Gluten , gluten, the new satan ,

The New Yorker has an excellent, fairly well balanced article, I highly recommend

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/11/03/grain

Wood fired Rosemary Crackers

Unleavened crackers are pretty easy - It helps if you have a pasta roller to get them really thin ( #5 on my machine) add some herbs and a little olive oil and pop um in a hot oven .

Pepperoni to the rescue !

Sometimes you just have to have some comfort food - and with pizza it's pepperoni !

Love that Millet !

Millet Porridge Bread

Something about the nutty taste of millet. If you toast it first then cook it into a porridge you get a great flavor.  The rest is Levan 15% and 50% AP 50% WW.

From the Bread Lab

Here are two articles on wheat and bread that should be of interest. The first by Bethany Econopouly of the Bread Lab talks about the importance of calling real bread bread and the other stuff..........well you'll have to read it: "Redefining Bread". The second  covers "72 Ways Food Can Change the World". It feeds new ideas to the food conversation. The 4th of the 72 ways is a brief observation on non-commodity wheat. Washington State University - Mount Vernon Research Center 16650 State Route 536, Mount Vernon, WA  98273-4768 USA, 360-848-6120

Wood Fired Paella

Chicken Chorizo and Bacon #Paella.

This was my first attempt at a wood fired Paella in a pizza oven. I  had a pretty hot oven and spread the coals evenly on each side of the oven after about 45 min of heat time.

• Partial cook chicken with chorizo and dry cured chipotle Bacon

• Remove from heat

• In residual fat, saute ; Onion, fennel , green beans , garlic, bell pepper with Saffron , smoked Paprika, lime-Salt, and pepper.

• Add Bomba rice to and stir to coat with oil

• Add in chicken stock and meats

• Put in Wood fired oven directly on the oven floor ( ~400 F, walls about 600F) for about 25 min until all the liquid is absorbed 

• Add a couple of wood chips and close the door for the last few minutes to increase the smoke flavor

Partially cook the meats

Meat removed from pan

Other Ingredients

Bomba Rice is the best 

Fire roasted diced tomatoes

Hydration Spreadsheet update

PS. I updated my spreadsheet for creating your own recipes.  You can Calculate the Hydrations  , and use the starter changer sheet to change  the hydration of starters into Biga's or other pre-ferments.  The two sheets can be viewed on the Right panel and downloaded.

Tartine inspired Multigrain Porridge loafs

Grains = Goodness

In Tartine Book #3, there are several Porridge breads , but most are single grain.

I like #multigrain breads, so I modified the #porridge approach for multigrain and to use a straight starter rather than creating new levain as the book does. 

I used the books total % of grain (50% of dough weight) and hydration goal (75%).

I combined 50 gm each of :

• Oats
• Millet
• Aramath
• Cracked Faro
• Flax seeds

Soaked and then cooked for 10min into a porridge.

I fed my starter a few times to build it up to the required amount (150 gms.).

Because of the large amount of  heavy grain porridge mix, and the cooler fall temps in Seattle, I spiked it with 1/4 Tsp Yeast.

Process

• Mix flour *
• Autolyse 1hr
• Add Levain, salt and yeast
• Hand mix
• Stretch and folds 2 times at 30min intervals 
• Refrigerator overnight
• Next morning; pre-shape, shape, and proof about 1.5 -2.5 hrs
• Bake covered 475 F 20 min
• Bake uncovered 450F 20min
• reduce to 425 F for another 10 min or so

*  50% Fresh milled Nash Organic Hard winter wheat 50% KA bread flour
Levain is 100% Nash Whole Wheat

Some tips on using whole grains

I recently went to this 2 day work shop on whole grains whole grain workshop

There was some nice lectures and demos and some great bread baking.

If I was to boil down much of the information into a few key tips, it would be these: 

=======================================================================

Tip #1: All Whole wheat's are not created equal. At WSU alone they breed 40,000 , yes that's 40 , 000 varieties of wheat.  you need to try different ones from hard winter wheat to spring wheat's.
Tip #2.  Fresh milled flour is really better. Its like comparing a cup of fresh ground coffee with a cup made canned ground coffee.
Tip #3. Starters / Levains really like to be fed whole grains - If you want your starter to really perform feed it whole wheat or rye.
Tip #4. Whole wheat really likes water - you can really push the envelope here with hydration's. The breads in these pictures are 90--100 % hydration
Tip #5. White Whole wheat is just as nutritious as regular whole wheat - it is just a white spring wheat - you can also get wheat's in different colors too, such as -blue, black, etc...
Tip # 6.  Your grandmothers Sourdough starter is no more - People have notions of special starters from the family for years and from special places - like a Russian starter. Once a yeast culture is in a new location it adapts and changes to the new environment and the types of flours it IE being fed. so it you bring a starter back from Russia, it will not longer be that same starter after several feedings with your flour in your kitchen. so we have to get over this romantic notion about starters.

Tip # 7  Sifting can help with flours that are too coarsely milled.  the large chunks of bran can interfere with gluten development. You can always add back in sifted bran later if you want.

Tip #8  Finally Re Pizza - Sorry but Whole wheat pizza just does not cut it .  I still believe you can add whole grain to pizza dough but I recommend keeping it at 10%. I have not tried the softer while whole wheat however, maybe you can push up the % with that. 

Liberal use of flour on the linen lined baskets is a must 

100% hydrated whole wheat from local fresh milled grain

The "Too Many Tomatoes" Pizza !

 We have so many tomatoes this year , This pizza is essentially a tomato Pie. Three whole thick sliced tomatoes on a simple olive oil base with , oregano, basil, and garlic.

How much Sourdough starter can you use in a bread?

 If your like me , you hate to waste all the sourdough you end up with after feeding it a few times in preparation for use.

Typically, only a small percentage of sourdough is used in any given bread. I pushed the envelope on this bread and made it with 50% of the total dough weight using my Sourdough starter. 

The starter was 100% hydrated, and I went for an 85% overall dough hydration using whole wheat starter and a 50/50 WW/AP flour blend.  

 

Yet another Tartine experiment

The first loaf - over-proofed but still great tasting

It's clear that many people try to reproduce the famous Tartine breads with more or less success. I finally bought book #3 and read it cover to cover. I thought I would start with the basic country loaf.

Notes:

• I made the high extraction flour by sifting WW and and making a 50/50 blend.
• I used the wheat germ
• I basically did it as it is laid out in the book except I used some rye for my starter feeding because I was out of WW.

Observations:

Hole structure was less than expected because of over proofing

• Lots of waste . I just cannot see throwing away so much starter. I think next time I will modify to just feed my starter without making so many new batches
• Crazy fermentation . I was not prepared for the speed and quality of the natural fermentation, using his method. Things were really moving along fast. My final proof was refrigerated 3 hrs and it over proofed
• The WW and the wheat germ really enhances the fermentation
• 85% hydration is totally doable and the dough was very manageable.

Taste and appearance

Really nice chew and mild sour balance. Even better the second day. Hole structure was less than I wanted but this was due to the deflating when I scored the over proofed loaf. Then second loaf ( below) I did not score so when I cut it I expect a better structure.

What I learned

• Autolyse more , esp with whole grain breads 
• Go for 85% H20 
• Make it when you have extra time on your hands , you cannot rush this bread!
• Wheat germ enhances fermentation

2nd loaf un-scored to to prevent collapse

Pizza Part One: It’s all about the Crust! | Los Angeles Ovenworks

Here is a short two part article I wrote for LA-Ovenworks Pizza Part One: It’s all about the Crust! | Los Angeles Ovenworks

Sunday Night Breads

After fire roasting some chicken and veggies, I hate to waste all that stored heat . So I baked two loafs

My version of rustic leavened corn Bread:
20%Corn meal (polenta) , 70% AP, 10% Spelt.
25% sourdough starter . 75% hydration
I added about 3/4 cup of roasted corn and about 1/2 cup copped Poblano pepper. For a little heat I added a pinch or two of Chipotle pepper flakes.
This bread baked up nice and rustic with a great chew - you can really taste the corn and Poblano.

Rustic Corn Bread

Mango pizza ?..

Tonight's pizza is a take on the popular pear Gorgonzola pizza. I used ripe mango, Gorgonzola, olive oil and some mozzarella . But the kicker was the addition of dry cured peppered bacon! After removing it from the 750 deg oven , drizzle a balsamic reduction sweetened with organic brown sugar.