TED Talk by Peter Reinhart

I can't believe I missed this!

Peter Reinhart's TED lecture in 2009.

Oatmeal Bread

Two Loaves; Photocredit: Servia

Seriously, more oats? Yes, I just love oats in bread. They are delicious and nutritious. I think my obsession might be because I spent my entire childhood eating cheerios. Anyway, for the moment, anyone reading my blog will be subjected to oats (although I should be doing some other things soon).

I checked Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread out of the library. I've haven't been hearing much good news from Graduate Schools and so I thought it would be a fun distraction. As it turns out, I may even buy a copy of the book because so many of the recipes appeal to me.

One that caught my eye for it's simplicity was the Oatmeal Bread.

Oatmeal Bread (Adapted from Hamelman's Bread)

Ingredients:

• 680g High-Gluten Flour
• 227g Whole Wheat Flour
• 150g Rolled Oats
• 567g Water, around 75 degrees F (I added another 50g or so because it's very dry here)
• 100g Milk
• 68g Honey (3T)
• 68g Vegitable Oil (5.5T)
• 20g Salt (3.5tsp)
• 5g dry active yeast (1.5tsp) I reduced this to 1tsp because I was worried about leaving it too long in the refrigerator because I had class this morning. I think the decision was wise and I highly recommend it.
• Wheat bran and water for topping (optional)

Directions:

Day 1:

Oats Soaking; Photocredit: Servia

• Mix the oats and the water. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes.
• Mix in the remaining ingredients (yeast first, in order to hydrate it). The dough can be mixed by hand or on a mixer at a medium low speed for 3 minutes. The resulting dough is tacky and looser than a typical sandwich bread.

Other Ingredients; Photocredit: Servia

• Then, knead the dough by hand (using the heals of the hand in the typical kneading style) either in the bowl or on a surface (either oiled or very lightly flowered). By hand, this will take 5-6 minutes to create moderate gluten development (passes the windowpane test). The same effect can be achieved in a mixer for 3-3.5 minutes on medium speed.

Dough, rising; Photocredit: Servia

• Then let the bread ferment for 1 hour at room temperature (around 72 degrees F) folding once at 30 minutes and once at the hour mark. If you decided to use the full 1.5tsp yeast, you may want to leave it out for 40 min and do a fold at 20 and a fold at 40.
• Put the bread, covered in plastic wrap or similar, into the refrigerator overnight. Note that if you don't want to take it out first thing in the morning, I would suggest that you use less yeast just so it doesn't overproof.

Day 2:

• Remove the bread from the refrigerator. Turn the bread out on to a floured work surface and divide into 2-3 pieces (I would suggest 3 pieces if you have regular loaf pans, 2 if you have large loaf pans) I divided it into four, and my loaves are quite small; my mistake.
• Preshape the dough lightly into rounds.
• Bench rest the dough seem-side up for 15-20 minutes.
• During the bench rest, prepare loaf pans. I use spray oil and then coat them lightly with flour. This might be overkill-- oil alone might do the trick.
• Shape the dough into blunt cylinders and place them seem-side down into the loaf pans.
• Let them rise for 1-1.5h under plastic wrap or similar at 72-75 degrees F Mine rose for 3h15 at around 68 degrees F, but they only had 1tsp yeast. Make sure you adjust based on your conditions. If you only use 1tsp yeast, increase the time to 150%. If the temperature is cold, remember that for every 17 degrees below temperature, the rising time must double. A calculator is your friend.
• Optional: When ready to bake, brush the top of the loaves with a tiny bit of water and then sprinkle wheat bran over the top for that finished look.
• Put them in the over at around 445 degrees F (420 convection) understeam for the first 15 min. Then add about 7-10 minutes at 425 degrees F (400 convection) without steam. Watch them carefully. I overcooked mine by putting them there for 20 min + 10 min without steam. The oil and honey causes them to brown really fast. For steam, you can either try putting the baking pan on a stone with a cover or you can turn another loaf pan upside-down on top of it. They are done when they read 190 degrees F on an instant thermometer.
• Wait at least 1 hour before cutting.

Photocredit: Servia

Review: 3.5 stars

Slices and Loaf; Photocredit: Servia

The bread is a lot lighter and airier than I anticipated, which is kind of disappointing. I was hoping it would have a little more heft (so it could stand up to something like almond butter). Maybe if I added more whole grains it might be better. However, it's got a lovely slightly oaty flavor and is ideal for a delicate sandwich or butter/jam and a cup of coffee/tea.

*NOTE (02/12/13): While I still think the bread is far too light, I have to say it tastes delicious with almond butter (so my original complaint was totally wrong).

For the similarly oat-obsessed out there, here's a list of other yeasted oat confections I've made:

• Corudata's Amazing Oat Bread
• Sourdough Oat English Muffins (+ pics)
• Sourdough Oat English Muffin Bread
• Peter Reinhart's Oat Bran Broom Bread

A New Kind of "Oat" Bread

I've wanted to make this recipe ever since I received Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. I finally made it two weeks ago.

Oat Bran Broom Bread

My apologies; I forgot to take a shot of the crumb. However, it was quite a tight crumb...slightly tighter than the other sandwich bread's I've made, but I don't think it was as tight as the picture in Reinhart's book.

Recipe for Oat Bran Broom Bread (modified from original):

Ingredients:

Soaker

• 184g whole wheat flour (medium to fine grind)
• 28g Oat Bran (4tbsp)
• 14g flax seeds (1.5tbsp)
• 4g salt (1/2 tsp)
• 198g water

Starter (or starter straight out of the jar if your starter is fairly vital and 75%)

• 50g starter (100% hydration)
• 177g whole wheat flour
• 120g water

Final Dough:

• All the soaker (429g)
• All the starter (or 398g starter)
• 56.5g whole wheat flour
• 5g salt
• 1tsp dry active yeast (3g)
• 20 g water
• 2 tbsp honey (42.5g)
• 1 tbsp olive or vegetable oil

Method: 

Day 1: 

• Mix all of the ingredients for the soaker together in a bowl until they form a reasonably wet dough. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it sit for 12-24 hours. If it will be longer than that, place it in the refrigerator.
• Mix all of the starter ingredients together and mix them until they form a fairly stiff dough. Knead for a minute or two in the bowl before covering with plastic wrap. Refrigerate for 8-48 hours.

Day 2:

• About 2 hours before mixing the final dough, take any refrigerated ingredients out of the refrigerator.
• Chop or tare the soaker and the starter into pieces and dust them with the flour.
• Hydrate the yeast in a cup or bowl (no need to make it bubble, just mix it with the water). Pour the hydrated yeast, the oil, and the honey over the dough. Mix with wet hands or with a spoon. If you don't like the stickiness, you can also slightly oil your hands. Add water or flour for adjustments-- due to the different protein content of whole wheat flours, you may need to adjust. The dough should be soft and slightly (but not very) sticky.
• Knead the dough for about two minutes in the bowl.
• Lightly flour your hands and a work surface with whole wheat flour. Coat the dough in flour and knead by hand for 3-4 minutes. Try to incorporates little flour. I found this step very frustrating. My hands got sticky and the dough didn't cooperate well, so I changed the next few steps from the book.
• Put the dough in a clean bowl and do a stretch-and-fold. Do the stretch and folds with wet hands.
• Wait 5 minutes and then do another stretch-and-fold.
• Wait 10 minutes and do another stretch-and-fold.
• Wait 10 minutes and do a final stretch-and-fold. By this point, the gluten should be adequately developed.
• Let the dough rise under plastic wrap for about 2 hours at 75 degrees F.
• After the 2 hours, turn the dough onto a floured surface.
• Gently stretch it out into a rectangle and roll it up; then seal the seem.
• Place it seem-side down into a loaf pan (I tend to spray my loaf pans with oil and then lightly flour them so the dough doesn't stick, but this might be overkill).
• Let the dough rise for another 2 hours in the loaf pan.
• 30 minutes before you're ready to bake, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. If you would like to bake under steam, prepare whatever you will use for steam (this is not really necessary, but I baked it under steam).
• When ready to bake, turn the oven down to 350 degrees F and place it in the oven for 20 minutes. At the 20 minute mark, take off the steam (if you chose to use it), and rotate the pan 180 degrees. Then bake for another 20 minutes (so 40 minutes altogether).
• Check the loaf to make sure it's at least 190 degrees F.
• Transfer the bread to a cooling rack and cool for at least 1 hours before slicing and serving.

Review of Oat Bran Broom Bread: 3 Stars
One of the things that really bothers me about this book is that Reinhart puts absolutely absurd amounts of yeast in everything. It's really unnecessary and it doesn't give the dough the time to develop that wonderful flavor. With bread, quick and delicious very rarely coincide (except maybe with sourdough crumpets). So I slowed this bread down. But even then, it didn't have the flavor I wanted. I need to play with the recipe.

Furthermore, the bread doesn't taste anything like oats. The oat bran in it is minimal. I've decided I will rewrite the recipe and try again.

More on English Muffins

Sourdough English Muffins; Photocredit: Sue

Sue posted an amazing set of pictures, along with her recipe for English Muffins. Her muffins, made with commercial yeast, were fast and easy and they tasted delicious. She added buckwheat and oat for that extra bit of flavor and I think it really kicked her muffins up a notch. You can also try my recipe here.

The Confession: More on Oat Bread

Oat Bread; Photocredit: Servia

So I have a confession to make. I think I switched the dough of the English Muffins and my traditional oat bread. This would explain the fact that the English Muffins didn't taste sweet at all while the bread is sweet and delicious. But it's not sweet in the way that bread sweetened with honey or sugar tastes...it's like the sweetness of barley. Because, well, it is. Non-diastatic malt powder is made out of roasted barley. It's the sweetener that is used in bagels, but this bread is far better than any bagel I've ever had. It tastes like a barley oat bread and it's lovely and moist on the inside (from the oil). This would probably make far better English muffins even then the ones I made with the unaltered dough.

The bread was not nearly as burnt as it looks in this picture-- that was the lighting; Photocredit: Servia

The dough is delicious. I will include a version the recipe because it is so good, you should make it into bread as well as English Muffins. Seriously, you'll love this bread.

Baking in my new combo cooker; Photocredit: Servia

Sulpicia's Sourdough Oat English Muffins (in testing)

Ingredients:

Preferment:

• 100g starter (very active) 100% hydration white or whole wheat based upon preference
• 100g whole wheat flour
• 50g water

Final Dough:

• All the preferment (250g)
• 450g bread flour
• 150g whole wheat flour
• 130g rolled oats (thickly rolled is better)
• 470g cold water
• 17g salt
• 1.5 tablespoon  non-diastatic malt powder
• approximately 15g vegetable oil

Day 1:

• Prepare the pre-ferment by dissolving the starter in water and then mixing in the flour. When it is fully mixed, cover the container and put it in the refrigerator.
• Let it sit in the refrigerator for 18-24 hours. It should have almost doubled in bulk and it should pass the float test.

Day 2:

• When the starter is ready to be used, leave it in the refrigerator for one extra hour.
• Mix together the bread flour, whole wheat flour, rolled oats, non-diastatic, and water together in a bowl into a dough.
• Let it sit for 1 hour.
• Then mix in the starter, salt, and oil by hand.
• Knead by hand for 3-4 minutes.
• Wait 15 minutes. Then do 1-2 stretch-and-folds.
• Wait 15 minutes. Then do 2-3 stretch-and-folds.
• Wait 15 minutes. Then do 1-2 stretch-and-folds.
• Wait 30 minutes. Then do 1-2 stretch-and-folds. Then put the bowl, covered with plastic wrap, into the refrigerator for 15-18 hours.

Day 3:

• 1 hour before handling (3.5 hours before baking), take the dough out of the refrigerator.
• Divide the dough into two pieces and shape each into a boule or batard. Place them into floured bannetons or a bowl lined with a floured linen.
• Dust with flour and cover with plastic for 2.5 hours (at about 75 degrees F).
• At the two hour mark, heat the oven to 460 degrees F (435 degrees F convection).
• At 2.5 hours, scored the dough and put the dough into a combo cooker or onto a baking stone.
• Bake under steam for 35 minutes. When done, it should be a light golden color with darker brown along the scoring mark.
• Then, turn the over down to 440 degrees F (415 degrees F convection) and bake for 15 minutes or until it registers an internal temperature of 210 degrees F. Remove the bread from the oven.
• Let it cool at least 1 hour before slicing and eating.

English Muffins, Part 2

My English Muffins worked! They were actually quite amazing. So were Sue's.

English Muffins, Photocredit: Servia

I took the hypothesis from Tartine Bread that one needs to use some kind of dough that has a reasonably low hydration but also produces a bread with fairly large holes. Corudata's Oat Bread was perfect (which was the base for my English Muffin Recipe) because it is a low hydration bread that acts like a high hydration bread (see crumb shot of oat bread).

English Muffins, Photocredit: Servia

English Muffins, Exterior; Photocredit: Servia

Muffins baking in the skillet, the ugly one was made from leftover dough; Phodocredit: Servia

Sue and I had a day planned to do a taste test between sourdough and commercial yeast English Muffins as I mentioned in yesterday's post. It was a lot of fun. Both of our muffins turned out amazingly, although hers turned out much prettier than mine (see below). Totally coincidentally, both of us added oats to the recipe. Sue also added buckwheat to hers which gave them a delicious earthy flavor and a beautiful color.

Sue's English Muffins; Photocredit: Servia

We both ended up baking them on griddles (her on a real griddle, me in a my great-grandfather's cast iron skillet-- yes, the really do last that long). I was convinced it could never work, but it worked great.

Sue's Crumb; Photocredit: Servia

Sue's muffins, cooking on the griddle; Photocredit: Servia

Try these for yourself. I highly recommend it. And/Or try Sue's recipe. I posted this to Yeast Spotting.

English Muffins, Part 1

So a long time ago I promised that I would make English Muffins with Sue. She is going to make muffins with commercial yeast and I was going to make muffins with sourdough so that we could compare the flavors. I thought it would be a really interesting experiment, especially since I found so many different versions of the recipes online.

However, when I looked more closely, I realized that almost all of them have a chemical rising agent such as baking powder or baking soda which entirely ruins the quest for the difference in taste between sourdough and commercial yeast muffins, so I realized that I had to come up with something different.

When I was thinking about it, I wasn't sure what kind of dough I could use to make good English Muffins. I've never made them before and I'm simply not sure what makes them work. However, I knew that the dough had to be fairly stiff, so that it could survive the cutting, and probably would need to be slightly sweetened. Now that I think about it, the recipe should have oil to soften the crust, but I forgot to put that in at the beginning. In this instantiation of the recipe I will just oil my hands for kneading, but next time I will probably add some into the dough itself to make things easier.

Sulpicia's Sourdough Oat English Muffins (in testing)

Ingredients:

Preferment:

• 100g starter (very active) 100% hydration white or whole wheat based upon preference
• 100g whole wheat flour
• 50g water

Final Dough:

• All the preferment (250g)
• 450g bread flour
• 150g whole wheat flour
• 130g rolled oats (thickly rolled is better)
• 470g cold water
• 17g salt
• 1.5 tablespoon  non-diastatic malt powder
• approximately 15g vegetable oil

Day 1:

• Prepare the pre-ferment by dissolving the starter in water and then mixing in the flour. When it is fully mixed, cover the container and put it in the refrigerator.
• Let it sit in the refrigerator for 18-24 hours. It should have almost doubled in bulk and it should pass the float test.

Day 2:

• When the starter is ready to be used, leave it in the refrigerator for one extra hour.
• Mix together the bread flour, whole wheat flour, rolled oats, non-diastatic, and water together in a bowl into a dough. I put the non-disastatic malt powder in with the salt because I forgot to put it in earlier.
• Let it sit for 1 hour.
• Then mix in the starter, salt, and oil by hand. I put in the oil later because I forgot it.
• Knead by hand for 3-4 minutes.
• Wait 15 minutes. Then do 1-2 stretch-and-folds.
• Wait 15 minutes. Then do 2-3 stretch-and-folds.
• Wait 15 minutes. Then do 1-2 stretch-and-folds.
• Wait 30 minutes. Then do 1-2 stretch-and-folds. Then put the bowl, covered with plastic wrap, into the refrigerator for 15-18 hours.

Day 3:

• 1 hour before handling (3.5 hours before baking), take the dough out of the refrigerator.
• Thoroughly flour a towel or a piece of parchment
• Turn the dough onto the floured surface and press it into a 1" thick disk from the center outward
• Dust with flour and cover with plastic for 2.5 hours.
• Use a cookie cutter about 3" in diameter or a bench knife to cut 3" squares (if you don't mind the odd shape) and cut the muffins.
• Coat the bottom of the pan with vegetable oil and heat on medium-low heat.
• Once the pan is hot, add the muffins. Cover them with a lid.
• In 5-6 minutes, they should puff 2" high. When the undersides are golden brown, flip the muffins and cook until the other side is golden brown/

I am doing the third day stuff today. Cross your fingers that it works!

Christmas Bread

Barley Bread

Christmas is my favorite holiday because I have a quiet morning with family followed but a large dinner with family and friends. In the middle, there is a lot of cooking, cleaning, and moving. This year, for that middle period, I decided I was in charge of morale. It's a bit job getting everything in order, but it's still Christmas so we should have a little fun: a lovely picnic.

Pretty much everyone in the family gets a bit hypoglycemic; if we don't eat, we get tired, cranky, panicky, and, if things get really bad, trembley. So, food at lunch time was in order. There was some nice cheese for later so I stole a bit of that and combined it with one of the five loaves of bread I made and some carrots and brought a plate to each person in various places around the house. That loaf of bread was eaten so quickly that I didn't manage to get a picture of it, but you can see the rest below.

Whole Wheat Boule

Whole Wheat Batard

I made three kinds of bread (five loaves total) for two reasons. One, so that we could have plenty of delicious bread left over for the next few days. Two, something seems to always go wrong if you're making bread for an event, so it's always better to have extra. This time, the whole wheat and the Barley bread (my experimental loaf) turned out marvelously, but the country loaf was the tiniest bit underproofed and, as a consequence, it retained more of the water during the baking process and was denser because it had less oven spring. It looked beautiful, but it was best enjoyed toasted (as underproofed breads usually are).

Country Loaf Ear

Country Loaf

The bread was delicious. The barley bread, specifically, was a revelation. I often use barley to sweeten the crust and add depth of flavor, but this was something entirely new to me. I will post the recipe in the next few days.

Whole Wheat and Country Loaf, used for decoration and eaten over the next few days

Ultimately, Chirstmas, both bread and everything was a great success thanks to lovely friends and the amazing team effort of my family. It just shows that bread, cheese, and carrots are the perfect combination.