Baked By Bear Sourdough

Roasted Red Pepper-Jarlsberg Cheese Sourdough

I’m trying out some new breads with inclusions. Thinking that I’d like to add some additional loaves to my repertoire and “dial them in”.

Thought I’d try a roasted red pepper/Jarlsberg cheese recipe. The red pepper was intentional (went to store and bought a jar). The cheese not so much … I had a piece of Jarlsberg cheese in my fridge that looked as if it wanted to join the fun.

RECIPE

200g Bread Flour
100g Spelt flour
200g Water
60g Levain
6g salt
35g Roasted Red Pepper purée
70g Jarlsberg Cheese

METHOD

Mix the flour and water and autolyse 2 hours
Mix in purée and levain and let rest 30 mins
Mix in salt and let rest 30 mins
Laminate in cheese
Stretch and fold for strength for 2.5 hours or so
Continue bulk ferment for a total of 5-6 hours from time of levain addition
Shape and place into banneton
Cool ferment overnight
Bake next day 25 mins covered at 420°F convection
Bake uncovered as necessary for crust color

Note: This loaf is about 670g (about 80% of my normal loaves which are typically 840g going into bake.) Thinking the covered bake is less time 25 mins vs 35 mins since it is smaller.

Here are photos from the initial mixing, autolyse folding in etc. as you can see I was a bit sparse on my documenting…

Here is how the loaf looked before baking…

Here’s how the loaf turned out…

Overall the bread is tasty. Thinking I might replace the Jarlsberg with smoked Gouda. It isn’t too salty. Crust, bloom and crumb are OK for a first attempt but not quite what I want ultimately.

I’m pleased with my experiment!

Cinnamon-Raisin Sourdough

I’m thinking about trying a series of sourdough breads with “inclusions”. There have been a number of different breads I’ve observed other bakers baking which look quite tasty.

I’ve done Cheddar-Jalapeño. This time I thought I’d try Cinnamon-Raisin

Both leverage lamination for the inclusions.

The cheddar adds a bit of additional moisture to the equation (as does the jalapeños that I put up last fall). The raisins much less (right out of box without plumping them up with water.

Getting the right ratio of raisins and cinnamon to the bread volume is a key metric. I tried to get 200g of raisins in; however, I only had 170g left in my box in the pantry. Even still, I had a hard time squeezing them into the loaf.

It didn’t help that I munched on some too…

Here’s how the loaf looked after my cold proof just after scoring before it went into my Challenger Bread Pan

In any case, I laminated and baked it.

Didn’t quite get the oven bloom I’d hoped for…that said, I’m not rightfully sure what I should have expected.

After cooling I cut into the loaf. Nice crust. Good crumb. Cinnamon flavor isn’t over-powering and just a hint of sweetness from the raisins. Great heated with butter!

I’m definitely going to try again. I’m going to try other inclusions over the next weeks and months!

Sourdough Batards – Different Scoring

Thought I’d try a different scoring technique on my Batards. I’ve been unhappy with my oven blooming as of late.

Today I made an “S” with my lame. One of the loaves had just the “S”. The other I made a second pass undercutting it a bit more on the curves.

Everything else about the bake was per my norm.

Great oven blooming! I was really pleased.

The first single loaf picture was the one which I’d underscored a bit more (one on right in the double picture).

I’m going to try this scoring method again to see if I can replicate these results.

Until then, there is bread to enjoy!

Trying Out My New Dough Sheeter

Today I tried out my new dough sheeter from Kneader Official. I’m very pleased with my first use!

I bought the Dough Sheeter to improve my lamination consistency over what I’ve been able to achieve via hand-lamination.

At first glance this will accomplish it quite nicely! I will certainly get better as I use and refining my technique as I practice.

My dough felt really great throughout the process. The machine helped me get consistent layers and thickness.

Here is a close-up of my croissants…

I’m excited to see how this new batch of croissants come out when baked tomorrow!

How to Recover from Broken Butter…

Broken butter when making laminated dough is my nemesis…

…actually it’s my impatience and not consistently waiting for it to be the right temperature and malleable that’s the culprit.

Last batch I had HORRIBLY broken butter. I was so excited to use my new dough sheeter that EVERY lesson I’d learned about butter simply vanished from my thought. Ouch!

Way to cold/firm butter about to get shattered!

Fortunately… the cling wrap hides the evidence pretty well (in the photo)!

Well… what does one do in this situation?

My solution: make Kouign-Amann!

I buttered and coated with sugar large muffin tins (12 spaces). I then cut 4.5” squares out of my dough. Because I hadn’t included sugar in my last fold I dusted what would be the interior with sugar and then folded them into the muffin tray.

Folding them in was accomplished by taking the four corners and pressing them into the center.

I proofed the trays in my proving bags for about 4.5 hours. Any corners that had “escaped” the center got pushed back into place.

Baked at 350°F for ~ 14 minutes. Note: I had meant to cook them at 350°F convection….

Because I was cooking about 20°F lower than planned I ended up leaving in longer to get a nice color on top.

Once baked I removed them to cool on the rack. I glazed them with Apricot jam while warm.

Delicious recovery!!

Sourdough Croissant Proving Experiment

Decided today to experiment with my proving length.

A while back I had inadvertently lengthened my proving time (at that point 2 hours) to 4 hours. Those croissants weren’t “ruined” and actually caused me to intentionally prove for that length of time for batches since then.

Earlier this week I saw an Instagram post by autumn.kitchen about experimenting with proving times. That led me to my experiment today.

I decided to prove one tray for 6 hours (+2 hours from my normal 4-hours) and the second tray for 8-hours (2X my normal 4-hours)

RESULT: I need to prove longer! I’m under-proving at 4-hours in my environment!

Here’s a comparison…

Overall the 8-hour proving had the best “honeycomb” in my mind. There was more visible separation in the layers overall.

All have been really tasty with great flakiness (e.g. whenever you cut into them you’re “murdering” the croissant with flakes and crumbs everywhere…there’s no hiding the evidence).

I had virtually no melted butter in the tray (unlike previous bakes).

Overall I’m very pleased with the outcome! I’m not scared to prove my croissants for a longer period and am confident in my results.

Always learning…

New Dough Sheeter!

I’m excited!

Going to be upping my croissant lamination game. I received my new Kneader Official table dough sheeter from Japan yesterday!

Here’s my unboxing…

Unboxing the Dough Sheeter

I was a bit disappointed in UPS’s handling of my package. The hole in the packaging went all the way thru and caused a small scratch on the cover. Minor issue…

I quickly set it up according to the instruction manual.

I’m excited to try it out! Simple. Well-built. High-quality. Effective.

Let the process of getting proficient with a new tool begin!

Chia Boule & Cheddar/Jalapeño Batard

Trying to get back on my baking cadence since I’ve been traveling lately.

My starter feeding has been a bit off and I’m not feeling it’s as “happy” as it has been. As a result I fed it 1:5:5 and did the same for the levain.

Decided I’d mix my dough, let it bulk ferment for 24 hours, shape and place in bannetons overnight and bake for morning.

I shaped one loaf into a boule and coat with chia seeds. The other I thought I’d laminate with sharp cheddar and some jalapeños for put up previously.

These loaves went into the Dutch Ovens after they had been preheated to 420°F (convection).

My normal pattern has been to bake the loaves for 35 minutes covered then pull out to continue baking on an unheated pizza stone (keeps bottom from burning) to darken the crust.

I ended up baking an additional 16 minutes (5 min + 6 min + 5 min). Not sure why other than the additional moisture from the cheese and jalapeños.

I didn’t get the oven bloom I had expected. Thinking that my starter is a bit out of kilter. Will need to adjust and see if that’s the problem.

That said, the bread is really tasty! The cheddar/jalapeños has a taste close to that of a ChezIt with a bit more “zing”.

Crumb shot of the Cheddar Jalapeño Batard

I’llneed to keep on experimenting…

Trying a new method… (Part 4)

Well … they’re baked and it was a first attempt for sure!

I had some interesting results for sure. I’m going to need to ponder, research and think a bit before my next attempt.

All loaves came out different than I expected. All were moist (more so than normal). Tasted good with an OK crust.

Loaf #1 spread out, had limited bloom. Crumb holes were larger, as expected, due to higher hydration level. Plenty of blistering due to the loaf being baked directly from the fridge.

It will be a candidate for making croutons.

Loaf # 2 I shaped (again) out of the banneton. It developed an ear (somewhat) and had more oven spring overall. Crumb structure was open but closer to other loaves I’ve made in the past. Blisters on the surface were present, but moderately.

Loaf # 3 was intended to be a boule (round) not a batard. I ended up shaping it (again) out of the banneton before scoring a baking. It had the most closed crumb structure and seems to have the highest moisture level of the three loaves. I scored it in a “+” like I normally do for boules rather than the slash for batards.

Overall they weren’t bad…definitely a “first try”. I’ll continue to read up on higher-hydration loaves. Certainly the strength of the dough to support blooming is an issue. I’d rather have the go upward than look like a Ciabatta (unless that was my intent).

I enjoyed making the dough this way. I’d be interested in seeing what happens the next time.

Trying a new method… (Part 3)

Today is bake day!

I’m excited but also apprehensive. Not quite sure how this will turn out.

The oven has been preheated to 420°F (convection) with my Dutch oven and Challenger Bread Pan inside.

The dough has visibly risen and the “finger test” seems to indicate it’s ready to go.

Dough ready to be turned out of banneton

Concerned a bit about how moist the dough is with the cloth inserts.

I was right to feel that way!

The dough stuck and was hard to pull away!

The loaf was more slack than I desired (started to spread immediately). The second loaf was even worse! Agghhhh!!

I actually ended up reshaping the second loaf before scoring and putting it in to bake.

Once they bake I’ll have a “Results” post.

To be continued…