Adventures in Bread-Making - Part 2

Welcome back to Adventures in Bread-Making!  This is Part 2.  I'm breaking these experiences up into three posts, each describing a different kind of bread: starting with ciabatta, working through an easy white bread and making my way to the mother-of-all-breads, the sourdough.  Dun, dun, duuuunnnn!  As you know, sourdough is on my list of the Ten Most Difficult Recipes Challenge and I've set it as my next conquest.  However, I wanted to work on my bread-making techniques before I just jumped right into something that hard. 

After my ciabatta experience, I was feeling pretty good about my mad bread-making skillz.  Actually, I wanted to shout from the rooftops that I made the most amazing bread in the world...and it only took me 2 days and 6 hours!  But I needed one more mastery before I felt I was truly ready.  Something easy.  Super super easy.  Something to make me feel invincible.  Enter King Arthur Flour blog. 

I was reading through old posts and suddently, there it was!  A recipe for "The Crunchiest-Crackliest-Chewiest-Lightest-EASIEST Bread You'll Ever Bake" --- boo ya!!  Sounds PERFECT.  The recipe gives you really great step-by-step instructions, with pictures even!  It looked easy.  Almost too easy.  But I figured, what the hell.

So I printed out the recipe:

Gathered my ingredients.

Measured.*

Mixed.

Stuck it in a big-ass plastic bowl for a while.

A few days later, I pulled out a hunk of dough.

Made it round.

Stuck it on parchment. 

Let it rest for about an hour. 

Scored the top and baked it.

HOLY MOLY!

PERFECTION.

I am not kidding, it was that easy!

We sliced it while it was still hot and  it dipped in an olive oil and balsalmic vinegar mixture.

We ate the whole damn loaf in one sitting (in addition to our meal).

A few days later, I made another loaf.  It was even better!

YOU MUST TRY THIS.  Tonight!  You really can't screw this up. It's unbelievably amazing!

I am seriously going to make this dough and keep it in the fridge to have on-hand at all times.  Fresh bread every single day is now possible.  I'm DYING.  This is amazing.  My life as I know it is over. 


*Do you measure flour properly?  If you have a scale, then use it.  Otherwise, you need to go HERE and watch the video.  I had no idea I'd been measuring flour incorrectly my entire life!! 


UPDATE: I want to edit this post in response to some great questions I've received in the comment section.  Here are the answers:

1. Why do you use bread machine yeast when you're not using a machine? Fleischmanns is a no-go?

-- I use the SAF bread machine yeast because the recipe calls for it (and Josh recommeded it).  IHowever, here's some good info that I found that might help clarify the issue. 

Bread World: RapidRise (Fleishmanns) and Bread Machine Yeast are different strains than Active Dry Yeast. RapidRise and Bread Machine Yeast are grown with a higher level of nutrients and are dried to lower moisture content. The particle size of RapidRise and Bread Machine Yeast are finely granulated to allow complete hydration of the yeast cells during the mixing process. The Active Dry Yeast larger particle size should be dissolved in water to achieve complete hydration prior to adding to the mixer. In addition, RapidRise and Bread Machine Yeast contain ascorbic acid resulting in increased loaf volumes.

Fresh Active Yeast is the product that Fleischmann's has been manufacturing for over 130 years. It is also traditionally known as compressed or cake yeast. It has not undergone the drying process, so it does not need to be dissolved before use: soften the cake in warm water first OR simply crumble the yeast into dry ingredients (if directed by recipe). Fresh yeast requires two rises. Yeast is available in two different sizes: 0.6 ounces and 2 ounce household cakes

2.  Do you mix by hand, yourself or use a mixer?

-- I actually made this KAF Easy bread without using a mixer.  It was really really easy.  I mixed it in a big bowl with a rubber spatula.  No mixer or bread machine necessary.  For the ciabatta, I used my Kitchen Aide stand mixer, but it's not necessary.  You can definitely mix by hand, it just takes a little longer.

3.  Where did you get your scale? Do I need one?

-- I bought this at a kichen good store.  Most kitchen stores will sell them (Williams Sonoma, Sur La Table, etc.).  They are really helpful to have and if you're serious about baking, you should get one (they're not very expensive).  But you don't have to have one!  Go HERE and they'll show you the proper way to measure flour without a scale!  Problem solved.

4.  Where do you buy SAF bread machine yeast?
 
-- I bought it at Kitchen Conservatory, but you can also get it at the grocery (called bread machine yeast) or from King Arthur Flour's online shop.

Adventures in Bread-Making - Part 1

I have been craving fresh bread lately in a major way. Like crack-addiction crazy major way. So I figured it was finally time to put that bread-making class that Alice and I took at Kitchen Conservatory to use.

I pulled out that packet of bread-making info and recipes (like 30 pages of stuff!) that we got from Josh and Price of Companion Bakery. Of the three bread recipes they gave us, I decided to attempt to make ciabatta bread. Mmmm. Doesn't that just sound amazing (and hard)? Well, it was. Both amazing and hard.

But not as hard as I thought it would be! Yay! Mostly because even though I didn't follow the directions exactly (because I screwed up*) and yet it still turned out really delicious! Yes, it probably could have been better (and prettier), but it reaffirmed my faith in bread and made me realize that I just might be able to do this.

* When I cook I have a really hard time following precise directions. I just can't do it! I always screw something up. Sometimes I do it on purpose (because I think I can modify the recipes and "improve" them, but when "baking" that only screws it up worse), but mostly I just get overwhelmed and distracted. When I cook, I'm usually making about 17 things at the same time, and watching TV, and talking to Ryan, and stepping on/over/around the dog, and taking pictures, etc. So it's easy to miss something here and there.

Anyway. Back to the bread. Wednesday night (after having a delish lunch at Companion that day), I decided to try making the ciabatta. However, as you know with artisan bread-making, this is not a quick process. It takes at least 2 days to make this bread, so it's like internet shopping...delayed gratification. If you're one of those instant gratification people (like me), this is hard. Being patient sucks.

Wednesday night I made the ciabatta sponge. The sponge consisted of flour, water and yeast. That's it. 

I used King Arthur Flour because I love them.  I love their recipes.  I love their blog.  And I love that they're on Twitter and they're super helpful with answering questions about bread and cooking. 

I used SAF bread machine yeast (because Josh said so and I'll do whatever he says).

Measure it all VERY PRECISELY. I had to buy a scale to make absolute sure I was measuring the ingredients right (which I wasn't, so its a good thing I did) (I'll explain measuring in Part 2).

Mix it all together.

And then put it in a plastic bowl/bucket and let it ferment/rest for 12-18 hour somewhere cool. Did you hear that? Somewhere cool? Yeah...I screwed that up. I just left it on the dining room table. Not cool. Not refrigerated. I didn't realize this until the next day when I re-read the recipe and flipped out.  I thought for shore that I messed the whole thing up. But I didn't throw it out.  I just held my breath and went for it.  If it failed, I learned my lesson.  If it worked, I would thank the bread gods.

Here's the sponge.

The next day, I took the sponge and added it to more flour (unbleached wheat and whole wheat King Arthur Flour), more water, more yeast and some salt to make the ciabatta dough. 

Mix it again and you've got a dough. 

Next comes the hard part...being patient.  And waiting.  And waiting.  And waiting.

After you mix, let it rest for 45 minutes.  This is the first fermentation.

Then you stretch and fold it.  About 3 stretches/fold.

One...

Stretch!

And fold.

This shit is sticky!

Two...

Still sticky.

Real sticky.

And three.

(Please excuse my sweaty post-5 mile run work-out worn-out look.)

Ta da! 

One stretch/fold/rest period down...two more to go.

That's correct. 

After you mix, there's a 45 minute rest, followed by stretch/fold. 

Then 45 minute rest, stretch/fold. 

Then 45 minute rest, stretch/fold again! 

I promise, I'm not making this up to mess with you or to get you to be really proud of me...it really is this hard!

Finally, you take it out of the bowl, shape it into a round circle and divide it in two. 

(In between all that resting and stretching, I showered and put on my PJs.)

Place each loaf on a piece of parchment paper.

Then let it rest for another 45 minutes!! This is the final proof.

See what I mean about being PATIENT! This takes for-ever!

By now it's practically 3:00 in the morning (geez!) and it still has to bake.  Seriously, remember to give yourself LOTS of time to make bread.  You need to devote a whole day to nothing but bread-making.  You can do laundry and dishes and watch TV and all kinds of stuff in between the rest periods, but you can't leave the house and you can't miss your stretch/folds.  Just plan accordingly, ok.  Consider yourself warned.

Anyway, now you stick the bread into the pre-heated (450 degree) oven on a pizza stone.  Place an empty cookie sheet on the rack below the pizza stone.  Right before you put the bread in the oven, give it a couple slash marks on top.  And then put the dough directly on the stone.  Put a handful of ice cubes on the cookie sheet and close the oven door immediately.  This moisture is super important in forming a good crust.

Ooops.  I forgot to make my slash marks. 

I was too busy worrying about the ice cubes and the oven temp and setting the timer. 

See, I told you I can't follow directions!

Put it in the oven.

About half an hour later, here's what you get.

Even without slash marks, you'll be convinced you died and went to bread heaven. 

I remembered to thank those bread gods for not screwing up my sponge. 

(Or maybe I did, but I couldn't taste the difference.) 

The recipe made a LOT of bread.

Plenty to share with your friends and family.

If I keep making this bread, I'm sure to gain a LOT of new friends!

Thanks again to Josh and Price at Companion Bakery for the recipe and ALL the great tips and advice.  I couldn't have done this without taking your class.  Let me know when you've got a position open for a baker!  I think I'm ready.