What are you Baking the Week of February 19, 2023?

[Mike Nolan]

I am making semolina bread, I cut the semolina/durum back to 50-50 and I subbed in 4 ounces of orange juice to help counteract the bitterness of the bran. I'm also going to bake it at a somewhat lower temperature.

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[chocomouse]

I made 2 loaves of Walter Sands white bread, although I subbed in 2 cups of whole wheat for 2 cups of AP, and added flax meal.

[Mike Nolan]

Today's semolina bread came out pretty good, nice oven spring, decent crumb, though it did sort of blow out a little at one end, I think it needed a little more proofing. My shaping was a bit imperfect, too, my goal is to get the middle 2/3 of a loaf to have the same size (width and height) so that the slices are more uniform for sandwich making.

The changes I made (ratio of semolina/durum to bread flour, adding OJ, lower baking temperature) all seemed to have positive impacts, the crust isn't quite as dark or thick and the bitter taste from the bran is either gone or lowered to the point where it isn't obvious.

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[Joan Simpson]

Mike this bread looks awesome!

[Mike Nolan]

It'll probably take me a few more rounds to get it to the point where I'm really satisfied with it, but it was definitely an improvement over the first batch with the Azure semolina/durum flour. I haven't made pasta with it yet, that's on my list for this week.

Although I'm not selling my breads to anyone, I'm still thinking about that possibility, and a salable loaf is my standard. I'd rate this one as 80-90% of the way there.

[BakerAunt]

You could always call the loaf "Artisan," Mike. 🙂

On Monday, I baked "Authentic Italian Lemon and Ricotta Cookies (no butter)" from Elena Paravartes' blog, Olive Tomato. I always replace half of the flour with white whole wheat flour. Today, I further experimented to see if I could reduce the ricotta from 8 oz. to 5 oz., which is what I had left after baking the Turkey, Spinach, and Mushroom Lasagna on Saturday and reducing the ricotta in it to 10 oz. As an additional, unplanned, experiment, my husband reminded me as I was baking the first tray that we were due at the CPA's office to go over our return forms. I had to leave the second tray unbaked for the half hour we were gone, then bake them upon our return. The gap in time did not affect the cookies. I taste tested one from each batch for dessert tonight, and the second batch is identical to the first. The reduced ricotta makes them a bit firmer, but we do not mind it.

[Mike Nolan]

Artisan to me means meeting a high standard of quality and consistency, and the latter includes shaping, proofing and baking.

There has been an interesting thread in the BBGA forum lately, and one of the full-time bakers made a comment about a loaf (one that probably looked better than my latest semolina bread) that I think defines the standards an artisan baker tries to meet:

I wouldn't present that loaf at the end of a practical baking assessment and expect to pass.

Loaves that are by design not uniform (or at least close to it) might be called 'rustic', I suppose.

[aaronatthedoublef]

Mike, the color and crumb look good. Free form shaping is so much harder than I ever anticipated. It took me about six or seven times at Uncle Matt's before I was happy with my batards and my baguettes were still hit or miss. And you all have seen some of my wonky challahs.

I have to make sandwich bread and challah and pizza dough this week.

[Mike Nolan]

I think the latest semolina dough would have benefited from some stretch-and-folds, that does seem to help the shaping.

My baguettes often looked like a snake that swallowed 3 rats, though I found with practice I got better at it, I think the pre-rolling part of the shaping is key. I watched the staff at SFBI roll out baguettes during one of the lunch breaks when I was taking my pastry course, they even let me roll out a few, and said I was doing pretty good, though they were much faster.

One of the advantages of making epis de bles is that the cuts tend to mask the uneven-ness of the baguette. (And it definitely maximizes surface area, the crusty outside is the best part of a baguette, IMHO.)

One of the things I noticed from the picture yesterday is that the sesame seeds are heavier on one side than on the other, probably has to do with the angle at which I hold the shaker. I thought this batch had enough seeds on them, my wife commented on the previous batch that there weren't many sesame seeds at all.

I think Hamelman recommends dipping the shaped loaf in a tray of sesame seeds, which is probably a lot faster in a production shop. (As I noted in a recent BBGA thread, a lot of production practices are geared towards speed and consistency.) I've always thought that might wind up with too many sesame seeds on the loaf, maybe next time I'll try it. I always wind up with a lot of them falling off the loaf and going to waste on the parchment, presumably any that don't stick would just fall back into the tray.

[chocomouse]

Today I made date-oatmeal cookies.

[BakerAunt]

I baked the Apple, Barley, and Olive Oil Cake again on Tuesday, with the same changes as a couple of weeks ago. The recipe has been adapted to the point that it is now truly mine. This time, I baked it in a 6-cup heart Bundt pan (I could not resist the new one from Nordic Ware) and a 3-cup Kaiser Backform mini-Bundt pan. The 3-cup pan took about 35 minutes to bake. The 6-cup heart required 45 minutes. Both released perfectly from the pan (love The Grease). I will freeze the small one for Dessert Emergencies, and we will begin eating the other one tomorrow. It will fit nicely on a heart-shaped plate that I bought some years ago from King Arthur--back when they had more interesting offerings.

The 3-cup small Bundt came in a set of two and was called Kaiserguss, with the box stating "original Kaiser Backform." However, it had a "made in China" sticker on it that I only saw after I bought it some years ago at T.J. Maxx. Otherwise, the box looks just like the German ones. I do not know if that means Kaiser Backform moved stuff overseas. However, the pan performed admirably, so I am glad that I bought it. In a two-person household, smaller cakes are the way to go.

[Mike Nolan]

I made another batch of peanut butter cookies today, I put some mini semi-sweet chocolate chips in a few of them.

I think I left them in the oven for about 30 seconds too long, they're a little on the dark side, just this side of burnt. But Diane likes them that way.

[BakerAunt]

I baked my Whole Wheat Sourdough Cheese Crackers on Wednesday from dough I made last week. If I am lucky, these will last my husband for 10-14 days, with me eating only a few of them.

[Mike Nolan]

My wife noted that while the somewhat overbaked cookies are edible, they're baked beyond the point where they're chewy. The ones with the mini chocolate chips are a bit of a disappointment.

[Joan Simpson]

I defrosted a pie crust from freezer and made a coconut custard pie ,looking forward to that tonight.

Shopping yesterday at Target and found eggs 18 count for $4.79 and I got 8 oz. bottle of imitation vanilla for 69 cents.

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