medium speed until a window pane is achieved and the dough is 77°F (about 7-9 min.). Add in the herbs and mix until the herbs are well distributed throughout the dough.
Cover the dough and ferment until doubled in size (~1 hour).
Punch down the dough and portion into 3 oz pieces. Shape and place on a parchment lined sheet pan.
Proof until the rolls are 70-80% in volume.
Carefully brush the proofed rolls with the egg wash and sprinkle with the salt.
Bake without steam at 375°F for ~20 minutes until golden brown.

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Cinnamon Apple Babka

As you well know by now, I do love to bake bread! I have been wanting to try a babka for some time and finally got around to developing this one. This is a bread that is slightly sweet and you can amp it up with more filling but we like a little less fruit and more of that bread flavor! I had a lot of apples after a recent Costco trip so I have been working them into every dish possible! This recipe can easily make two loaves, and I have included those options in the recipe located at the bottom of this post. Today, however, I decided to make a large, braided loaf and have also included that option, should you feel the need to have an enormous sweet bread centerpiece for your table!

This enriched dough begins with the making of a sponge, which is just water, yeast and sugar that has time to allow for the yeast to activate. Start by combining the yeast, brown sugar and temperature controlled water and let is sit for 30 minutes.

After blooming the surface will have small bubbles and there will be a yeasty aroma

Next add the flour, oil, salt, egg yolks and eggs to the sponge.

Knead the dough until a smooth, but slightly sticky ball forms and place in a lightly greased, large bowl. Cover and allow to rise in a warm place for 2 hours.

While the dough is rising, prepare the cinnamon and apple filling. Whisk together the cinnamon, sugar and flour in a small bowl and set aside. The most important part of preparing the apples is to extract as much moisture as possible so that your dough will not be soggy. I did this by peeling, coring and grating the apples then placing them in a double lined paper towel and squeezing the water from the apples. There is a surprising amount of water that will drain out. I did this in small batches and cheesecloth would work well, but I didn’t have any on hand, so paper towels it had to be! Place the dried apple pieces into a bowl and immediately add the lemon zest and lemon juice, tossing to coat. Then add in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Set aside until the dough is ready.

Now comes the tricky part of shaping and filling the bread. I will refer you to this excellent tutorial from King Arthur Flour on how to shape babkas. This site has all the options that I mention in the recipe with step by step instructions and pictures. At this point you need to decide if you want two loaves or one braided loaf. In either case you begin the same way, divide the risen dough into two equal portions.

Roll one portion out to about 9″ X 18″ and spread half the cinnamon apple filling over the rectangle, leaving a 1/2 inch border around the perimeter. Start with the long side and roll into a log shape, much like you would if you were making cinnamon rolls. Pinch the bottom seam and the ends shut to contain the fillings. Repeat with the second portion of dough.

At this point you may opt to make two loaves using the classic twist, or the sliced braid methods discussed on the King Arthur site and my recipe write up, I will discuss the process for making the single, braided loaf.

Begin by slicing the log lengthwise to form 4 “ropes”.

Working with the filling side up, make a plus sign with the intersection at the middle of each rope. Then repeat with the other two strips to form a second plus sign that interlocks with the first one.

Working clockwise, fold every other strip over the neighboring end, then repeat with the ends that extend but go in the opposite direction (counterclockwise) this time. Here is the King Arthur photos for reference (they use their chocolate babka).

You will have some ends left over, just tuck them under the loaf. Place the loaf onto a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cover and allow to proof for another 45 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350°F and bake for 30 minutes or until golden brown and baked thorough the center.

While the bread cools mix the glaze by combining the powdered sugar, cinnamon extract, vanilla seeds and slowly adding enough milk or water to create a drizzling consistency. When the bead has cooled completely, drizzle with the glaze.

I know that there are a lot of steps for this but it is so worth it! If you are not up for the braid, then try the simple loaf shapes highlighted on the King Arthur site and let me know what you think! Happy baking!

cinnamon apple babka recipe

Hot Cross Buns, It must be Spring!

hot cross buns

I love this particular Hot Cross Bun recipe. It is a little more complex than others that I have seen, with a few extra steps, but it is hard to argue with the results! Like most other formulas out there, this one uses the straight dough method for the rolls themselves, and similar instructions for combining the batch of cross dough, but it is the spiced bun glaze that really sets this recipe apart from the pack.

This recipe is from a culinary cookbook, I have mentioned in the past that culinary texts are written differently than standard cookbooks or recipes in general. I have adapted this and made a few changes but the format will be by weight and volume for the most part. One additional step done here is to condition the dried fruit. This step requires a 2 hour, minimum rest, so plan ahead! However, after that step the recipe moves along smoothly since it is a straight dough method, everything goes in together and combined quickly.

The flour, butter, sugar, yeast, milk powder, salt, vanilla paste, eggs and spices are combined first then the temperature controlled water is added. Once the dough has pulled together and is soft and pliable the dried fruits are added.

The dough is allowed to rise, covered on the bench until doubled in size (about 30 minutes)

It is then degassed and folded into thirds, allowed to rest again for 15 minutes. This lets the dough relax and is easier to portion and shape. The recipe calls for 3 1/2 oz portions to be rounded and panned 5 rows by 6 rows for a total of 30, rather large, buns!

yes, I do weigh them-this one was a little big and had to have a pinch removed!

The rolls are covered and allowed to proof until doubled which takes about an hour

While the rolls proofed I made the cross dough which is applied right before they go in the oven. The cross dough is pastry flour, butter and milk which is combined and mixed until smooth.

The cross dough was put into a disposable pastry bag that had been fitted with a plain tip.

This was piped onto the individual rolls to form the cross pattern.

The pan went into a 375°F preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until the desired color was achieved. This particular cross dough is not sweet. As I said before it is just flour, butter and milk. Many other recipes use cream cheese or other flavored icing and apply it at the end of the baking process. This recipe uses a lemon, ginger simple syrup to give the rolls flavor and shine.

This bun glaze is water, sugar, ground ginger, lemon juice, lemon zest and cream of tartar. It should be made ahead of time and chilled before applying to the hot rolls.

As soon as the rolls come out of the oven the glaze is generously applied.

They are shiny, sweet, sticky, fruity and delicious! The extra steps are worth it!

ON THE RISE, PART II

It is rainy and windy today, not really a surprise around here! It is the perfect day to spend time baking in the kitchen and I wanted to try a few more shaping techniques from the Craftsy class that I reviewed here. I used the same recipe and, once again the dough came together nicely, and was allowed to double in size.

The dough was portioned slightly differently as I wanted to make three different shapes.

The six smaller portions on the left were to be made into small, Dutch crunch rolls, the larger were earmarked for 4 telera rolls and 4 double knots

I was on my own today and did not have help to make a video like the last post, so I will try to describe the shaping process for each roll.

The six rolls at the top were made by flattening the dough portion and each corner folded into the center to form a loose ball. The ball was placed, seam side on the counter and rolled to form a denser ball, with tension, to form the tight surface. The four at the bottom of the pan were shaped the same way but then two deep indentations were made to form the telera pattern. It should look like this when baked:

The four in the middle were rolled as was shown in the video I made previously, but the long log was then tied in the middle, like a single knot, then the ends were tucked in the hole in the middle. This is the double knot shape.

The six small rolls were supposed to have the Dutch crunch topping but, turns out I did not have the rice flour that I thought I had! So, they were egg washed and sprinkled with sanding sugar, the double knots were also egg washed, the telera were left with just the flour for a more rustic look. All were baked at 350°F for 20 minutes.

The indentations in the telera rolls proofed away! They look like potato rolls instead. I think the tender sweet dough was too soft to hold up to the shape of the telera roll. I may have to try again with a firmer dinner roll recipe.

The double knots and small round rolls held their shape better, all three were delicious!

In an attempt to believe spring is actually here, I made an Easter bread basket.

Up next, Hot cross buns for Easter Weekend!

ON THE RISE: An online baking course from Craftsy

I enjoyed the food photography class that I took through Craftsy so much that I decided to check out a couple of their online baking technique offerings. I chose “on the rise: bun & roll techniques” because, even though I did take several bread classes in culinary school, I have found that each chef will have their own technique and style. No two chefs will teach the exact same processes of shaping a boule or baguette. I often struggled in those classes to find the right techniques for myself to be able to mass produce rolls or loaves that were consistent. I eventually found what worked for me but the answer rarely came from one person, picture or video. So, I continue to search for new ideas and hints that will help me create and learn. Chef Jeff Yankellow was an excellent teacher in this series and I was pleased with the variety of dough types, rolls and buns that were presented here. If you are new to bread baking, or intimidated a little by the process, I would highly recommend this course as the chef spends time explaining the purpose of each ingredient and how they will impart texture and/or flavor to the products. If you already know quite a bit about artisan bread making then you will still be able to pick up some ideas and handy tips.

The chef began by making a straight forward soft dinner roll recipe which provided an opportunity to practice mixing, kneading and shaping rolls. He moved onto a sweet roll dough that could be used to make braided rolls, monkey bread, sticky buns and cinnamon rolls. Recipes for whole wheat rolls, rustic hard rolls and sweet glazes were also covered. I had a tough time deciding where I wanted to begin but ultimately opted to make single strand braided rolls using the tender sweet dough recipe. I am glad I did!

I began by adding 2 cups of AP flour (withholding the final 1 cup for incorporation during the kneading process), 1/4 cup sugar, 2 T dry milk powder, 2 t instant yeast & 1 t salt into a large bowl.

Then the egg, butter and vanilla were incorporated. I chose to use vanilla bean paste instead of vanilla extract as I wanted a more concentrated flavor and I like the look of the specks of vanilla bean in the final rolls.

This came together quickly to form a shaggy dough that I then turned out onto the counter, using some of the reserved flour as needed. The goal was to achieve a smooth ball that was soft and pliable but not sticky. I did not use the full volume of reserve flour, as it was not required under the conditions that day.

The dough was covered and allowed to double in volume, which took one hour in my cold kitchen.

The dough was degassed and shaped in a long cylinder, then divided into twelve (even?) portions.

Each portion was rolled out into another cylinder form and braided. I did get the video working for the braiding process. Sorry it is not quite what I was hoping for but next time I will ask my daughter to get a better angle!

These rolls were allowed to proof for another 45 minutes and then egg washed. The rolls were baked at 350°F for 20 minutes.

Notice the vanilla specks!

These were delicious! Even the ones that did not look so pretty! My son suggested that I make “that butter” to serve with them. “That butter” is a cinnamon butter that I made with the pumpkin rolls, and he was right, the rolls were even better!

I hope you give this class a try, you won’t regret it! Next up, Dutch crunch rolls, Yum!

Russian Black Bread

Back in September my husband and I were traveling through Coeur d’Alene, Idaho. We stopped at a small cafe, I can’t remember the name now, and had lunch. It was memorable for two reasons, it was the first time we experienced Turkish coffee, which was amazing! We definitely want to do that again. And, we had sandwiches made on this incredibly flavorful pumpernickel bread. My hubby exclaimed, to a bit of my surprise, that he loves pumpernickel bread so, of course, I said “I will make you some when we get back home.” That was six months ago! Now, it does not take half a year to make this bread, you really only need about three hours. But life got busy, as it often does, we were traveling quite a bit and I wanted to take the time to research a bit about the proper flour to use for the best flavor. I settled on King Arthur’s pumpernickel flour blend. King Arthur is often my go to flour source, and I placed an online order for one of their 3 pound bags.

My next quest was to find a recipe that looked amazing and was simple enough to use in my home kitchen. A number of formulas I found were more suited to industrial kitchens and large production output. I just wanted one or two loaves. I found this recipe for Russian Black Bread on the King Arthur website. It appeared that it would be extremely flavorful from the list of ingredients that included 1 cup of pumpernickel flour, 2 cups of bread flour, molasses, brown sugar, fennel seeds, dark cocoa powder and instant espresso! I had to try this one!

This recipe is for one loaf and I decided to make two loaves, a regular bread loaf and a boule. I did not double the formula but instead chose to make two separate recipes. I did this because bread baking is not like making cookies or cakes. The flour is not incorporated all at once. A portion is held out and slowly added during the kneading process and may or may not be necessary. The dough has to be checked multiple times throughout the incorporation stage and adjusted accordingly. Also, shaping a boule is different than shaping a loaf so I wanted these events to be independent of one another.

The dough is straight forward, you add all the ingredients and withhold 1 cup of bread flour for the kneading steps.

I added all the ingredients, with the addition of the temperature controlled water as the last step. I should note that I did not have black cocoa powder as was called for in the recipe, instead I substituted dark cocoa powder, so my bread is not as black as the original recipe-still tasted wonderful!

Using a dough whisk, it all came together into a soft ball

The dough was turned out onto a countertop that was dusted with a portion of the final cup of flour and kneaded by hand for ~7 minutes until about 2/3 c of the reserved flour was incorporated

I repeated this process for the second loaf. The dough was allowed to ferment for 80 minutes until it doubled in size.

Once the bread had doubled in volume it was time to shape and pan the dough. I used a conventional 9 X 5 rectangular pan and a brotform basket to shape and pattern the boule. One key element to using a brotform is to make sure the bowl is heavily floured so that the proofed loaf will release onto the baking stone or pan. I used the pumpernickel flour for dusting.

Both loaves were shaped and allowed to proof for an additional 90 minutes. Afterward, they were scored.

I made four, deep, angular cuts on the loaf and the pan went into the oven, centered directly on the rack.

For the boule, I turned the brotform bowl out onto a baking pan that was dusted with semolina flour. This made the loaf easy to slide off onto the baking stone which was on the oven rack and preheated. I made circular cuts around the pattern made by the bowl structure.

The loaves baked at 375°F for 35 minutes, until they sounded hollow when tapped on the bottom.

I used a pizza peel to remove the boule from the oven and both loaves were allowed to cool on a baking rack

Then it was time to take some pictures and eat!

My favorite way to eat this bread is a sandwich with ham, mustard, spinach, swiss and cheddar cheese!

Enjoy this one!

Russian Black Bread

Servings: 1 loaf, 16 slices
Time: 3 hours total
Difficulty: moderate
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Fennel seeds and vinegar combine to give this bread its distinctive, pumpernickel flavor

Credit:King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

-1 1/8 cups temperature controlled water, 80-100°F

-2 Tablespoons apple cider vinegar

-1 cup pumpernickel or rye flour, plus more for dusting

-1 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt

-2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

-2 Tablespoons molasses

-1 Tablespoon brown sugar

-3 Tablespoons black cocoa

-1 teaspoon espresso powder or instant coffee powder

-1/4 to 1 teaspoon fennel seeds, to taste

-1 3/4 teaspoons instant yeast

-2 1/2 cups Bread flour, divided

Directions

Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl, reserving 1 cup of the bread flour. Mix until a sticky dough begins to form.
Mix in the remaining cup of flour and knead for 7 minutes, or until the dough becomes soft and elastic, but may still be somewhat sticky to the touch. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise until doubled, 45 minutes to 1 hour.
After the first rise, shape the dough into an oblong loaf. Place in a greased 9″ x 5″ or 10″ x 5″ bread pan, cover with greased plastic, and let rise until almost doubled, about 60 to 90 minutes. Alternatively shape the dough into a round form and place in a heavily floured brotform basket and allow to proof to make a boule loaf.
While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 375°F. When the dough has almost doubled, brush or spray the top with water, dust with pumpernickel or rye flour, and score (slash) the top.
Bake the bread for about 35 minutes, until it sounds hollow when you thump the bottom, or the inside measures 205°F on a digital thermometer. Remove the loaf from the oven and cool it on a rack before slicing.
Store bread well wrapped at room temperature for several days. Freeze for longer storage.

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Dutch Oven Bread

When I first saw this recipe for a boule made in a dutch oven I immediately thought of my son when he was little. He was in cub scouts for three years and each summer we would go to camp where the boys would shoot arrows, go on hikes and bake bread over the camp fire. I use the term bread loosely in this narrative because it was composed of flour, water and salt, mixed quickly and placed in the embers of the fire. Forty five minutes later there was something in the pot that looked like hard tack and tasted like paper. The boys loved it, probably because it was slathered in butter and jam, and because they made it themselves. It was a great experience for them but barely counted as bread baking. Having raised my own son I realize that there was no possible way a 7 year old is going to sit still and appreciate a discussion on yeast fermentation producing CO2 as a leavening agent and lactic acid for flavor. They were far more interested in running around and poking each other with the sticks they were not supposed to collect on the nature hike.

This recipe was far and away a huge improvement over those scout days! It includes yeast and allows for about 5 hours of proofing to develop a wonderful flavor. Homemade Dutch Oven Bread is a lean dough so it only has flour, salt, yeast and water.

600 grams of AP flour is mixed with 1.5 tablespoons of kosher salt

2 cups of 100 degree F

1 packet of active dry yeast is rehydrated in the 2 cups of temperature controlled water

A well is made in the center of the flour and salt and mixed until a shaggy dough forms.

The dough is covered and set in a draft free place for 1.5 to 2 hours.

I usually cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then place a tea towel over the bowl.

The dough was punched down and allowed to proof for another 1.5 to 2 hours. After the second rising, the dough was removed and shaped into the boule form and placed in an oiled bowl and allowed to rise for an additional hour. While the dough proofed, a 6 quart Dutch oven was preheated at 450°F for 45 minutes. At the end of the fermentation period the boule was placed into the hot Dutch oven, covered for 30 min. After 30 minutes the cover is removed and the bread bakes for an additional 15 minutes to develop the top crust.

This bread had that artisanal quality of crusty exterior and the toothsome internal quality that we look for when we want a great bread product. I was very happy with the result and do recommend this recipe. It was easy, well written and definitely worth the time!

I hope you give this one a try!

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