Peace of Bread

The Science of Bread

2007-01-21T13:27:55-08:00

Hmm, the high educational value of this topic might make it a good post for Lilting House.

Jane and I are exploring the science behind the loaves we're baking. Found this fun site: The Science of Cooking. An excerpt from the sourdough page:

In addition to flour, water, and yeast, your starter also contains bacteria. When these bacteria feed on the sugars in flour, they produce acidic by-products. This is what gives sourdoughits sour taste.

Actually, all doughs contain at least some bacteria. So why aren’t all breads sour? In doughs made with bakers’ yeast (the kind you buy in the store), the yeast outnumber the bacteria. Since both compete for the same sugars, the yeast win out, and the bacteria don’t have a chance to produce their acidic by-products. In sourdough, yeast and bacteria are more closely balanced, so the bacteria have a chance to add their flavors to the bread.

Sourdoughs and other raised breads also differ from one another because of the eating habits of the yeasts that make them rise. The predominant yeast in sourdough, Saccharomyces exiguus, cannot metabolize maltose, one of the sugars present in flour. Baker's yeast, on the other hand, has no trouble feeding on this sugar. Since the bacteria that give sourdough its taste need maltose to live, they do much better in the company of sourdough’s yeast because they don’t have to compete for this sugar.

Thanks for the Links

2007-01-21T13:12:36-08:00

I've been meaning to put together a post containing the various links helpful people have sent me since Jane and I began this blog. I really appreciate all the great advice you folks have sent my way—thanks so much!

Someone (sadly, I cannot remember who) recommended this site: The Fresh Loaf, a vast collection of articles and links about all aspects of bread-baking. The site also includes a discussion forum where newbies can post questions for more seasoned bakers to answer.

Some articles on this site that particularly caught my eye:

Wild Yeast Sourdough Starter (how to make your own starter using flour and pineapple juice).

Getting a Sourer Sourdough

Deluxe Sourdough Bread recipe

Why Yeasts Attack (background info on sourdough baking; good walkthrough with pictures)

More About Sourdough (part two of the above)

Lesson Two (step by step instructions for yeast bread, not sourdough)

Domenico Bettinelli left a link to a much-discussed NYT article about a slow-rise, no-knead method of breadbaking. You need an NYT account to access the article, but there is a video demonstration here.

I continue to spend a lot of time on Teresa's Northwest Sourdough site and blog. I really appreciate her detailed walk-throughs with pictures. (And I can now testify as to the scrumptiousness of bread made with her NW Sourdough starter!)

Such Joy There Is...

2007-01-21T10:06:34-08:00

...in baking a really fine loaf of sourdough bread.

It isn't a perfect loaf, but it's a vast improvement upon our first two attempts with sourdough, and it tastes really, really good. The crust has a nutty flavor so delicious we can't stop breaking off little bits for "just one more" taste.

The recipe we used calls for a starter at 166% hydration, which is to say: maintained with one part flour, two parts water. We had to figure out how to adjust it for a 100% hydration starter (maintained with equal parts flour and water) because—and I know this is a little silly but we don't care—it is such fun to have a nice thick starter bubbling in the crock a little too vigorously so there's always that danger it will overflow. For the same reason, I don't want to keep the crock in the fridge even though we aren't yet baking enough to justify feeding a starter daily. We don't care. Flour is cheap. We're having fun.

Jane says she still likes baking yeast breads best, because there is so much more kneading. We're going to shoot for one sourdough baking and one yeast bread baking each week. I'm so grateful to JoVE, whose post inspired us to start!

Things we need to figure out:

• The recipe said to proof the dough in a bowl lined with a proofing cloth sprinkled with flour. No problem there, but how do you then transfer the dough to your baking stone without deflating it? Ours was a pretty oozy dough (don't know the right terminology)—not firm like our honey wheat yeast bread dough has been—and by the time I got it onto the stone, it was a big flat blob and I was sure it was going to be a complete flop. It did rise more in the oven, though, so we wound up with a nice big round loaf, a little dense but not a bad texture at all. But still, there has got to be a better way to make the switch. I wish I could watch a real baker do it. I have no technique.

• The slashing! Why can't I get this right? I even got the special bread slashing tool. I'm too timid with my cuts. I don't go deep enough. Again, I think it would help to see someone do it. But I guess I just need to cut deeper, with less hesitation.

Time for an Update

2007-01-13T09:40:38-08:00

We did it! Baked our first successful sourdough.

The crumb was a little dense, perhaps, not as holey as sourdough is supposed to be. But we're getting there. It tasted great and the texture was nice, just more like a regular yeast bread than sourdough, moist rather than chewy.

This was our second attempt at sourdough baking. The first attempt was a huge flop. We produced our first bricks. The sponge didn't expand much, and I should have just started over at that stage.

This time around, the sponge doubled in two hours, and we were so excited. We're getting better at reading our starter.

Here is one of the finished loaves:

As you can see, I need to improve my slashing technique. I'm too timid. Gotta get bolder with the blade!

Making a Break for It

2007-01-11T09:42:00-08:00

Melissa Wiley

What Santa Brought

2007-01-02T09:55:00-08:00

So! Very! Excited!

(St. Nick had a little help from six months' worth of saved-up ClubMom points. Gotta love a company that pays in cash and gift cards.)

Our New Pets

2006-12-30T20:44:13-08:00

A colony of microscopic organisms have taken up residence in a crock on our counter...and we're very happy about it.

The crock was a gift from my Secret Santa, aka Hooly. Isn't it lovely? Fits in perfectly with my windowsill flowerpots.

The starter is just about ready to bake with. Maybe we'll have pancakes for breakfast tomorrow? I'm hoping to try a loaf of bread with it on Monday. We'll see how it goes...

Great site for recipes and advice: Northwest Sourdough. The "First Loaf" tutorial is thorough and extremely helpful. I like this biscuit recipe too.

This Week in Bread

2006-12-08T06:42:54-08:00

Such a yummy week in our kitchen. We tried Wisteria's recipe again, the honey wheat bread, and it was our best attempt yet. Rose up so nice and light. Not long after we put the loaves in the oven, Jane peeked through the window and yelped in delight; the one in the loaf pan had risen even more, a lot more. We were really proud of that loaf!

The other one, though, we baked on the baking stone again, and I have to find out how to transfer a rustic loaf from the bowl it rises in to the baking stone without deflating it. That has happened every time. The bread tastes good but the crumb is much heavier and denser.

Next we tried Joann's potato starter recipe. I think I overproofed on the second rise, because it has a really long rising time and I didn't plan well when starting out. But the bread turned out okay, and we had it for dinner last night on panini sandwiches, which: SO GOOD. Goat cheese, arugula, and proscuitto on homemade bread...oh my!

Good Post About Desem

2006-12-04T15:25:34-08:00

A step-by-step look at making desem bread as described in Laurel's Kitchen. Includes many helpful photos. (This is several steps beyond us, though. File under: Someday. I would really love to taste a desem bread...wonder if there are any bakeries around here that make it?)

Q for Jane: Can you figure out what the author means when she talks about the "crumb" of the bread?

Collecting Our Questions

2006-12-04T14:33:55-08:00

1) Since a wheat grinder is not in our near future (we're still saving up for the stand mixer), what store brands of whole-wheat flour are the best? Our local Henry's carries Red Mill, as well as bulk flour.

So far we've been using a mixture of King Arthur Bread Flour and Gold Medal Stone Ground Whole Wheat—basically, what happened to be available at Albertson's the day I went shopping. I bought some of the bulk whole wheat flour at Henry's this weekend, but now I'm wondering if I should have gone for the Red Mill instead.

2) Jane's main question so far, and it's a good one, is how to tell when you've added the right amount of flour to your dough before you begin kneading. Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book says:

Pick up the dough and squeeze it. Feel deep into the dough...it's sure to be sticky and wet, but is it soft, or is it stiff? A soft, pliable dough makes lighter bread.

Does the dough resist your touch? Does it strain the muscles in your fingers when you squeeze it? Then it is too stiff. On the other hand, the dough must have enough flour to hold its shape. Doe it feel waterlogged, as if the flour is not contributing much substance to it? Does it have a runny, liquid quality? Then it is too slack.

(Page 41.) Jane—read on to see what we should do if the dough is either too slack or too stiff.