San Juan Island area is a beautiful place to live. The locals are very friendly, it has been fun to meet new people. I attended a transportation meeting to see about road safety and bike trails. I joined a prayer group from the church I attend and I was able to help out at the local soup kitchen this week and bring some of my bread.

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My oven is not fixed yet and I still have to be creative in using it, but I have adjusted and have been able to make up some variations using the pizza dough which was featured in the last post and on Pizza Quest (Pizza Quest has been nominated by the International Association of Culinary Professionals (the IACP) as one of three finalists for best food blog of the year).

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I really like the dough even though it is a morph dough and uses not only a sourdough starter but some commercial yeast(!) as well.

Here are the bread and rolls I brought to the soup kitchen using the pizza dough recipe as the base:

Soft White Pan Bread:

Rolls with Whole Wheat flour:

The bread was the same recipe as the pizza dough but I added a Tablespoon of  sugar to the dough. The rolls were the same except I added a Tablespoon of brown sugar and I also used whole wheat flour for the starter portion of the recipe. I was happy to see how quickly they were gobbled up at lunch.

I also used the pizza dough as a variation to make pita pockets:

You just take 3 or 4 ounces or whatever amount of dough you want, and roll it out about  1/4 inch thick. I threw down handfuls of sesame seeds  and rolled the dough out on the seeds. Allow your pockets to proof and throw it on a very hot stone to bake, flipping once, bake until done. Don’t overbake or it will be like cardboard or crackers. These were very delicious with soft interiors and seedy exteriors

Also, I just had to make more pizza, pepperoni for this round:

Believe it or not, you can also use this dough to make great cinnamon rolls. Just add 1/4 cup of sugar to the dough and a tablespoon of vanilla extract. Then of course you roll out the finished dough and make it into cinnamon rolls:

Seems to be no end to the variations you can think of for this versatile dough. Post more ideas in the comments below, we could start a brainstorming session here!

Other news: My book, “Discovering Sourdough“, has been selling well since I posted it for sale a month ago.

I am in the process of converting it to Kindle format and should be done soon. I have to thank Dion for getting me going on converting the files, he has been not only an inspiration but a great help and it was his idea. Thank you Dion! I am still working on my 100% hydration sourdough book…. no telling when that will see print, but it has been a lot of fun working on it.

When you see the mist rise over the trees on the mountains, watch the sunrise and sunsets on this incredibly beautiful island and look out at the wild turkeys and geese from your backyard, not to mention the eagles flying overhead, there is no end to the inspiration here.

Not only that, but a cool rainy day is the perfect time to bake…..and to write about baking… and to dream about baking…

Happy Baking!

This month has been a pizza month in this household. Earlier I made a morphed pizza dough using both a  starter (natural levain) and commercial yeast. It is featured on pizzaquest.com:
A Morphed Pizza Dough The dough is silky soft, easy to work with and makes wonderful pizza dough.

This pizza features a combination of toppings which include white cheese, spinach, mushrooms and blueberries. There was no sauce, but a garlic white sauce would have worked great.

This pizza was a hit. The blueberries were a slightly tart addition, making the pizza unusual and interesting.

In this family that I am now living with and working for, there were several birthdays this month including my own daughter’s birthday.

Birthday Pizza party

So a large party was thrown for everyone’s friends and the lady of the house (Hannah Adams Collier) decided she wanted home made pizzas as the main dish for the party.  I was the pizza cook, so I made up a double batch of the Morphed Pizza Dough recipe, which made six pounds of dough, enough for four large pizzas.

The plain cheese pizza was in the oven in this picture.

Hannah decided on the toppings and we ended up making a plain cheese pizza, two pepperoni pizzas and a really tasty (my favorite) Gorgonzola, dried tomato, over olive oil pizza.

The pizza dough handled well over the long waiting time to go into the oven and it did a terrific oven spring. I used parchment paper for the pizza and transferred the finished pizzas via peel, to the very hot baking stone. I had the oven heated as hot as it would go (500F).

Plain cheese pizza, half without sauce

If you have been following this blog you would know that the oven here is broken with the bottom element not working. To get the stone really hot, I had to turn the convection fan on and put the stone at the highest level right next to the broiler element. That is how I am baking my bread as well. Try baking bread using only the broiler element if you think it is easy!!!

Pepperoni pizza...of course!

Gorgonzola cheese, sundried tomatoes over olive oil pizza

So now that you are definitely in the mood for pizza….. you might want to try the morphed pizza dough, I think you will like it!

Again, you will find it featured on Pizza Quest at: “A Morphed Pizza Dough”

Sending this fun to Susan’s fun at… Yeastspotting.

Over the New Year holidays, I moved to the San Juan Islands. It has been a two year journey for me from an abusive situation, a divorce and now starting over.It is the reason my store was closed down and I have not been as available as I once was. Throughout my journey, I found that there are many resources and people who reach out a helping hand to those in need, I am very grateful to those that were supportive and encouraging.

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I have some new challenges in my present location. One being a defective convection oven that took two hours to reach 350F!! Convection ovens do not seem to have a bottom element. How do those of you with a convection oven bake decent bread? You need good bottom heat for bread. I baked up some sourdough biscuits and the tops were nicely browned but the bottoms stayed white no matter what I did.

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The solution that I have come up with so far,  is to put the baking stone on the very top rack of the oven, right next to the element and put “convection broil” on for an hour, that not only turns on the fan to distribute the heat around the stone, but turns on both elements which are at the top of the oven.

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I was able to super heat the stone, then move it down in the oven, place a roasting lid over the dough to protect it from the overhead element (which I had changed to “convection bake”) and I got some really nice bread:

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Autumn Porch Sourdough

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The cut loaf was underproofed, you can tell by the direction of the holes, the tight look to the loaf and the cracked domed top. I waited an additional half hour to bake the second loaf and it came out great. The baking time was less in a convection oven, even with the roasting pan over the dough. I baked it 20 minutes with the lid and two more minutes with the lid removed. I was afraid to take the pan off sooner because the top of the bread had a chance of burning, since the element overhead was on.

Autumn Porch Sourdough closeup

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I baked up some Autumn Porch Sourdough for this experiment in baking with a defective convection oven. The outdoor temperatures here on the islands has been perfect for Autumn Porch bread because you put your preferment outside overnight in temps that are around 50F degrees. I put my dough into a covered dough folding container and placed it in the trunk of my car. If there is anything I enjoy besides baking, it is being resourceful!! The raccoons outside were dismayed at my new dough retarder.

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I have one more interesting thing to tell you. Those of you who have followed my blog for years, know that I have always wanted a brick/masonry oven to bake bread in. Looky what I found in the basement of my new home:

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The brick fireplace is meant to heat the whole house. There are some supports inside that allow me to fit a shelf and baking stone on. I need to set it up and test it, but you can bet I will do just that.  Any of you with knowledge of masonry oven baking , feel free to email me or comment with suggestions/hints/tips on baking in a brick bread oven.

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The inside is not domed for bread baking, but I will give it a try anyway….. stay tuned….

Sourdough Wreaths

Here is a neat shaping technique for dough that will enable you to end up with beautiful Christmas wreaths to give for gifts or showcase your buffet table. You can follow any recipe that will produce about 1.5 lbs of dough, as each wreath is 1.5 lbs each. You can also use any filling that suits your fancy. Some ideas would be pecans and chopped apples, preserves, chopped dates, figs and walnuts, cherries, dried cranberries, blueberries, etc.

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You get the idea, your imagination is the limit.  You can even tie a beautiful bow onto your finished wreath, encase it in plastic wrap and give it as a very yummy looking Christmas treat.

I made a sourdough sour cream sweet dough for my wreaths. I had some really vigorous starter fed 12  and 6 hours before mixing.

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This is an all day event so start early in the morning.

Sourdough Wreaths

• 7 oz/198g evaporated milk
• 2 oz/56g butter
• 2 oz/56g sugar
• 4 oz/113g sour cream

I use a homemade cinnamon caramel mixture that is super easy to whip up for the filling base. Make the filling base first so it can cool off before you use it. This will be enough for three or four wreaths:

To a medium heavy bottomed skillet add:

• 10 oz/283g brown sugar
• 4 oz/113g butter
• 2 oz/56g evaporated milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

Ingredients to melt for caramel sauce...

 

 

Oh Wow!

Cinnamon Caramel Sauce... you will be famous....

Mark the dough...

...like this, but don't cut through the dough.

Then cut the dough like this:

Cut the dough...like this:

Spread that cinnamon caramel sauce like this:

If you want to use less sauce you can, some of it will leak out during baking, but not to worry the parchment paper will catch it and your stone will not get ruined.

Now your imagination can fly: Fill with anything you want (no not tinker toys and legos… jeesh!) But think about it, if you left the sugar out when making the dough, you could fill it with a pizza kind of filling and pizza sauce and it would be awesome!!!

I piled on some dried cranberries, raisins, those awesome 60% cocoa chocolate chips that Ghirardelli’s make (yea, they all do not make it into the dough! ha ha!) and walnuts.

Pile it on: YUM!

Now take the outer edge of the dough and fold it inwards like this:

Fold the edge over...

Now the fun part, take the inner star cut pieces and pull them up and over the roll and tuck them in underneath the outer edge of the wreath (this is lots of fun!):

It should look like this when you are done:

Stagger your wreaths so they are not all ready to bake at once. Shape them about 20 minutes apart. Spray the finished wreaths with more oil and allow them to proof for about 2 hours. Then when ready, place wreath- parchment paper and all onto a hot preheated baking stone and bake at 400F for 20 minutes covered with a roasting lid ( I did not spray them with water). Take the lid off after 20 minutes and then bake another 5 – 10 minutes, watch for overbrowning.

HINTS: Sourdough sweet dough tends to be a bit tougher than commercially yeasted dough, so do not overbake, it will make it that much tougher. You can place your wreath in a plastic bag while still warm (not hot) to help soften the crust. Spraying with oil, or buttering the crust helps keep it softer as well.

All done:

Carefully take your wreath out of the oven using a peel or flat cookie sheet (one without sides). Remove the parchment carefully and dispose of it, you need to be extra careful doing this as there will be a pool of hot melted (even burned) caramel in the middle and if you leave it, the wreath will glue to it as it cools. If the caramel in the center is burned and gets all over the bottom of your wreath, you may want to try and remove it before it cools as it will ruin the taste of your wreath.

Finished baking...

Bake the other two wreaths in their turn and cool. You can sprinkle powdered sugar on top for decoration, or swirl some thin icing on top:

Hint: To get the beautiful shiny crust, I spray the dough with oil again once it is finished baking. 

Swirl some icing on top:

Close up...

You can see the chocolate chips:

A slice...

I also made a 100% whole wheat dough to make a cranberry, raisin, walnut version ( I made this one around Thanksgiving):

100% Whole Wheat version using raw cranberries:

A close up of a slice:

Happy Baking, and a very Happy, Holy Christmas Season to you all!

3 Wreaths:

This post will be submitted to Susan’s Yeastspotting. Thanks Susan!

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Brod and Taylor sent several of us online blogging bakers their new Folding Bread Proofer. I was one of them. My Technical Administrator on the Sourdough Forum and I were talking about jerry rigging our own proofer before I received notice from Brod and Taylor about testing their new proofer.

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We wondered if Brod and Taylor’s proofer was a glorified hot plate and was it worth the money to invest in it. Then, that same week, I heard from them that they wished me to test it out for them.

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So of course I said “Yes!” I have mentioned in earlier posts a bit about my use of the proofer. Now that I have used it for several batches, I would like to share my observations on Brod and Taylor’s new folding bread proofer.

I have been pleasantly surprised. No, I would not have bought this proofer if left up to my own devices, because us at home bread baker’s are good at jerry rigging for our obsession.

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Yes, I would have missed out because although I think they missed the sweet spot on the price by about $20.00, it is well worth the money and knowing what I know now, I would have bought one.   I already got one free so they are not paying me any more to say this, I could say it sucks and don’t bother if I wanted to

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Here is what I have observed:

• The ability to fold up the proofer is terrific. It folds up very easily to store in a skinny place.
• Even though the proofer does not have tight fitting seams, it keeps a good even temperature.
• It is sooooo wonderful to have the temperature control- that is the single most important feature of this proofer.
• The lid has a problem fitting on the edges once you set it up. The hinges are made to fit the item when it is closed or collapsed. If you look under the lid however, you will see where there are two protrusions that fit into some slots for the lid to line up with so it can shut properly. Once you know that, it is easy.
• I think Brod and Taylor need to put that on their list of “to redo” items for their next iteration. The hinges need to fit and clip to the open sides as well as the shut case (I know that probably doesn’t make much sense, but it will once you get yours).
• There is a small pan for adding water to keep the humidity high which is a good thing.
• It would be nice to have an internal thermometer so the user can see the temp without having to add their own.
• One other problem is that the proofer needs to be large enough to fit two 9″ diameter round bannetons. It will fit them one on top of the other if you have a small grate to put over the bottom banneton:

It fits two 9″ small bannetons very well:

It also will accomodate two 13″ larger long bannetons: (well you can see it WILL fit two, the other one escaped before I remembered to take a pic)

 

Proofing at 85F and 3 hour autolyse with Big Bear's Bread formula

One other thing I would like to mention is that they include a very short cord with a longer one being available for purchase. I needed to run out and get an extension cord right away because I keep the proofer on my dining room table and a short cord would not have worked almost anywhere in my  house. So get the longer cord if you are buying it for a gift for someone.

 

Proofing at 76F after overnight ferment

 

I am really enjoying my new proofer, I am glad I have one. It has made my ability to push the “sour” and “holey” experiments to the max with the ability to control the temperature. The drawback is that while I am able to get some great results using temperature control, I can’t pass that on to  you in my blogging if you can’t control the temps as well.

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I have read about many other uses for the proofer, like tempering chocolate, keeping fondant and other candies warm and even making yogurt (remember a hotpad and towels in the olden days?) . My friend Mike Avery at Sourdough Home mentioned he liked to use his Brod and Taylor proofer for keeping his starter an even temperature.

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So I strongly suggest you hint to your favorite Santa Clause to have one under the Christmas tree this year.

Hurrah Brod and Taylor, for an exciting new product for the advanced at home baker.

.Many of us are willing to pay 400.00 plus for a dough mixer, I bought several. However, I got rid of all of them but one and have not used a mixer for about three years, preferring a dough folding trough. So of the two, I would rather do without the mixer than the proofer. Just my two cents worth. If you have a Brod and Taylor proofer,any feedback you might want to share with us is very welcome.

Disclaimer: Although I received this proofer free from Brod and Taylor for review and testing, I do not receive any money from them for doing so. I do receive a small percentage from any links that send you to Amazon to purchase it though…

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Happy Baking everyone!

Wow, did this bread ever smell great, in dough form, while baking and … while eating! It is at it’s best once cooled and given some time to mellow.

I got the inspiration for the chocolate cinnamon blend from Peter Reinhart’s bread, Chocolate Cinnamon Babka, see my post here:  http://www.northwestsourdough.com/discover/?p=900 from his book, Artisan Breads Every Day. I loved that blend of flavors, chocolate and cinnamon.

.The Babka had a filling made up of the two flavors, so I thought I would experiment with a bread using them. Rye breads can have a cakey texture, so I thought I would go with a rye bread formula. The outcome was more than I expected, the flavor is really nice, especially when you let it set a while to allow the flavors to blend and get stronger.

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Chocolate Cinnamon Rye…with Walnuts

Mix together:

• 11 oz/312g vigorous starter @ 100% hydration
• 14 oz/397g strong cold coffee
• 2 oz/56g blackstrap molasses
• .3 oz/85g (about 1 Tablespoon) cinnamon (add an additional 1/2 Tablespoon if you want more cinnamon flavor)
• 3 oz/85g cocoa powder
• 7 oz/198g bread flour
• 4 oz/113g dark rye flour

• 7 oz/198g bread flour
• 4 oz/113g dark rye flour
• .6 oz/17g salt

Note: This is a lean, piquant loaf, if you desire a softer, sweeter loaf, add 1.5 oz/42g of brown sugar and 1 oz/28g of oil and bake at 400F. 

Makes 3lb 4.9 oz / 1499g dough @ 65.9% hydration.

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Mix the ingredients together well and then add to the autolysed mixture, kneading in for several minutes until well incorporated. The dough will feel like clay and be smooth and soft.

Allow the dough to ferment, covered at room temperature, for five hours. Fold dough twice during this time. After the bulk ferment is done. Divide the dough into two pieces and work in:

• 3 oz/85g of broken large walnut pieces per loaf (you can also add some of those large dark chocolate chunks if desired)

Shaped Loaves

(work the walnuts) into each loaf. Shape. Then allow the dough to set for one more hour at room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Next morning I got to use my new Brod and Taylor  proofer…. it worked great. I took out the first loaf and set the temperature at 80F degrees. After one half hour I took out the other loaf and it joined it’s twin in the proofer.

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After an hour and a half, I turned the proofer up to 85F degrees. It took three and one half hours to proof and the dough skin was delicate enough to crack even though I am sure it was ready to bake. It is great to have real control over the proofer and to regulate how warm I want it to be, it’s like a luxury really, for a home baker. There was plenty of room in the proofer for two of the smaller sized bannetons, the ones that hold 1- 1.5 lbs of dough.

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I had the oven preheated to 435F degrees with an oven stone and used the roasting pan method of baking. Slash the loaf and spray it lightly with water, as the crust is delicate and a sprayed loaf will crack more. I baked it covered with the lid for 20 minutes, then removed the lid and baked an additonal 20 minutes, turning once for even browning.

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There is a new addition to my Magnificent Sourdough page. Baker Judd Friedman’s bread, Pain de Campagne is showcased.

To see his bread and visit his site, just go to the dropdown list of the Magnificent Sourdough tab at the top of the page. Or link through the picture of his delicious looking bread above.

Visit the Magnificent Sourdough page to see other bakers whose breads have been showcased. You can submit a magnificent sourdough that you have baked or another baker’s bread that you would like to see showcased. Just follow the directions on the page.

Sweet Potato Muffins

It’s that time of year where baking of squash, sweet potaoes (and/or yams) and other such autumn treats are pretty standard fare, especially around Thanksgiving. This recipe features leftover baked sweet potatoes baked up into muffins. You can substitute any veggie with a similar texture such as those mentioned above. I like using up my extra starter instead of tossing it whenever I can and these yummy tender treats will help you do just that.

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Sourdough Sweet Potato Muffins

Use two medium sized mixing bowls, one for wet ingredients and one for dry ingredients.

Bowl One:

• Sweet Potato (baked, skins removed, mashed) – 4.5 oz/127g
• Sourdough Starter @ 100% hydration – 6 oz/170g
• Oil – 2 oz/56g
• Honey- 3 oz/85g
• 2 large eggs or 3 medium eggs – around 4.4 oz /124g
• milk – 8 oz/226g

Beat all ingredients together well, set bowl aside. 

 In second mixing bowl, mix together:

• Whole Wheat flour – 10 oz/283g
• Ground flax seeds or toasted wheat germ- 1 oz/28g
• Ground cinnamon- 1 teaspoon
• Baking soda – 1 teaspoon
• Baking Powder- 2 teaspoons
• Salt – .3 oz  or about 1.5 teaspoons

Press goodies into the top....

 

Spray your muffin tin with pan spray. Then spoon batter into a 12 cup muffin tin, press nuts, dried cranberries, seeds, raisins or anything else you desire into the batter on top of the muffins and then bake at 425 for 20 – 22 minutes. Notice that I did not press the cranberries in deep enough and a lot of them fell off (don’t worry I scooped them up and made sure they went to a good home  )  Makes 12  muffins ( I always fill batter to the very top of the muffin cup). You know how you always want your muffins to turn out billowy, soft and tender, with a gentle sweetness and delicious smell… well here they are, you won’t be disappointed. Just make sure not to over bake.

It's fun to put something on top...

Buttered warm muffin....

 

Have fun baking ( and then eating it ) , I always do….

Those of you who like to bake without thinking about what’s behind it… might want to skip this post….

This is a follow up experiment to the post Experiments with Autolyse #1  (length of autolyse)

To autolyse means to give your dough a rest period after mixing and before adding the salt to the dough. Professor Raymond Calvel pioneered this dough development stage which helped produce superior bread. When the flour and water are combined, the gluten strands are hydrated and begin to bond. Enzymes are activated and they begin their work on the dough. One of the enzymes called Protease when activated, starts to break down or digest the gluten strands.  You might think this would ruin your gluten network that you are trying to build up, but used properly on the right kind of dough using the right flour, you can direct the outcome of the bread in different ways.

With an autolyse period you are hoping to obtain a loaf with a more open crumb, a higher oven spring and superior flavor. The ease at which the dough is handled is also affected.

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When salt is added, it inhibits the action of the enzymes, yeast and bacteria. So controlling when you add the salt can give you an additional tool in controlling the outcome. The reason behind these experiments is to explore some of those outcomes. Gluten is made up of two main protein strands. One is called Gliadin and the other is called Glutenin. The Gliadin is responsible for the extensibility of the dough or it’s ability to stretch. The Glutenin is mainly responsible for the elasticity of the dough or the ability of the dough to bounce back after being stretched. Flour with a predominance of Gliadin can be very droopy/weak. While flour with a predominance of Glutenin can be like a rubber ball. In either case, you would have poor quality bread.  An extended autolyse period is not used for a weak flour or a flour high in whole meal or whole grain.

If an autolyse period is used in those instances, it is usually kept short so as not to overly weaken the gluten structure which is already compromised in such dough. Although a short autolyse can be helpful to hydrate the gluten strands and to align the strands up and avoid over mixing. If you followed the first post on my Autolyse experiments then you know that I autolysed using dough with added levain (sourdough starter) added at the beginning of the mix.

To be seriously technical, a super duper correct autolyse would utilize only water and flour mixed together, the other ingredients are supposed to be added later ( a mature levain has acids, yeast and enzymes which can interfere with the autolyse supposedly) I have never done that kind ( super duper correct) of autolyse because the levain is such an essential part of the dough that it is difficult to leave it out until after the autolyse period. However, even Professor Calvel who pioneered the autolye for bread making, allows adding levain to the original dough if the levain is very wet or an indispensible portion of the dough. Let’s face it, with some dough, if you leave out the levain you are dealing with a pile of hardtack like crumbs and you cannot autolyse that. Leaving out the leavain poses some interesting questions and challenges.

For instance, if you leave out the levain for an autolyse and the dough ends up very low in hydration, you will also be working with the double hydration effect.  That is a neat trick used in dough development to help bond the gluten strands tightly before adding the additional liquid to bring it up to proper hydration levels.  I use that often because it works well and gives you a great gluten network, especially for bread in which the final loaf is a high hydration bread. In the first experiment we found out that the bread which had levain added at the beginning of the mix and and extended autolyse period of two hours actually and surprisingly produced a superior loaf compared to a loaf where a short autolyse period was used or no autolyse at all.

That caused many of you to email me or comment on trying an autolyse using a dough with no added levain compared to one with an added levain. That is what this experiment is about. To make the two doughs I had to do a jig. I needed both doughs to be at the same hydration so we did not also have a double hydration variable. So I made a formula for one dough using no levain (only flour and water) at 60% before adding the levain and salt and 66% after autolyse and the additon of the levain and salt. In the other dough I added the levain into the first stage and also had it at 60% hydration before autolyse, then added flour and water to bring it to 66% after autolyse. I autolysed both doughs for two hours at room temperature around 68F degrees. I wanted these doughs to be at a similar hydration to the dough experimented on in Experiments with Autolyse # 1  (which was at 66% hydration). These are 2 lb/907g loaves.

Dough #1 with levain (starter) before autolyse

• 6 oz/170g  water
• 12.4 oz/351g bread flour
• 7.4 oz/209g very vigorous starter (fed within six hours)@ 100% hydration

Mix together and autolyse for 2 hours, covered at room temperature. Fold dough twice during this time.

1 lb 9.8 oz dough @ 60.2 % hydration

Then add:

• 3.3 oz/93g  water (make sure to stir the salt into the water to dissolve)
• 3.6 oz/102g  flour
• .4 0z/11g  salt

This will yield 2 lbs 1.1 oz/938g of dough @ 66% hydration

Dough right after the first mix stage @ 60% hydration. Dough on the left is dough #1

Dough #2 without levain (starter)before autolyse

• 9.3 oz/263g  water
• 15.5 oz439g/ bread flour

Mix together and autolyse for two hours folding twice.

1 lb 8.8 oz/703g dough @ 60% hydration

After autolyse add:(make sure you stir the salt into the starter to dissolve)

• 7.4 oz/209g very vigorous starter @ 100% hydration
• .5 oz/14g bread flour
• .4 oz/11g  salt

This will yield 2 lbs 1.1 oz/ 938g dough @ 66% hydration

After the autolyse period, in both cases, you will have to knead the ingredients into the dough  with gentleness. The slurry will not want to incorporate right away. Just do the best you can and during subsequent folding, the dough will come together.

Dough after 2 hours autolyse and 2 folds

After two hours autolysis and two folds, the dough with the levain (dough #1) was more stretchy and slightly sticky, with some bubbles. Dough #1 without any levain, was tough, tight, hard to fold and of course had no gas bubbles.

Right after incorporating the second part of the formula (slurry with salt), the dough is not yet well incorporated. The gluten strands are visible. It is difficult to incorporate the slurry, but just let the dough rest, time and subsequent folding with do the job for you:

Dough after incorporating slurry and salt, you can see the gluten strands

Even while incorporating the slurry and salt, I found that dough # 2 was tougher and more difficult to work with. That is the dough on the right which did not start out with added levain.  The gluten strands were tight and well bonded on it.

After this point, I folded the doughs once each hour and noted how they were doing. After two hours more and two folds the doughs looked like this:

Two hours (4 hours total since first mixing) after autolyse and adding salt.

After an additional two hours (6 hours total since initial mixing and flour hours after autolyse) the dough looked like this:

Six hour post mix and four hour post autolyse.

All along, dough # 1 had more bubbles, which increased over time and was stretchy and easy to handle, although slightly more sticky. Dough # 2 was tougher, resisted handling and had less gas activity and fewer bubbles. Dough # 1 was really 2 hours ahead in fermentation time.

At this point, I covered the both doughs and refrigerated overnight. Next morning, I used my new Brod and Taylor proofer to warm the dough up. This was the first time using the proofer and I was interested to see how well it performed.

Warming up the dough

The proofer was barely large enough to hold both bowls of dough, but I got them in. I had the proofer set at 76 F degrees. It took three hours to warm up the dough and mature enough to shape. I took the dough out of the refrigerator at 6:00 am and shaped the loaves at 9:00 am. Then I wanted to proof them at 76F degrees but found out the proofer could not fit two 9″ round bannetons. So I stacked them up:

Stack them up.

The heat source is from the bottom and I had a small tray of water for humidity. Because it is warmer at the bottom, it is s good idea to change the loaves position once in a while. The proofer preformed very well and kept the temperature pretty even.  This proofer will be very handy with some of my “sour” experiments where temperature is critical.

I knew that loaf # 1 would be ready to bake first so I did not worry about staggering them timewise.

Loaf one was ready to bake in three hours, even with the warming proofer ( slowing the dough down in the refrigerator but not shaping until after it warms up next day, slows the dough down quite a bit.  I took both loaves out to take a picture of them at this point (you can see how much more fermentation dough # 1 has accomplished):

Both loaves after three hours additional proofing

Dough # 1 looked ready to bake, but the dough was sticky, so it was hard to tell (when I pushed my finger into the dough it pretty much stuck). I baked it but it needed another 1/2 hour or so of proofing as the crust cracked all around.

Baking was accomplished in a preheated oven at 450F degrees. I used a baking stone and a roasting lid to cover the loaves which were slashed and sprayed once with water. The roasting lid cover was removed after 21 minutes in the oven. I then proceeded to brown the loaf  for 11 minutes longer at the same temperature and I turned the loaf once for even browning. My baking stone is a 3/4″  Fibrament ( which I love). I preheat for a good hour or more if the loaves are lazy. I preheat the roasting pan lid for about five minutes before putting in the loaf. 

It sure popped in the oven though:

Loaf # 1 with levain added during initial mixing

Loaf # 1 crumb

Dough # 2 was a sluggard. I waited for three more hours and baked at 3:00 pm! It still looked underproofed so I made the mistake of slashing slightly deeper than I should have:

Loaf # 2 with no levain in the initial mix

Loaf # 2 crumb

This is a good time to mention that the first loaf was baked 3 hours after beginning proof and the second loaf took 6 hours! So when you see in a formula that the loaf can take 1 – 3 hours or so, well, it means just that, it really can take a long time depending upon lots of variables. I should have waited 3.5 to 4 hours for each loaf instead of the 3 hours I allowed.  Loaf # 1 was a higher loaf and loaf # 2 was lower, but larger in diameter. That was because of slashing dough # 2 too deeply. I think they both would have been the same size if I had not slashed too deeply on the second loaf.

Loaf # 1 and # 2

Loaf # 1 and # 2 side view

loaf # is higher loaf # 2 is wider

you can see the difference more clearly in the crumb

loaf # 2 is at the top

You can see that loaf # 1 had a more open crumb. It also had a nicer crust with a spray of blisters. The crumb feel was nice on both loaves, velvety soft, yet chewy.  They were both nice loaves. I would never hesitate to add the levain in before autolysing again. I have done it that way all along and I am used to it anyway.  So I would have to state that according to the outcome of this experiment and my past experience, I prefer to add the levain before autolyse. The outcome to me, is just what I am shooting for anyway, easier to mix up, easier dough handling, less fermentation time, great oven spring, nicely blistered crust, open velvety soft crumb… gee what more could you ask for????

Edited to add: Jump starting the autolyse with a vigorous levain seems like the desired thing to do. You are bringing in the very thing you want right from the beginning, plenty of Protease and enzyme activity, wild yeast and gluten that is already predigested. Make sure your starter is freshly fed within 6-8 hours and very vigorous. 

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With a long autolyse without the levain, the dough never did seem to catch up fermentationwise to the first loaf. The dough was harder to handle throughout the experiment and the crust and crumb seemed to suffer in quality. However, this was just one experiment, it should be repeated to see if results are similar.

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I can see a use for withholding levain or yeast in a dough. If you have a weak flour that is giving you trouble, I think using this formula with the double hydration and adding levain later in the mixing, could possibly strengthen the dough. Also if you have a reason to seriously slow down your dough (maybe experimenting with the sour) this would also work.

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There is one more thing I have not mentioned yet and that is this two hour autolysed bread has a noticeably stronger, very wonderful wheaty aroma. It was noticeable to everyone. You wanted to stick your nose in the loaf and breath deeply, especially the next morning. Imagine finding your family with their noses stuck in the bread in the a.m…. where is my cup of coffee anyway?

Have fun baking, you know I do…..

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An autolyse stage, as used in the making of bread, was first introduced by Professor Raymond Calvel. He noticed that when the dough was given a chance to hydrate when first mixed without the addition of salt (or other ingredients besides flour and water), it produced a superior outcome in the final bread.

The word Autolyse (sometimes pronounced… auto-leese)(dictionary.com  pronounces it as [awt-l-ahyz] ) means to consume self or digest self.  au·tol·y·sis  [aw-tol-uh-sis]  The breakdown of plant or animal tissue by the action of enzymes contained in the tissue affected; self-digestion.(dictionary.com)

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It seems like an odd meaning, but it actually does make sense. When water and flour are first mixed together, an enzyme called Protease is activated (other enzymes are also activated as well). Protease is a protein. Protease goes after and breaks down other proteins in the dough, notably proteins called Glutenin and Gliadin which help to make up the gluten network in dough. When Protease does it’s work on these other proteins, it is actually breaking them apart or breaking them down, digesting them. Hence the label of self-digesting . We have a protein munching on another protein, kinda cannabilistic, don’t you think?

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The Protease enzyme, breaks apart and realigns protein strands, helping to promote the formation of newly aligned gluten bonding. At the same time it also weakens the bonds so that the dough is not too tough/rubbery. Dough needs a certain amount of extensibility which means it can stretch out. You don’t want dough so tough that you cannot handle it or stretch it. It needs to stretch as well as have a certain amount of bounce back to it (elasticity).

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The gluten protein Gliadin is responsible for the gluten strands being able to extend and the other main protein, Glutenin is responsible for allowing the dough to bounce back or be elastic. Too much of either one and you have a problem with dough that is too weak or dough that is too strong (information from Bread Science- Emily Buehler).

Autolysis is used on dough for different reasons and in different situations. It depends on the outcome you desire. A very high protein flour or a strong flour will be enhanced by an autolyse period as it will allow the dough to be more extensible (stretch more easily and get those large holes). A very weak flour, pastry flour, cake flour, some AP flours will not benefit from an extended autolysis. However a short autolyse period can be used to hydrate the gluten, help align gluten strands and cut down on the amount of mixing time.

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Autolyse Experiment: (see formula below)

• Mix up three pounds of dough at 66% hydration.
• Divide the dough into three 16 oz/453g pieces.
• Add salt (.2 oz/5g) immediately to dough # 1.
• Let dough #2 Autolyse for 30 minutes, then add salt (.2oz/5g).
• For dough # 3 Autolyse for 2 hours and then add the same amount of salt.
• Allow all dough pieces to bulk ferment for six hours folding a total of three times (covered and at room temperature). 

Interesting things happened with this experiment.   Right after mixing I added salt to dough number one. The salt was easy to incorporate, there was no real gluten bonding yet and the dough was easily mixed and mushy feeling. After the 30 minutes autolyse period for dough number two, the salt was also easy to mix in, the dough felt sticky and was mushy like the first dough.

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The surprise came with dough number three which was autolysed for two hours. The dough felt silky, smooth and was noticeably cohesive with a lot of gluten bonding, it was full of activity and bubbles. The salt was not as easy to incorporate into dough number three, but it was a small amount of dough, so it wasn’t overly difficult. All of the dough was folded three times during the six hour bulk ferment with no other kneading taking place except to incorporate the salt.

Loaf # 2 in the middle. Loaf # 3 on the right side

After the six hour bulk ferment, dough number one, which was salted right away had a nice feel and was moderately filled with bubbles. Dough number two which was autolysed for 30 minutes, was sticky and bubbly but was hard to handle and slumped during preshaping. Dough number three really surprised me, it felt better than dough number one, was filled with bubbles and sat up higher after being preshaped.

I was surprised enough that I will now autolyse for two hours before adding salt. My technical administrator on our forum gave me the idea for a two hour increment. I have autolysed overnight, multiple days and even for an hour, but not two hours. He was reading that two hours was an optimum time for autolysis. I have only done this experiment once, but it gave promising results for a two hour autolyse period. The dough used was from the same batch and the same room temperature was used. The only difference was the time when I added the salt to the dough.

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After the six hour bulk ferment I preshaped, then final shaped and refrigerated(covered) all three loaves. In the morning I took out all three loaves at once, I was planning to bake them at the same time but I noticed right away that even though they were the same weight, they were different sizes and at different levels of being proofed. I ended baking loaf three first it was the largest(by volume not by weight) and most active, bubbly loaf throughout this experiment.

I baked loaf number two next, it was denser and ended up smaller than loaf number one. Last I baked loaf number one, the loaf which had the salt mixed in right at the beginning. It was also denser, took the longest to proof and did not get the oven spring and volume that loaf number three did. So I ended up baking the loaves backwards from loaf number three to loaf number one.

Baking was accomplished with a fully proofed loaf, which was slashed, sprayed with water and covered with a roasting pan lid for the first 18 minutes in a preheated oven at 450F degrees using a baking stone. After the 18 minutes, the roasting lid was removed and the bread was allowed to brown up and crisp for 12 minutes more, turning once. Preheat the lid before using for the next loaf.

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Of the three loaves, loaf number three which was autolysed for two hours was more active and bubbly throughout the experiment at all stages, had a nice firm hand feel, it wasn’t as sticky as the loaf which had only been autolysed for 30 minutes and it lost the most weight during baking (a lightweight fluffy loaf).

Loaf three (two hour autolyse) weighed 16 oz when I baked it(they all started out at 16 oz) and was 13.4 ounces after baking. Loaf number two (30 minute autolyse) weighed 13.6 ounces after baking. Loaf number one (no autolyse) weighed 13.8 ounces after baking.

I am guessing loaf number three lost so much more weight because it had a much more open crumb and a greater volume so it was able to let off more water vapor during baking.  The volume of loaf number three is so much greater than the other two that it is easy to identify which loaf it is in the pictures.

Loaf # 3

Loaf # 3 Crumb

I would like you to know that this was not the expected outcome. The outcome I had expected was that the bread autolysed for 30 minutes would have been the superior loaf, with the two hour loaf being more sticky and slumpy (that a word?, if not, it is now) and a lower final volume.  The bread which had no autolyse did not surprise me. I have done extensive work with long autolysed doughs, but they were usually overnight at room temperature or days at cold temperatures. I have had good results with the long autolysed doughs. However, the shorter versions seem to be in their own category.

Loaf # 2

Loaf # 2 Crumb

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I will redo the experiment a few more times to see if the results are consistent. Please do the experiment yourself and report back. It would be nice to get some feedback from other bakers.

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I believe the dough using a two hour autolyse, not only had the Protease working, but all of the enzymes and yeasts were able to get a good jumpstart before the salt was allowed to inhibit their action. I am guessing that is why the loaf had so much activity and was more bubbly and resulted in a larger volume. I also have the thought that the salt may not have been incorporated into loaf three as well as the first two loaves and that may have given it the advantage as far as volume goes.

Loaf # 3 and # 2

This experiment will have different results on whole grain breads which have a weaker gluten bonding and would benefit from some inhibition of enzyme activity(adding some salt early on) or a short autolyse.

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Here is the formula for making up the three pound batch of dough:

• 11 oz/311g of starter @ 100% hydration, the starter had been fed 24 hours and then eight hours before using.
• 14 oz/396g water
• 24 oz/680g bread flour
• Salt is used at .2/5g per loaf when the time comes to incorporate it.

This makes 3 lbs 1 oz / 1389g of dough at 66% hydration

Mix up all ingredients except salt. Weigh out three 16 oz/453g  pieces of dough and then follow the directions already given above for timing and adding salt.

Loaf # 3

I have so often heard people say they do not bother to autolyse because it is a waste of time or the salt is too hard to incorporate once the dough is mixed. I kept the dough a wettish 66% to help with salt incorporation. I have also used a slurry to add salt to a mixed dough later, like in the formula for Big Bear’s Bread (one of my very best breads). You can hold back part of the flour and add it after autolysis with the salt. So there are ways to incorporate the salt into mixed dough. Regardless, the results for a loaf autolysed for two hours was such a superior outcome, that I am convinced.

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Edited to add:  I have had much feedback on this experiment and bakers wanting to know about autolysis without added levain or yeast. My next experiment will be with just the flour and water vs. flour/water and levain. Stay tuned….