Peasant Torpedo Bread

This recipe that I adapted from Bernard Clayton's new Complete Book of Breads, has a rather intriguing approach to fermentation. So we will see how the results measure up to the more traditonal approaches using much less yeast and much longer fermentation. I did this one by hand. Had to work out some frustrations!!!

Peasant Torpedo Bread

3 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp sugar
4 1/2 tsp dry yeast
1 1/2 cups hot ( 120 degrees) water
2 tbsp shortening

Mix  2 cups flour, salt sugar, dry yeast with hot water in large bowl. Stir with wooden spoon or spatula till mixed.
Add shortening and stir for 2 minutes till all incorporate.

Add rest of flour, 1.2 cup at a time till all incorporated.

Knead for 10 minutes

Turn out into large bowl greased with cooking spray. Cover and let stand for 10 minutes, then punch down dough. Cover, let stand for 10 minutes and punch down again. Repeat 3 more times. Then punch down and let sit for 30 minutes or until double in size.

Form into ball shape. Let rest under a kitchen towel or plastic for 5 minutes.

Shape into torpedo and place on baking sheet covered with parchment. Score top with knife.Cover and let sit for 30 minutes

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Bake 30 to 40 minutes or until bottom sounds hollow when taped.

Cool on wire rack.

This bread sprang more than I expected in the oven!!! Moist loose crumb and a light crust. Quite a nice bread. I would make 2 loaves in future.

Spelt Bread

Time to try a spelt bread, since I bought some spelt flour from the Grain Processor outlet shop a while ago. Hunted around for a recipe and decided to adapt one from Lauren Chattman's Bread Making book. Her recipe called for spelt flour and whole wheat, I decided to substitute unbleached bread flour because I wanted to get more of the spelt flavour. I also baked in a pan rather than making it into a batarde, since the dough seemed to be way to soft to hod the batarde shape.

Spelt Bread

Day 1

Biga

2 oz room temperature water
3 grams instant yeast
65 grams whole spelt flour

Combine in bowl using a rubber spatula till rough dough forms, making sure to incorporate all flour.
Cover with plastic and let stand 1 hour, then refrigerate for 16 hours

Day 2

Dough

12 oz water at room temperature
12 oz whole spelt flour
6 oz unbleached bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp crushed vitamin C tablet

Tear biga into pieces and place in bowl of stand mixer. Add all other ingredients and mix with rubber spatual attachment till rough dough forms. Let stand 10 minutes.

Switch to dough hook and knead dough for 8 minutes. Put dough in large bowl sprayed with cooking spray and cover and let sit till doubled, about 1 1.2 hour

Punch down and turn out on flour covered surface and cover and let sit for 20 minutes. Uncover and shape into loaf pans. Cover and let rise till over top of pans.

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool completely on wire racks.

 Here is a picture of the crumb texture. It smelled so good I forgot to take a picture of my loaf before I was tempted to cut off the end and try it! Complex flavour, very soft and yummie.

Cassava Cake

I picked up some cassava root recently since its something I've never used in cooking. Since I'm into experimenting, it was time to find out how to use this root. I found that it is also called yucca and it is part of the tapioca family, so a starch. A number or south Asian cuisines make it into a cake, so cake it is!! More like a custard cake.

Cassava Cake

2 cups peeled grated cassava
3 eggs beaten
1 can  evaporated milk
1 can  sweetened condensed milk
1 can coconut milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Mix all ingredients till thoroughly combined and pour into baking dish.

Bake for 1 hour. Cool completely in refrigerator before serving.

Very tasty, with a hint of coconut. Bit chewy from the cassava root. I served it with a tropical fruit salad.

Rustic Bread

It was about time to use the Biga Preferment that I put in the freezer. It was left over from making Ciabatta.
This time I wanted to try a "Rustic Loaf", from Peter Reinhart's Crust amd Crumb. I followed his recipe but not exactly. Here is what mine consisted of.

Day 1

Remove Biga from freezer and leave overnight in refrigerator

Day 2

Rustic Loaf

16 oz Biga pre-ferment ( take out of refrigerator 1 hour before mixing dough)
16 oz unbleached bread flour
1.5 oz sugar
0.5 oz slat
1/2 tsp instant yeast
4 oz milk at room temperature
2 tbsp olive oil
1 cup cool water

Combine all ingredients in bowl of stand mixer and mix at low speed with paddle attachment for about 1 minute. Switch to dough hook and mix for another 8 minutes.

Put dough in large bowl sprayed with cooking spray, cover and let let  rise for 1/ 1/2 hours ( It should have been 4 hours but I did not have enough time for that)

Turn our dough on floured cloth, punch down and cut into 2 pieces. Shape pieces into rounds. Cover and let sit for 1 1/2 hour

Prepare baking sheets with parchment. Shape into long oval. Put each loaf on a parchment sheet, and pace both on one baking tray Pull up parchment in middle so loaves are almost touching and support parchment on other side with rolled up towels.  

Leave to rise another 1 1/2 hours. Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Put pan with boiling water on lowest tray in oven. Put in loaves and spray loaves and oven with water. Repeat after 2 and and after 5 minutes. Reduce heat to 425 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.

Turn off oven and leave loaves for another 10 minutes or so.

Cool on wire racks.

Quite yummie! Great crispy crust with lots of tang. Nice crumb, but not as big as it should be, but quite chewy. Next time I will try to do the full fermenting time ans see the difference that makes.

Rye Sourdough with Cumin

Its been a while since I've had a chance to make bread due to Mom's care issues, but I did manage to squeeze this one in. I did the kneading by hand. I needed to work some frustrations out!

Rye Sourdough with Cumin

Day Before Starter

1.4 cup sourdough starter
1/2 cup rye flour
1/4 cup water at room temperature

Mix starter with flour and water. Cover and let stand overnight

Dough

1 1/2 to 2 cups unbleached bread flour
1/2 cup rye flour
1 cup water at room temperature
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cumin

Mix 1 1/2 cup bread flour plus all the rest of the  ingredients and add starter. Knead for 8 minutes adding a bit of bread flour as needed. Dough will feel sticky

Place in bowl sprayed with cooking spray, cover and let stand till double in size, about 90 minutes or so.

Punch down dough, shape and place in greased bread pan. Cover and let stand till to top of bread pan, about 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Preheat oven to  400 degrees. Bake about 35 to 45 minutes.

Cool on wire rack.

This dough took longer to rise than anticipated and then felt too soft to rise properly. Note there is no curved top . Tasty but I think sourdough (at least this starter) is not worth my trouble! I did like the touch of cumin.

Refresh Sourdough

I almost for got that I have to feed my Sourdough Starter today. Better late than never.

Refresh Sourdough

Throw out half of mixture.

Add 1/2 cup unbleached bread flour

2 tsp rye flour

1/4 cup water

Mix together and let stand 1 hour. Refrigerate till ready to use.