Whey Sourdough

Egnatius and Sue made some incredible cheese yesterday. Sue made her fabulous ricotta and Egnatius made mozzarella. In cheese making, one has to separate the curds from the whey and they whey is discarded.

Fortuitously, on Yeast Spotting this week, I noticed txfarmer's Whey Sourdough. She, too, apparently, had decided to make ricotta and used the whey for making sourdough. However, I was worried about the lemon juice in the ricotta being in the whey so I just used they whey from Egnatius' mozzarella.

There was a huge amount of whey left-- the result of an entire gallon of milk-- so I decided to make a variety of loaves. I made one double batch by txfarmer's specifications. I made the second set at Egnatius's design (he calls them his "designer loaves"). While I used the same process, I used this formula:

800g whole wheat flour
50g whole spelt flour
200g whole wheat starter
100g unbleached flour starter
610g whey + a little extra to soak the oats
20g salt
25g oat bran
50g rolled oats

The only changes to the method that I did were to add the soaked oats (both kinds) in during the mix at medium speed. I also added a preshape and a 25 minute bench rest to the shaping process.

Egnatius' Bread

Egnatius' bread was absolutely fantastic. It was nice and wheaty without being bitter. He is going to freeze one of the loaves and take it back to Ireland for his family.

Crumb is soft and crust is thin

So while whey thins the crust which I dislike, it also softens the interior and makes a 100% whole wheat loaf viable without being bitter which is fantastic. Whey is fantastic. Next time I will add even more whey for a more open crumb.

I also made two loaves by the specifications in the recipe. They were much lighter than Egnatius' loaves. They, too, did not bloom beautifully like txfarmer's loaves, but they were wonderful. The flavor was slightly sweeter and richer than traditional country sourdough on account of the whey. Also, the crust was heavier than on Egnatius' loaves, which I liked better. I am not yet sure of the reasoning.

If you make cheese, I would highly recommend using the whey for sourdough. It is quite a revelation for me.

Pizza Party

Egnatius' Homemade Mozzarella

Two nights ago I made some pizza for a bunch of friends. The pizza seemed to go better than ever before. I didn't get any pictures (I was making pizza for 8 people and trying to juggle the timing). I learned a number of things that I thought I would share.

The last time I made pizza for 8 people (bread baking day), one of the people I was teaching had worked at a pizzeria for a few years in between undergraduate and graduate school. He taught me how to shape pizza dough so that it has fluffy edge of crust. The method he taught me was to make a circle of finger indentations in a circle about 1-1.25 inches from the edge. Then, stretch the interior of the dough by flipping it from one hand to the other. This is the way that the make the lovely Neapolitan pizza at the pizza place near school. It also is the way that Eric seems to make it in this video. I am looking for another video that might have some better footage of the same technique.




While it has taken me a while to manage this technique (and I still have not mastered it), it turned out a lot better this time. This is the only picture I have. I made too much pizza so I refrigerated this one and I unfortunately only got to take it after it came out of the refrigerator. Also, sadly, this pizza does not have the cheese Egnatius made because we ran out of it. A gallon of milk only makes a small amount of cheese.

Pizza with Heirloom Tomatoes

I also modified my sourdough pizza dough slightly (reflected in the current recipe). I had to make two batches. For the first batch I substituted 90g of semolina for the bread flour. The recipe now reflects this because the flavor was so much nicer. I did this once with fancy grind durum as well and it improved the flavor but I only substituted about 50g that time so it was not the entire flavor revelation. But the semolina really changed the texture and the flavor of the dough. The dough was thin and crispy while still soft on the inside of the edges. It was delicious. I also let the dough sit out for longer during the kneading process and only aged it in the refrigerator for about 6 hours.

The second set of dough that I made, I forgot to make the starter beforehand. Instead, I used some fruity-smelling whole wheat starter that passed the float test (226g to replace the starter). I then compensated for the added whole wheat by making the 50g of  whole wheat into bread flour. They were a little heavier, but still delicious.

The party was lovely. Sue and her husband plus Egnatius, another friend from my program, and her sister. The friend from the program brought over a lovely Zinfandel.

I suggest that if you have the chance, try the new version of the pizza dough. It is fantastic. I also used the pizza sauce recipe from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Breads Every Day (p. 70). It was fantastic. Here is a modified version of the recipe (this is the recipe I used):

• 1 can crushed tomatoes (28oz)
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground white pepper
• 2 tablespoons fresh basil, roughly chopped
• 2 teaspoon dried oregano
• 5 cloves pressed garlic
• 1 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon salt

I mixed this and simmered it for about 20-25 minutes.

Land of Dreams? A Visit to Tartine Bakery

Tartine's Bakery

This has been quite a stressful quarter. So I came up with a crazy scheme to go to Anderson Valley with a bunch of my friends. Catullus II, upon hearing this idea, actually did all of the research and set up the trip. So Egnatius, Catullus II, and some other friends jumped in an SUV and toured Anderson Valley. On our way back, we stopped in San Francisco for the day. One of the places we went was the magical and wonderful Tartine Bakery which produces the book that saved my ability to bake bread, Tartine Bread.

Tartine Bakery is in a little unmarked building in the mission district. It's cute and all of the tables inside were taken. There were delicious chocolate cakes in the display case and you could smell it from an entire block away. I was really excited to be there at exactly 5pm to get the bread and I thought there would be a line out the door and only a few varieties of bread available like they say in the book.

Bannetons waiting for bread.

We got there at around 4:40pm. The bread, as it turns out, actually comes out of the oven at 4:30pm these days and there are tons of different varieties. The woman behind the counter listed at least five, although I only remember country, spelt, and white whole wheat. I bought a loaf of country and spelt.

You can barely see the country loaves rising on the shelf behind the glass.

I also got a croissant which was incredibly delicious and looked exactly like the one in the book. I was happy.

However, the bread did not look as it does in the book. The country loaf was great, but it was a tiny bit over-proofed (the crumb did not look like the gorgeous one in the book-- it was a little bit more honeycomb and thin although there were still plenty of irregular holes). However, one fantastic thing about this bread compared to mine did have one massive advantage. I usually use a national brand flour like Gold's or King Arthur. The local flour that they use at Tartine does have a lovely flavor-- especially when toasted-- that has a richer taste.

The spelt was fantastic although (1) it didn't taste much like spelt flour and (2) the crust was a little thin and the ears didn't bloom very nicely (see below).

Tartine bread: Country (left), spelt (right)

So, while the bread was still quite good, it was not quite the place I'd been imaging all year. I highly recommend giving it a visit. Have a croissant while you are there. It is delicious. But, while it is true that as Marie says in the video "no one should die without eating Chad's bread," you possibly can make it from his recipe instead of trekking to San Francisco.

While I was there, I did get a glimpse of the famous Chad. he was dressed like a hipster and hanging out directly outside the bakery. He seemed very nice and a little twitchy. He obviously wasn't in the bakery that day, just dropping by. But it was nice to see him. I sneaked a bad photo on my phone.

Although I leveled a bit of criticism against it, the bread was great. Also, as Eric says in the video below, a bit of the mood of the baker goes into the loaves each day. Maybe the bakers were just having a bit of a frenetic day.

One last thought: one of the things that I was most cut up about was the fact that there was no line out the door waiting for bread. I wanted to join the fray clamoring for bread at Tartine and experience the magic with other people. Instead, it was just me with a bunch of cranky people who had been driving for too many hours together and who had just had some stuff stolen (the car was broken into in San Francisco at the Palace of Fine Arts). So I guess I just didn't get my magic moment. Maybe next time.

The Marvels of Stone

Servia bought some stone over the last week or so. The stone is fantastic. I finally took advantage of some of it today because I made some bread that required vigorous kneading and could not be done in the Kitchen Aid. It is the Polaine Miche which is made out of very temperamental first clear flour so I am still crossing my fingers that it will bake well tomorrow morning. But for now, check out the stone.

Granite slab for kneading

 Since we have tile in the kitchen and a finished wooden kitchen table, kneading was not a very feasible option. With this gigantic granite slab, I can now knead without making a mess. This is awesome and I really like kneading by hand. However, the bread took 20 minutes to pass the window pane test instead of 12-15 so I got really tired.

Cheese Plates

 Seriva also bought some small bits of stone for cheese plates. Granite (left) and beautiful onyx (right) are wonderfully colorful and awesome cheese plates. They will also keep the cheeses fairly cool.

Slate baking slab

My cooking stones are actually quite small which limits the size of the pizzas that I can make. I have one cheap oven stone and one 12"x12" piece of marble that was my first baking stone. So, as a surprise, Servia bought a 16"x16" piece of slate so we can make bigger ones. I'm super excited, especially since Egnatius and a family friend and I are going to make fresh mozzarella to put on the pizza.

Miscellany

I haven't posted in quite a while. It's just been a rough quarter at school. I added an extra class to my schedule and it's been a lot of work. I thought I would post a couple of recent things.

Raclette: I have wanted to try Raclette since I saw it featured in Tartine Bread. Warmed cheese to spread on bread...yum. When Ignatius and I were at the grocery store getting ingredients for chicken picatta one night, I stumbled across some and couldn't resist trying it. Not having an open hearth, I took a heatproof bowl and heated the cheese over a pot of boiling water. I spread it on some fresh oat bread and it was delicious.

Raclette

+

Oat Bread

=

Delicious

I really enjoyed it, although Ignatius tells me that traditionally raclette is put on vegetables and things other than bread. Oh well.

Ignatius' Cheese: On the subject of cheese, Ignatius used a Roman recipe from Collamella (spelling?) to make some cheese. However, Ignatius got worried that the cheese might have been problematic so he tried it after four days instead of the proscribed two weeks. However, the cheese was delicious, especially melted on bread (like raclette, kind of) and it got better as it aged over a two weeks.

Roman Cheese

Oyster Mushrooms: A few months back, someone convinced Servia to buy one of those Grow-Your-Own-Oyster-Mushroom kits. Anyway, they were pretty cool and we made some lovely risotto. It was very cool watching them grow.

More Oat Bread: I have been experimenting with the wonderful Oat Bread I mentioned previously. Here is one example of the loaves. More bread coming soon.

Oat Bread

The Granite Slab: As we have tile counters, kneading is a bit of a problem. I tend to use the Kitchenaid or alternative kneading procedures (like Tartine's) to avoid problems. But Servia went out and bought a granite slab for kneading and pastry work. It's awesome.

Granite Slab

More to come!

Oat Bread: A Beautiful Experiment

I was intrigued by an item on Yeast Spotting about two weeks ago and so last weekend, the Oat Bread, so last weekend I made a batch. I added a little extra water. It was absolutely delicious. I highly recommend this bread.

Loaf 1

Loaf 2

Two Beautiful Loaves

Crumb of Loaf 1

The only changes I made was substituting whole wheat starter for rye starter and adding more water. I am making another batch of this bread this weekend. My Homeric Hymns professor rescued my bag and so I need to provide a token of appreciation. This bread, while having the nice hint of oat, is not a super healthy tasting bread (although it has both whole wheat and rolled oats) so I thought it would be universally appreciated. Maybe one of my favorite breads of all time. Delicious.

Bread: Back After a Short Respite

Spirally Loaf!

So I have been on a bit of a bread hiatus because of finals and then not being home much over spring break because I was catching up with friends. I am really sad that a lot of these people are going off to different places at the end of this year. But I will enjoy the time that is left. Anyway, I made up for it by making some loaves yesterday. I baked the first three this morning and will bake the last two this afternoon.

Three Loaves: Norwich More-Sourdough

The first three were Susan from Wild Yeast's Norwich More-Sourdough with some modifications:

• I used about 75% whole wheat sourdough starter (just using what I had around)
• I substituted course-ground whole wheat for the course-ground rye
• I added about 50g water (up to 610g) and then splashed in a little extra when the Kitchen Aid didn't seem to like the stiff dough, so maybe up to 640g all together.
• I added in 40g of wheat germ and 10g oat bran
• I also readjusted the timing, because the temperature in my kitchen is 70 degrees F instead of 76 degrees F.
• I added one extra stretch-and-fold during the bulk fermentation

This set of loaves is magically delicious. Maybe it's just because I haven't had homemade bread in two weeks. Feast your eyes. More to come...

Spirally loaf (Loaf #1)

Loaf #2

Loaf #2

Crumb of Loaf #1, tight but not bad.

Loaf #3 (scoring experiment)

I am hosting my next bread lesson this Saturday. I think we are going to make spelt ciabatta, pumpernickel, and croissants. Yum!

The Hunger Games

Unlike everyone else, I had my last final on Monday so my spring break was cut a little bit short. However, I managed to put the break to good use and spend a lot of time hanging out out with friends and not getting any sleep. Unfortunately, I caught a cold from my insane lifestyle for the past few days which involved lots of friends and wine and visiting a couple of museums and even a spa. Classes start again on Tuesday. In the meantime, I promised one of my tutoring students that I would read the The Hunger Games because she was shocked and appalled that I had not yet read it.

I decided I didn't want to buy the book so I check out the ability to borrow a book from Amazon that is one of the new feature of Amazon prime. It actually works really well with novels and I think that I am going to really enjoy this capacity during the summer. I just borrowed the second book.

In general, I don't think the The Hunger Games is particularly fantastic. It kept me awake and reading while I've been sick, but it's neither particularly well written or particularly gripping. It surprises me that it is such a hit, because it does not have the magical world of Harry Potter or anything. But maybe the second installment will prove more fascinating...