tino27

This will prove to be a rather lengthy post with lots of pictures, so be patient and you will be rewarded with a lovely comparison photo at the end. The only thing I did differently between Monday night's batch and last night's was to lower the hydration level by 5% -- which translated to 38g less water in the dough. First, the mise en place. All of the ingredients (except garlic & salt) in the mixing bowl. I made the starter in my mixing bowl and forgot to take a photo of it before dumping the ingredients in. The dough, fully mixed and kneaded. I find it ironic that it looks like a big bowl of mashed potatoes. The first fermentation took just over 90 minutes. Even though the original recipe didn't call for it, I did a shorter, 2nd fermentation for about 45 minutes. Boules shaped, proved, and ready to go into the oven. I decided not to slash any of the loaves because of how delicate the dough was. The finished boules. I baked both batches at the same temperature and for the exact same length of time. The ones last night didn't get quite as browned on the outside -- although these were still nice and golden. And, finally, the money shot. Monday's wetter batch is on the left and last night's dryer batch is on the right. As you can see, the drier batch did rise a little higher and there really wasn't too much of a degradation in the hole structure. I think I actually prefer #2 as I got better volume in the finished bread and it was slightly easier to work with. Other than that, flavorwise, the breads were identical.

The only advice I have is to add the nuts at the end of the kneading process -- the sharp edges can prevent good gluten formation if you add them at the beginning.

I'm assuming that it isn't fresh cake yeast. I, too, keep my instant yeast in a sealed container in my freezer. Never once had a problem with it.

I would generally agree with you on this except that PR talks about finally having a use for those left-over mashed potatoes from dinner the night before. Any liquid I added to make the potatoes smooth, I would've removed from the water portion in the dough. I do most of my recipes by look and feel. I think the problem was that the dough was the right consistency prior to me adding the garlic and the extra moisture content of the roasted garlic was what threw it into the "over-hydrated" category. alanamoana -- I agree with you, and I very well may leave the recipe I have alone. But since I have the extra mashed potatoes and roasted garlic, in the name of Science, I figured it'd be cool to see the difference, if there is any. Of the three boules I made last night, I've eaten/given away 2 1/2. I'll see if I can't wrangle a picture of 1/2 a loaf of the 1st sitting next to 1/2 a loaf the second. And hopefully, photography gods be willing, I can manage to get a good shot of the interior crumb.

Well, I guess I'll be answering my own question. When I mashed my potatoes (peeled, cut up into cubes, boiled in water until tender -- added 1 tbsp of unsalted butter and enough milk to make them silky smooth), I didn't add any seasoning. This is how I added it to the recipe. I'm not unhappy with how the Potato & Rosemary bread turned out, but I don't think I have the right crumb texture. And I think it's because I over-hydrated the dough slightly. I added the garlic at the end of the mixing process and the extra bit of oil/garlicy goodness was enough to make this dough feel about as wet as a Focaccia. And, in fact, if you check out the crumb photo here: you can see what I mean. It's kind of a cross between Ciabatta and Focaccia. It's not the denser crumb that I saw posted earlier. My taste testers however, liked the airiness of the crumb, so I'll just have to wait and see. Fortunately, I have enough mashed potato and roasted garlic that I'm going to try it again tonight and cut back on the hyrdration by about 5% and see what happens.

Steingarten was definitely in rare form last night -- he always seems to provide a bit of entertainment with dinner. The one thing I truly miss is being educated as well as entertained. While I agree that having theme ingredients that are heavily Japanese based would probably not appeal to a wide American audience, I do think that ground beef as a secret ingredient made me feel like the show "jumped the shark" to borrow from the TV lingo. I think the thing that made the original IC interesting was that I was not only learning about foods I didn't know about, but also focusing on techniques and preparations that I as a non-Japanese person had never been exposed to. ICA seems to be edited in a much more American MTV-esque fashion and even when one of the chefs is doing something interesting, the camera never seems to stay with it long enough to see it to completion. I do wish they would return to doing a dish preview right before the judging -- it really gave me a good sense of what each chef was offering.

Not to worry ... I'm sure some pharmaceutical company has already come up with a pill for that particular problem. Nothing to be embarassed about.

Looks like I'll be bumping this thread back to the top with a question about the ... you guessed it ... Potato & Rosemary bread. My question is simple ... the mashed potatoes that you use in the recipe ... do they contain milk, butter, and salt like regular mashed potatoes? Or are they simply riced cooked potatoes? I only ask because the baker's percentage for salt on the recipe is already 2.71% for the dough. I'm wondering if I actually used mashed potatoes that I made for dinner last night (which would obviously be seasoned), if that would then add too much salt. So many of these breads look excellent. I'm hoping to add at least a couple more recipes to the collection.

My biggest pet peeve with the traditional electric coil stove tops was never the control of the heat, although I do MUCH prefer gas ... it was always getting a pan to lay completely level on the stupid element. I can't tell you the amount of time I wasted simply holding the handle of the pan just so the entire pan would be in contact with the electric coil. Considering Octaveman's stove has the covered burners, at least you won't have to deal with that issue.

You can also split your Brioche batch in half, roll them each into equal size rectangles (can't remember the dimensions at the moment), sprinkle on some dried apricot pieces that have been rehydrated with a little brandy, then roll them up (like making a jelly roll) and then braid them together. If you REALLY want to get creative, make three strands instead of two. Instead of the apricots, you could do a marzipan filling as well. Good luck!

I agree with cocoagirl ... this is an amazing look at the cultural shift that has taken place over the last decade and a half. I am especially interested in a lot of the dishes that you have been so kind to photograph and describe. I've added about a half dozen things to my list to try and make myself at home. I did have one question: I got your recipe for Summer Borsch from the Dinner thread and you mentioned earlier that if you want to add beets to the recipe, simply add them with the sauteeing vegetables before adding to the stock with the potatoes. My question is, how much (or how many) beets do you use for your Summer Borsch recipe? Between the Plov, the Borsch, the Georgian Chicken and the Kachapuri (I'm hoping my local cheese shop has the traditional Suluguni), I'm going to be eating well for a while. Keep up the excellent work!

The steaming at the beginning of the baking process has little to do with the final crust color. The moist environment in the oven prevents the outer crust of the loaf from hardening too soon -- which promotes ovenspring.* But you are normally concerned with a moist environment at the beginning of the process. After the first 10 minutes or so, the loaf will have risen as high as it will get. Towards the end, you want there to be a dry environment. A trick I've used in the past is for the last 4 or 5 minutes of baking, prop the oven door open with the back end of a wooden spoon. The color of the crust comes from the amount of caramelization that happens ... and that is proportional to the amount of available sugars in the dough. You already mentioned this in your post. If you are looking to get color simply from the oven (no egg or milk glaze), then you'll probably need to crank up the heat a bit towards the end of your cooking process. Even 25 deg F might be enough for a few minutes. I find that with my French breads, even though the recipe calls for 450 deg F, I have to take my oven to 475 deg F to get the right color. * However, I've also heard that introduction of steam at the end can also cause a crispier crust, too. You may just have to try both ways and see which you get better results with.

Wow. You have no idea how much these generous words have really touched me. I bake my own bread because I love good tasting, healthy bread for myself. That it also nourishes and pleases others really means a lot to me. Thanks to you and others who have commented on the bread. Now that I've had a chance to peruse the entire thread (not that it isn't changing at a completely insane rate ( ), here are my thoughts ... I absolutely loved the Amontillado during the wine tasting ... that butterscotch nose with the nutty finish was incredible. The cheese course was a lovely variety of flavors. I'm torn between the goats cheese and the brie. Yum. The charcuterie. My god. All of it was amazing. But the pastrami. I have never in my life tasted anything so perfect and melt in your mouth. Ok, maybe a little foie. Which leads me to my next fav pick of the night ... the grilled peach and foie gras salad. Moonsqrl was KIND enough to let me have her foie. And of course I immediately gobbled it up. Wow. And the chilled soup. As much as moonsqrl protests that the chilled guac sorbet was too salty, it was a perfect match with the amazingly sweet heirloom tomato purees. And that chili cherry sauce for the beef? Heavenly. The gentle heat hit you at the back of the throat. Not too much, just enough to make it interesting. Before totally pooping out for the night, I managed to scarf down one of Calipoutine's amazing chocolate cookies. I was told they were destined to be used as the sandwich portion for the peanut butter ice cream, but as a cookie unto themselves, they were marvelous. Don't get me wrong. EVERYTHING was fantastic (and I really mean that). I'm just picking out some of my absolute favorites. I went to bed full-on food coma. And I'd do it again in a heartbeat. Zingerman's Roadhouse was equally amazing. I had the flannel cakes with a side of apple-wood smoked bacon. Um, YUM! Plus, they brought us all of these amazing extras to try ... the egg & oyster omelet, the fresh doughnut holes, the corned beef hash -- it was AMAZING. This is food as it should be. And finally on to the coffee roasting/tasting. I have to admit ... my palate is not yet fine-tuned enough to discern all of the amazingly complex flavor profiles we experienced today. But I learned a ton about how the whole process is done. And better yet, I picked up a lovely recipe for iced coffee that I think I'm going to try soon! Tammy, hats off to your organizational skills.

Hello everyone!!! I just wanted to say what a great time I had at all of the events this weekend. Starting with the wine tasting all the way through to the coffee roasting/tasting this afternoon, it has been an amazing time. And it's finally great to put some faces and names with those screen names. In the spirit of sharing, I thought I'd share some of the bread photos I took on my bake-a-thon 2006 on Friday night for all of the breads. Without further ado ... First, the mise en place for the French bread dough. This was the only dough that I used a pre-ferment (poolish) in. Next, this is the French dough after it's first fermentation -- so nice and silky smooth! The French batards have been shaped, proved, and are ready to be loaded onto the peel, slashed, and into the oven they go. Notice the containers of flour in the backround. My roommate (and the owner of the house) thinks I am completely off my rocker because I have nine different kinds of flour. I mean, WHO DOESN'T have nine kinds of flour at any given time, right? Next, we have the honey whole wheat boules that are proved and ready to go on the peel. Not sure what the dark spot of the left loaf is all about -- must be a shadow. In the next shot, we have the roasted red pepper and black peppercorn bread, proved and ready to go into the oven (at least the boules on the towel). A look at the cornucopia of finished breads. I took this one right before loading up my bags and heading up to A2. Finally, I had many discussions with some of you about the quality of the oven I used to bake all of this wonderful bread in. First, a shot of the whole thing. It's a gas GE range that came with the house. Not sure the model. It's about the same quality of oven you'd find in most apartment complexes. And, finally, a shot of the inside. Notice the stone on the bottom of the oven. Since it's a round pizza stone, it isn't big enough for me to do any serious baking. It's there mostly to work as a capacitor -- keeping the oven at a very even temperature. The inverted sheet pan on the top rack is my cooking surface and the regular sheet pan (which I have dutifully sacrificed to the bread gods and goddesses) is what I use to create steam whenever I throw water into the oven. Now that I've finished posting my little bit, I'm going to re-read the entire thread and catch up on what I've missed.

You beat me to it. I not only start out with steel cut oats, but I actually toast them a little bit in the hot dry pan for about 3-5 minutes before adding any liquid. It adds a nice toasty depth of flavor.

Yep, that's exactly what I did. The original recipe made 2 1 pound loaves. I increased everything by 50 percent so that it would make 3 loaves. The only reason I did it was that I can fit 3 pie tins in my oven at the same time. Hey, why have only 2 when you can have 3 for the same amount of time? Do you use 8" or 9" pie tins?

For some reason, I thought I remember reading someplace that the pie tins were more traditional of the Hawaiin sweet bread (which I believe the Hawaiin is based off the Portuguese) and figured I've give them a try. I will say this though, from a purely functional point of view, they were very easy to get in and out of the oven. I didn't have to worry at all about accidentally deflating the proved dough. You're right that the dough never touched the sides of the tins. Reinhart suggests letting them proof until they reach the sides of the tin. Perhaps that was me being very tired at 12:30 am and just wanting to get them in the oven. I used 9" pie tins. I guess if I had used 8", they would've touched the side. I will say this, I compared the proved loaves to a whole wheat boule (the same amount of dough) I had made on Sunday and the sizes were about the same. I didn't expect there to be any ovenspring, but after the first 10 minutes I took a peek and there was a little bit. I normally use Fleishmann's Instant Yeast in the 1 lb. bags from my local BJ's/Sam's Club. It normally gives me a good rise on leaner doughs in about 75-90 minutes. But with this rich dough, well, you saw the rising times. Maybe Reinhart is using the SAF Gold (or something comparable) because all of my timings were way different than the book. Then again, now that I know the timings with the yeast that I have, I can make the bread fit into my schedule.

Thanks for the compliment and the suggestion. How much time will using this particular yeast cut off of the rising/proofing times? 50%?

OK, here are the results. Total 1st rise time: 10 hours Total proof time: 4 1/2 hours Total bake time: 40 minutes I went by the internal temperature of 190 deg F as suggested in the BBA. However, Reinhart's suggested baking time of 50-60 minutes was pretty far off. Then again, so were his estimated rising times of 2-3 hours. And now ... PICTURES! 30 minutes after shaping into boules 4 1/2 hours after shaping, pre-egg wash Right out of the oven Crust & crumb Let me just say that the taste and smell of this bread is SIMPLY AMAZING. I almost polished off 3/4 of a loaf this morning before giving the other two loaves to some very lucky people. It was definitely worth all the sweating over. Thanks again to Chefpeon for your invaluable advice. This recipe is definitely going in the "Make Again" pile.

Progress so far ... I put the dough, covered with plastic wrap in the fridge last night. This morning when I looked, it looked slightly bigger (maybe I was waxing optomistic ). Anyway, I put it on the counter when I left for work. When I returned about 10 hours later, SUCCESS!! It had finally risen. I then proceeded to portion the dough, form my boules, and placed them in individual pie tins. They've now been resting on the counter for about 90 minutes and are proofing, albeit slowly. I'm hoping given another 90 minutes, they'll be ready for the oven. I'll post my final results and pics when everything is said and done.

Ironically, not knowing what to do with the dough, I figured I'd just put it in the fridge and deal with it tomorrow night -- odd that this is exactly what you suggested!! As you suggest, I'll have faith. I will say that by the time I put it into the fridge (after about 2 1/2 hours sitting on the counter), it had risen just slightly. Thanks for the tip chefpeon. I'll report back to this thread with what I find out tomorrow.

I decided to make the Portuguese Sweet Bread recipe from BBA and followed the directions (although I did convert from active dry yeast to instant -- don't worry, I didn't do a direct substitution). I made the starter and after about 70 minutes it looked quite lovely. I've made starters before (usually poolishes) and I can definitely tell an active starter. At that point I creamed the butter, shortening, dry milk, sugar, and salt until everything looked uniform (I used my KitchenAid for this). I then added the eggs, oil extracts, the starter, and all of the flour called for in the recipe. I measured out the water and had it at the ready. I then started the KA on low with the dough hook, but the air today is so humid that not only did I not have to add any of the reserved water, I actually had to add about 1/4 cup more flour for the dough to come together into a soft ball. I then needed on speed 2 on my KA for 11 minutes (BBA called for between 10-12 using a stand mixer). The dough felt quite soft and there was definite gluten development. I then left it in my workbowl and covered it with plastic. It is now two hours later and not one sign of rise has happened. I know the yeast was active in the starter when I added it. I understand that rich doughs with lots of sugar and fat take longer to form gluten. Could the 11 minutes on the stand mixer have been too much? Any thoughts? BTW, the ambient air temperature is around 80 deg with about 86 percent relative humidity. All ingredients were room temperature before being added to the bowl. Thanks!

You might want to check out this page ... it has some good tips and a troubleshooting section that might help answer some of your questions. http://www.kitchenconservatory.com/bread.htm Salt is definitely important for two reasons: flavor and helping to inhibit the growth of the yeast too quickly.

I actually use a cookie/nut combo for my crusts -- usually about a 2:1 cookie:nut ratio. I think you get the best of both worlds that way.

Thanks for the links. I'm in for brunch on Sunday as well, but since I'm not an A2 native, I'll let the locals pick the best spot. tammylc -- I'll be coming into town post Farmer's Market, pre-wine tasting. Had you decided how you wanted to handle the money situation for those of us not showing up until mid-day Saturday? I'd be happy to send you a check today for my portion if you'd like.