Philly Weekend

My wife and I were in Philadelphia this past weekend visiting our Austrian friends Hannes and Anita. The weekend consisted mostly of catching up, eating and drinking beer in the sun -- a few food shots from the trip below. If you've never been to Philly, it's worth a visit - Spring tends to spring a several months earlier than in Toronto making April and May a great time to visit.

Spring in Rittenhouse Square

Brunch at Sabrina's in the Italian Market (9th & Christian). Great Eggs Benedict.

Pecorino ahead of bowling in the Northern Liberties. Pecorino is the name of a family of hard Italian cheeses made from ewe's milk [1]. I learned this evening that a ewe is a female domestic sheep. Ewe learn something new every day.

Bread from the cheese shop. My attempt to link this post back to bread.

Challah French Toast at Marathon on the Square (19th & Spruce). It tasted as good as it looks.

Lisa's much healthier breakfast - Bagel, Lox, Cream Cheese, and Beet Salad, also at Marathon on the Square, and (according to Lisa) also delicious. It's been a big week for my food vocabulary as I didn't really know what Lox was. Apparently, Lox is a salmon fillet that has been cured. It is traditionally made by brining the salmon fillet in a solution of oil, water, salt and spices (not to be confused with smoked salmon, which has been cured and then hot or cold smoked)[2].

Great weekend, even with the flight delays on the way home.

Much Improved!

Last week's kids-size baguettes have given way to larger adult-size baguettes this week. After getting back late from a BBQ late on Friday night, I spent 30 minutes at 1am mixing and kneading some dough using the same recipe as last week. Except this time I increased the flour base to 425g (ratios for the other ingredients were the same, except for an extra 1-2g yeast) and also spent ~10 extra minutes kneading, which passed quickly given that there as much more fermented product (beer) in my stomach than in the dough. As before, I covered the dough with plastic wrap and tucked it away in the fridge for the night.

On Saturday, I removed the dough from the fridge at 12.45pm before heading to a late lunch, gave it 4 hours to rise (vs. 3 hrs last week), shaped it into 2 baguettes (vs. 3 last week) and then baked them at 4.45pm. The other adjustment I made was to pre-heat the pizza / baking stone for longer, which seemed to solve the problem of having the dough retain too much moisture on the bottom (there was still some moisture, but much less than last time). The combination of the longer first rise time and the extra heat also seemed to result in a better oven rise. The finished product was highly satisfactory.

Dough part-way into first rise

Shaping into baguettes. Gentle!

Finished product cooling.

Delicious bread with nice air pockets.

At Last ...

Bread. Finally. Following last weekend's bread titanic, I needed a bit of a break from bread. Lisa and I took in a few movies from the sofa, and I started reading an all-consuming book about Columbine (fascinating). I made it back to bread making on Saturday afternoon.

As mentioned in the last post, I decided to focus on a slightly easier recipe for attempt #3, Pain a l'Ancienne, from Peter Reinhart's Bread Maker's Apprentice ('the book'). Last time, the process was a mixed bag of steps from assorted recipes and message boards, and it was tough to know where things went wrong. By using the book, mistakes would be easier to diagnose, and the steps in the book are explained in great detail, which as a rookie baker is helpful.

Pain a l'Ancienne

Bread flour 100%

Salt 2%

Instant yeast .7%

Water (approx.) 79.6%

On Saturday, late afternoon, I carefully measured out all of the ingredients and mixed them in a bowl (n.b. I went with 385g of flour). I then hand-kneaded for a while. It must have been 15-20 minutes. As per the instructions, I continued to sprinkle in flour and kneaded until the dough didn't stick to the sides of the bowl (but still stuck to the bottom) and then set the ball into a different, lightly oiled bowl, covering it with plastic wrap and tucking it into the fridge for the night.

(My dough in its refrigerated chamber)

At 7.15am the next morning, I hopped out of bed, removed the bowl of dough from the fridge, and then removed myself from the land of the conscious, diving face first back into bed [1]. By 10.15am the dough had almost doubled (time was up, we needed to be at my parent's place for brunch by 11.30am), and I moved it to a floured (err, over-floured) countertop for cutting and shaping into baguettes. I went with three thin baguettes thinking they would rise quite a bit more in the oven. I pre-heated the oven, baking stone, and steam pan to 500*F, and moved the strips and baking parchment dusted with cornmeal onto the baking stone. I then added a cup of water to the steam pan (creating copious steam), tossed small amounts of additional water against the sides of the oven twice at 30 second intervals and then changed the temperature to 475*F, baked for 9 minutes, rotated the parchment 180 degrees and then baked for an additional 15 minutes. The baguettes were not a deep brown yet, so I left them in for a few more minutes before taking them out. That's when I noticed that the bottoms of the baguettes were still moist and sticky. I entertained a quiet moment of frustration and unkind thoughts, which thankfully passed quickly. I suspect that baking them on the parchment resulted in their retaining moisture on the bottom (the tops were golden brown), but it could also have been that the baking stone was not hot enough yet. I put the baguettes in for an additional 5 minutes at 425*F, and then flipped them upside down for 3-4 minutes.

By that point we were already pushing 11.20am, so I jumped in the shower and asked Lisa to take them out of the oven after the last 3-4 minutes were up. When I came out, the baguettes were on a cooling rack and looked great. The smell of fresh bread was also pretty awesome.

(2 1/2 baguettes - the smallest is half-eaten - we couldn't wait for it to cool)

(Decent crumb - still a bit doughy towards the bottom, but some air pockets)

(Thick, flavourful crust. A bit of over-zealous flouring on the counter during shaping left it powdery, but much more artisanal looking!)

The baguettes hadn't risen nearly as much as expected in the oven, so they were somewhat emaciated looking. Next time, I'll shape the dough into two larger baguettes instead of three smaller ones, but we finally had bread! And an Easter brunch to get to.

We took two of the three baguettes with us and they were a hit. My 3 1/2-year-old nephew consumed two thirds of the larger of the two baguettes and he normally doesn't eat anything. He wants one for his birthday. Probably not as much as he wants new Playmobil, but if I judge this effort through my unabashedly direct nephew's response it does mean that my third attempt at bread-making was a success [2]. There are a few lessons in the experience, but one is that if your bread ends up more miniature than expected, share it with someone with a small mouth and small hands.

Notes:

[1] At 8.30am I made my way back into the kitchen to check on the dough. The bowl was still somewhat cold and the dough had not risen very much, which was a bit disconcerting given that I needed my dough to rise so I could bake it before brunch! To speed up the process, I turned the nearby gas stove on low, which added a bit of extra heat to the kitchen, and sped up the warming process for the bowl and the dough. Not very scientific, but it seemed to work.

[2] As of 6.30pm this evening, the bread is all gone.

Bread Titanic

Unmitigated disaster. Well, maybe that's a bit melodramatic -- but my Sunday breadmaking did not really get off of the ground. I set my dough out for its first rise, using the 1 starter : 1 water : 2 flour ratio from the Ruhlman blog (+15-20 minutes of kneading) ... and the dough never really rose.

On the first rise the dough jumped a modest 25-50% in size (after 12-15 hrs), but when I tried to handle it for punching down in preparation of the second rise (proofing) it was still fairly dense and very very sticky. After setting it out for proofing it did not rise again. It just dried up. And eventually became pocked with finger holes from our poking it to check if it was rising (which it wasn't). So, on Monday I was forced to abandon ship on this attempt. Given the lack of a strong rise, I suspect the problem was with my starter (not active enough).

(New home for my sourdough)

For attempt #2, I'll be taking a stab at a slightly less ambitious but exciting sounding bread, Pain a l'Ancienne (French bread) which uses instant yeast and will substantially shorten timelines and eliminate the need for a pre-ferment for now. I find I'm having trouble ensuring that I'm available for the feeding times, and refrigeration seemed to throw everything off.

I must admit that one of my first thoughts following the failure of my bread was that this is a disaster - it will be really disappointing for the followers of my blog (all three of them at the moment...) who were so looking forward to bread over the weekend. But, ironically given my passover entry, my bread did not leaven - and I reminded myself that my quest for bread is as much about the journey as the final result. Although, it would be nice to have some edible milestones during the journey, but all in time I suppose.

Stay tuned -- there will be bread on this blog soon. My bread titanic has only hardened my resolve. I sense greater success with French bread given the lower cultural distance.

Breaking Bread

One of my co-workers, Alex, correctly pointed out that the timing of my first stab at bread-making falls, somewhat ironically, on the Jewish holy day of passover (otherwise known as the "Feast of Unleavened Bread"). Thousands of years ago when the Temple in Jerusalem was standing, families were required to make a sacrifice of lamb or goat at the temple (the "Pesach sacrifice") and eat it that night. The sacrifice could not be offered with anything leavened (another word for fermenting or causing dough to rise) and would be eaten together with matzo (unleavened bread) [1]. Interesting. That said, as an Anglican I don't celebrate passover, and I tend to think of Anglicanism as 'religion without rules', which suits me fine given that my once a year trek to church on Christmas Eve probably wouldn't impress JC / God if I were a catholic. I guess I have Henry VIII to thank for freeing up my Sunday mornings for baking and for some fine HBO programming.

Update on Bread Attempt #1

It looks like the timing of my first boule will likely fall into tomorrow. I'm having a bit of trouble reviving my starter after a few days of refrigeration and a big reduction and feeding (1 part starter : 1 part flour : 1 part water) yesterday morning. I also went on a search for flour this morning after dropping my wife off at the library, and ended up on the bottom floor of the St. Lawrence Market where there's a small colony of bulk food stores. I was in the first store and found a bin of 'hard' whole wheat flour next to a bin of whole wheat flour. After my experience with spelt flour last weekend, I opted for the normal whole wheat flour and bought two bags. No big deal. Then I walked out of the store and saw that there was a specialty flour and grain store right next door. They had a number of bins labeled whole wheat flour and unbleached 'hard' whole wheat (bread) flour. After second guessing some of my earlier flour choices I picked up a large bag of unbleached 'hard' white bread flour.

A few hours and a wikipedia and Bread Baker's Apprentice stop later I learned that:

1) Hard flour, otherwise known as bread flour, is high in gluten content (12-14%) and has elastic toughness that holds its shape well once baked. Important fact. I've tried to adjust my starter by feeding it today with the unbleached hard white flour.

2) Unbleached flour has more of a brown tint caused by beta-carotine. Using bleached flour doesn't seem to impact the recipe, but the beta-carotine improves flavour and aroma. Given the choice, unbleached seems like the way to go.

So, my starter is now a mish-mash of whole wheat and unbleached hard white flour. Photo below:

We'll see what happens. I have a sneaking suspicion that I'm on-track to produce some kind of bread Frankenstein tomorrow. I may also be starting starter #3.

postscript - Remember to kill the lights for Earth Hour tonight at 8.30pm

Notes:

[1] Good wikipedia entries on passover and matza

No Soggy Sandwiches

I'm very picky about sandwiches, and was contemplating the qualities of a great sandwich the other day. The short list I came up with included:

i) Toasted bread - No soggy sandwiches here.

ii) Hearty meat - I have a preference for leftover chicken or turkey that, while not necessarily fresh, usually seems to taste better than most deli-style meats.

iii) Great sauces - I'm partial to mayonnaise or jam. Or both at the same time. [1]

Over time I've honed my pickiness into a club sandwich recipe that seems to channel my preferences into the unicorn of sandwiches (at least my unicorn -- there are no doubt many people who prefer soggy unicorns / sandwiches).

Rob's Club Sandwich

Ingredients [2]

2 slices of 12-grain bread

1/2 fresh vine-ripened tomato

freshly sliced roasted chicken or turkey

2 strips of bacon

small handful of mixed green salad

mayonnaise

raspberry jam

Directions (not that you need directions on sandwich construction)

1) Pre-cook the bacon in a pan (very important - raw bacon is markedly less tasty)

2) Pre-toast the bread (this minimizes sogginess)

3) Construct the sandwich layering bread (bottom slice) - chicken - bacon - tomatos - lettuce - bread (top slice) with mayonnaise and jam generously spread on the downward facing side of the top slice

4) Eat. Groan. Lick crumbs off of plate.

Starter update

After an uneventful initial 24 hours of stagnation, my starter sprung to life on day two. After three feedings it is looking wildly active. Picture below.

Unfortunately, I'm running low on flour and even lower on time to bake over the next few days, so I'm wrestling with strategies to keep the starter alive until the weekend. This is complicated slightly by the fact that I now have a lot of starter. Will likely need to reduce and re-feed. Perhaps refrigerate for the night as well. That said, with the starter now active, delicious bread seems only a few days away.

Notes:

[1] I've had a few comments about the jam/mayonnaise combination. It dates back a few years - I was on a British Airways flight from London to Munich when the stewardess rolled down the aisle with the lunch cart. I'm generally fine with airline food, but the lunches are not normally very good (other than Porter Airlines). However, on this flight the stewardess handed me a box that contained a roast turkey sandwich with tomatoes, lettuce, and cranberry sauce on multi-grain bread! A bit soggy, but the cranberry sauce otherwise made it. It turned me on to the concept of some kind of jam or cranberry sauce on a meat sandwich. As for the mayo, I just like it.

[2] For those in Toronto, the Healthy Butcher sells delicious pork strip bacon and freshly cut roasted turkey (including a sun-dried tomato version)

In Search of Yeast!

Yeast is not a popular topic amongst guys. A small minority of guys with deep knowledge of brewing get quite excited about all things yeast, but for most it tends to conjure up awkward silences and visions of a women's health area of the drugstore that they try and avoid.

But, from what I gather so far about baking (and I have not yet been much of a gatherer), yeast is really the star of the show. For those not knowledgeable about yeast (like me prior to my wikipedia visit earlier this week), they are micro-organisms - a type of funghi - that are used in various processes that require fermentation.

In baking bread, yeast is used as a leavening agent where the fermentation process converts sugars in dough into carbon dioxide and ethanol, creating gas pockets that heat up causing the dough to rise. Baking the dough interrupts the fermentation process mid-stream. When baked, the yeast in the dough dies, the ethanol evaporates, but the air pockets remain leaving your bread soft and spongy and preventing your bread from having the flat, thick density of a hockey puck.

Sounds simple, but fermentation is quite complex from what I understand, and requires a delicate balance of yeast, yeast nutrients, enzymes, temperature, and time. If you interrupt the fermentation process too early, the dough won't rise properly and the bread won't taste as delicious because the enzymes in the dough will have had less time to break down the complex starches into simple sugars (some of the sugars become feedstock for the yeast, but much of it is left to contribute to taste and quality / colour of the crust). If you leave the dough to ferment for too long, the yeast will consume too much of the sugar and start producing undesirable by-products creating an alcohol and ammonia-like aftertaste. Lower temperatures generally slow the fermentation process, while higher temperatures tend to speed it up. Different strains of yeast are also more or less amendable to different temperatures. So, it seems the art of breadmaking depends heavily on the ability of the baker to control time and temperature in order to choose the optimal time to interrupt the primary and secondary fermentation process (or so they say -- I guess I will find out). [1]

For my first foray into breadmaking, I'll be making a sourdough boule (aka round loaf). To start with, I'll need to develop some form of sourdough starter using wild yeast. The 'sour' taste in sourdough bread is created by bacteria that feeds on lactic and acetic acids, and since the bacteria takes ~2x as long to do its work as the yeast does to leaven the dough, we need a wild strain of yeast that is a bit more resilient and can endure the long fermentation process. Good sources of wild yeast seem to be purple cabbage, organic grapes, plums, and anything else that forms that white film on the outside.

So, yesterday, I went on a quest for yeast and ended up at the Essence of Life Organic Food Store in Toronto's Kensington Market and picked up a not too sad looking ball of organic red cabbage (and organic deodorant - my wife is now powerless to my earthy scent). They also had organic grapes, but cabbage won the yeast beauty contest this time.

After arriving home, I embarked on my bread making journey by starting my starter. I'm using the recipe from Michael Ruhlman's blog (as suggested by Laura).

Sourdough starter

(from Carrie Thurman's Two Sisters and a Bakery Blog via Michael Ruhlman)

8 oz. unbleached whole wheat flour (by weight)

8 oz. water (by weight)

2 leaves of red cabbage (not by weight)

From what I gather, you basically just mix it in a bowl and let it sit overnight before feeding again. Picture of my 5-minute old starter below: [2]

Much like a pet, I will need to feed my starter with equal parts flour and water every 12 hrs or so, and the recipe suggests I should have some working starter available to start making bread in 48 hours. So the countdown begins! Will keep you posted.

Notes:

[1] Much more detailed discussion of primary fermentation in The Bread Baker's Apprentice

[2] Without going into too much detail, this is actually attempt #2. My first attempt at starter yesterday (after arriving home from my yeast quest) was not a success. I had, for whatever reason, used whole spelt flour instead of wheat flour which I understand does not generate as good a rise and has starch with different water solubility characteristics, which throws off the water/flour formula. My 'spelt' starter was looking pretty terrible this morning, so I cut my losses and re-started with some whole wheat flour this evening. Still not sure what spelt is all about. When I bought it I'm sure I thought it was some high-end super-flour since it was in the baking section of the grocery store and had some mighty nice looking packaging, but boy was I wrong. It's for people who have trouble digesting wheat. You learn something new every day.