Mineral Water

I am constantly looking for improvements to my recipe. I've reduced my salt from 15g to just 10g, but its frustrating that the margin of error for my scale is +/- 4g so when it says 10 it could be as high as 14 or as low as 6.

I have noticed that 150g of mineral water really does help make the taste 'pop'. So 150g of mineral water, 150g of spring water (avoid tap water because of its additives), and then add the last 10-20g of spring water with a spritzer/mister water bottle.

This last part is key because you don't want TOO much water, so adding with a mister really helps bring together all the loose flower in the bowl as you are mixing.

Cheers - Matt the weekend baker

Kneading the dough

Recently I've been experimenting with additional kneading of my sourdough on Saturday mornings. I am happy to report that a good 4-5 minute kneed of the dough, with a 2-3 minute rest before forming of the loaves has improved the overall quality and rise of the baguettes considerably!

Have a great weekend.

-Matt the weekend baker

The proof in is in the proofing

Most people are intimidated by baking for two reasons:

1) Kneading

2) Proofing

That’s part of the reason that the no-kneed bread techniques (which I’ve used extensively) have been so popular – they remove these two elements from the act of bread baking.

As you develop your own sense of baking you realize you must go back to these proven techniques to really develop great bread.

Today I’ll talk a bit about proofing. Wikipedia reliably defines proofing as:

Proofing (also called proving) is a step in creating yeast breads and baked goods where the yeast is allowed to leaven the dough. This step is not often explicitly named, and normally shows up in recipes as "Allow dough to rise".

To successfully proof bread you need to have a combination of these three elements:

1) Warm temperatures

2) Controlled humidity

3) Lack of air flow

This normally means bakers are instructed to clover their dough with a towel or plastic wrap and let it rest for a while. The humidly is usually naturally provided by the kitchen environment and the evaporation of the water from within the dough. The warm temperatures are usually provided by the location of where it’s stored.

Bill is a good friend of mine and he swears by proofing his loaves in an empty (but just run) dishwasher, which provides excellent warm temperatures and humidity and a nice enclosed space (for lack of airflow). A recent Cooks Illustrated tip talked about boiling 1/2 of a cup of water in a microwave oven, then popping the dough in to proof, allowing for all three necessary elements.

Recently I’ve been using a modified technique. I place my baguette pans on the top of my pre-heating oven and then cover them with a tent of plastic wrap. The warming oven and the humidity of the kitchen seem to do the trick.

Either way, proofing is an important step. Give it a try for yourself and bake some bread today!

-Matt the weekend baker

Bread Crumbs

Happy 4th of July!

The Declaration of Independence is a really elegantly crafted argument and document, if you haven't had the chance to read it recently I highly recommend it:

http://www.ushistory.org/Declaration/



Ok - now back to bread baking. Bread Crumbs are an important aspect of any bakers life. There are a few ways of making bread crumbs:

1) Keeping old home-baked bread until it's stale and then chopping
2) Buying old bread from the supermarket (all supermarket bread is old bread, trust me - its not fresh and there are plenty of preservatives in there to fool you) and throwing into a food processor

The way to make option #1 successful is to keep the bread in a Ziplock bag. It will still go stale, but it won't loose all it's moisture and will be easier to dice with a knife (and not have it be as hard as a rock). After a few days just fire up the oven (preferably when baking a fresh loaf) and put the diced bread in a foil-lined pan and bake @ 425 degrees for 13 minutes.

Option #2 is great if you happen to eat all your home-baked bread before there is any to go stale. With this option just go to the store and buy a few baguettes and dice them into 1-inch blocks. Then toss them into a food processor and either simmer them in a skillet on the stove or throw them into the oven as described above.

My friend Gary says it takes a good 8 petite baguettes (4 normal) to make bread stuffing for 12 people.

Don't forget to bake!
-Matt the weekend baker

New Post

My weekend baking continues and I have a few notes to share:

* Experiment with adding a bit more flour to the sourdough starter when feeding. This adjusts the water/flour ratio to allow it to develop and hold the gluten structure better. In my experience it allows the sourdough culture to hold a better flavor.

* With the seemingly more flavorful (sour) sourdough starter, experiment with adding less starter to the dough when mixing. I've been adding between 50-80g instead of the normal 100g to my normal batch.

* Chicago Metallic Professional Nonstick Perforated Baguette Pan's are my new favorite way to bake. These things are amazing and produce GREAT mini baguettes.

* With smaller loaves the bake times are shortened, I normally bake for 14 minutes @ 450 degrees, rotate and then bake for another 14 minutes. This allows for an amazing golden crust that can't be beat.

* Always use sharp razors to slash the dough. It has been a continual surprise to me how quickly dough can dull a razor blade.

* Usually when baking without a dutch oven you should steam every minute for the first three minutes. This can be a bit annoying. I've found that cutting up week-old bread and making croutons during the first 10 minutes of baking actually allows quite a bit of steam to be slowly released from the stale bread and help 'set' the crust of the fresh bread. It's just like recycling!

* When in doubt, bake blueberry muffins. I'll post a recipe later.

-Matt the weekend baker

Personal Oven != Professional Oven

So now that I've been baking for a while I decided to try and produce more baguettes. I have a Baguette pan that holds two loaves, but it's a bit misshapen and it only holds two loaves. I mix and bake 4+ pounds of dough every weekend, which is enough for 4 to 6 baguettes. My 2 baguette pan has started to feel a bit small.

I did some basic research and found that you can only buy 2 or 3 baguette pans. Why not 4, 5 or 6? I did find a great 4 baguette pan on Amazon and immediately ordered it.

That's when I discovered the truth -
- Commercial oven rack: 26" x 18"
- Personal oven: 24" x 17.5"

My new 4 baguette pan just wouldn't fit! It was commercial grade intended for commercial bakers. Bummer.

I returned the 4 baguette pan and ordered the 3 baguette pan instead (16" x 9"). I'm hopeful that I might eventually be able to get two of these in at the same time for 6 total loaves, but after being wrong once (and not paying close attention to the size) I want to test it out first.

The lesson I learned here is that no matter how much I think like a professional baker, I still have a personal oven. For now.

-Matt the weekend baker

Always baking

True to my self-imposed nickname I'm a weekend baker.

Every Wednesday night I take the sourdough out of the refrigerator and feed it. Thursday morning, Thursday night and Friday morning I feed it again. Every Friday night I make two batches of sourdough bread with my slow-rise technique. Every Saturday morning I wake up, pre-heat the oven and shape & proof the loaves.

This sort of routine has almost turned into a ritual. Last night I recited my recipe (listed on the right) from memory for my wife who was helping me mix the batch. There's something very satisfying about the smell of fresh baked bread to me. Cutting into the loaf and savoring the complex aromas and flavor that I coax from just four ingredients.

I may not be a weekend blogger, but I am and always will be a weekend baker.

-Matt the weekend baker