Pinch My Salt » BBA Challenge

Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge: Pain de Campagne

Nicole — Tue, 15 Jun 2010 09:50:52 +0000

With this bread complete, I’ve officially passed the halfway mark in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge. I’ve now baked the first 22 of the 43 breads in the book and I’m fairly confident that I will make it through the second half by the end of this year. I really can’t believe it’s been over a year since we first started the challenge. It’s taken me longer than I had anticipated, but even if I haven’t always been able to keep up, it’s been very rewarding to see all my new baking friends plow their way through the book. Several people have already completed the challenge, and there are new people starting from the beginning all the time. Congratulations to Oggi for being the first person to complete all 43 breads! You can read her last post and see her top 10 favorite breads at I Can Do That.

Although I hadn’t originally planned on photographing and writing about every single bread, I’m really glad I decided to do it this way. I now have a list of all the breads I’ve completed so far and whenever I want to bake a bread from the book, I can go back to see photos of what I did the first time as well as read about any difficulties I might have had. It will also be a great resource for anyone who owns the book, as the entire recipe list will eventually be linked to my blog posts (which in turn link to several other people who have made the same bread). Wouldn’t it be great if every cookbook had such a resource?

So the bread this week is Pain de Campagne. It’s a French bread and the dough is similar to the Baguette dough we’ve already seen, but it includes a small amount of whole grain flour. I used whole wheat since that’s what I had on hand, but whole rye flour is another option. The great thing about this bread is that we are given many new shaping options for the bread, so I was able to try some new techniques.

As with the regular French Bread dough, this formula starts with a batch of pâte fermentée. The pâte fermentée, or old dough, is just a small batch of dough that is started the night before and left to ferment overnight in the refrigerator. The old dough is then chopped up and added to the new dough ingredients the next morning, or whenever you get around to starting your bread.

I made 16 ounces of pâte fermentée the night before I wanted to bake the bread. I chopped it up into ten pieces and let the pieces sit at room temperature for an hour to remove the chill.

As usual, I measured the flour for the new batch of dough using a scale, rather than measuring cups. While I still do use measuring cups for recipes that don’t include weight measurements, I turn to my scale more and more for baking bread. It’s so much easier, faster, and more accurate to weigh your ingredients!

I combined the flours, yeast, salt, and warm water in the bowl of my stand mixer and added the pieces of pâte fermentée.

I mixed the dough using the paddle attachment until it was well combined, then switched to the dough hook and kneaded the dough for about 6 minutes on medium speed.

To check if the dough had been kneaded enough, I performed the windowpane test. This dough passed with flying colors!

The kneaded dough was soft and pliable, tacky but not sticky. I rounded it into a ball to prepare it for bulk fermentation – the first rising period for the dough.

I placed the ball into my oiled container, pressed it down to flatten it, and noted the level of the dough. The book says to let it ferment for two hours, or until it doubles in size. It also says that if it doubles in size much faster than expected, you should degas it and let it rise again until doubled from original size. Well, I set the timer for two hours and then went off and forgot about checking on the dough until the timer went off.

It more than doubled! I didn’t want to punch it down and wait to let it rise again, so I just moved forward.

As gently as I could, I pulled the dough out of the rising container and placed it on the floured counter. The goal is to keep as much of the trapped bubbles in the dough as possible.

This amount of dough was enough to make three loaves, so I divided the dough into three pieces using my bench scraper.

The first loaf I shaped is called a fendu, or split bread. First I shaped a basic bâtard, which is like a short baguette. Next I sprinkled flour over the top, and using the handle of a long wooden spoon, I made an indentation down the center of the bread that pressed almost all the way through. More flour was then sprinkled in the indentation and I creased it again to widen the crack a bit. Finally the loaf was turned over and allowed to proof upside down.

For the second loaf I decided to make a couronne, or crown. First, I shaped a basic boule, or round loaf. Then I poked my finger through the center, as if I were shaping a bagel.

I stretched the dough gently into a circle and placed it back on the floured counter.

After sprinkling the dough with flour, I used the handle of the wooden spoon to make creases all around, forming a square within the circle of dough. I then sprinkled more flour into the cracks and set it aside with the fendu loaf for proofing.

This is what the two loaves looked like right before going into the oven. I decided to bake them on parchment because it’s easier for me to slide a piece of parchment onto a baking stone than it is to slide the individual loaves by themselves.

The loaves turned out beautifully, but the indentations in the couronne didn’t really stay indented so it turned out looking like a giant bagel.

The bread had a wonderful flavor and texture, and I found the dough really easy to work with. I definitely enjoyed this bread and will probably make it again so I can experiment with even more shapes.

If you’re following along in the challenge, the formula can be found on page 195 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The next bread I’ll be baking is Pane Siciliano and I can’t wait to see if it tastes like any of the bread I remember eating in Sicily!

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun! First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book. Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread, which is the first bread formula in the book. You may also visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group.

If you haven’t already, you might want to bookmark the BBA Challenge Page. From there you can see which breads are coming up soon, find answers to Frequently Asked Questions, visit and/or add yourself to our World Map, see the BBA Challenge Blogroll, and check out the continually updated slideshow of BBA Bread photos from our ever-expanding group of bakers!

Pain de Campagne from other BBA Bakers:

Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge: Pain à l’Ancienne

Nicole — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 10:00:02 +0000

This seems to be one of the most talked about breads from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and I’ve been looking forward to giving it a try since first starting the challenge. While I’ve read plenty of rave reviews of this bread over the years, I was attracted to pain à l’ancienne for a couple of other reasons. First, the photo of rustic-looking baguettes in the book is beautiful and I’ve always wanted to make bread that looks like that. But I was also very intrigued by the method.

Peter Reinhart teaches us about the delayed-fermentation method with this bread, manipulating temperature to delay the activation of the yeast, which in turn allows more sugar to be released from the starch. This results in a bread with more flavor and a crust with more color, without the addition of extra ingredients. According to Peter Reinhart, the delayed-fermentation method evoked a fullness of flavor from the wheat beyond any other fermentation method he had encountered up to the point of publishing this book, in 2001.

Have I confused you yet? It turns out that once you get past all the scientific explanations, this is one of the easiest breads in the book to make. When I say that we manipulate temperature in this bread formula, it just means that we start with ice cold water instead of warm or room temperature water like most of the previous breads in the book. Keeping the dough cold and fermenting it in the refrigerator is what delays the activation of the yeast.

The day before you want to bake the bread, mix up a simple dough of bread flour, salt, instant yeast, and ice cold water. It’s a wet dough, similar to ciabatta, so it’s easiest to mix and knead it in a stand mixer. Once the dough is mixed and kneaded, transfer it to an oiled container, mist the top with spray oil, cover it, and immediately place it in the refrigerator.

The dough might rise a bit in the refrigerator overnight, but won’t come anywhere close to doubling in size if you started with cold enough water. The above photo shows my dough as soon as I took it out of the refrigerator in the morning. The black line on the pitcher indicates the dough level from the night before. After removing it from the fridge, let the dough sit out at room temperature where it will gradually warm up, wake up, and start to rise. Allow it to double in size.

My dough took about 5 hours to double from its original size, but my kitchen wasn’t very warm that morning.

As soon as it has doubled, liberally sprinkle the counter with flour then gently remove the dough from the proofing container. You want to deflate the dough as little as possible when you’re dumping it onto the counter. The dough will probably be very wet, so dust it and your hands with flour.

Gently stretch the dough into an oblong, about eight inches long and six inches wide, making sure to keep flour under the dough so it doesn’t stick to the counter.

Using a bench scraper that has been dipped in water, divide the dough width-wise. The water prevents the blade from sticking to the dough. Continue dipping in water between cuts until you have completely divided the dough. Let the pieces rest for 5 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat the oven with a baking stone and steam pan inside.

Next, using the same cutting method, divide one half of the dough into three equal pieces. Repeat with the other half. You should end up with six short lengths of dough.

Cover the backsides of two half sheet pans with parchment paper. Sprinkle the parchment with semolina flour or cornmeal. Now flour your hands and gently stretch each piece of dough to the length of the sheet pan.

Each pan will hold three strips. Although it wasn’t specified in the book, I dusted the loaves lightly with flour after stretching them, mainly for decoration. Unlike most of the breads we’ve done so far, these loaves don’t have to proof before baking. Mine sat for a while because the oven wasn’t quite ready, but not long enough to double in size. They are ready to go as soon as your oven is ready.

Right before baking, they can be scored. Because this is such a wet dough, slashing the tops of the loaves can be a bit tricky. I used a very sharp serrated bread knife instead of a razor and I tried to score them as if for a baguette. They weren’t perfect, but I wasn’t worried about it since these loaves are supposed to have a very rustic look.

As soon as they are scored, it’s time to bake. You can either slide the loaves, parchment and all, directly onto the baking stone or bake them on the sheet pan. I chose to bake the loaves directly on the stone. You can only bake three loaves at once, so just let the others ones wait their turn. Or, you can spray them with oil, cover with plastic, and refrigerate them for up to a day before baking.

The delayed-fermentation method seemed to have worked because the pain à l’ancienne baguettes did have more color than the French baguettes. The bread also had good flavor. It was quite delicious, actually. I must say that I prefer the flavor of the French bread to this one, but this was so easy, I’ll probably make it more often. However, I’ll definitely be revisiting both breads in the future.

If you’re following along in the challenge, the formula can be found on page 191 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The next bread I’ll be baking is Pain de Campagne, a French bread with a country-style crust. I’m looking forward to Pain de Campagne because I’ll be trying out some new shaping techniques!

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

Pain à l’Ancienne from other BBA Bakers:

Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge: Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire

Nicole — Mon, 31 May 2010 10:00:36 +0000

Continuing on with the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, I have reached the 20th bread in the book – Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire. The name makes me laugh, but this bread truly is extraordinary. It has a moist and chewy crumb that will stand up to just about any sandwich filling you can dream up, but it’s by no means dense or heavy. And it makes some of the best toast I’ve ever had.

This one is a two-day process because the grains need to be soaked overnight, but the bread is quite simple to make and it’s definitely one of my favorites so far. My only regret is that I didn’t make a double batch.

As you might have guessed, the formula includes multiple grains. The bowl pictured above contains coarse cornmeal, rolled oats, and wheat bran mixed with just enough water to moisten it all. These grains were soaked overnight to activate enzymes and break out the natural sugars. All that science stuff is still a bit over my head, but the soaker method always seems to work great. You may also use other types of grains – millet, quinoa, amaranth, wheat, buckwheat, and triticale flakes were all listed as options. I used what I had on hand.

After soaking the grains, it’s time to make the dough. First, stir together the dry ingredients: bread flour, brown sugar, salt, and instant yeast.

Next, combine the wet ingredients in a separate bowl: buttermilk, water, honey, and a few tablespoons of cooked brown rice.

The wet ingredients are then added to the dry ingredients and everything gets mixed together. As usual, I relied on my trusty KitchenAid mixer, but this step can easily be done with a wooden spoon.

Mix on low speed until everything is combined and the dough forms a ball. My dough was obviously a little too wet, so it didn’t form a ball. But remember, if it’s too wet, just add flour a little at a time until the dough feels right. And if the dough feels too dry and there is still loose flour left in the bottom of the bowl, add a few drops of water.

Once the ingredients have been mixed together, it’s time to knead. If you’re using a stand mixer, switch to the dough hook. If kneading by hand, dump the dough out onto a floured surface and get to work!

I kneaded the dough in the mixer for about 8 minutes. Mr. Reinhart suggests that you finish the last couple of minutes kneading by hand, so I purposely left the dough a bit wet knowing I would be kneading in extra flour by hand.

I dumped the sticky ball of dough out onto my floured counter and dusted my hands with flour.

I kneaded it for about two extra minutes, until the dough was smooth and shiny, tacky but no longer sticky. At this point, you can check for gluten development using the windowpane test. I forgot to do it this time.

Next, I placed the ball of dough into a greased container. I used to let the dough rise in a regular bowl, but I recently bought this big clear pitcher with markings on the side that allow me to more accurately judge when the dough has doubled in size. Check your local restaurant supply store – they have all kinds of fun toys like this.

I didn’t realize how cool it was in my kitchen when I left the dough on the counter to rise. Mine took about 2 1/2 hours to double in size, but if you let it rise in a warm place it should double within 90 minutes.

After it doubled, I took the dough out of the rising container and patted it out into a rectangle about 6 inches wide and 10 inches long. I gently pressed out all the big bubbles because this is a sandwich loaf and I didn’t want to end up with holes in it.

To form a loaf, start with a short end and roll the dough up into a cylinder.

Because my cylinder always ends up too long for the pan, I usually fold the ends up and pinch the dough together to seal it. Seal the seam along the top of the loaf, also.

Flip the loaf over so the seam is on the bottom. The loaf should be about the same size as the pan you’re using – this one is a 9″x5″ loaf pan.

Place the loaf into the pan, seam-side down. I like to gently press it into the pan, so it fills the space evenly. According to the book, you should mist the loaf with water at this point and sprinkle on poppy seeds, but I completely missed that part. Oooops!

Instead, I misted it with spray oil, covered it with plastic wrap and let it rise for another 90 minutes until the loaf had crested the pan by a little over an inch. This is when I noticed the part in the book about the poppy seeds!

I went ahead and misted the fully-proofed loaf with water and sprinkled it with poppy seeds. The problem was that I had misted it with spray oil earlier – I probably should have used an egg wash instead of water to glue the seeds to the loaf.

The loaf took about 45 minutes to bake and emerged from the pan a beautiful golden color. As I suspected, the poppy seeds were rolling off left and right!

After allowing it cool completely (always the hardest part), I sliced it and saw that the inside looked even better than the outside. I ate the first slice with softened butter and it was absolutely delicious. The crumb is moist and chewy, the flavor complex and slightly sweet. It’s a great sandwich bread and also toasts beautifully. It was a wonderful complement to my homemade strawberry jam this morning at breakfast.

If you’re following along in the challenge, the formula can be found on page 187 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The next bread I’ll be baking is Pain à l’Ancienne and I’m hoping to make some beautiful rustic baguettes similar to those pictured in the book. I’ve been excited about this one since the beginning of the challenge!

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire from other BBA Bakers

Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge: Marbled Rye

Nicole — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 23:28:49 +0000

It’s taking longer than I anticipated, but I’m still plugging away at The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge and enjoying every minute of it. With the completion of this gorgeous Marbled Rye, I’ve mixed, kneaded, shaped, photographed, tasted, and shared the first 19 breads in the book.

Each successful loaf feels like a huge accomplishment, but this one in particular was special to me because it was the first time that I’ve attempted baking rye bread. I wasn’t sure what to expect, because before this I had never even tasted marbled rye, but I was blown away by this bread. The flavor and texture were wonderful and I fell in love with the striking appearance of the loaves.

The beautiful swirl in the marbled rye is created by making two bread doughs, one dark and one light, and rolling them together into a loaf. It’s not really any more difficult but it is more time consuming than making plain sandwich loaves. Because of this, I graciously accepted the help of my Kitchen Aid stand mixer to speed up the process of mixing and kneading two separate bread doughs.

First I assembled the dry ingredients for the two doughs in separate bowls. The ingredients for each are almost identical with only a couple of differences. One dough includes a flavorless caramel coloring to make it darker. I also added the optional caraway seeds to the dark dough only, although the book suggests adding caraway to both the dark and light doughs.

Next, I mixed the light dough ingredients with the paddle attachment of my mixer. Whether you choose to mix by hand or machine, stir the ingredients together until a ball of dough forms and all the loose flour has been incorporated. In the process you may need to add a dribble or two of water to make this happen. Next, use the dough hook on the mixer or turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 4 to 6 minutes, or until smooth.

The kneaded dough should feel supple and pliable, slightly tacky but not sticky. (To learn the difference between tacky and sticky bread dough, check out this great example at Yumarama Bread Blog.) After the dough has been kneaded enough, place it in a greased bowl, roll it to coat all sides with oil, and cover with plastic wrap.

Repeat the entire process with the dark dough then let both ferment at room temperature for about 90 minutes or until the doughs have doubled in size.

Now it’s time for shaping.

To shape the loaves, the first step is to divide each dough into four equal pieces. The easiest way to ensure your pieces are the same size is to use a kitchen scale. I first weighed the intact piece of dough then divided the weight by four to figure out how much each small piece should weigh. If you don’t have a scale, just divide the dough as evenly as possible. You want to end up with four dark pieces and four light pieces.

Next, each small piece of dough is rolled into an oblong about 5 inches wide by 8 inches long. They don’t have to be perfect, but try to roll each one as close to the same size as you can.

To create a loaf, stack four pieces of dough, alternating the light and dark colors.

Starting at a long end, roll the stack up into an oblong loaf, or bâtard.

Pinch the seam together at the top (the seam side will become the bottom of the loaf).

Repeat the stacking and rolling to form the second loaf then place the loaves into loaf pans. If you prefer free-form loaves they can be placed directly on parchment-lined baking sheets. Allow the loaves to proof at room temperature for another 60-90 minutes or until they have almost doubled in size.

Although not required, I chose to slash the tops of the loaves once they had finished proofing. It was mainly for decorative purposes, but I also wanted to practice my slashing technique since I’m still a bit timid with a razor blade.

The loaves were baked at 350 degrees for about 45 minutes. They had tons of oven spring – so much, in fact, that both loaves split open a bit on the sides.

Despite the blowouts, they were absolutely beautiful and I was thrilled that the slashes on top opened up to show the different colors inside the loaves.

I’d have to say that the most rewarding part of this entire experience was slicing open the loaves to see the beautiful swirl inside…

But this Reuben Sandwich with homemade thousand island dressing was a close second.

If you’re following along in the challenge, the formula can be found on page 184 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The next bread is Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire – hopefully the bread will live up to its fancy name!

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

Marbled Rye Bread from other BBA Bakers:

Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge: Light Wheat Bread

Nicole — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 22:28:36 +0000

This soft, light sandwich loaf is the 18th bread I’ve baked for The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge. Yes, I’m slowly but surely plowing through the book, and although there are still 28 breads ahead of me, I am confident I will finish the book…eventually!

Mr. Reinhart’s Light Wheat Bread was definitely a crowd pleaser – easy to make, easy to eat, and not too bad to look at, either. The proud loaf that came out of my oven puts store-bought sandwich bread to shame and the simple formula is perfect for beginning bread bakers.

Although I have many fond memories of my mom’s homemade whole wheat bread, the truth is that I grew up, as many Americans did, eating sack lunches filled with peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on store-bought sandwich bread. And while I do bake a lot of bread, I still find myself grabbing loaves of whole wheat bread off the supermarket shelf for sandwiches. I hate doing that. Store-bought breads can’t hold a candle to homemade, and most of them are so filled with additives and preservatives they can hardly be classified as bread. So I am really trying to get in the habit of baking sandwich loaves on a regular basis again. With a little planning, and some extra freezer space, it should be manageable.

I know I won’t convince all of you that it’s feasible to bake your own sandwich breads every week. But I do believe that every one of you should try baking your own bread at least once. It’s not difficult. Yes, it does take time, but most of that time is hands-off, allowing you to do other things around the house – watch a movie, do laundry, spend time with your family, or just lounge around in your pajamas (I’m a big fan of baking bread in my pajamas). Do you ever spend an afternoon at home on the weekend? I bet you can fit some bread baking in there and even have fun doing it.

So let me tell you a little bit about this light wheat bread. It’s called “light” because whole wheat flour only accounts for about a third of the total flour in the recipe – the rest is unbleached bread flour. While it’s not even close to 100% whole wheat bread, it’s heartier and more flavorful than a white sandwich loaf. The ingredients are simple: bread flour, whole wheat flour, honey, salt, powdered milk, yeast, butter and water… and the dough is easy to mix and knead by hand. The dough was a pleasure to work with, and as you can see from the photos, it rose like a champ. The formula produces only one loaf, but next time I’ll probably double it. Sandwich bread freezes beautifully so it’s always nice to have an extra loaf to pop in the freezer.

Although I don’t reprint the recipes from Mr. Reinhart’s book, Deb at Smitten Kitchen wrote about this bread last year, including the recipe. If you’re a beginning baker this bread is a great place to start, and I encourage you to give it a try yourself.

If you’re following along in the challenge, the recipe can be found on page 181 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The next bread is Marbled Rye, which will be the first rye bread I’ve ever made. Exciting!

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

Light Wheat Bread from other BBA Bakers:

Two Skinny Jenkins
Italian Food Forever
I Can Do That
Texas Farmer’s Hot Stove
The Other Side of Fifty
Of Cabbages and King Cakes
The Yumarama Bread Blog
Bewitching Kitchen
3Sheik
Salt and Serenity
Round the Table
Susie’s Home and Hobbies
Goth Panda
Ährelich Gesagt
Pete Eatemall
Gourmet Hotdish and Other Culinary Disasters
Fake Ginger
In Good Taste
A Tiger in the Kitchen
Eating is the Hard Part
Bread Experience
Make My Day

Please enjoy this slideshow of Light Wheat Bread photos from members of the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge Flickr Group:

Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge: Lavash Crackers

Nicole — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 23:58:13 +0000

Flatbread is the star of this week’s Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge post, and these lavash crackers were fun and easy to make, beautiful to look at, and absolutely delicious. I have tasted the soft version of lavash before, but was completely unfamiliar with crackers like these. The dough is very similar to pita dough, but it is rolled thinner and baked longer than pita. The crackers can be left plain or adorned with salt, seeds and/or spices – I chose to use everything. While not quite as crisp as traditional American crackers, the flavor was outstanding and they would make a perfect accompaniment to your favorite dip or spread.

I decided to give my stand mixer a rest and mixed and kneaded the dough by hand for a change. I first mixed flour, salt, yeast, honey, oil and water with a wooden spoon until a ball of dough formed.

Then I transferred the shaggy mass of dough to a floured board and kneaded it for about ten minutes.

The dough was rather firm and took a bit of elbow grease to knead. But as you can see, it was nice and smooth after ten minutes.

It mostly passed the windowpane test. If you look closely you can see that it’s tearing in spots in the middle, but it was good enough for me.

Although I sometimes forget (or just decide to skip it), I did remember to check the dough temperature this time. It was a couple degrees cooler than it should have been, so I knew the dough would take longer to rise and planned accordingly.

I placed the ball of dough in a greased bowl and turned it once to coat both sides with oil. Then I covered it and let it ferment at room temperature. The book recommends a 90 minute fermentation, or until doubles in size. I planned on at least two hours since the dough was cool and the room wasn’t very warm.

After two hours, the dough didn’t quite look doubled, but I poked it with my fingers and it didn’t fill back in and I took that as a sign that I could move on.

Now we get to the fun part! I love rolling out dough, even when it’s a bit stubborn. I had to let the dough relax a few times before it finally submitted.

I eventually got it rolled out into a big, thin sheet. Now it needed to be transferred to a baking sheet and I was a little nervous about how that would work!

But the task wasn’t as daunting as it seemed, although the dough did shrink up and thicken a bit. I trimmed off the excess so that it fit in the baking sheet perfectly.

My favorite part was decorating the sheet of cracker dough. I used plain sesame seeds, toasted sesame seeds, nigella seeds, paprika, hot smoked paprika, cumin seeds, poppy seeds and kosher salt. I thought the stripes looked really cool!

Finally, I cut the crackers diagonally into long strips before putting the in the oven and baking until crisp.

After the crackers cooled, I broke the long strips by hand into even smaller pieces. They were beautiful and tasted great!

The dough for lavash crackers can also be used for regular pita bread. I make pita bread at home fairly often, and I think I will use this dough next time I do. The crackers had such a wonderful flavor, I can’t wait to see how the pita turns out!

Are you ready to give lavash crackers a try? The recipe can be found on page 178 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The next bread in the challenge is Light Wheat Bread, and I’m really looking forward to having some homemade sandwich bread in the house again!

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

Lavash Crackers from other BBA Bakers:

Please enjoy this slideshow of Lavash Cracker photos from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge Flickr Group.

Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge: Kaiser Rolls

Nicole — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 18:25:19 +0000

We’re back to the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge! Today I’m sharing my experience with the 16th bread in the challenge: Kaiser Rolls. I enjoyed these rolls so much I’ve made them twice already! Like many of the breads in the book, these rolls do take two days to make, but they aren’t difficult and I found that they were both easy and a lot of fun to shape.

Kaiser rolls, also called New York hard rolls or Vienna rolls, are known for the distinctive star pattern on the top of the roll. The traditional method for achieving the classic kaiser roll shape requires a series of overlapping folds that intimidates me quite a bit. Luckily, the book offers a couple of other options for creating beautiful kaiser rolls.

The first of the easier shaping options is to use a special kaiser cutting tool that stamps a star pattern right into the top of the shaped rolls before they are proofed. While this method appears to be the easiest, it requires the purchase of the specialized tool and quite frankly seems a bit boring. The other option is to make a knotted roll. The knot method appeals to me because it looks easier than the folding method, but is more hands-on than the stamping method.

Most commercial bakeries make these rolls using the faster direct-dough method, but Mr. Reinhart’s version uses a pre-ferment to improve the flavor, texture, and color. The pâte fermentée, or old dough, is mixed up on day one and allowed to ferment slowly and develop flavor in the refrigerator overnight (or longer).

The following morning, or whenever you are ready to make the rolls, the old dough is taken from the fridge, chopped into pieces, and mixed into the new dough.

The dough ingredients should be quite familiar at this point in the challenge: bread flour, salt, diastatic malt powder (or barley malt syrup), instant yeast, egg, oil, and water.

The ingredients can be stirred together by hand (I like to use a wooden spoon or dough whisk), or with the paddle attachment of a stand mixer. They should be mixed until the ingredients form a ball and there is no loose flour in the bottom of the bowl – a bit of extra water can be added if needed.

As I decided to knead the dough in the stand mixer, I switched to the dough hook once all the ingredients were well mixed. I might have accidentally added a bit too much water at the beginning because my dough was fairly wet and sticky, but I never mind starting with a sticky dough. It’s easier to knead extra flour into a dough if it’s too wet than to add extra water if the dough is too stiff.

I kneaded the dough for about 7 minutes, adding small amounts of flour until the dough seemed right – soft and supple, tacky but not sticky. I checked the gluten development using the windowpane test, and it looked great.

I placed the kneaded ball of dough into an oiled bowl, turning it once to coat both sides with oil in order to prevent the dough from drying out during the bulk fermentation stage.

According to the book, the dough temperature after kneading should be between 77 and 81 degrees F. It was close, but a little on the cool side. My house was also fairly cool, so I knew there was a possibility that the two hour fermentation time might need to be extended a bit if the dough hadn’t doubled in that time.

However, the dough appeared to have doubled after two hours, so I continued to the dividing and shaping phase.

The dough can be divided into 6 pieces for larger rolls, or 9 pieces for smaller rolls. I decided to divide it into 8 pieces – it just seemed easier to divide the pieces into an even number. I used my scale to make sure they were all close to the same weight so the rolls would be uniform in size.

As the dough was divided and measured, I pre-shaped the pieces into rounds and let them rest for ten minutes. The resting period is important because it lets the gluten relax, allowing for easier stretching and shaping.

Next it was time to shape the rolls into knots. Using my hands, I rolled a ball of dough into a rope.

I tied the rope into a simple knot, leaving a bit of length at each end. As you can see, the rope shrunk as I tied the knot. Luckily, the dough is elastic and it was easy enough to stretch it and complete the shaping. To finish the knot, I pulled the right end of the rope up and over, and tucked it into the center. Next, I took the left end of the rope and pulled it down and under, pushing it through the bottom of the knot and up into the center.

It’s hard to show the process using photos, but this is what a knotted kaiser roll will look like. The little nub in the center is from the left strand that was wrapped under and pushed up through the center of the knot. Some of mine ended up with the little nub in the center, some didn’t. The process was simple to learn using the photos and instructions in the book, and once I completed the first one, I breezed through the rest without any problems.

The shaped rolls were placed on a baking sheet, covered with plastic and allowed to proof at room temperature for about an hour and 15 minutes.

They were supposed to double in size, but I’m not sure if mine quite made it. I was tired of waiting and my oven was pre-heated and ready to go, so I decided to bake them anyway.

Right before placing the tray in the oven, I sprayed the rolls lightly with water and sprinkled seeds on top. The first time I made the rolls, I used only poppy seeds, but this time I topped some with poppy seeds, some with sesame seeds, and a few with both.

The rolls were baked for about 25 minutes, until the internal temperature reached 200 degrees. The crusts were thin and crisp, and the insides were soft – perfect for a sandwich roll!

We used the kaiser rolls for these delicious pulled pork sandwiches made by my friend Amanda. If you’d like the recipe, head over to What We’re Eating – you won’t be disappointed!

Are you ready to give homemade Kaiser Rolls a try? The recipe can be found on page 175 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The next bread in the challenge is Lavash Crackers…something a little different!

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

Kaiser Rolls from other BBA Members:

Kaiser Rolls from Two Skinny Jenkins
Kaiser Rolls from Italian Food Forever
Kaiser Rolls from The Other Side of Fifty
Kaiser Rolls from My Hawaiian Home
Kaiser Rolls from I Can Do That
Kaiser Rolls from Bewitching Kitchen
Kaiser Rolls from The Yumarama Artisan Bread Blog
Kaiser Rolls from Something Shiny
Kaiser Rolls from Texas Farmer’s Hot Stove
Kaiser Rolls from 3Sheik
Kaiser Rolls from Salt and Serenity
Kaiser Rolls from Butter ‘n Thyme
Kaiser Rolls from Goth Panda
Kaiser Rolls from Round The Table
Kaiser Rolls from Gourmet Hotdish and Other Culinary Disasters

Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge: Italian Bread

Nicole — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:09:36 +0000

The new year is about to begin and I’m determined to get back on track with The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge! I’ve fallen way behind many of my fellow BBA bakers, but the great thing about this challenge is that we each set our own pace, and even though I’ve fallen behind, I can pick right back up where I left off and continue working toward the goal of finishing all the breads in the book. And since I am behind several of the others, there are plenty of people I can turn to for help or advice!

Today, I’m writing about the 15th bread in the challenge: Italian Bread. I actually baked and photographed this bread months ago, so bear with me as I try to remember the details of the process – luckily I took lots of photos. One thing I do remember is the wonderful flavor of this bread. I gave a loaf to my friend Caron for her birthday, and she shared a buttered slice of the still-warm bread with me in her kitchen. There’s nothing like sharing bread and butter with a friend!

Peter Reinhart’s Italian Bread is soft and delicious with a thin crisp crust that softens slightly as the bread cools. It is wonderful sliced and served with butter, but I think that this bread really shines as a sandwich loaf. I will definitely be making the Italian Bread again, but next time will form the dough into smaller torpedo rolls for meatball sandwiches.

Just like the French Bread, this formula employs a pre-ferment to extract maximum flavor from the simple ingredients. For the French Bread, the pre-ferment was pâte fermentée, but the Italian version is biga. The biga is made the day before you want to bake the bread (or up to 3 days earlier). It’s a simple mixture of flour, a bit of instant yeast, and water. The biga forms a dough similar in consistency to what the final dough will be. It’s kneaded, allowed to ferment at room temperature for a few hours, then placed in the refrigerator overnight.

The following day, you will remove the biga from the refrigerator cut it into small pieces one hour before starting the Italian Bread, so that it can come up to room temperature. The pieces are then mixed with some flour, salt, sugar, yeast and malt powder.

Next you add the liquid ingredients: olive oil and water. The instructions are to mix all of the ingredients, adjusting with extra flour or water as needed to achieve a dough that is slightly sticky and soft, but not too sticky. This is where you just have to reach in and feel the dough, and use your best judgment!

The instructions are to mix all of the ingredients, adjusting with extra flour or water as needed to achieve a dough that is slightly sticky and soft, but not too sticky. This is where you just have to reach in and feel the dough, and use your best judgment!

The first time I felt the dough, it seemed too dry and tough. I decided to add a tiny bit more water.

But this dough seemed way too sticky and soft. Solution? Add a bit more flour!

I finally ended up with a dough that seemed to fit the Mr. Reinhart’s description, so I switched to the dough hook and kneaded it until it was slightly tacky and supple.

To check if it had been kneaded enough, I used the windowpane test (which is rather hard to photograph alone, by the way). It passed with flying colors, so it was ready to ferment.

I placed the ball of dough in an oiled bowl, turning it once to cover, then let it ferment at room temperature (covered) for close to 2 hours.

As you can see, the dough definitely doubled in size!

Next, I dumped it out onto a lightly floured surface, to divide and shape the dough into loaves.

Normally, I use a scale to weigh the pieces, ensuring that I end up with loaves of equal size. Apparently, I was feeling lazy this day. And as you can see, the dough isn’t exactly evenly divided. Oh well.

Following the instructions and photos in the book, I gently shaped the pieces into bâtards (torpedoes). It’s important to be gentle with the dough during the shaping process, as you don’t want to degas the dough too much.

Next, I transferred the loaves to a sheet of parchment on my peel. I’ve had pretty good luck using parchment instead of cornmeal or semolina. It’s less messy, and the parchment slides right off the peel onto the baking stone. The problem I did have, was placing the loaves too close together. I just wasn’t paying attention.

As you can see, the loaves are already touching, after proofing for an hour. But I knew if I tried to move them at this point, I was going to have problems. I decided to just let them bake together.

The final step before baking, is scoring the tops of the loaves with a knife or razor blade. I used a razor blade. The loaves were baked in a preheated 500 degree oven that had been prepared for hearth baking. This means that a baking stone and an empty pan were placed in the oven before preheating. When the oven is heated, the loaves are placed directly on the stone, hot water is poured in the hot pan, and the oven door is closed immediately. The steam from the water and the direct heat from the baking stone help promote oven spring and a crisp crust.

As you can see, the loaves were beautiful despite the fact that I let them proof and bake too close together. This really was some wonderful tasting bread, and I’m so happy to finally share it with you. I also want to send out a big hug and thank you to the lovely Janice of Round The Table, who sent me part of her stash of diastatic barley malt powder, an ingredient I was lacking for this bread and the next one coming up.

Are you ready to give homemade Italian Bread a try? The recipe can be found on page 172 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The next bread in the challenge is Kaiser Rolls, and they are both fun to make and delicious! I’ve made them once before, but plan on making some more (and taking photos) for our New Year’s Day football gathering.

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun! First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book. Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread, which is the first recipe in the book. But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

Italian Bread from other BBA Challenge Members:

Italian Bread from Goth Panda
Italian Bread from Round the Table
Italian Bread from Pete Eatemall
Italian Bread from The Yumarama Artisan Bread Blog
Italian Bread from Of Cabbages and King Cakes
Italian Bread from Joelen’s Culinary Adventures
Italian Bread from Two Skinny Jenkins
Italian Bread from Susie’s Home and Hobbies
Italian Bread from The Other Side of 50
Italian Bread from Italian Food Forever

Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge: French Bread

Nicole — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 18:19:43 +0000

So it turns out that I have fallen a bit behind on The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge. Life doesn’t always cooperate with bread baking and blogging, and that’s the reason I’ve encouraged everyone to bake at their own pace and take breaks as needed. Well my break is now over, my husband is home from Iraq, and I’m ready to jump back in and share some bread with you!

Bread #14 in the book is French Bread. After the huge success of the focaccia, I was a little worried that my baguettes would disappoint. I’ve never made a basic French bread, and it’s so easy to pick up great-tasting baguettes from our local bakeries, I wasn’t sure it would be worth the effort. But, as usual, Peter Reinhart proved me wrong. This bread wasn’t that difficult, and it had an amazing flavor!

This French Bread formula uses a large amount of pâte fermentée, or pre-fermented dough. As we’ve learned from earlier breads in this challenge, the extra step of using a pre-ferment really doesn’t take much effort, but makes a huge difference in the final outcome. It only takes a few extra minutes of hands-on time, and you’ll be amazed at the wonderful flavor that develops. You simply mix up some flour, yeast, and water a day or two ahead of time, and let it hang out in the refrigerator.

For the pâte fermentée, I blended bread flour, all-purpose flour, salt, yeast, and water. I kneaded it like any other bread dough, let it ferment at room temperature for an hour, and then stuck it in the fridge overnight. The next day, I let the pâte fermentée come to room temperature before using it in my French Bread dough.

When using a pâte fermentée or biga (the Italian equivalent), the pre-ferment must be chopped up into pieces so that it can be mixed more easily into the final dough. I simply dumped it out onto a floured surface and cut it into pieces with my bench scraper.

Next, I combined more flour, salt, and yeast with the pieces of pâte fermentée in a mixing bowl.

Water was then added and the dough was mixed with the paddle attachment in my stand mixer until everything came together and a coarse ball was formed.

I then switched to the dough hook and kneaded the French Bread dough until it was soft, pliable and tacky. I had to add small amounts of flour as I was kneading in order to achieve that state. I also ended up kneading it longer than the book suggested in order for the dough to pass the windowpane test. Because of the extra kneading, my dough temperature was higher than it should have been. The book says the dough temperature should be between 77 and 81 degrees F, but mine registered at 85 degrees F. Ooooops.

Next, I placed my slightly warm ball of dough into a greased bowl, turned it to coat both sides with oil, and let it ferment at room temperature. I knew that the dough was going to rise faster than I wanted, but the book specifies that if this happens, you can degas the dough and let it rise a second time.

Sure enough, my dough doubled in record time!

So I kneaded it gently and then placed it back in the bowl. Just for fun, I checked the temperature again. It had dropped and was now within the range it should have been originally.

I let the dough ferment for about another hour, and it once again doubled in size.

Now for the fun part! I dumped the dough back out onto my flour board so I could divide it into three pieces which would eventually be shaped into baguettes.

I usually weigh my dough so that I end up with equal pieces, but I was lazy this time and just eyeballed it.

I obviously didn’t do a very good job of guessing the weight of the dough since I ended up with three different sizes (next time I’ll go back to using my scale)! Before shaping the baguettes, I first pre-shaped the pieces into batards and let the dough relax for a few minutes.

Unfortunately I didn’t photograph the baguette-shaping process, but you can see the process more clearly in this video. After shaping my baguettes, I nestled them in between the folds of a floured couche, seam side up, and let them proof at room temperature for about an hour.

After the baguettes were properly proofed, I gently transferred them to a piece of parchment paper on the back of a sheet pan. I was thinking that I could just slide the baguettes and parchment onto my baking stone using the sheet pan instead of messing with semolina or cornmeal.

Next, I slashed the baguettes using a razor blade. I’m still not completely confident in my slashing technique, but it wasn’t too bad.

To prepare the oven for baking, I preheated to 500 degrees with a baking stone on the middle shelf and an empty pan on the top shelf. The pan on the top shelf is allowed to preheat with the oven so that I can pour hot water in it to create steam after the loaves have been placed on the baking stone. The steam allows for a better oven spring as the loaves are allowed to grow a bit more before a crust is formed.

When the oven was ready, I tried to slide the baguettes and parchment paper onto the stone. Unfortunately, the baguettes rolled rather than slid, and I ended up with a mini disaster as the baguette were all upside down and in the wrong places and I was dealing with a 500 degree oven. I was able to save two of them, but the third ended up being baked upside down and halfway off the baking stone for a few minutes (I was able to move it after the crust had started forming). The results were two nicely shaped baguettes and one slightly curved baguette. But they all looked much better than I had anticipated!

The only thing that concerned me was the color. I thought that they were a bit too pale and wonder what I could do differently to get some better caramelization in the crust. But the flavor of this bread was magnificent and I will definitely be giving it another try soon!

Are you ready to give homemade baguettes a try? The recipe for French Bread can be found on page 168 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. The next bread in the challenge is Italian Bread and it’s a good one! Meatball Sandwich, anyone?

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun! First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book. Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread, which is the first recipe in the book. But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

French Bread from other BBA Challenge Members:

French Bread from Big Black Dog
French Bread from Gourmet Hotdish and other Culinary Disasters
French Bread from Ahrelich Gesagt
French Bread from Goth Panda
French Bread from Pete Eatemall
French Bread from Salt and Serenity
French Bread from Round the Table
French Bread from La cuisine d’Hélène

Herbed Focaccia from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice

Nicole — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 22:00:01 +0000

Ok, let me come right out and say this. This focaccia was the best I’ve ever tasted in my life. Period. Like many of the formulas in the book, this one takes two days to make. And although it’s more labor and time-intensive than other focaccia recipes I’ve tried, I’m pretty sure it’s the only one I will ever make again.

This is the 13th bread I’ve made for The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge (with 31 more to come) and it has moved up to the top of my favorites list. Honestly, I didn’t think I could love any bread more than the salami and cheese-filled Casatiello. But I was wrong. Foccacia, I love you.

There are two different formulas for focaccia in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice, both of which take two days to make. So why does it take so much time to make a great focaccia? As many of you have learned from following along with my bread baking, long, slow fermentation of the dough is key to developing maximum flavor. This can be achieved by using a pre-ferment such as a poolish (like I used for the ciabatta), or by refrigerating the dough overnight (the bagels were a good example of overnight fermentation).

I chose to make the Poolish Focaccia, for no other reason than I just like to watch the bubbles form in the poolish. Also, I like to say the word ‘poolish.’ A poolish is simply a combination of flour, water, and a small amount of yeast. It gets mixed together to form a batter-like dough and is allowed to ferment at room temperature until it gets nice and bubbly.

Here is my poolish after mixing:

and then a few hours later:

As you can see, the poolish increases in size and starts bubbling away. If you stand and watch for a minute, you can actually see bubbles form, grow, and burst. It’s alive! Now once it’s nice and bubbly you want to put the poolish in the refrigerator for a long, slow, overnight ferment. You can let it hang out in the fridge for up to 3 days and continue with the focaccia whenever you are ready.

Ready? Ok, take the poolish out of the fridge one hour before you want to make the dough so it can warm up a bit. For the focaccia dough, you will be adding more flour, yeast, water, olive oil and salt to the poolish.

I stirred the dough up with a spoon until it formed a wet, sticky dough.

Then I kneaded it for 7 or 8 minutes using the dough hook on my Kitchen Aid mixer. Once I had a smooth, sticky dough, I stopped kneading and dumped it out onto a bed of flour. Doesn’t this remind you of my ciabatta? It should, because I used too much flour on the board for the ciabatta and for some reason didn’t learn from my mistake!

So the next step is to dust the dough liberally with flour and then pat it into a rectangle. This was as close as I managed to get. It’s almost a rectangle!

Now for the stretching and folding. Again, this should seem familiar if you saw my ciabatta post. After letting the dough relax for a few minutes, I coated my hands with flour and stretched the rectangle out. It’s supposed to be twice its original size. This time I brushed most of the flour off the top of the dough before folding.

Next, fold one side of the dough in towards the middle then brush the flour off again.

Then fold the other side over, letter style. Now I’ve completed one “stretch and fold.”

I covered my dough and let it rest for 30 minutes and then repeated the stretch and fold process two more times, allowing the 30 minute rest each time. As you can see, the dough grew during the process! But now it’s time to let it grow even more. I covered it and let it ferment at room temperature for one hour.

While the dough was fermenting, I made a garlic herb oil using fresh garlic, basil, rosemary and parsley. I also added a bit of crushed red pepper. Hold on, you’ll see what I do with the oil in a minute.

After an hour, the dough had doubled in size and was ready to go in the pan.

I lined my rimmed half sheet pan with parchment and spread olive oil (not the herb oil) all over the bottom. I gently lifted the dough off the counter and spread it out on the parchment. Not as easy as it sounds! As you can see, the dough didn’t hold it’s rectangular shape very well.

I drizzled some of the herb oil over the top of the dough and started dimpling it with my fingers, gently spreading the dough out in the pan.

The dough didn’t quite reach the edges of the pan, but I wasn’t worried because it still had some growing to do!

I covered the pan and let it proof for about an hour and a half. As you can see, the dough definitely filled the pan!

Next, I drizzled even more herb oil over the top.

Then I dimpled the dough all over with my fingertips again.

Before putting the focaccia in the 5oo degree oven, I sprinkled the whole thing lightly with coarse salt. The focaccia baked for about 20 minutes, and I rotated the pan halfway through baking. Although the oven is preheated to 500 degrees, it gets turned down to 450 after putting the bread in the oven.

Here is the resulting bread:

The crumb was beautiful!

And the flavor and texture were out of this world!

I can’t wait to make this focaccia again and try some different toppings. I loved the herb oil, but can’t wait to try it with cheese and olives, among other things. I might even make a thick crust pizza using this dough. It is absolutely amazing!

The recipe for Poolish Focaccia can be found on page 164 of The Bread Baker’s Apprentice.

The next bread in the challenge is French Bread! I can’t wait to tell you about the beautiful crusty baguettes that came out of my oven last weekend. Yes, I have been baking bread faster than I’ve been able to write about it, but my blog posts will soon be caught up to my baking.

Want to Join The Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge?

There are several ways for you to join in the fun! First of all, you need a copy of Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. Read the first section of the book carefully, as this will prepare you for the bread recipes in the second section of the book. Then just jump in and bake some Anadama Bread, which is the first recipe in the book. But first, please visit The BBA Challenge Page for more details on how to participate in the group!

Focaccia from other BBA Challenge Members:

Tomato Parmesan Focaccia from Lovin’ from the Oven
Herbed Focaccia from The Yumarama Bread Blog
Caramelized Onion and Cherry Tomato Focaccia from I Can Do that
Focaccia with Feta, Tomatoes and Pine Nuts from MustangTerri
Herbed Mushroom and Cheese Focaccia from Texas Farmer’s Hot Stove
Herbed Focaccia from Bewitching Kitchen
Herbed Focaccia with Tomatoes and Blue Cheese from Nico’s Blog
Sun Dried Tomato Focaccia from Goth Panda
Herbed Focaccia from Something Shiny
Focaccia with Caramelized Onions and Parmesan Cheese from Culinary Disasters
Herbed Focaccia from The Other Side of Fifty
Focaccia with Peppers, Olives and Feta from Pete Eatemall
Caramelized Shallot and Golden Raisin Focaccia from Pink Stripes
Grape and Walnut Focaccia from Eating Out Loud
Raisin Focaccia from Eating is the Hard Part
Blue Cheese, Pepper, Steak and Mushroom Focaccia from Joelen’s Culinary Adventures