Baking with Myhrvold's "Modernist Bread: The Art and Science"

[Anna N]

I see no cause to be concerned about flour on the finished bread.  It’s pretty routine and is often used for decorative purposes.. Unless you are objecting to the aesthetics of this particular loaf. 

 

I can no longer find the reference to the bubbles on the crust. I know I read about it  and I believe it was an aesthetic rather than anything too serious.  I will look some more and see if I can recall in which section it might’ve been.  Damn I hope your books make it today. Amazon does not seem to have lived up to its usual reputation here. 

Edited November 18, 2017 by Anna N (log)

[Anna N]

 

 Cinnamon raisin swirl!   Oh boy. Hoping my granddaughter will drive over and grab one. I told her the price of one of these would be a photograph of the inside to see the swirl. If it looks good then the second one will go into the freezer for my cleaning angel to grab on Thursday. 

 

[scott123]

1 hour ago, Anna N said:

I see no cause to be concerned about flour on the finished bread.  It’s pretty routine and is often used for decorative purposes.. Unless you are objecting to the aesthetics of this particular loaf. 

 

In the pizza world, excess flour on the finished crust is considered a serious defect due to it's bitter taste.  I think part of this might relate to the color you take the flour to, but if you don't believe me about how undesirable this flour actually is, scrape some off and taste  it- you'll immediately know where I'm coming from.  I'm well aware that for some types of bread, excess flour provides an important aesthetic, but I might argue that there are other ways to achieve a beautiful loaf without sacrificing taste.

[rotuts]

interesting idea tasting the flour on a finished loaf.

 

maybe im a SuperBreadTaster 

 

                 

 

Ive always thought the bread tasted better w the flour brushed off.

 

Id never thought of tasting it after the DustOff.

 

always learn something here on eG.

Edited November 18, 2017 by rotuts (log)

[blue_dolphin]

31 minutes ago, rotuts said:

Ive always thought the bread tasted better w the flour brushed off.

Id never thought of tasting it after the DustOff.

always learn something here on eG.

Good idea!

And I always keep a can handy in the kitchen - for hissing cats off the counters !

 

[Anna N]

 Well my cinnamon swirl wasn’t quite the success that I thought it might be. Need to work on that swirl some more!  Going to hit the books again to see what I might learn. But granddaughter is such a bread hound she will happily devour both loaves.  She gets enough exercise every single day between her job and her schooling that I’m not concerned about it. Oh to be so young again!

 

[rotuts]

@Anna N 

 

when I see something like that

 

I think temperature of the ingredients when rolled.

 

granted Im no expert baker

 

but some time ago

 

I looked into Sticky-Buns

 

pecan of course

 

it was a sweet dough

 

but the Roll-Up worked much better when Things were Cool

 

BTW :

 

 

and

 

 

granted I need to fix my oven

 

or MB has Rx's for the CSB !

 

 

 

[Anna N]

 Wonderful so very happy to see that you are now going to join us in one way or another and I am sure you can figure out how to make that CSO work for you. 

 

 I am going to return to my studies to solve my problems and learn how to make a proper cinnamon swirl even though I would much rather have just a loaf of raisin bread.

[Anna N]

Hmmm.  No mention of temperature but I think wall-to-wall is the answer (or edge to edge).  I tried very hard to use an offset spatula as suggested to spread the smear on the dough but my guess is I did not get it thin enough nor close enough to the edges of the dough rectangle. Another day; another dough.   

[Chris Hennes]

Today is a big baking day for me: I've got five different doughs in progress...

 

The big bowl is the direct country bread from the contest. The other four are

• Modernist Country Bread
• Sourdough with caramelized grains
• Sourdough with chocolate and cherries
• Sourdough with huitlacoche and yellow corn

[Shelby]

11 minutes ago, Chris Hennes said:

Today is a big baking day for me: I've got five different doughs in progress...

 

The big bowl is the direct country bread from the contest. The other four are

• Modernist Country Bread
• Sourdough with caramelized grains
• Sourdough with chocolate and cherries
• Sourdough with huitlacoche and yellow corn

VERY interested in the huitlacoche sourdough.  

 

Can't wait to see your results!

[Chris Hennes]

42 minutes ago, Shelby said:

VERY interested in the huitlacoche sourdough.

I can tell you the dough alone smells wonderful, even made with canned huitlacoche (which is all I can get here).

[Chris Hennes]

Here are the various inclusions of the day:

• Dried cherries and 65% dark chocolate "chips" for the chocolate and cherry sourdough
• Yellow corn for the huitlacoche and corn
• Pressure-caramelized 9-grain "Grains of Discovery" blend from Bob's Red Mill for the grain-inclusion sourdough

Here are those three doughs right after the inclusions were added, prior to their additional four-edge folds:

 

 

[Chris Hennes]

It's amazing how fast the direct country bed is ready for final proofing: only two folds, and then a half hour rest and then shape and final proof. Compared to the other loaves I'm making (all sourdoughs) this is blazing speed. Here's the preliminary shaping step:

 

Then folded into their final boule shape and proofed in bannetons:

 

Meanwhile, the sourdoughs:

[Chris Hennes]

The sourdoughs are shaped and are proofing (overnight at 39°F), and the direct country bread is done:

 

 

The flavor of this one is good, for a direct loaf. It's got a lot of whole wheat and dark rye in it, so even though it's very fast to make (something like five hours beginning to end) it's relatively flavorful. I'm not terribly happy with the uneven crumb, however. I'm looking forward to comparing it to tomorrow's levain-based version.

[JoNorvelleWalker]

9 hours ago, rotuts said:

@JoNorvelleWalker 

 

interesting that you bring up Raymond Calvel 

 

two points :

 

what does MBr say about  flour on the finished bread ?

 

 

and those tiny cracking bubbles on the crust ?

 

 

RC had strong opinions on both subjects I recall.

 

and Im not in any way bering critical of the above two loaves

 

or or less  first come scrolling up on this thread

 

nor those who baked them

 

Id gladly enjoy each loaf

 

right now

 

my copy is said to be out for delivery.

 

 

 

From The Taste of Bread, Color Plate 11:  "Bubbles on the crust, a result of retarding whole loaves at refrigeration temperatures, are well received in North America.  In France bubbles are considered a defect."

 

Modernist bread (4--11) quotes Steven Kaplan:  "It looks like it has eczema."

 

[lindag]

9 hours ago, Anna N said:

 

 Cinnamon raisin swirl!   Oh boy. Hoping my granddaughter will drive over and grab one. I told her the price of one of these would be a photograph of the inside to see the swirl. If it looks good then the second one will go into the freezer for my cleaning angel to grab on Thursday. 

 

Those are gorgeous loaves!!  I can almost smell the cinnamon from here!  I would not be able to part with them!

 

[Anna N]

12 minutes ago, lindag said:

Those are gorgeous loaves!!  I can almost smell the cinnamon from here!  I would not be able to part with them!

 Thanks. Never been a fan of cinnamon swirl loaf much prefer raisin bread. 

[JoNorvelleWalker]

All is not well with my French Lean Bread experiments.  The last loaf I should have pitched.  I tried making a half recipe -- 500g.  I couldn't get the dough to mix.  Only now I realize critical information was omitted from the Modernist Bread eGullet preview recipe.  If one is using a planetary stand mixer with an 8 quart bowl you are supposed to scale up the recipe.  One kg of dough won't mix properly, let alone 500 g.  I switched to my mixer's 5 quart bowl as suggested but that didn't help at all.  I even tried the paddle rather than the dough hook.

 

Vacuum mixing the dough just made a mess.

 

In an attempt to compensate I used a two and a half hour bulk fermentation with additional folds.  The loaf still didn't bake properly.  The bread came out of the oven with a shatteringly crisp crust.  But when I cut into the loaf an hour and fifteen minutes later the crust was flaccid and the crumb was still warm.  I confess I am more used to my baguettes mixed in the Zojirushi.

 

I have a 1.5 x poolish going as we speak.  We shall see.  Even if scaling up the recipe is the solution it doesn't solve the problem that I am one small* person who can't eat kilograms of bread a week.  I feel a bit betrayed.

 

 

*OK, medium sized.

 

[Anna N]

4 hours ago, JoNorvelleWalker said:

I have a 1.5 x poolish going as we speak.  We shall see.  Even if scaling up the recipe is the solution it doesn't solve the problem that I am one small* person who can't eat kilograms of bread a week. 

 I hear you, Jo. Without my large and mostly empty upright freezer and a granddaughter who believes that if man cannot live on bread alone,  woman certainly can, I would not be baking bread.

 

 As for your technical difficulties,  there are people here much more qualified to try and and address them than I.  

 

 

[Anna N]

 

 Overnight George has busted out! I did nothing different. The temperature is the same. After days and days and days of doing very little in terms of expanding this is what I wake up to. Guess that is definitely a sign I ought to do something with it. Since when did I allow a mixture of flour and water to rule my damn life?

[Anna N]

Just could not leave this one alone. And even if it’s not my favorite bread I do love working with this one.

 

 I made an extra special effort digging deep down inside to find my Thomas Keller ethic and spread the smear so carefully I could probably hang it in the National Gallery and call it art.

 

 Of course the proof will be in the cutting. I do see we have a bit of a breakthrough on one of them. 

 

 Stay tuned for the big reveal...Or carry-on whatever you were doing ... which you will anyway.

 

 

 

Edited November 19, 2017 by Anna N (log)

[Anna N]

Much better.  Far from perfect. I would say it compares favourably with the illustration on page 4-311 of MB even though their’s has a better swirl!   They had lots more time to practice. 

 

 Edited to add: I can skip the electron microscope but I sure would like x-ray eyes to see inside some of these breads without cutting into them!  

Edited November 19, 2017 by Anna N (log)

[Chris Hennes]

OK, here goes nothing... the oven is preheated, the doughs have had their final proof (overnight in the fridge), time to get them into the oven. First up, the chocolate cherry and the huitlacoche, formed as 500g loaves.

 

 

[Chris Hennes]

34 minutes ago, Anna N said:

Much better.  Far from perfect.

Is your objection just the shape of the spiral, or are there other changes you'd make to the loaf?