Focaccia

Followed recipe exactly as written in BBA. Warm day, got a fast rise on counter. Used dried herbes de provence and thyme for herb oil. Recipe indicated 1/4 cup-1/2 cup herb oil, I used 1/3 cup and it was too greasy for me. Also would omit granulated garlic next time, it was too powerful. Best the first day, didn't toast that well. Really good for tomato and fresh mozzarella sandwiches.

Anadama Bread

1 cup polenta
1 cup water
4 1/2 cups bread flour
1 cup water
2 3/4 t yeast
2 t salt
3 T honey
3 T molasses
2 T room temp butter

Pre-ferment- Kind of. Note sure if a soaker counts. Mix polenta and 1 cup water, let sit at room temp overnight (accidentally let it soak from an extra 10 hours from 6 AM- noon the day later). This is the soaker.
Mixing- Combine 2 cups of the flour, the water and the yeast and let ferment 1 hour. Then add rest of flour, molasses and sugar and mix with a paddle 2 minutes, then hook 7 minutes.
Primary Ferment- 90 minutes in corner, easily doubled
Punch Down- Yes, slightly when removing from proof bowl and then again to form into pre-loaf rectangles
Dividing- Yes, into 2 equal pieces.
Rounding- none
Benching- none
Shaping/Panning- Formed each into 8 inch rectangle, then rolled into sandwich loaf and placed in loaf pans - 1 pyrex, 1 non-stick metal. Did multiple surface tension pulls, like a sleeping bag, whereas I had been doing only one previously.
Bulk Ferment- 90 minutes on island, crested slightly over the lip of the pan.
Baking- Mist tops with water, then baked in loaf pan, on sheet pan, at 350 degrees for 40 minutes, roatating halfway through.

Results: Smelled amazing during baking, was impossible to wait for it to cool. Medium tight crumb pattern, not as tight as my WW, but still in the sandwich bread style. Very soft, smushes when I cut into it. According to BBA google group, softness is typical of this pillowy bread. Excellent toasted with butter, but what isn't really. Pretty easy to make in the KA, didn't fuss over ball shapes or windowpane and it turned out fine. Other BBA google posters had problems with ball formation and falling in the oven, not sure what they did wrong...maybe overproofed?

Total time-5:45

Baker's Math

I was hoping to just skip learning this and just fly by the seat of my pants, but I'm finding out that understanding the math will actually let me fly by the seat of my pants better than slavishly following recipes.

TFW
Ok, so this is all about ratios. The most important one, and basis for everything else is TFW, or total flour weight. TFW always = 100%, and the other %'s are calculated as a % against that figure.

So to calculate the Ingredient Weight you would divide the amount of, say, salt, by the amount of flour to get the %of salt. Let's say 1.4 oz salt to 16 oz flour. 0.25/16=.0156, or 1.56% salt.

Example Recipe:

700 g flour
386 g water
50 g egg
28 g fresh yeast
7 g salt

700/700 = 100% flour
386/700 = 55% water
50/700 = 7% egg
28/700 = 4% yeast
7/700 = 1% salt

TW and TP
Other important ratios are Total Weight (TW) and Total Percentage (TP). TW is the weight of finished product, and TP is the total percentage of ingredients.

The TP of the example recipe is 167%, as in 100+55+7+4+1=167.

If you know the baker's formula and the TW to want to produce, you can calculate the TP and adjust the ingredient quantities to reach the desired TW.

For example, if you want to bake 10 lbs of bread for a party, you divide the TW by the TP to determine how much flour you'll need.

10/167% = 5.98 lbs of flour, rounded up to 6 lbs ( or 96 oz)

Now you can calculate how much of the other ingredients you'll need, based on a TFW of 6 lbs.

96 * 55% = 52.8 oz water
96 * 7% = 6.72 oz eggs
96 * 4% = 3.84 oz yeast
96 * 1% = 0.96 oz salt

Ratio Ranges

When you calculate the formula, you can double check other's, or create your own recipes. There are ratio ranges that experienced bakers tell me are typical for certain types of breads.

Salt: 1.5-2.5%

Yeast: 2-4%

2% is typical for french breads, and other slow moving indirect method breads
3%+ indicates a fast moving, easy to make bread, where the enrichments determine the flavor more than the fermentation (so we can determine the example recipe is a fast-moving, enriched direct bread)

Water: 55-65% for French breads, sandwich bread and rolls, 58-80% for ciabatta and focaccia
The higher the hydration ratio, the stickier the dough will be, and the resulting bread will be rustic.

Enrichments: 0% in french bread, as the flavor comes from the natural sugars of the wheat. Up to 20% for brioche, pastry and croissants.

From this, we can determine that the example recipe is an enriched, direct method bread, relying on the eggs, and maybe accompaniments like jam and butter to add flavor. It will be easy to make, and require a lower temp because the enrichments will caramelize faster than a french bread dough. It has a lot of yeast, so will rise quickly and not need a 2nd primary fermentation, or a long one either. We might be able to lower the amount of yeast used.

Pre-ferments
The last piece of baker's math has to do with pre-ferments and how to consider them I can't take anymore for now, so I'll save that for later, relying on this article from Wild Yeast.

70% Whole Wheat Sandwich Loaf

1 cup KAF bread flour

2 1/2 cups KAF whole wheat flour

1 cup water

2 1/4 t active dry yeast

1 1/2 t kosher salt

1/3 cup milk

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup canola oil

Pre-ferment- None

Mixing- Autolysed about 20 minutes, paddle on 3 for 3 minutes, hook on 3 for 6 minutes. Mostly passed windowpane test.

Primary Ferment- 2 hours in corner, slightly more than doubled

Punch Down- Yes, in order to form into rectangle

Dividing- none

Rounding- none

Benching- none

Shaping/Panning- Formed into 8 inch rectangle, then rolled into sandwich loaf and placed in pyrex loaf pan

Bulk Ferment- 90 minutes on island, crested well over the lip of the pan.

Baking- 350, placed loaf pan on unpreheated baking sheet. 20 minutes, rotate 180 degrees, 20 minutes, tested temp, not done, another 6 minutes, temp perfect at 190. Took 2 hours to cool.

Results:

Good shape, great flavor. Tight crumb, but that's what I was going for. I was looking to make a standard wheat sandwich bread for the week. Mission accomplished, plus some. Very easy, the biggest pain in the ass was all the dishes and washing up, but worth the $3.99 I saved on a loaf of store bought bread. Plus this one is tastier, and probably a higher % of WW. I like the slight sweetness from the honey. My primary and bulk ferment times went longer than they should've because I was doing other things, but dough was pretty forgiving. We'll just have to see whether it lasts the whole week before getting stale/moldy/prematurely eaten. I'm storing it uncut, in a plastic bag in the bread box.

Cocodrillo Ciabatta

500 g bread flour (3 2/3 cups)
475 g water (2 cups)
2 t yeast
2 t kosher salt

Pre-ferment- none
Mixing- no autolyse, oops. Did activate yeast in microwaved water (30 sec power 5). Mix everything together in KA bowl and paddle for 5 minutes, which was when dough started to clear bowl sides. Switch to hook and continued 10 minutes, at which point dough felt about 80 degrees, and (!!) windowpane test PASSED.
Primary Fermentation- Transferred dough to plastic tupperware and marked with a sharpie. One hour later, dough had more than doubled, so I did two mini-stretch and folds. Almost exactly 2.5 hours from initial bowl transfer, dough had tripled.
Degassing- No punching, it degassed under it's own weight when I placed it on SUPER heavily floured cutting board.
Dividing- This was fun, the dough was so...smooshy and alive. Divided into 4 pieces with a wet knife blade, sprayed with oil and covered with plastic.
(no rounding, no benching, no real shaping, just folded the irregular parts over on themselves)
Proof- 45 minutes, should be puffy and wobbly. During this time preheat oven and stone.
Baking- Stretch dough and fold over like a letter so it is a 10 inch oblong. Place on parchment paper to make it easier to get into the oven. Bake in 2 batches using double steam method 15-20 minutes on 500, then 450, or until internal temp is 205.
Results:
Finally, a nice open crumb!!! I made 4 loaves out of this and kind of handled each differently, paramoid as I was about degassing. The first (above left) I stretched but didn't fold just prior to baking. The last (above right) I let proof 30 minutes more, while the first batch baked, and I did stretch and fold like a letter, then flipped upside down. The first doesn't have as much support from the crust, i.e. when slicing pieces of toast, it feels like the loaf could fall in on itself. I haven't cut the last loaf yet but I can tell from thumping that it is firmer. I also dimpled the first but not the last. Dimpling was a good way to hide lumps and imperfections, but next time, if I don't need to, I won't dimple.

The taste is pretty good. I toasted slices from the first loaf a little bit to melt butter and the toasting made the crust suberb- cracker crisp, which was great, becuase it was so thin. I think this is best slightly toasted. Not sure if that means it could've stayed longer in the oven, or if that's just personal preference. I wonder how much better it would be with a pre-ferment. Worth trying.

Technique Update

To Autolyse:
Combine flour and water as stated in recipe, cover loosely with plastic and let rest 20 minutes before adding salt, yeast and pre-ferment and commencing mixing.

Why:
This allows the flour to absorb the water and begin to break down proteins that will later become gluten and convert broken starch chains to sugars, without the inhibitor of salt This happens without the inhibitor of salt Autolysation is supposed to cut down on mixing times and make the crumb come out whiter, becuase there has been less oxidation due to mixing.

Description of enzyme action from Father Kitchen here.

Can't quite wrap my brain around all the chemistry of it all yet, but I'll give it a try next time.

Pain de Campagne

Bread Baker's Apprentice, p. 195
lean, indirect method, commercial yeast

Pâte Fermentée:
1 cup AP flour
1 1/4 c bread flour
1 t kosher salt
1 t activate dry yeast (activate in a little water prior)
3/4 c water, room temp

Pain de Campagne:
3 cups pâte fermentée
1 3/4 c bread flour
1/3 c dark rye flour
1 t kosher salt
1 1/2 t active dry yeast (activate in a little water prior)
3/4 c water

Pre-ferment- Stir together flours, yeast and salt and paddle for 1 min on low. Adjust flour/water ratio, and then switch to dough hook and knead for 4 minutes. Transfer to oiled bowl and let sit at room temp for 1 hour, then refrigerate overnight.
Mixing- Dechill pâte and cut into 10 pieces. Add to mixing bowl of mixer along with flours, salt, yeast, and water and dough hook for 6 minutes. Was not windowpaning so continued kneading with hook for another 4 minutes until I finally gave up. Might have overmixed? Ended up stiffer than initial windowpane test.
Primary Fermentation- 2 hrs in oiled bowl under plastic wrap. Degassed slightly after 1 hour, as it had grown a lot and left to continue to rise.
Punching Down- see above
Dividing- Divide into 3 pieces. They were stiff.
Rounding- I made 1 boule and 2 bâtards. No benching.
Shaping- Formed 1 bâtard into fendu, left others as is.
Proofing- Proof for 1 hour on counter on parchment paper on sheet pan.
Baking- Hearth baking, double steam method, score boule and bâtard with serrated knife. Baked on sheet pan rather than ceramic stone. Preheat to 500, triple spray, lower to 450 and bake for 20 minutes, rotating once halfway.




Results: Scores were lousy, not deep enough, probably due to tool used. Crumb was tight, flavor was not as good as ciabatta, and texture was overly chewy. Crust color was not dark like pictured, perhaps because I used organic dark rye without malt barley?? Next time use WW. Fendu shape did not hold up through baking. I think I forgot to activate the yeast in the pre-ferment stage, and overall I think I did not use enough water. Remember rustic dough=wet dough! Also, as I transferred the bâtard into oven, it slipped and smushed against itself. Overall a little disappointing.

Poolish Ciabatta

Bread Baker's Apprentice, p. 135
lean, indirect method, commercial yeast

Poolish:
2 1/2 c bread flour
1 1/2 c water, room temp
1/2 t active dry yeast

Ciabatta:
3 1/4 c poolish
3 c bread flour
2 t kosher salt
2 t active dry yeast
3/4 c water, lukewarm

Pre-ferment- Stir together flour, water and yeast in a large mixing bowl until the consistency of pancake batter. Let sit at room temp for 3-4 hrs, then in the fridge overnight.

Mixing- Dechill poolish for 1 hour at room temp. Mix together flour, salt and yeast, then add poolish and water and paddle for 5-7 min on low, then switch to dough hook for 2 min.

Primary Ferment- Stretch and fold on counter, then rest for 30 minutes. Stretch and fold again, and then let ferment 1 1/2-2 hours.

Punching Down- Not necessary, the bread's own weight to degases itself.

Dividing- Divide into 2 or 3 rectangles.

Rounding- None

Benching- None

Shaping and Panning- If dough is wet, use a lot of extra flour on counter, roll to coat dough. Fold each piece of dough over itself, letter style.

Proofing- Proof in a couche or floured tablecloth for 45-60 minutes.

Baking- Prepare oven for hearth style baking with double steam method at 500, spray 3 times, lower to 450, and bake for 15-20 minutes. Bread will be done when golden and 205 degrees at the center.

Results: Very tasty, delicious, yeasty, complex flavor but tight crumb without irregular holes. In hindsight, dough was not wet enough and was accidentally degassed by excessive handling. Next time, increase hydration, cut back on stretching and folding, and bake longer for deeper color.

Cinammon Raisin Milk Bread

Joy of Cooking, p. 746

enriched, direct method, commercial yeast

2 1/4 t active dry yeast

3 T warm water

1 c warmed milk

5 T melted butter

3 T sugar

1 egg

1 t salt

2 c bread flour

1 1/2-2 c AP flour

1/2 c raisins, boiled and drained

2 T sugar

2 t cinammon

1 1/2 t melted butter

Pre-ferment - none
Mixing- activate yeast with water, combine enrichments, stir in flours, knead with KA 10 min
Primary Fermentation- 60 minutes
Punching Down - punch, reknead briefly by hand
Dividing- none
Rounding - Roll dough into 8" rectangle and with 1 1/2 t melted butter, cover with cinammon, sugar and raisins, roll into jelly roll shape.

Benching - none
Shaping and Panning - Form jelly roll into sandwich loaf, pan in pyrex loaf pan
Proofing - 90 minutes, then brush with cinammon, sugar, egg wash
Baking- 375, 45 minutes

Results:

Tight crumb, tastes like butter and cinammon rather than yeast, long storage time- lasted a week in breadbox (due to enrichments?)