Okay, so it's been 4 months since I posted anything here. In that time I've gone from making edible bread to making as close to perfect bread as I hoped (and have always doubted) I ever would. In the process, I got away from Peter Reinhart's book "The Bread Baker's Apprentice", though I found others by him that have moved me along to where I am now. Having achieved some success with Reinhart's techniques gave me confidence to tackle Ken Forkish's methods of long ferments with minimal amounts of yeast. I'd have never thought to leave a dough rise for 12 hours at room temperature!
Forkish requires a dutch oven for most of his breads. I'm not interested in following him that closely. I've adapted his poolish pizza dough recipe to my wants and desires, and to my delight, I've turned out some pretty good loaves. And pizzas, though I like the beer bread doughs better when it comes to making pizza. (Tröegs' "Dream Weaver" wheat beer is excellent in a pizza dough!) As I experiment with time and temperature I may change my mind about using beer for other than sipping in a hot kitchen.
The two loaves pictured here are the results of having strayed from the prime recipe. My kitchen gets hot in the summer and AC isn't much of an option right now. The poolish for these loaves started out with cold tap water, fermented about 4 hours in an 80 degree F kitchen before going into the fridge for a couple of days. When I started the dough I used warm water to turn the poolish into a batter before adding flour and salt. The resulting dough was still cold and took hours to come to room temperature of about 75 F. As the dough warmed up I stretched and folded it several times before leaving it be for several more hours.
I had planned to put the dough back into the fridge for at least another night, but the last stretching left some dough clinging to my fingers. I ate it of course. Kinda like a salty, slightly sour, nutty chewing gum. I decided I'd give the dough a few more hours on the counter and bake it before bedtime. (It's cooling as I type at 10:15pm.)
Shaping was minimal. I dusted the counter with flour and up dumped (up dumped is a hillism DW's family uses) the dough bucket. Using a scrapper I cut the dough roughly in half and folded each half enough to shape it a bit. Then I set each piece on its own parchment paper (heavily dusted with flour) and sprayed cooking oil over the loaves before covering with plastic wrap. After turning the oven to 475 F, I set the timer for 45 minutes.
I use a stone on the next to the top rack and have a metal baking pan on the lowest rack. After bringing a cup of water to a boil in the microwave I uncovered a loaf, slid it onto and off a peel onto the stone. Quickly pouring the boiling water into the pan I managed to barely scald myself before closing the oven door for 15 minutes. At that time I removed the loaf and paper, turned the loaf around and slid it back onto the stone minus the paper. Another 15 minutes did the job nicely.
Both loaves crackled so loudly as they cooled I could hear them in the next room. DW walked in as I was about to take the second loaf from the oven and commented on how good the room smelled. She stood mesmerized by the hissing and crackling of the second loaf. She's learned not to ask if she can cut a loaf before it cools completely. She can always use the microwave to reheat a slice if she has to have it hot.
We've both learned the flavors develop over the days after the loaf has cooled. While she likes a slice hot with butter melting on it I'm inclined to use slices to hold eggs and bacon, or hamburger and bacon! Or anything and bacon! Or just mayonnaise and fresh cracked black pepper!
Least I forget, the basic recipe.
All the mixing is done by hand, literally.
Poolish:
500 grams of flour
500 grams of water, room tempertaure
1/4 teaspoon of instant yeast
Mix well, cover and leave ferment at 70 to 80 F for 12 hours.
Dough:
all of the poolish
250 grams of water, room temperature
(mix thoroughly)
Add:
500 grams of flour
15 grams of salt
Mix by hand and leave be for 30 minutes. Knead for a few minutes then let rest for 30 minutes before stretching and folding. Repeat stretching and folding every 30 minutes for 90 minutes. Cover with plastic wrap.
Another 12 hour ferment at 70 to 80F. Bread or pizza can be made at this point, or the dough can be refrigerated for up to 3 days before being brought back to room temps and used as needed.
The great thing about this bread is it's manipulablity. By varying any, some, or all of it's 6 ingredients (flour, water, salt, yeast, temperature and time) I can create new breads without straying so far from the basic recipe as to not recognize it.
So far I've varied temperature with good results. I've used kamut flour (as much as 20% of the flour) with great results. I've also tried a whole wheat, an heirloom called "turkey" (I'm not a fan of whole wheat) as part of the poolish and am pleased with the bread.
So pleased have I been with this long ferment method I decided to try teaching the Bulgarian to make ciabatta using it. (The Bulgarian is hopeless at bread making! She's a good cook otherwise. Maybe even a great cook.) Using Peter Reinhart's poolish ciabatta recipe, but cutting the yeast amount to 1/4 a teaspoon and extending the ferments to a total of 24 hours at room temps, I was able to talk the Bulgarian through the recipe to a pair of edible loaves she was quite proud of. (She has since made two more loaves without my advice and has gone on to make a Bulgarian version of Challah, successfully! Twice!)
Good bread is easy. What ruined bread was the idea it could be made quickly, and cheaply. If I, and the Bulgarian, can make great bread, anyone can. Seriously, the Bulgarian is known to be a total disaster at bread building and I'm a freaking village idiot. If we can make good bread, may the gods save anyone who can't!
