"Almost" no-knead bread, improved version of no-knead bread ほとんど捏ねないパン改善版

When we were organizing our cookbooks and recipe print-outs, we found a small book called "Cook's Illustrated All-Time Best Bread Recipes" (published in 2018). We had completely forgotten about this book. While I was browsing through it, I came across "No-knead bread 2.0" by J. Kenji Lopez-Alt. This was based on the "no-knead bread recipe" by Jim Lahey which was popularized by Mark Bittman when his recipe was published in the New York Times. We learned about Jim Lahey's recipe through the Washington Post and bought his book. I made a few of the no-knead bread recipes from the book and they were great. But I have to agree with Kenji that because of the high hydration rate of 75-80% in the original recipe, the dough is very difficult to handle. In addition, placing the uncooperative dough in a hot cast iron pot runs the real risk of seriously burning yourself. As a result with some degree of struggle, it usually gets into the pot whatever way you  can manage without burning yourself. Fingers may be intact but at the expense of bread somewhat irregularly shaped. Also, the shape tends to be rather flat since the dough deflates a bit when placing it in the hot cast iron pot. This v 2.0 recipe reduced the hydration to close to 70%, and has added vinegar and beer for additional flavor. Also, you knead it a little so it is "almost" no-knead bread. Instead of putting the dough on a floured dish towel for the second rise, it happens in a skillet (or bowl I suppose) lined with parchment paper.  You can then transfer the dough using the parchment paper on which it is sitting to get it into the hot cast iron pot. All these changes make it much easier to handle the dough, and produces a consistent shape and really "artisanal" bread with sour dough-like great flavors.

Nice crust and good texture (multiple irregular holes).

Ingredients: (I am listing the original Kenji's recipe and metric weight in parenthesis which I converted by weighing the ingredients but not just numerical conversion of "cups" and "tsp", "tbs").
3 cup (425g) AP flour (Instead of bread flour, this recipe uses AP flour, I am not sure why but I should try it with bread flour).
3/4 cup plus 2 tbs (207g) water
6 tbs (80g) beer*
1 tbs (13g) white distilled vinegar (I used rice vinegar)

(Total liquid of 290g which makes hydration rate of 68%)

1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp instant yeast

*Kenji recommends to use light Pilsner-style lager beer such as Budweiser. I did not have Bud in our fridge so I used Sam Adams' Boston lager.<

Directions:
In a bowl, mix the ingredients using a wood spoon until no dry flour remains.

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let it rise for 8-12 hours in a warm place (I used our proofing box at 85F for 8 hours).
Take the dough out and put on a floured board and knead 10-15 times. Make into a boule-shaped dough ball.
Place the dough in a parchment paper lined skillet (below picture. Kenji's recipe include spraying with vegetable spray but I do not see the need for that and skipped that process).

Place this uncovered in the proofing box (the box has a water tray providing moisture to prevent a skin from forming on the dough). Let it rise for the second time for 1-2 hours.

Meanwhile, put the cast iron pot in the oven and preheat the oven to 450F at least 30 minutes before the second rise is done.

Using a lame, slash the top of the dough (see below).

Transfer the dough to the hot cast iron pot using the parchment paper.

Bake for 30 minutes with the lid on and 5-10 minutes more minutes with lid off. 

As you can see in the picture below the resulting loaf was picturesque. It actually came out exactly like the picture in the book (on the front cover of the book).

Let it cool down completely (at least several hours or more) on a cooling rack before slicing.

When I mixed the dough, I thought this is too dry and would not work. But after 8 hours of rising, the dough was quite wet but it could be handled and kneaded. Using the parchment paper made transferring the dough to the hot cast iron pan much easier and safer. It also didn’t result in somewhat deflating the dough as happened with other method. Since the dough can be formed and slashed, it came out exactly like in the picture.

We lightly toasted a slice, lavishly buttered it and tasted. The crust was crunchy and the interior moist. The flavor was wonderful. The vinegar and beer emulated the sour dough taste complex and added real depth of flavor. This is definitely the best bread of this kind I ever made. 

NOT "no-knead" Pecan raisin bread 捏ねないのではないピーカン、レイズンパン

 I was duped into baking this bread by my wife. She found this bread recipe in a King-Authur flour catalog and ripped out the page. Since I mentioned in the previous blog that "When it comes to baking bread, I am in the school of the simpler the better like no-knead breads", my wife handed me this recipe, saying ‘here is another no-knead bread recipe you might want to try’.  She even made the biga starter for me the night before. So next morning, after closely reading the recipe, I pointed out that the recipe called for kneading the bread, (multiple times), indicating to me that this was not “no knead” bread. (I have no idea why she thought this was a no-knead bread). (Note from Wifey: She has no idea why either).  But by then, with the biga already made and ready to go, I did not have any choice but to make the bread. The original recipe called for dried apricots and cranberries but my wife said "just use raisins instead". (In her book, any candied or dried fruit can be substituted with raisins). So I followed her instructions. Actually the recipe requires lots of kneading, raising, deflating and raising etc. This is definitely more my wife's style bread than mine. But since I started it, I finished it.

This is an interesting bread. It is a cross between rustic and slightly sweet bread and is very versatile; good for breakfast and also with soup or stew.

Ingredients:
Biga (starter):
1 cup (120g) AP flour
1/4 cup (26g) Pumpernickel flour
1/2 cup (113g) water (my wife likes to use buttermilk instead)
1/8 tsp instant yeast

Dough:
all of the biga
3/4 cup (170g) water
2 1/4 cup (270g) AP flour
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp instant yeast
1/2 cup (64g) diced dried apricots
1/4 cup (28g) dried cranberries (I used  about 1/2 cup of raisin instead).
3/4 cup (85g) chopped, toasted pecans.

The original recipe calls for egg wash  which I skipped.
The instructions were not very precise, to say the least, and I had to use my CCK (common culinary knowledge) to fill in the “blanks”.

Directions:
For the biga:
Mix all ingredients and cover and let it ferment for 12-24 hours.

For the dough (I edited for more clarity):
Mix and knead the biga, water, flour, salt and yeast (I used a stand mixer with a dough hook).
Knead in the dried fruit and the pecans.
In a bowl, put a small amount of olive oil, put in the dough ball, tuned it to coat with the oil and covered to let rise for 45 minutes.

After 45 minutes (puffy not quite doubled in bulk), pull the edges of the dough and fold to the center (4 times as you quarter turn the bowl), then turn the dough over, cover and let it rise 45 minutes.
Repeat folding and turning over the dough after 45 minutes until doubled.
Shape the dough into a ball (boule) and place in a lightly greased bowl seam-side down, cover and let it rise 45-60 minutes.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 450F.
After 45-60 minutes (not quite doubled in bulk), brush with egg wash (I did not), slash the top (I used a lame and made a cross cut).
Bake at 450F for 15 minutes and lower the temperature to 375F and bake another 25 to 30 minutes (195F in the center of the bread).
Let it cool before slicing.

As I mentioned this is rather complicated bread to make and the original instruction was not really clear in the details. In any case, it was quite good. It was somewhat dense but moist and slightly sweet. But next time I will let my wife make it.

Addendum:

I baked this bread again. I made some changes and want to include more details on how I baked it.

My wife made biga the night before and left it in the proofing box set to 77 degrees for me to make the bread the next morning. I found the dried apricot and dried cranberries called for in the recipe but I could not find the pecans. So, instead, I used cashew nuts which my wife roasts regularly for a snack. Next problem/difference was the dough’s consistency. Later I found out my wife had added more liquid to the biga since the amount in the recipe made a very dry biga. (She referred to it as an unworkable form of concrete).  I didn’t realize this so when I added the rest of the ingredients, I did not adjust the amount of liquid. As a result the dough came out very wet and sticky, so I processed it the same as I would “Almost no knead” bread”. I went through the folding process three times, and let it rise 45 minutes each time. For the last rise, I placed it on parchment paper after I made the dough into a boule-shape and put it in a bowl to let it rise again (total of 4 rises).  I made a slash on the top of the boule and using the parchment paper placed the dough in a cast iron Dutch oven pan that had been preheated in the regular oven at 450F for 30 minutes. I baked the bread  at exactly 450F for 30 minutes with the lid on. I removed the lid and baked it for an additional 10 minutes. This worked out well as seen below. The bread had a nice crunchy crust. The interior was moist and the dried fruit gave it a slight sweet taste. The taste of the cashews was very subtle but they added to the texture. 

 

No knead olive rye bread 捏ねないオリーブライ麦パン

This is a continuation of my saga on no-knead breads. The last time, I made olive bread following the original recipe, I felt that the amount of water was too much even though it turned out to be a wonderful bread. The dough was too wet to handle easily. We also thought that the combination of salty olives with no-knead rye bread would taste even better. So this is the version I baked. It came out looking nice and rustic.

After it completely cooled down, we cut into it. This time I used half and half of Divina Kalamata and green olives.

Ingredients
300 grams Bread flour 

100 grams Rye flour
2 grams instant yeast
200 grams black and green olives (Salt brine) or all one kind, roughly chopped,
300 grams cold (52-65F) water

*changes I made from the original olive bread recipe were replacing 100 grams of flour with rye flour and reducing the water to 300grams from 350 grams.

Directions
The directions are same as for the other no knead bread.

Mix everything in a bowl with a wooden spoon.
Cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise for 12-18 hours.
Remove the dough from the bowl to a well floured board. 

Bring the outer edges into the center to make a round shape. 
Transfer it to a well floured dish towel, dust the surface with more flour and fold the towel to cover. Let it rise for 1-2 hours.
Preheat the oven with the cast iron pot inside to 450F for at least 30 minutes prior to baking.

Place the dough in the heated pot, put on the lid and bake for 30 minutes.
Remove the lid and bake an additional 5-10 minutes.
Take out the bread and let it completely cool on a cooling rack.

The dough was plenty wet and sticky despite the 50gram reduction in water from the original olive bread recipe. The texture of the bread was similar and I think this is enough hydration. Again, the burst of flavor from the salt brine olives and the addition of rye really made this bread. We think, for us, this is a better olive bread. Next plan is to make a similar bread using the "karikari koume" カリカリ小梅 I made instead of olives.

No Knead rye bread with "Karikari"-salted plum カリカリ青梅入り捏ねないライ麦パン

 As I promised in the previous post on no-knead olive rye bread, I made no-knead rye bread with "karikari-koume" カリカリ小梅 or salted small green plums. Initially I thought this bread was a failure, primarily because after 18 hours of rising not all the flour was incorporated into the dough as it should have been. It did not rise much and even after baking it was still a fairly flat loaf. In addition, as I was getting ready to incorporate the green plums into the dough my wife came along and snarfed a plum to taste. (This was the first time she tried one). She made the face reserved for eating raw lemons and blurted, 'how can you ever eat these things?' For her, it was not only salty but also very sour. For me it was salty but not that sour.

Initially, I had prepared 200 grams of the salted plums to add to the dough. After her tasting, and at her suggestion, I reduced the amount to about 150 grams and chopped them into smaller pieces  It turned out this was the right thing to do.

On the cut surface the plums look like green olives.

Ingredients
300 grams bread flour
100 grams rye flour
2 grams instant yeast
150 grams Karikari-koume salted plum, stone removed and roughly chopped (It is easiest to crush the plum with the flat of the knife and then split the plum open to remove the stone. I chopped a bit more finely than for the olives)
300 grams cold water

Directions
Exactly same as the other no-knead breads. Mix everything, cover and let it rise for 12-18 hours. Form the ball on a well-floured board by pulling the edges to the center. Dust with more flour and cover with a floured dish towel (I also placed an inverted large bowl over it). Let it rise for 1-2 hours. Preheat the oven to 450F with cast iron Dutch oven inside for, at least, 30 minutes before baking. Place the dough in the hot cast iron dutch oven, put the lid on and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the lid and bake an additional 10-15 minutes. Take it out and let it completely cool on a cooling rack.

All I can say after this experience is that yeast bread is very "forgiving". Turned out this "failure" bread was not bad at all. The taste was unique and very interesting (in a good way). The addition of the plums was just fine. The bread toned down the sourness and they provided a nice burst of saltiness reminiscent of olives but with the distinctive plummy flavor so characteristic of Japanese dishes. This combination of rustic rye bread and salty plum is similar to a rice ball with "karikari koume". The texture was very moist and the crust nice and crunchy. My wife fully endorsed the final product and said I should make it again.

No knead pizza dough 捏ねないピザ生地

Since we are into "no knead" breads, when my wife found a recipe for "No knead pizza dough", I had to try it. Using this dough, I made my usual version of Pizza Margherita.

The pizza shown below was my wife's suggestion including several cheeses (mozzarella,  Monterey jack and smoked gouda) with baby artichoke herts, black and green olives (Devina brand).

No knead pizza dough recipe came from King Arthur flour web site.

Ingredients: (this makes two pizzas like above)
250gram AP flour
1/8 tsp instant yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt
185gram lukewarm water

Directions: (only making dough part was quoted here)
1. Stir all of the ingredients together. Cover the rough, sticky dough and let it rise at room temperature for 24 hours. After this first rise, you may choose to refrigerate the dough for up to 6 days, which will help develop its flavor.
2. Divide the dough in half. Shape each piece into a ball. Place each ball seam-side down into a floured bowl.
3. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to proof (rise) for 45 minutes to an hour, while your oven preheats.
4. Scoop the dough onto a well-floured work surface and dust the top with flour. Using your fingertips, gently depress the dough, being careful not to touch the outer edge of the crust; you want it to remain thick.
5. Lift up the pizza and use your knuckles to gently stretch the dough into a circle about 10" to 12" in diameter. Move it to a well-floured pizza peel (I use yellow corn meal).

The topping and baking parts I followed my usual way. Although I cooked the pizza the usual 5 minutes, because of the high water content of the dough, retrospectively, I would have cooked the pizza longer maybe 7-8 minutes.

This pizza crust was a bit more flavorful but not that much different from my usual crust. Handling the dough was much more tricky since it was so wet. I may try it again with a longer cooking time.

No Knead whole wheat bread Version2 捏ねない全粒小麦粉パン 第二弾

This is the second attempt at "No knead whole wheat bread". This was an unqualified success. Two changes I made were; 1. Baked at 450F (instead of 475F) and 2. I let it cool completely and sliced it the next morning. The first bread, which was baked at 475F, had a mahogany brown crust and looked very rustic and artisanal, but for us, the crust was a bit too much. The second bread (below) which was baked at 450F had a lighter more brown crust.

The holes are a bit smaller than the first one which we like better.

This is crusty enough for us and has a nice nutty flavor with a chewy but pleasing texture. It takes 2 days to make this bread but it is easy to make since you do not have to knead the dough. The only difficult and dangerous thing is not to burn yourself while trying to get the uncooked loaf into the super heated hot cast iron Dutch oven. My next bread will be the no knead rye bread.

No knead Olive bread 捏ねないオリーブパン

This is another variation of a "No knead" bread. This turned out to be an excellent olive bread but the dough was extremely wet and difficult to work with.

Since the olives are salty I didn’t add any additional salt. It has a nice texture and the taste of the olives was really nice.

Few pimentos got out into the bread.

Ingredients
400 grams bread flour
3 grams instant yeast
200 grams salt brined olives (I used 80% Divina Kalamata olivs and 20 % pimento stuffed green olives), roughly chopped
350 grams of cold water (50-55F)

Directions
Same as other no knead breads. 

Mixed everything in a bowl with a wooden spoon. This is definitely a wet dough since the recipe called for 50 grams more water than I used in the previous versions of no kneed bread I have made . 
Cover with a plastic wrap and let it rise for 12-18 hours.
Remove the dough from the bowl to a well floured board.
Bring the outer edges into the center to make a round shape.
Transfer it to a well floured dish towel, dust the surface with more flour and fold the towel to cover. Let it rise for 1-2 hours.
Preheat the oven with the cast iron pot inside to 450F for at least 30 minutes prior to baking.
Place the dough in the heated pot, put on the lid and bake for 30 minutes
Remove the lid and bake an additional 5-10 minutes.
Take out the bread and let it completely cool on a cooling rack.

Since this was such a wet dough, the dish towel I used for the second rising was soaked, the dough stuck to it and it was almost impossible to place the dough in the hot cast iron pot. But, once in, it baked nicely. Because of the high hydration ratio, the inside the bread is really tender and the crust is nice. The bursts of olive and salty flavors are great. We really like this bread but I may reduce the water to 300 grams just because it is so difficult to handle the wet and sticky dough. I also would like to replace 100 grams of wheat flour with rye flour which may make this bread even better.

No knead rye bread 捏ねないライ麦パン

This is another "No knead" bread. This time it was rye bread. The below is how this one came out. Looks pretty rustic and nice.

After it was completely cooled, I sliced it. The hole-yness is just right as was the thickness of the crust.

Ingredients

300gram bread flour

100gram rye flour

>8gram salt

2gram instant yeast

300gram cold (55-65F) water

Directions

Same was other no knead bread. I baked at 450 F instead of 475 F. 

Since I made instant gravlax from sashimi-grade salmon the day before and there was still some left over, I made a small canapé with the rye bread thinly sliced and lightly toasted, topped with this gravlax (this one was made with 23 year old home made umeshu 梅酒 instead of straight vodka). I topped the salmon with sour cream and cucumber slices.

Although rye flavor is not really pronounced, this is a good rustic bread with nice flavor and texture and perfect for this canapé/open sandwich.

No Knead whole wheat bread 捏ねない全粒小麦粉パン

This is from Washington post's  free-bee digital baking cookbook. We made "No knead English muffin"  from this cookbook which was very easy and good. So we decide to try this second recipe from the same cookbook. It turns out this is the most rustic bread we've ever made (or even eaten for that matter). Later we learned this recipe is originally by Jim Lahey's cookbook "My Bread. The revolutionally no-work, no-knead method". So, we also got his book. Certainly, this bread looks nice, rustic and artisanal without kneading.

Cutting into it; a nice crust and very "hole-y".

Ingredients:
300 grams (2 1⁄4 cups) bread flour, plus more for the work surface
100 grams (3/4 cup) whole-wheat flour
1 1⁄4 teaspoons table salt


1⁄2 teaspoon dried instant yeast

300 grams (1 1/3 cups) cool water (55 to 65 degrees)
Wheat bran or cornmeal, for dusting (may use additional flour)

I weighed the flours and water. I used yellow corn meal for dusting.

Directions:
Step 1: Stir together the flours, salt and yeast in a medium bowl. Add the water; use a wooden spoon or your hands to mix until you have a wet, sticky dough, about 30 seconds. Cover the bowl and let the mixture sit at room temperature until its surface is dotted with bubbles and the dough has more than doubled in size, 12 to 18 hours.

Step 2: Generously dust a work surface with flour. Use a rubber spatula or lightly floured hands to scrape the dough onto the surface in one piece. Use your lightly floured hands to lift the edges of the dough up and in toward the center. Gently pinch the pulled- up dough together, cupping the edges in your hands as needed to nudge it into a round (don’t worry about making it a perfect circle).

Step 3: Place a clean dish towel on your work surface; generously dust the towel with wheat bran, cornmeal or flour. Gently place the dough on the towel, seam side down. If the dough feels sticky, dust the top lightly with more wheat bran, cornmeal or flour. Fold the ends of the towel loosely over the dough to cover it. Place the dough in a warm, draft-free spot to rise for 1 to 2 hours. The dough is ready when it has almost doubled in size. When you gently poke the dough with your finger, it should hold the impression. If it springs back, let it rise for an additional 15 minutes.

Step 4: About half an hour before you think the second rise is complete, position a rack in the lower third of the oven and place a 4 1/2- to 5 1/2-quart heavy Dutch oven or pot with a lid in the center of the rack. Preheat to 475 degrees. Use pot holders to carefully remove the preheated pot from the oven, then lift off the lid. Uncover the dough. Quickly but gently invert it off the towel and into the pot, seam side up. (Use caution — the pot and lid will be very hot.) Cover with the lid; bake (lower rack) for 30 minutes.

Step 5: Remove the lid; continue baking until the loaf is a deep chestnut color but not burnt, 15 to 30 minutes more. (If you like a more precise measure, the bread is done when an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the bread registers 200 to 210 degrees.) Use a heatproof spatula or pot holders to carefully lift the bread out of the pot and place it on a rack to cool thoroughly before serving or storing.

Certainly, looks great.

It was still warm when we sliced off a piece, buttered it and tasted it. This may be too crusty and rustic for us. The crust was extreme and almost felt like it broke into shards when we crunched it. It also didn't seem to have much flavor. My wife commented that it would make a nice crouton to dunk into  hardy stews or soups but not the first choice for breakfast with coffee. Certainly some liquid is required and wine alone was not enough to enjoy this bread.

The next day, we had a toasted slice of this bread with cauliflower parmesan potage (similar to what we posted), and a small salad as a lunch and it was great! Somehow resting overnight made the bread much better. The crust, while crunchy, was not as hard and the overall texture of the bread had improved. The toasty flavor of the whole wheat flour really shone through.  So what was the lesson learned here? We were clearly too hasty busting into this bread before it had cooled enough. It needs to rest at least until fully cooled or, at best, one day to mature to its full potential--and it is well worth the wait.  This is definitely a very good bread to have.

Subsequently, reading Jim Lahey's cookbook we found the following passage which confirmed what we stumbled upon and mentioned above. "After the bread is removed from the oven there is a final step in the process. The cooling step is crucial. Thorough cooling actually completes the cooking of the dough and when you slice a hot loaf you are releasing heat and moisture prematurely. The bread will taste under baked and wet."

No Knead English muffin イングリィシュマフィン

We were offered a digital baking cookbook from Washington Post by email to use during the covid-19 stay-at-home period. (We subscribe to the digital version of WP having given up on the paper version many years ago). One of the recipes in the cookbook was for no knead English muffin, and it piqued our interest. I used to make English muffins and even have metal rings in which to bake them. But the dough was so sticky just getting a portion of it into the rings was a struggle.  My wife, started baking English muffin bread so I stopped making English muffins.  Even so, getting the dough into the loaf pans requires a pair of scissors and some finesse. This recipe, however, sounded interesting and also looked easier to make despite taking a long time for the dough to rise. The picture below shows the final product toasted and buttered after my wife carefully separated the muffin into two halves using a fork.

Digression alert: according to my wife this fork method, which she learned eating many English muffins as a child, is "de rigueur" for cutting them into halves. It's done by inserting the tines of a fork from the edge of the muffin toward the center multiple times around the entire perimeter. Once this is done it easily pulls apart with just a gentle tug.  As you can see from the picture it works pretty well. The two halves remain intact and the nice nooks and crannies are preserved. The original recipe calls for pulling them apart by inserting your thumbs and pulling with your fingers...needless to say, my wife quickly vetoed that method after she saw the mangled mess that resulted from my attempt to implement it. 

Ingredients:
2 cups  bread flour
1 cup whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1 1⁄4 teaspoons instant yeast
1 1⁄2 cups cold milk (any percentage)
1⁄4 cup honey
1 large egg white, cold

1 cup fine cornmeal, for dusting
2 tablespoons or more unsalted butter for cooking

Directions:
Mix together the dry ingredients and then add the wet ingredients, mix well with a spatula until smooth but sticky dough forms (#1). Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and let the dough rise for 4-5 hours in warm place. Dust a rimmed cookie sheet with the corn meal and drop on scoops of the dough using a large spoon (#2). Dust the surface of the dough with additional cornmeal and cover with a plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator for 12 hours (we did this over night). The dough spread out so each dollop was almost touching each other (#3). Heat up a large cast iron skillet on medium low flame and when it is hot, add the butter (#4). Using a spatula, put the dough portions into the skillet (#5) and cook 6-7 minutes turning the dough 180 degrees half-way through cooking to get an even browning (our first batch was a bit over browned). Flip the muffins over and cook the other side (#6). My wife inserted a bamboo skewer from the side to the center to make sure the muffin was cooked. We put the cooked muffin in the wire rack to cool.

These muffins were our combined effort. The next morning, we cooked up the muffins and they were great. Although it takes time to prepare the dough, it is much easier to make than what I went through before. The addition of the whole wheat flour made it much better than just making it with white flour. The whole wheat flavor really came through with a mild nuttiness. Also, the butter became richly browned and added another wonderful taste dimension. We will make these again for sure. We can improve these in two ways; 1. reducing the salt in half (above we reduce to 2 tsp)--it tasted too salty to us and 2. Use lower heat to cook the muffin. The heat was too high and especially the first batch- came out too brown. Making the English muffin reminded us of naan we made which was also very good. Maybe we should make that again.

Almost no-knead whole wheat bread

I am experimenting with "almost" no-knead bread  variations. This time, I made a whole wheat version and increased the hydration level to exactly 70%. As shown below it came out nicely. 

Some of the holes were a bit too large but it had a nice overall texture, crust and flavor. I am posting this just as notes for my record.

Ingredients:(everything except salt and yeast were weighed)

425gram of AP and whole wheat flour (1 cup wheat flour and I added about 3 cups of AP flour to reach the total weight of 425grams).
300 grams of liquids (Total liquid amount is most important),

80grams (6tbs) of beer (again I used Samuel Adams Boston brown ale)

13grams (1tbs) of rice vinegar

207grams of water (I just added water to the total liquid amount of 300grams)

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp instant yeast

Hydration ratio = 70%

Direction:
Mix the ingredients in a bowl with a spatula until all the flour is incorporated (towards the end, I used my hands to incorporate all the flour. Again it looked too dry). Cover the bowl with a plastic wrap.
Place the bowl in the proofing box at 85F (with a water tray), this time, I let it rise overnight for about 12 hours.
Next morning, the dough was more than doubled and well-hydrated. Using a floured plastic dough scraper, I placed the dough on a well floured board and quickly kneaded it 15-20 times then made a boule shaped dough ball.
I placed the dough ball on a piece of parchment paper (sized to hold the whole thing) with the seam side of the dough boule down. I then placed it in a bowl or skillet in which the dough ball snugly fit.
The bowl uncovered went into the proofing box for 1 and half hours.
Preheat the oven with a cast iron Dutch oven in at least 30 minutes before the secondrise is finished.
Slash the top of the dough ball using a lame.
Lift the dough by the parchment paper and place it in the hot Dutch oven. Put the lid on and bake for 30minutes.
Remove the lid and bake another 10 minutes.
Again,hydration ratio of 70% makes a wet but very manageable dough and using the parchment paper is easier and safer than the original floured towel method.

Traditional Irish soda bread 伝統的アイルランドソーダブレッド

 Just a few days before St. Patrick’s day, I happened to see  a  “real Irish soda bread” recipe on the “Serious Eats” website. I showed my wife the recipe and in passing mentioned that St. Patrick’s day was coming up. Next thing I knew she has found 2 other Irish soda bread recipes and for 3 days in a row when I came home a new loaf was cooling on the rack. What a treat!  This is the first loaf she made. It was baked in an enameled cast iron Dutch oven like “no-knead bread” and produced a nice brown crust and center was moist.

She cut the traditional cross on the top but the dough was very wet and just filled in. Nonetheless you can still a light impression of the cross.

The below recipe is from “Serious eats”

Ingredients
15 ounces all-purpose flour (3 cups; 425g)
1 3/4 teaspoons (7g) kosher salt; for table salt, use the same weight or half as much by volume
1 1/8 teaspoons (6g) baking soda
18 ounces low-fat cultured buttermilk (2 1/4 cups; 510g), well shaken

Directions
1.Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat to 450°F (230°C) at least 15 minutes in advance. Roughly cover the bottom of a deep 10-inch cast iron or enameled Dutch oven with a sheet of parchment paper; no need to trim.
2.Combine flour, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl and whisk a full minute to combine. Stir in buttermilk with a flexible spatula until dough is fully moistened and no pockets of flour remain. For extra-fluffy results, stop folding as soon as dough comes together. For extra-chewy results, fold dough about 20 seconds more. Scrape sticky dough into prepared Dutch oven and smooth with a spatula into a rough boule-like shape. Score deeply into quarters with a sharp knife or razor, cleaning the blade between each slice.
3.Cover and bake until well risen and golden, 45 minutes. Remove lid and continue baking until chestnut brown, with an internal temperature of 210°F (99°C), 12 to 15 minutes longer. Invert onto a wire rack, discard parchment, turn right side up, and cool until crumb has set, about 30 minutes. Cut thick slices to accompany hearty soups and stews, or slice thinly for sandwiches. (This will be easier if bread is allowed to cool 2 hours more.) Store up to 24 hours in an airtight container and toast to freshen bread before serving.

The bread had a nice crunchy crust and the interior was moist with a nice crumb. The buttermilk gave it a subtle tang. The flavor was a bit salty. We had this with a lamb stew I made. (What else would you have for St. Patrick’s day?) This was the perfect bread to accompany the stew. 

Our plum tree was in full bloom and our backyard was filled with the nice sweet smell of plum blossom. This is the plum tree we got many many years ago. We wanted the type of plum that produced the fruit used to make Japanese salted plum and umeshu.  After some search, we finally found one at an Oregon nursery. It arrived as a twig in a small envelope but it miraculously grew into a good sized tree and provided lots of plum fruit over the years. We used the fruit to make “umeshu” plum wine. Then, a few years ago all the plum trees in the area got a fungal disease. Our poor tree was no exception. We thought it was a “goner” especially after we had to transplant it during a landscaping project. Although the tree is much smaller than it was at its peak, it appears that this plum tree is surviving. Spring is almost here.

Baguettes baked in Emile Henry ceramic baker 陶器ベイカーで焼いたバゲット

I have been making baguettes for some time. Getting a good crust on the bread, however, is always tricky since home ovens do not have steam injectors. I used to create the necessary steam by putting a baking sheet below the baking stone and then throwing in a couple of ice cubes after placing the baguettes on the baking stone. I believe that this may have led to the eventual demise of our old oven. In the interests of preserving our replacement oven I stopped the “ice cube” method and, instead, I sprayed water on the baguette dough just before putting it into the oven. This creates some crust but not a good one. More recently I started baking no-knead bread in a cast iron pot which created a nice crust. Apparently steam from the dough gets trapped and produces the crust. Since it is not possible to place a long straight baguette in a short round pot, we got this french made (Emile Henry) ceramic baguette baker. It requires some modifications to my baking methods. The below is the second try which I consider 80% successful. Since I made this using biga/poolish starter that my wife made, the texture is great, the taste is wonderful and cooked in the new baker, the crust is much better. But, these are not full size baguettes; they should be called mini-baguettes.

This shows the baguette baker with lid. (Lovely, luscious red color. All the other colors were sold out. Baking has become very popular during covid.) There are three small holes on the top.

The below picture shows the the baker bottom with the lid removed This makes three rather small baguettes.

Ingredients
For biga/poolish
1 cup bread flour
1 cup buttermilk
1/8 tsp active yeast

Mix in a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, then with towels and keep at room temperature for 12 hours.

2 cups of bread flour

1/2 tbs Kosher salt
Additional water/flour if needed

Directions
In a stand mixer, fitted with a dough hook, add the biga, the flour, salt and mix in low speed. Once the dough is formed, turn up the speed. The dough may be attached to the bowl at the bottom but cleanly pulls away from the sides. If too wet, add flour, if too dry, add water. Let it knead for 7-8 minutes.

Scrape out the dough onto a well floured work surface and hand knead until smooth. Form into a ball and seal by pinching the bottom seam.  Add a small amount of neutral oil in a bowl, place the dough, turn to coat all surfaces. Cover it with a plastic wrap and then towels and let it rise for a few hours in warm draft-free place. When it doubles in size, deflate, fold and put it back in the bowl cover and let it rise for the second time for a few more hours.

Place the dough on a well-floured work surface. Fold several times and divide into three equal sized balls (I weighed the pieces to make sure all three were of equal weight). Let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Fold the dough ball in half twice to make a short cylinder. Make an elongated dough which will fit the bottom of the baker (see below). Put on the cover and let it rise 20-30 minutes. Slash the dough with a lame or sharp knife, spray enough water on the dough to coat it, put the lid on and place it the oven preheated to 450F for 25 minutes, 

Take off the lid and bake another 5 minutes until golden brown (below)

Take the baguettes out of the baker and cool on a wire rack. This was, as I said before, only an 80% success. The first attempt was a sort of failure since I used a total of 3 and 3/4 cup flour which was too much dough. Although the initial dough fit nicely in the baker the baguettes expanded and fused together into one mass. It still tasted good. The second try, I used a total of 3 cups of flour (one cup in the starter and I added 2 cups more). This amount of dough fit very nicely but the center baguette was stuck to the baker bottom and half of the bottom crust came off. To remedy this problem,  we may need to grease and flour the base. We will post if this works next time. I forgot to mention that with the biga starter this bread had a wonderful flavor that is unmatched by any commercially made bread we have ever eaten. 

Ricotta sweet buns リコッタチーズバンズ

My Wife decided to make these muffins because she had made some ricotta cheese and wanted to use it before it went bad. (How the cheese was made is for a future post). These are very good breakfast muffins. They are more hearty than sweet. The combination of cheese and bread is very pleasing. The cheese has a nice lemon flavor. I saw her working on these buns and it looked very tedious to me with multiple steps. When it comes to baking bread, I am in the school of the simpler the better like no-knead breads. So I am grateful my wife is of the tedious multi-step school. 

My wife likes buns or muffins which have various kinds of filling but some times the moisture in the stuffing makes a gaping space above the filling. As a result of this recipe she learned that an indentation on the top of the dough then filled with the top open, will circumvent this problem. As you can see below, there is no gaps between the buns and the filling.

Ingredients:
for dough
1 cup whole milk
10 Tbs. butter melted
1 large egg plus 2 egg yolks
3 1/2 cups (496 gms) AP flour
1/3 cup (56.7 gms) sugar
2 1/4 tsp yeast
1 1/2 tsp salt

for filling
6 oz. (170 gms.) cream cheese softened
6 oz. (170 gms) ricotta cheese
3 Tbs. sugar
1 Tbs. AP flour
zest of one lemon
1/2 tsp. lemon flavoring
1 tsp. vanilla

Directions:
For the dough: Whisk milk, eggs, and butter together. Whisk flour, sugar, yeast and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Slowly add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients until fully incorporated. Increase speed and knead for 8 to 12 minutes. Transfer to a bowl and lightly coat surface with vegetable oil. Cover and allow dough to rise until doubled.

For the filling: Cream the cream cheese with the sugar, flour, lemon zest and flavorings. Add the ricotta cheese and mix until fully combined.

Measure out the individual amount of filling to use for each muffin so the filling is distributed completely and evenly. These calculations are for this batch of bread. Each batch may have different final weights so each batch should be weighed independently. I wanted muffins that were about 50 gm size. The total dough weighed 1020 gm/ 50gm = 20 pieces. The total weight of the filling was 452 gm/20 pieces = 22.6 gm/piece. Measure out and set aside.

Assembly: After dough has risen punch down. Divide dough according to weight (in this case 50 gm) and form into rolls. Place the rolls on a parchment lined baking sheet. Allow to rise until doubled in size. Using the bottom of a glass or cup slowly press down on the center of the muffin until the cup touches the sheet. (#1 and #2). (BTW, my wife used a very special hand-made very thin-walled porcelain Japanese sake cup for this because she said the size and shape were just right. Meanwhile I held my breath hoping it would survive its application to this purpose).

To prevent sticking dip, the cup in some flour. Beat 1 egg with 1 Tbs. milk. Brush the dough, including the indentation with the egg wash. Take the pre-measured cheese pieces and place in the indentation of the dough. Smooth out with a spatula (#3).

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown (#4).

These are very nice muffins. They are definitely not a "danish"-- they are not too sweet. The bread has a nice firm texture. The cheese mixture goes nicely with the flavor of the bread. The lemon flavor of the cheese really comes through adding a pleasant burst of fresh tartness. 

Home-made English Muffin 自家製イングリッシュマフィン

We posted English muffin previously but have not made them for some time especially since my wife started making English muffin bread. But for some reason, my wife started making English muffins again. One of the problems in making English muffins is that the dough is very sticky and it is very difficult to handle especially if you use English muffin rings. My wife used to cut the dough using a kitchen scissors to place it in the ring. My version of "no-knead English muffin" was a bit easier. This version my wife used came from YouTube and used a lot of cornmeal as a way to handle the sticky dough. (Although this was the amount of cornmeal shown in the video, a lot less probably would have worked just fine.) The result was rather rewarding. It is definitely an authentic English muffin.

I ask my wife to continue. This recipe came of aYouTube video called "Sheldo’s kitchen". My wife painstakingly wrote down the recipe, frequently stopping the video.

Ingredients:  (12 muffins)
4 cups (560 g) AP flour

1 1/2 tsp (10 g) salt

2 Tbs. (28 g) sugar

1 tsp yeast

3/4 cup (167g) greek yogurt

325 Ml water

oil 3 Tbs. (40 g) vegetable oil.

Double recipe:

8 cups (1,120 g) AP flour

3 tsp (20 g) salt

1/4 cup (56 g) sugar

2 tsp yeast

1 1/2 cup (334g) greek yogurt

650 Ml water (milk?)

oil 6 Tbs. (80 g) vegetable oil.

Directions:

Stir to wet all the flour. Stir to further combine and knead slightly.  In the first  90 minutes, 3 sets of stretches each 30 minutes apart. Take dough and pull out one side and fold it to the middle. Do that with each of the remaining 3 sides. Let the dough rest 30 minutes and repeat stretch 2 more times for a total of 3 stretches. Leave undisturbed for 1 hour. Put covered in fridge for 10 to 48 hours. The longer it is in the fridge the better the taste. 

Cover cookie sheet with corn meal. (A little less cornmeal than what I used here would probably work just fine). While the dough is still cold make it into a round. Put a large hole in the middle and pull the edges out straight and stretch into a log. Divide the log into 12 portions (24 if using double recipe). Make each portion into a flat round and move the edges to the middle then roll into a ball. Put on corn meal covered tray about 2 inches apart. Dust the top with corn meal. Cover and let rise until doubled.

Using 2 spatulas lift the dough into a skillet (no butter). Flatten the top. Cover with a lid and cook 6 minutes. (After 2-3 minutes rotate so it browns evenly.) Turn over and tap the top with a spatula to flatten. Cook another 6 minutes with lid off. After they have cooked 12 minutes check temperature. It should be 200 F to be done.  

Let it cool off a bit before separating the muffin using the "fork method".

These were our idea of genuine English muffins. They toasted up nicely with lots of “little nooks and crannies” to catch the melted butter. The crusts were crunchy and had a mild taste of cornmeal which was very nice. (One of the problems was during cooking the excess cornmeal tended to burn). While very good they were a bit of work to make. Making English muffin bread is much easier. 

Crumpets クランペット

My wife came across an article about using sour dough starter discards to make crumpets. Although we are not making sour dough starter (yet), making crumpets sounded interesting. We have never made them before and, to the best of our knowledge, nor have we ever eaten them. But they look like English muffins and our recent success making English muffins encouraged us to make crumpets. Also, we happened to have English muffin baking rings. These rings did not work out so well with English muffins because the batter is so sticky, it is almost impossible to get it into the rings. But they are necessary for making crumpets because the batter is so runny it won't hold its shape without them. We found a few recipes on line and, we ended up combining two recipes. The cooking part is a bit tricky and we finally came up with a method by combining the two recipes.

Both sets of pictures show the second batch of crumpets toasted served like English muffins (two layers separated, see below "How to serve"). The first batch did not go so well. You can see the nice crunchy surface with all the little nooks and crannies that capture the melted butter.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups milk
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 teaspoons sugar
1 1/2 cups water (lukewarm)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder

Direction:
1. Warm the milk in a saucepan. Make sure that it is warm but not boiling (I was not sure how hot the milk should be but the milk gets mixed into the dry ingredients including the yeast. I reasoned that if it was too hot it would kill the yeast so I made sure the milk was about 110F.
2. Whisk together the warmed milk, flour, yeast, and sugar in a large bowl. (#2) I used a stand mixer with a paddle.
3. Once combined, add half the water and beat into the batter.
4. Continue to add more water until the batter is thick and smooth. Stop adding water once the batter reaches the consistency of thick cream. (I was not exactly sure what that consistency was, but I used up almost all the water so I decided that was enough).
5. Cover with plastic wrap and leave in a warm, draft-free place until foaming. This should take about 1 hour (#2). After one hour, it smelled very yeasty and looked bubbly.
6. Whisk the salt and baking powder into the batter (I added the salt in the dry ingredients).

How to cook (this is the most tricky part):
My wife carefully buttered the inside of the English muffin rings. Then, we melted the butter (my wife insisted it had to be butter not vegetable oil) in a large cast iron skillet on medium low flame.  The recipe I was following suggested if the batter seeps out from the bottom of the ring, it is too watery; add more flour. Conversely, if the surface of the cooking crumpet does not form many little bubbles the batter is too thick, add more water.  I started with one ring as a test. There was no seepage out the bottom (#3) and bubbles formed on the top. I concluded it was just right. So I went ahead and filled 4 rings (#4). The recipe said, fill the rings to just below the upper edge which I did.  After a few minutes, the batter expanded and started running over the top edge of the rings. The recipe said to flip the crumpets over with the ring still on to cook the other side. This resulted in the excess batter going all over the bottom of the pan (#5). The crumpets were too thick and the center remained somewhat wet and doughy even after cooking them for over 20 minutes. This batch was deemed "a lack of success".

So, the next batch we adapted some ideas from the King-Arthur website recipe for crumpets. We filled the rings just half full (#6). After a few minutes, the batter expanded coming close to the upper edge of the rings (#7) (this looked much better than the previous batch). But for some rings, the batter did not come up to the upper edge, so flipping them with the ring still on would not have worked out well. The King Arthur recipe indicated that after 4 minutes cooking, as the edge of the batter dries out a bit the ring could be removed using a tong. We thought removing the ring would be difficult but as long as the batter did not expand to reach the top edge of the ring, it was surprisingly easy. We then flipped the muffin to cook the other side (without the ring) (#8). This worked much better than the method suggested in the previous recipe. We let the muffins cool on the cooling rack (the first picture above).

Tips for cooking:
1. Fill with batter to half height of the rings.
2. After 4 minutes, remove the rings using a tong.
3. Then, flip it over.
4. cook each side for 5 minutes for a total to 10 minutes. Then take another 5 minutes, as needed, to make sure both sides are evenly browned.

How to serve:
The crusts of the crumpets we made were nice a crunchy with a lovely browned butter taste. But even with the second and third batches, the insides were a bit wet and doughy. So my wife decided to separate the crumpet into 2 halves like an English muffin using her special fork method and toasted it. This was much better for us. The inside dried out and added to the lovely crunchiness of the crust. In general these were pretty good but in the future, we may just stick with our previously successful no knead english muffin recipe.

Rye whole wheat bread ライ麦と全粒小麦パン

This is my wife's baking. This is a rye whole wheat bread she has made several times before with complete success. But this time, it refused to rise despite proofing the yeast and leaving the dough "to contemplate its actions" until the following morning. (My rule of thumb is that if the bread is not rising fast enough just be patient and give it as much time as it needs.) My wife, however, was very distraught. She had been planning to make small rolls but I suggested she make 2  large loaves instead and see what comes out of it. The result was two boule-like loaves--one shown in the very bottom.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups wheat flour
2 cups rye flour

1/4 cup honey
1/4 cup molasses
1 tbs salt
2 tbs butter
2 tbs caraway seeds
1 1/4 cup hot water

1 package active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water with 1/2 tsp honey added to proof yeast

1 cup raisins

Directions:
Combine the honey, molasses, salt, butter, caraway seeds and hot water. Stir until the butter is melted, the salt dissolved and the honey and molasses melted. Set aside to cool to about 110 degrees or just slightly warm to touch.

Meanwhile add the rye flour and about 1 1/2 cups of the wheat flour to the mixer and combine. Proof the yeast in the 1/2 cup water with a dash of honey added.

Add the yeast mixture and honey/molasses mixture to the flour and start mixing with dough hook. As with any bread slowly add additional wheat flour until the dough forms a ball on the dough hook. Once the proper consistency has been reached knead for 7 minutes. Add the raisins and knead an additional 3 minutes. Turn out onto a floured board and hand knead a few more times. Put into a bowl with a bit of vegetable oil to lightly coat the dough so it doesn't dry out while rising.

At this point the dough is supposed to double in volume in about an hour. When my wife made it in the past it behaved nicely and rose as expected. This time nothing happened--Zip. The picture below is when she placed the dough for the first rise. Even after 6 hours wrapped up in towels, it did not rise but just sat there sullenly. By this time it was getting late so I suggested we just leave it overnight and see how it was in the morning. Next morning it had grudgingly risen about 30%.

My wife was in despair; it has been years since she had a "bread failure". She had proofed the yeast and it was active when she put it in why wasn't it rising? She was ready to toss the whole thing out when I suggested she go ahead and cook it. What's the worst that could happen? We get a massive rye cracker? After some mumbling about sending good supplies after bad she went ahead and made two loaves seen below. She didn't even bother with a second rise and just stuck them in the 375 oven for 30 minutes.

Amazingly the bread turned out! It was a somewhat rustic loaf but the texture was pleasantly dense and moist. The flavor was wonderful. 

The rye taste came through with a slight sweetness and tang form the honey and molasses. We have been enjoying this bread lightly toasted with butter for breakfast. Still don't know what happened to prevent it from rising but there was a lesson to be learned here; don't give up even if the bread dough doesn't rise. No matter how many times you bake bread and proof the yeast this type of failure will happen to anybody but apparently yeast breads can also be very forgiving. Wish we could say as much about other things in life.