Multi-grain Bread v. 4.4

I have been fooling around with a new recipe for a multi-grain loaf. I am using ideas from Nancy Silverton's multi-grain recipe but primarily from Peter Reinhart's new book, Artisan Breads Every Day. (And I was so lucky to attend a baking class with him last week!)


What makes ABED different from Peter's other books is similar to the ideas in Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day ( Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg): Make up a batch of dough and bake it off over the next 4 days. That gives me fresh baked daily bread. Peter believes that after 4 days, the dough is over-fermented.

ABED also describes the stretch and fold method that artisan bakers have been using. There is a cool video on Amazon's page that shows Peter demo'ing the stretch and fold method. He also has a video of how to prepare your oven for hearth baking.

I have been using my starter and bread flour, whole wheat flour, rye chops, Bob's Red Mill 10 grain cereal (which includes cornmeal, oats, barley, triticale, brown rice, soy) and millet and flax seeds. I'm pretty excited about my results.

This is a two-step dough but once it is made, I put it in the refrig for a cold, slow ferment. Then I take out about 1/4 of the dough, shape it, and bake it. These are small-ish loaves (about 300 g) but perfect for two of us.

Bread and Roses

I'm pretty excited about my latest baking efforts. I've been using a combination of recipes and refining my techniques. This is the latest sourdough loaf using a wild starter that Linda grew last autumn. I've noticed that it has continued to change (less sticky) and get stronger. Lately it has been doubling in about 2-1/2 hours. I still haven't tried baking a "pure" wild yeast loaf but I will one of these days.

Oh, and if you don't prune your roses in January like you should, you could have roses in March. Amazing! This is a lovely, fragrant old garden rose, 'Barbara Worl.'

Merry Christmas Panettone

Pre-Heating for No-Knead Stirato

Candice asked me if it was really necessary to preheat the oven for an hour before baking my no-knead bread. Here is what I learned from my latest experiment. I made three loaves yesterday to bring to a party. I turned on my oven (containing the covered baker) before shaping my first loaf for its second rise. My kitchen is quite cool, 68 degrees. The second rise took 45 minutes so the oven and container had preheated for 45+ minutes. I baked the first loaf for 30 minutes with the cloche on and then ten minutes with the cloche off (leaving the cloche in the back of the oven so it would stay hot for the next loaf). I have been reducing the oven temp to 425 degrees for the last 10 minutes because the crust gets quite dark if I leave it at 475. I like a dark bake but some of my eaters ask me if I've "burned" the bread.

After taking the first loaf out, I raised the temp back up to 475 and it took about ten minutes for the oven thermometer to register 475. The second and third loaves were baked with the same timing and temps and each loaf came out darker. Even though the oven registers 475 after 10-15 minutes of pre-heating it may not be optimal to get the best color and crust. For great crumb, you want the internal temperature of the bread to be 200-210 degrees when you take it out.

My Latest Loaf

This is my version of Jim Lahey's Stirato (an Italian baguette!). I'm making a 500g loaf and I'm supplementing it with a wild yeast starter that Linda made.

I'm baking it in one of these

I've also changed the bake time. I'm baking it with cloche on for 30 minutes at 475 degrees and then removing the cloche and reducing the temperature to 425 degrees for ten more minutes.

Wheat and Rye No-Knead Bread

First loaf inspired by Jim Lahey's new book, My Bread. This is my adaptation of his Pane Integrale bread recipe. It is smaller than the recipe (513 g.) but uses his hydration percentage. In addition to bread flour, whole wheat flour, water, salt and 1 g. of yeast, I added rye flour, millet, and flaxseed. I also added my sourdough starter. I let it ferment for 15 hours and then baked it in a blazing hot cast iron pot at 475 degrees. It's cooling.

No-Knead Update

This is my 10th loaf of No-Knead Bread from the New York Times' story on Jim Lahey’s recipe. It is a very forgiving recipe .

There is a very cool video showing Jim Lahey making the bread.

You can also still read Mark Bittman’s article
about Jim Lahey.

The recipe and the video are about the same bread but be warned that there are differences.
In this loaf I used bread flour, and a chef (about 1/4 c. of the dough from the day before–I dissolved it in a portion of the total 1-1/2 c. of water that I’ve settled on) for leavening. I varied the salt, increasing it to as much as 2 t. but Rick says it’s fine at 1-1/2 t. In the last few loaves I’ve been using kosher salt.

My initial rise is 18-24 hours, depending. I shape, let rest for 15 min. and then turn in to a banneton lined with a kitchen towel. I’ve been using coarse corn meal instead of wheat bran, to keep the dough from sticking to the towel. My second rise, in the banneton, is 2 hr. total. The last 30 minutes, I heat the oven and the pot to 450 degrees. I am using the 3 qt. ceramic pot pictured in my earlier post. The first 30 minutes of baking is with the top on. Then I remove the top and bake an additional 22 minutes. The crust is crackly, the loaf sings, the smell is divine, and the bread tastes delicious. You should try it.

NY Times Bread Video

It looks like the video of Jim Lahey making his No-Knead Bread is still available. Try this link: Bread Video .

The recipe given in the video is slightly different than the Times' printed recipe. There is a link for that in my earlier post. In the video, Jim uses 1-1/2 c. water (which is what I've been using). He doesn't show the second rise. I have followed the printed recipe. When Jim says instant yeast, he means regular dry yeast, like Fleischmann's.

The pots -- NY Times No-Knead Bread

The yellow pot is marked 3 qt. It is ceramic.

The orange-y pot is a "Mario Batali" pot made by Copco in China. It is enamel on cast iron with a cast stainless lid knob.

More No-Knead Bread

I have my 7th loaf of no-knead bread in the oven. This looks to be the high-bold loaf I have been searching for.

I have been experimenting with the recipe and have made the following discoveries.

I read at World Table, a Sullivan Street Bakery site which to Jim Lahey has posted, that when Mark Bittman said instant yeast, he meant regular, granular yeast, like the Fleischman’s that I used in the first loaf. However, I had purchased Red Star Quick-Rise which also contains sorbitan monostearate, and ascorbic acid and I have used that for the last 4 loaves.

I fiddled with the salt. In the first six loaves I stuck with the recipe and used 1-1/4 t. sea salt. In loaf 7 I used 2 t. kosher salt as per the discussion on eGullet . It has loads of wonderful feedback (191 posts over the last week) and lots of pictures.

I also SCOOPED the flour into a 1 cup measuring cup and sort of shook it to level it. I have been going with 1-1/2 c. water since the second loaf. I use coarse corn meal on my kitchen towel for the second rise. On this loaf I did my second rise in a banneton and I think that helped support the loaf during the second rise. It also made it easier to plop into the preheated pot–no burns, less cornmeal flying around the kitchen..

After all of the excitement of the first few loaves I went to Sur la Table to price a 5.8 qt Kiwi colored Le Creuset that I had been coveting. Instead, I bought a Copco enameled cast iron pot with a metal handle on the top (a lovely pumpkin colored Mario Batali model–6 qt. size – half the cost). I had used that for several loaves. For loaf No. 7, I went back to the ceramic pot (3 qt.). I baked it at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, top on, and then 22 minutes with the top off. I got the best oven spring on this loaf and it is the prettiest yet. Have to wait to see the inside and taste it.

7th Loaf

No-Knead Bread

I know, I know. I haven’t been blogging. I knew when I saw the article in last Wednesdays’ New York Times about Jim Lahey’s bread recipe , that a new/old obsession would take over my being.

So I just took loaf number 4 out of the oven and I’m blogging about this because I need to talk about it.

I innocently started with loaf 1 to avoid cleaning my studio.

I didn’t bother to try to find out what instant yeast was. I was so impressed with this recipe because it seems as if it requires nothing special. And in the video, Jim Lahey emphasizes that the recipe is very forgiving.

In loaf one I used three cups of bread flour measured by SPOONING the flour into the cup. I followed the Times recipe (not the video ) and used 1-5/8 c. water. I used 1-1/4 t. sea salt and 1/4 t. Fleischmann’s Bread Machine Yeast (ideal for all RapidRise recipes). It contains only yeast and ascorbic acid.

Since I hadn’t baked bread for a few months, I proofed the yeast by putting it in about 1/4c. warm water (1/4 c. of the 1-5/8 called for in the recipe) that contained a pinch of sugar. Otherwise I followed the Times recipe.

Of course the probable reason for baking bread last Wednesday was that our heating system was on the fritz and it was cold in the house but I put the bread to rise on top of the refrigerator with the idea that it was the warmest place in the house.

I actually let it rise for 24 hours. I baked it in a 3 qt. ceramic casserole with a lid: preheat oven at 450 degrees with pot in the oven for at least 30 minutes. Plop bread into casserole, seam side up. It seems disastrous but shake the pot and all is well. Put lid on and bake for 30 minutes. Remove lid and bake an additional 15-22 minutes, et voilà!

I should have taken pictures but I didn’t. Go to Toast to see what my dough and bread looks like. It’s so amazing. What crumb! What crust! The loaf sings! My house smells fabulous!