Pastry Chemistry

New girls

2009-04-08T21:16:00.000-07:00

We lost our earlier hens to a virus, unfortunately, but bound and determined to own chickens, we waited patiently for the spring (well, late winter), and ordered some new ones from a hatchery. They arrived - all 27 of them - back on February 20, just two days after they were hatched. 5 of the tiny girls didn't make it through that weekend, but the rest ate and pooped and grew and grew... Eventually we sold or gave away all but 7.

Here they are, at about week 7, already enjoying the outside during the day.

Unfortunately, we still keep them in the garage at night, and the place is absolutely covered in "chicken dust." My poor car will take a few weeks to clean out. Still, they seem to like the place. Here are a pair of Barred Rocks (Tallulah and Tecumseh) and the Silver Laced Wyandotte (Little Silver, until a better name strikes us), posing:

This is the "Queen Bee," a.k.a. Coconut:

They seem to like to cluster on the step in the garage for a nap:

Just this evening, they decided the edge of the pen wasn't high enough for them. I went in the garage to wish them a good night (they get a little pet or a scratch each before I turn out the light), and I was astonished to find them up on the ladder:

This weekend, it will be time to move to their new home in the henhouse (new to them, anyway). It'll be entertaining trying to teach them to go in at night, but they'll get it after a day or two.

Goodbye roos, hello hens

2008-09-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

After a month or so of three "hens" waking us up rather loudly at 6:30am, we were drawn somewhat reluctantly to the conclusion that some of our hens, well, weren't. We should have taken the hint early on. When Buffy started to crow a bit, we dismissed it as, "she's a tom-boy," and my wife even came up with some evidence that sometimes, in a flock of hens, one might end up being the alpha hen, and crow a bit. I've got to tell you, we did a pretty darned effective job of convincing ourselves, even after all three started to crow at all hours of the day (and at the aforementioned 6:30am), but eventually we figured the neighbors were on to us and would have the Chicken Police calling on us at any moment. Fact of the matter is, roosters are not legal in our town, and given the racket, it's no wonder. So we finally resolved to take action and asked all of our friends and associated if they had any idea what to do. "Ha, ha," we thought, "surely everyone will want a beautiful rooster that we swore was a hen!" No such luck.

Finally, we found a woman up in Cotati, about two hours north, who labels herself as the "Chicken Queen," and gave her a call. She was certainly friendly, and gave us some good advice - try Craig's List, and if that failed, she would "re-home" our roosters. (Apparently she raises chickens mostly for backyard flocks, and can find good homes for wayward roosters.)

So we put up an ad in Craig's List, complete with pictures of Buffy the Vampire Chicken (perhaps "Buffo" was a better name) and Moxie Crimefighter Chickenbutt/Rock-n-Roll/Red. I still held on to the hope (now completely, outrageously false) that we might keep our off-white Ameraucana (Snowball/Frenchie), who had turned into a really gorgeous bird with tremendous personality. (Not a chance - he was crowing, too.) Anyway, Craig's List has a one-week free listing, and we figured we'd make use of the Chicken Queen if all else failed.

Our first bite on Craig's List came a couple of days later, and it turned out to be a dud - probably a scam artist hoping that what we were selling was something we'd pay a bunch of money to ship. Our second bite, however, was a great one - a couple, living about 45 minutes south, who really wanted Buffy (Buffo?) for their flock of girls. I made arrangements to take him down on the weekend, and away we went. When I arrived, they turned out to be a wonderful couple with about 8 hens running around a large pasture with a couple of goats and a whole lot of room to scratch and run. We put Buff in a temporary cage, and two of the hens immediately came up and started making some noise: "Ooo, check him out... he's kinda cute!" Apparently they let him out a bit after I left, and then he went in for the night with his new harem. Check out Buff, strutting his stuff in front of the girls:

Here he is in his new roost at night, with the girls:

And here he is with another of the lovely ladies:

We didn't get any more serious bites on Craig's List before our time was up, so we planned to take the other two roosters up to Cotati. The day before we left with them, I spent the day at home, working on my computer outside. They made it pretty clear that they liked to hang around me by helping with my work:

Fact is, roosters are full of personality - sometimes a bit too much, as Rock-n-Roll was starting to nip at our heels and toes towards the end of his stay. But they were curious, beautiful birds, and I was sad to see them go. Here are some head shots:

In the end, we decided to keep our remaining snow-white Ameraucana, Dijon (Dijon Chicken, a.k.a. "Poupon You," a.k.a. "Snowflake"):

...and we got her two new friends, Cinnamon Girl, a.k.a. "Rockin' Cinnamon Roll":

and the new incarnation of Moxie Crimefighter Chickenbutt:

They are practically inseparable:

Dijon wasn't sure what to make of them at first, but has taken to mothering over them, so all is right in the Chicken World.

And a word to the wise: "deer resistant" plants are largely chicken-resistant as well. Good to know.

Summer of Chickenbutts II

2008-08-21T18:08:00.000-07:00

Ah, the heady days of summer, when you swear you're going to update that blog and finish the tale of the chickens and the kids... wait, what? So much for timely updates.

When we returned from Tahoe, it was time to celebrate the 4th of July, which meant celebrating our next door neighbor's birthday. Call the chef!

It's important to know who owns the kitchen. Don't mess with the chef when he's in the kitchen.

Time for cake. First, consult with the master chef about how best to proceed:

Then the assistants can get on with the decorating.

Viola!

A little soccer to build up the appetite. Here's the assist...

GOOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLL:

The birthday boy and his clan (guess which one is the birthday boy):

Paige and friends...

The Kuby Clan and Birthday Joe:

Birthday Joe in a touching moment...

Of course, we could not send off the gang without making pastries. Boy, did I ever get an ear-full about not making pastries until the last week. WELL IF YOU HADN'T BEEN MAKING PANCAKES EVERY DAY... I mean, really.

Then, when I finally made them, what chances were there that anyone other than Seth would get any? You decide for yourself...

Seth wanted to play outside. I said, "Sure. What shall we play?" He said something about "good guys and bad guys - we'll be the good guys."

I asked, "What are our names?"

Seth: "I don't know."

Me: "How about Chunkboy and Robin"

Seth: "Okay... You be Chunkboy."

Here they are, the intrepid Chunkboy and Robin... I think we're on a boat, looking out for sharks. Or alligators. Probably both.

Before the kids left, we had to take them kayaking. ALL of the local reservoirs were closed to boat traffic (except for one that wanted to charge us to INSPECT OUR KAYAK... what were we expected to be doing, smuggling buffalo?), so we were forced to improvise. Thus, the CAR KAYAK:

It got pretty unstable at about 60 mph, but they held on pretty well, considering.

Sheesh, I'm kidding, OK?

Summer of Chickenbutts

2008-07-13T19:17:00.000-07:00

Our niece and nephew (with my mother-in-law in tow) came to visit, as they do every summer (for the last 10 years, since our niece was born). This was one of their shorter visits, lasting only 5 weeks. Needless to say, chickenbutts figured prominently in their visit - and, to absolutely no one's surprise, the chickens were claimed and/or renamed immediately upon their arrival.

One chicken retained her name, but potentially not her sex. We are no longer certain that Buffy the Vampire Chicken is, in fact, a she. S/he now crows every morning, without fail, between 6 and 6:30, and sounds precisely the way you would expect a barnyard rooster (eh hem) would sound. At the same time, Buffy continues to be the quintessential chicken, being the first to run and hide at the sign of change of any kind.

Our RIR (as those in the chickenbutt world refer to Rhode Island Reds) was rechristened Rock and Roll Chicken and claimed by our four-year-old nephew (to be fair, he named her "Wock and Woll Chicken"). Wock and Woll (sorry) and Buffy continue to be the best of friends, and seldom leave each other's sides. They even sleep together on the same beam in their house.

The two Americaunas were renamed by our ten year old niece "Snowball" and "Snowflake" - "Snowball" being the off-white one (I suppose somewhat reminiscent of a snowball in Chicago, where our niece hails from, guaranteed to never be pure white after the first day of snow). She claimed both snow-related chickens as "hers," and pronounced their eternal friendship. Fact is, the two Americaunas hang out and sleep together as well. Truth be told, the chickens never like to be far from each other, but they definitely have their favorites.

The summer started out in a typical fashion... everyone headed straight for the kitchen.

Chicken feeding was also a popular activity, started early:

Half way into the trip, we took the gang up to Lake Tahoe. Clearly addled by the smoke and haze, we decided to bury the kids:

Such a senseless waste of human life.

Other activities at Tahoe include tennis:

...ping-pong:

..and golfing with the bears:

While in Tahoe, however, one must take great care to avoid the spiders:

If you are captured by spiders, apparently sushi helps you to recover quickly:

Note that our nephew couldn't be bothered with chopsticks, opting instead for the much more direct route. This sushi was enjoyed at Squaw Valley, home of the Winter Olympics, and apparently some very large skiers. We convinced the kids to try out one of their seats:

While in Tahoe, the kids wanted to go hiking, so we explored this trail:

Along the way, we saw these really cool red plants, some of which had little rings of wood around them. We found one and decided to "protect it" ourselves:

Also on the same hike, our niece found a scenic spot and decided a pile of sticks woudl make a nice seat for a weary traveler:

Nearby, our nephew practiced what he learned from Bear Grylls (Man v. Wild) about how important it was to construct a fire to keep your spirits up on those long cold mountain nights:

Thankfully, this was a pretend fire. (Well, to be honest, he was pretty much begging me to light it, but we finally convinced him that a pretend fire was best.)

Also on the trail, we learned a valuable lesson about How Not To Cut Down a Tree:

There are some lovely trails and good bike rentals in Tahoe, so we figured, "What the heck?" Here's the blissful ignorance of youth before we left base camp:

A bit along the trail, we stopped to admire the view. I'm fairly sure the kids were wondering about how to ditch us at this point.

We made it all the way to Squaw Valley -- a distance of 5 miles (one way) -- on just cookies and sheer will:

While at Squaw, we surveyed a house for Noni:

Nahhhh...

Of course, all play and no work can ALSO make Jack a dull boy, we wanted to be sure you knew that some of us brought work with us while on vacation at Tahoe:

More in next post...

Jungle Love

2008-06-06T19:09:00.001-07:00

Two weeks ago, we placed the banana plant close to the tub where we were keeping the girls. Shortly after that, we popped the lid on the tub, wandered off for a bit, and came back to discover... JUNGLE CHICKENS.

It seems the girls have a fondness for perching as high as they can go (easily). This means perching on the edge of the tub when they are inside (and the lid is off). Here's Buffy the Vampire Chicken:

and then there's Moxie Crimefighter Chickenbutt, with Frenchie (a.k.a. Francois) along for the ride:

Two weeks later, we have them outside in the yard whenever we can. They must be the happiest chickens on Earth -- well, the happiest in our yard, anyway. They run around as soon as they are let free of the tub in the morning like kids free at recess, then start to scratch away at the leaves and mulch. After a hard day of bug-hunting, they took a break on the garden furniture:

Paula Dean (a.k.a. Dijon) even posed for a few glamor shots:

Not to be outdone, Moxie posed in classic chicken style, circa 2008:

...and Frenchie wanted to know what the heck was going on:

Frenchie then did a bit of glam for the camera:

IT'S THE CHICKEN POSSE

Finally, there have been some questions about the Chateau. It is in its final location (and has been for a couple of weeks), complete with detachable chicken run and spiral staircase up to the Chateau itself:

Sandy, if you're reading this, you should have already realized I was nuts when I blogged about baking.

Chateau Chicken

2008-05-14T11:25:00.001-07:00

Some older pictures... These are the girls as they first experienced the great outdoors. Dirt, as it turns out, is as much fun for chicks as it is for little kids. These are pictures from May 3, only a little more than a week after the earlier ones. Note how much their feathers have grown in.

Later, I had completed the chicken run, and gave them access to a much larger space, which they tore around with wild (well, domesticated) abandon:

After that, time for a little "down time."

And then there's the Chateau. The Chateau Chicken (pronounced "Shiken"). They were quite panicked about it initially, but seem to have settled in. You can see Dijon (the Ameraucana who always gets poop on her = Poupon = Dijon) peering out the front screen. (The cord is going to a lamp to warm things up a bit - they also really don't like the dark.)

Chicks! Girls! Girl Chicks!

2008-04-24T08:52:00.001-07:00

Introducing... the girls. Eating. Like they do most of the time.

That's the Rhode Island Red and the Buff Orpington (or "Orfington," as Mike would have it) chowing down, and the two Ameraucanas heading for the water. These pictures were taken Monday evening, and we picked up the girls Saturday morning. We barely saw any signs of feathers Saturday, and you can already see the wings are getting well developed.

Here are the two Ameraucanas. They are developing the fastest, but are also the most skittish.

Here's Red. She is definitely the calmest of the lot, and most inquisitive. She likes to hop on top of the food container (to the right) and try to peer over the top of the galvanized tub we have them in. The Buff Orpington is also fairly inquisitive, but is quite bold -- she'll shove the others out of her way when she wants to check something out. She's also the smallest of the lot, and developing a bit behind the others in terms of feathers.

More of Miss Red.

We have not named the girls yet... our niece and nephew arrive in June, and the girls should be ladies by then, and ready for naming. We're toying with offering the kids names of women chefs, and giving them "assigning" rights, but Mike already has said we'll name the "tall, drunk one" "Julia." It's an awful joke, but we both got a good laugh out of that one. (I'll leave a sherry bottle out and see if any of them take to it.)

We had a bit of a scare yesterday -- in the morning, before we left for work, one of the Ameraucanas flew up to the edge of the tub. I had to put her back in. We left for work, figuring it was the excitement of our standing there that inspired her on her maiden flight. Alas, when we got home, we found one of the Ameraucanas and little miss Buff out of the tub, on the floor. Thankfully, the floor was warm, but I'm sure they were hungry and thirsty. And there was... bird... poop... EVERYWHERE. Frankly, I was impressed the Buff made it out, given that her little wings haven't formed as much yet, but I'm beginning to wonder if she didn't just quantum tunnel out of the tub via sheer will.

Off for the holidays...

2007-12-29T16:12:00.000-08:00

The pastry chemist is off in parts MidWestern for the moment, and while some baking has occurred (ciabatta, cinnamon rolls, anise-olive oil crackers, and a whole wheat cracker crust for pizza), the camera was left behind. At least the recipes were all crafted on-the-spot (with the exception of the anise-olive oil crackers, based on the ciabatta dough and a recipe from a Spanish recipe text), and all turned out reasonably well. I would have liked to try the cinnamon rolls and the ciabatta again with a higher-protein flour, as the gluten was far less developed than I would have liked. (I used a bleached AP flour, a generic brand, that was much lower in protein than King Arthur's AP.)

Reponding to Mr. Palmer's question about the polenta loaves:
The polenta dough was wet with a water sprayer, rolled in polenta, and allowed to rise in a canvas-lined banneton. Once risen, I turned each loaf out on to a piece of parchment, which I could then spin freely on the granite while I held the razor reasonably still (relative to the spin, but out from the center as it spun). Unfortunately, the raw polenta on the surface would catch the razor, and I had to use a sawing motion for much of the cut, going back over some sections as I went. This led to some parts being cut a bit deeper than others. Had I let the dough rise further, and had a uniform cut (straight in to the loaf, perpendicular to the surface), I might have had a more uniformly round loaf. Still, the results were good, and the crumb was tight, much as you might expect from such a loaf anyway. I recommend trying it.

Note that I did not follow the recipe exactly at the time -- my sourdough was not yet at full strength, so I added a small amount (1/4 tsp) of yeast to boost the dough (that it, post-levain). (This was true of both the polenta and French country loaves.) I did later make 4 French country loaves with 100% sourdough, and was quite pleased with the results. Regrettably, I had to allow the sourdough to expire, as I have been traveling and unable to feed it. If the whim strikes again later, I may try the rye-and-water, stiff sourdough once again. (It wants to be fed every 8-12 hours in a warm kitchen, so it's quite demanding!)

Trufflage COMPLETE

2007-12-20T09:28:00.000-08:00

So that's the end of the truffles for another year. Here's the full selection of 14 flavors:

If you can't tell the players without a scorecard, here it is. Note that, while none of the truffles have a significant amount of alcohol in them (only enough liqueur to flavor), those with names in purple are sans alcohol:

Raspberry truffles were flavored with locally made Bonny Doon Frambiose. Orange truffles were flavored with both Patrón Citrónge and Stirring's Blood Orange Bitters (the latter of which is non-alcoholic). The Diablo is flavored with espresso, orange peel, and chipotle (unlike previous years, I did not add tequila).

Word to the wise... chocolate shrinks when chilled. Peanut butter does not.

Waist Deep in Chocolate

2007-12-18T16:28:00.000-08:00

No, dear readers, I haven't forgotten you... I've just been in the midst of chocolate hell. Well, not hell -- perhaps chocolate purgatory. At any rate, spending any time on chocolate puts a serious dent in baking production schedules. Still, we are at twelve different flavors (if you count caramels), and counting -- somewhere around 1,000 chocolates.

These are the Nutella chocolates, a dark (72%) chocolate shell over a roasted hazelnut and Nutella. It's really time consuming to draw each of those lines by hand with a paring knife.

This should give you a small idea of what the kitchen looks like -- this is the chocolate tempering machine in a particularly pristine state. (See an earlier posting for a wider view of the work space, post truffle-making.)

Still, I took some time to bake over the weekend, and made some Danish snails -- those on the left are made with a really nice Saigon cassia (cinnamon), and those on the right are made with a dash of turbinado sugar and a nice seed mix from King Arthur Flour (including anise, which gives a nice flavor).

OK, back to the truffles.... Nearly done!

Cake.

2007-12-14T08:36:00.001-08:00

Today, cake. Cake, and another meeting. So much for vacation... There's a Board of Directors meeting this afternoon for the SF Bay InfraGard Members' Alliance chapter, so that will have me out of the kitchen -- no sense in firing up the chocolate factory if I'm going to have to shut it down again by 1. Instead, I'll bake off some cakes for a birthday party (to deliver tomorrow; party is on Sunday -- for twin boys, age two, and some 50 people, mostly adults) (those boys know how to party).

Chocolates ahoy

2007-12-13T14:26:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was regretfully spent at the office for the bulk of the morning. Not that I dislike being at the office per se, but it's somewhat difficult to refer to it as "vacation" if I'm at the office. The afternoon was spent struggling with chocolate that just wouldn't tempter well. Previous chocolate days (see below) were spent elbow-deep in E. Guittard 71%, which tempers beautifully. The 62% stuff, while really tasty in its own right, doesn't seem to take to a temper quite as easily, at least not in my kitchen this week. Thus, the struggle. It takes much longer for the forms to set in the molds, so there's a fair bit of waiting.

I had to re-take a photo of the florentina truffle I made the other day, so as to better show how it's made: it is a half-sphere of florentina cookie (with almonds, rolled oats, and candied orange peel), filled with orange ganache (flavored with orange liqueur and blood orange bitters) and "bottomed-off" (as opposed to "topped off") with solid bittersweet chocolate. I only hope the florentina stays somewhat crisp for a while so they can be delivered without softening up too much.

Today, more truffles, as well as coating caramels. No breads, but maybe some pastries, as I have a mess of Danish dough still left. If I don't bake it off today, it will be increasingly difficult to use (the dough loses its strength, and tears when you roll it).

Back to Baking

2007-12-11T11:55:00.000-08:00

Two days of chocolates tends to take a bit out of me, so I'm going to spend most/all of today working on breads and pastries -- there's nothing quite like 2 kilos of Danish pastry dough to make me feel back in the pink.

Unfortunately, my sourdough took a turn for the worse -- it seems to be rising very slowly, so I was forced to add a bit of yeast to the polenta and French country bread recipes. We'll see what happens. The sourdough isn't completely dead by any means -- it's just very, well, sleepy, and is not gaining 3-4x in volume over the requisite 8-12 hours. Rather, it's going at about 2x in 12 hours. Still, it smells lovely, and should give the doughs some leavening (and certainly the taste and other characteristics).

Danish dough is the same old thing I've done for years, so we'll see what I produce from it. Folks in Palo Alto are due some deliveries, and I have to be in tomorrow morning for a meeting.

Photos from the day:

Three photos showing the steps in a turn of the polenta dough -- in the first, the dough is turned out from the container. (At this point, it has been through a few turns, so it has already firmed up.) The dough is gently spread out, while retaining as much of the volume as possible. Photo two shows half-way through the turn, where two "corners" have been pulled in to the center. The other two "corners" are pulled in and the dough is turned over in photo three, and is ready to be returned to the container to rise until ready for forming. (Using this technique, you can turn a very soupy dough into a well-formed dough without much kneading -- and that can be a very good thing, if you are trying to avoid incorporating too much oxygen into the dough, which can oxidize away some of the color and better flavors. Or if you're trying to avoid killing your mixer or your hands.)

Here are the completed polenta loaves. Note the spiral pattern -- this is done by slicing with a razor in a spiral pattern. The polenta on the surface of the dough made that somewhat difficult, as it would catch the razor and stop a clean slice. Next time, I should slice a bit deeper and try to be more uniform -- but still, the results were good, and the flavor excellent. It had a nice tight crumb, a bit of toothiness from the polenta in the dough, and a bit of tang from the sourdough.

Here are the French country sourdough loaves. The crust of the prebaked dough was easy to slash well -- probably because of the extended rise time.

Danish dough... before the butter block is to be added...

sliced with a deep "X" and pulled apart...

with the butter block placed on top...

and most of the way through the dough being sealed over the butter block. Now it gets two turns (twice it is rolled out and folded in thirds), a rest in the fridge for 30 minutes, another turn, another rest, and a final turn, for a total of four turns.

After 4 full turns, the dough is ready for a final resting before being rolled and formed.

Here you can see the layers formed in the final Danish dough (sliced for easy viewing).

Two completed danish, post-bake: a braided "ring" filled with almond pastry cream, and a ring with apricot and almond filling. (Subsequently delivered for meetings at work, where I never even got to try a piece! But what the heck, I've had Danish from that bakery before. It's OK.)

Back to the Kitchen

2007-12-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

For those of you following along rather than working (and I think you know who you are), I apologize for not having any updates over the weekend, but I was too busy with cookies and chocolates (and various wife-related activities, which are generally much more interesting than sitting in front of a keyboard). Yes, chocolate production has begun, which will temporarily supercede the baking activities, at least for the most part. This week's baking activities were to focus on specialty breads, and they generally take a while to prepare, so chocolate production works well while I wait for dough to rise.

This evening, I will prepare the levains for both a polenta bread and a country French sourdough loaf, both of which should be ready to bake off tomorrow afternoon. My sourdough starter has been much less active lately, but I hope it is only because the kitchen has been fairly cold at night (in the 50's). Both breads make use of the sourdough as the leaven, so I will leave it in a warm spot for the day, feed it, and hope for the best.

Photos from over the weekend:

Anne takes out some frustrations from the week on a defenseless piece of brysselkex dough.

The young apprentice takes to the kitchen with gusto.

Taste testing the apricot lekvar.

The three tenors have nothing on the three... lawyers? No, chefs.

"Here, mom, this is how you do it."

Brysselkex ready for the oven.

Gingerbread fresh from the oven. (This dough, from Baking with Julia, was too difficult to manage, so we gave up after one batch.)

Rolling the rugelach.

Legal and compliance review the jam cookies. "I don't think that one's compliant. Let's be sure it's appropriately shredded."

Rolling dough takes great skill and determination.

Meanwhile, a chocolate house was under construction.

Destroy the evidence! "I don't know where this piece goes, so I'll just eat it."

The final chocolate house, complete with gingerbread Santa-bear and marshmallow smoke.

"Now what?"

The cookie selection from the day.

...and this is what the kitchen looked like 24 hours later, after a day of making chocolates. Three flavors down (plain bittersweet ganache, Framboise, and orange with blood orange bitters and orange peel, all in bittersweet chocolate).

Pandoro Aplenty

2007-12-07T10:47:00.000-08:00

Overnight, the pandoro had a chance to rise, and a soupy mass had a chance to ferment in preparation for panettone. Unfortunately, there were a number of large bubbles in the pandoro, and I feared that they would give the final cakes a less-than-ideal appearance (given just how extensible that dough was, I feared it would balloon up horribly in the oven). Here is what the rising pandoro dough looked like:

Here, the dough is nearly ready for the oven -- it just has to rise a bit more.

Then, I popped the pans in the oven, and here's what happened to one of them:

Stand back!

After cooling in the forms for about 30 minutes, they were inverted on a cooling sheet. They smell wonderful -- I can hardly wait to tear in to one.

Meanwhile, the rest of the day will be spent working on panettone (from The Village Baker's Wife, adopted to use my sourdough levain instead of the refrigerator sourdough called for in the recipe, simply because I can't be bothered to wait for the refrigerator version), another 1Kg (of flour) batch of French dough (this time with 60% bread and 40% white wheat flour), and cookie doughs for my company's Legal and Compliance team's cookie fest tomorrow (gingerbread, brysselkex, florentina, jam cookies, and perhaps almond macaroon in short dough).

Back to the ovens...

Pandoro Pending

2007-12-06T07:15:00.001-08:00

Today, the sourdough starter looks to be ready, so I can begin both the panettone and pandoro recipes -- to be baked off tomorrow. I have to go to the office for a meeting (but it's not work, I swear), so there's little time to get much else done. I'll try to whip out a Finnish pulla before I head in (out of Baking with Julia).
...

That last bit was written around 7, and between then and 10 I managed to produce the aforementioned pulla, which turned out to be a fairly easy and quite delicious sweet, cardamom-scented bread. I used cardamom straight from the pods, and ground it in a spice grinder with a bit of sugar (as it wasn't working too well with the mortar and pestle we own). I should have spent a while longer with the grinder, as there were still some fairly large bits of cardamom in the dough -- but the results were still delightful.

Above is the formed dough, after its rise and before egg wash, pearl sugar, and sliced almonds are added. The result:

Later, I crafted the pandoro dough (from Artisan Baking Across America). This dough took some time to produce, but was frankly spectacular -- it was like caramel, but held together in gorgeous long strands. It even smelled like caramel and vanilla.

Here you can see just how the final dough behaved. It was then cut in two, formed into balls, and placed in the pandoro molds to proof overnight.

Day Three: Big Bread.

2007-12-05T11:54:00.000-08:00

On with the bread forming... Today I spent some time with larger loaves. I had previously struggled to keep a couronne open in the middle, and this time I think I nailed it:

This was made with about 1kg dough.

I also made a boule, and attempted a wheat design. Clearly, I need to practice more:

This was very nearly a tragedy, as we have only one baking stone, so I used a Dutch oven in the lower oven to bake the boule. I preheated the Dutch oven (in the oven) to 450, pulled it, and attempted to drop the risen boule into the Dutch oven -- at which point, it folded in half. I scrambled to "unfold" it, and I think it was not much the worse for wear... but that was a scary moment. I think today sees me purchasing a second baking stone for the lower oven.

Later that day...

I made two more loaves, this time with whole wheat making up 30% of the weight of the flour. I also purchased another baking stone (less than $10 at Target for a ceramic "pizza stone"). Here are the results:

The Experiment Continues

2007-12-04T11:01:00.000-08:00

Day two, and boy, am I vacating.

Last night saw the production of two ciabattas from the pain ordinaire dough. One was delivered next door and promptly destroyed, with some amount of glee. This morning, I split the sweet dough in two, added egg wash and cinnamon sugar, and made two 8x4.5" loaves -- that dough is extremely soft, and did not seem to rise overnight in the fridge at all, but it is rising in the pans (about 2 hours to bake time). The pain ordinaire with old dough (pate fermentee) addition rose nicely overnight, and was split into 10x10 oz balls to form into baguettes (5), epi (3), and pain fendu (2). I also have a Kaiser roll recipe brewing (sponge is bubbling away at the moment) in an attempt to find a good recipe for non-dairy bread rolls that are akin to Spansk boller (from Denmark).

Notes from the day:

Results from the cinnamon-raisin bread experiment, using the Team USA sweet dough (ABAA). The dough rested overnight in the fridge, and did not appear to rise much. It was extremely soft and still quite sticky -- gluten was there, but clearly hindered by all the margarine. (Note that the dough was modified to test as a non-dairy dough, using almond milk and margarine in place of scalded milk and butter. I strongly suspect the dough would have behaved similarly with dairy.) I pressed the dough out by hand on a well-floured surface -- it was too soft and sticky for a rolling pin, and small enough to not be worth the trouble -- brushed on an egg wash, and covered liberally with cinnamon sugar. I rolled the dough and put into a parchment-lined pan (as shown above), let rise for two hours, and baked off. The results: fine crumb, almost cake-like, and just a hint of cinnamon. Clearly, I could have been more liberal with the cinnamon, but would have had to add some sort of binder (like more margarine) to make it stick. Michaline describes the bread as being like brioche, and she enjoyed it toasted with butter in the morning.

Baguettes in their larval state. Here, the ten bundles of joy rest before being formed. You can see little bits of the rye flour in the dough -- a very naughty thing, according to the French. (This is not a "true" French bread unless it has a maximum of 2% rye -- this has about 10% rye. Still, it adds flavor, and I'm in California, after all.)

Baguettes proofing, nestled in their linen couche. With a true French dough (or at least the equivalent -- only flour, yeast, water, and salt), it won't stick to the linen. (Although I have to imagine that, if the rye content is high enough, the dough would be fairly sticky, and would require a lot of flour to avoid sticking.)

Here, the baguettes are slashed and are ready for the oven. I've used a straight razor (single edge) rather than a lamé, just to see if it's any easier. It was a bit, although I understand that it may be more difficult to cut flaps ("shag") with a straight razor.

The finished product. At the top, the five to the right are traditional baguettes, and I'm pleased with the general uniformity -- clearly, the trick is to remember to form the dough carefully, first by pressing the rested dough into a uniform oval, folding and pressing the dough thoroughly into a roll, and straightening the baguette form once it is in the couche. The top left and the middle loaves are my attempt at a pain fendu, and pain is right -- clearly the two lines of dough (to be separated by a thine line of dough) re-merged in both cases. The upper-left loaf was somewhat more successful, but the two halves need to be better separated before putting in the oven. Note that I used rice flour on those, as directed in Baking with Julia. The bottom three are pain epi. Not much to add there -- they are fairly easy to make, and I like the results.

(Non-diary) rolls, akin to Spansk boller (Danish white bread rolls), made with rice milk instead of dairy milk (non-dairy). These turned out well, if a bit overdone (just a tad dark), although that may have been from the rice milk for all I know. The crust is thin and relatively crisp, although it softened quickly. These were made based on the Kaiser roll recipe from The Village Baker, with the obvious substitution of rice milk, and the dough was split in eight rather than 6 (and formed as plain rolls). The resulting rolls have a tight crumb, and the flavor is not too exciting, but takes well to some butter and marmalade.

The Baking Experiment

2007-12-03T11:29:00.000-08:00

Day 1 of week one of the grand baking experiment, and I've already thrown out two grape sourdough starters, started two weeks ago. A third, apple-based starter was successfully turned in to four loaves of apple sourdough rye bread, and a fourth is still under development -- I hope. This fourth starter is to be the basis of a good deal of the breads I hope to make -- it is a firm starter, started over a week ago with nothing more than rye flour and water. It is on its fourth refreshment, and is showing some signs of life.

Doughs for today:

a. A pain ordinaire, started last night, and left overnight in the fridge for development. This is a simple white flour dough, fairly wet, but to be used as a pate fermentee for the next dough. Basis: 800g bleached bread flour, and added the optional additional water.

b. A pain ordinaire, began this morning, with an addition of the pate fermentee from the previous step. Again, a fairly wet dough. Basis: 1400g bleached bread flour, 200g dark rye (whole) flour, with about 150g pate fermentee and the optional water.

c. Baking Team USA Sweet Dough, from ABAA, with raisins added. Planned to be used for cinnamon swirl bread.

Pain Ordinaire

2 T yeast (1.5%)
5 C water (73%)
1.6 Kg flour (100%)
Mix, let autolyse.
Optionally add 1/2 C water (brings to 80%)
2 T salt (3%)

Sweet Dough

From Artisan Baking Across America, pg 212.

Pictures from the day:

Gluten forming in the pain ordinaire.

Ciabatta proofing.

Ciabatta after baking.

Apple sourdough rye from the weekend.