Two Loaves for Sister Sunny!

My dear sister will be returning from her world travels anytime soon! Last I heard she was in London after finishing a safari in Tanzania and a short stop to Cape Town, South Africa. Welcome back, Sunny! These are just for you! Made with KAF, Sir Galahad. Many thanks to the local Hy-Vee bakery manager, Jayme for the flour!

Pot Loaf

I discussed a few bread baking tips with my sister, Sunny, today and decided I'd actually test some of these great tips to see if they work! It has been quite some time since I'd tried the Jim Lahey method of baking bread in a cast iron Dutch oven. Somehow, I've never been too attracted to the idea; maybe it is just too simple. So, using the Lahey-Bittman method of a quick rise (using a few drops of red wine vinegar in the dough), I began the dough this morning and just finished baking my first loaf. It looks great! I have another in the oven. I'll be cutting into this shortly, but have no fear that it didn't come out just as Jim said it would.

As Jim explained in the video, I used very little yeast, water at 120 F, with an initial rise of 3 hours. I used 1000 grams of flour with 750 grams of water and divided the dough into two loaves. (75% hydration...) My pot is fairly large. I used a 475 degree convection oven for the entire baking process. For the uncovered portion, the time was about 10 minutes, maybe less, probably accelerated by the convection oven. The inside temp was 200 at the end of the baking.

Simple Practical Loaf

This bread was made from a 75% hydration dough that was proofed approximately 24 hours at a cool room temperature (around 65 degrees). Not long before baking, I poured the dough out onto a floured surface and gently shaped it into a loaf by folding the sides underneath. With the oven pre-heated to 550, I slide it onto the hot stone and then scored the top with a sharp chef's knife (to avoid degassing from too much handling and cutting.)

After the first few minutes, the oven was turned down to 450 for the remainder of the baking. Total bake time was probably around 40 minutes, but I didn't measure it precisely. The internal temp was 195 at the finish.

This will be breakfast, along with fruit, coffee, and jam!

Bevy of Baguettes

It is so unlike me to do this. But I actually followed some instruction and process today. Using instructions from my new book by Ciril Hitz, I put together some French bread "classic" dough (using a poolish), and here is the result. I made three baguettes, one boule, and a batard. We're about to sample these with soup and salad. I let you know how they turned out. But so far, they're looking good!

The Boule

This evening I baked a boule with dough refrigerated overnight. The flour mix was 57% Hodgson Mills Whole Wheat, and a 1/4 cup (3.8%) of Bob's Red Mill Vital Wheat Gluten, with the balance made of my standard Eagle Mills flour from Costco, with a 70% hydration. The final proof was done in a banneton.

I am reasonably pleased with the result, however, some larger holes were anticipated. We'll be having this bread with soup this evening with some left over for sandwiches or toast in the morning.