After several years of looking, I finally found fresh yeast for sale. It is sold in 1 Kg blocks for about NZ$3.50. I won’t be able to use it all before it gets old, so I need to find out the best way to store fresh yeast. Can you freeze fresh yeast? Will it keep better, longer, if I cut it into smaller blocks and freeze individual portions? Anybody have experience storing fresh yeast? I will need to investigate…
I have wanted to make baguettes for a while now and decided I might as well just jump in and do it. I have never attempted to make baguettes, but the best way to learn is hands on.
The shaping technique is straight forward, it just takes practice to perfect…
Soon, it will be time to bake again. “La Vérité Sort Du Four/The truth comes out of the oven.” – Raymond Calvel
Not too bad for my first attempt at baking baguettes.
Bertinet’s Standard White Bread Dough
Ingredients
500g strong white bread flour (unbleached)
10g fresh yeast
10g fine sea salt (grind flaky sea salt down to something a bit finer in a mortar and pestle)
350g water (weigh it on a scale)
Method
1. In a medium bowl, add flour and rub yeast into flour with your hands. If the yeast is fresh, it should crumble quite easily.
2. Add salt to the bowl and mix well.
3. Add water to dry ingredients and stir with a plastic scraper until no dry is left. Dough will be wet. Clean and dry bowl.
4. Turn dough out onto clean bench and knead with Bertinet’s Slap & Fold technique until dough is supple and well developed.
5. Shape dough into ball and place back into bowl, cover, and place in a warm place until dough doubles in size.
6. Place pizza stone into oven and pre-heat oven to 240°C.
7. Dust counter with flour and help dough out of the bowl (do not punch down the dough!). Stretch dough into rough rectangular shape and fold long edges into center and lightly press to seal. Then, fold in half again and seal edge to form a log.
8. Divide dough into 3 equal portions (us a scale).
9. Do not add more flour to the bench. Pre-shape each portion into a log by gently degassing the dough and stretching dough into a rectangular shape. Fold each long edge into the center, then fold in half again lengthwise to form a log.
10. Bench rest for 10 minutes.
11. Starting with the first pre-shaped dough, spread out the dough, seam side up, gently flatten, and once again fold in half along the long edge to form a long cylinder.
12. With both hands together, place palms over top of log and gently roll on counter, stretching dough into elongated shape, pinching the ends to a point.
13. Place shaped baguettes onto a well floured couche, seam side down, cover, and allow to rise until almost double.
14. Place baguettes onto lightly floured peel and score baguettes with a sharp blade in quick, confident motions (otherwise the dough will stick and drag).
15. Quickly open oven door and spray water into oven. Close the door.
16. Launch baguettes onto pizza stone and spray a few more times into the oven before you close the door.
17. Lower the oven temperature to 220°C and bake for about 12-14 minutes, until baguettes are nicely browned.
Clockwise from top: sea salt, green cardamom, coriander seed, fenugreek
I enjoy Ethiopian cuisine; the mix of spices differs from many other regions. I am familiar with injera, the yeasted flatbread that often accompanies the meal (I recently found teff at a local shop here in Wellington, so I may give injera a try!).
Pre-shape and bench rest dough for 15 minutes
I was flipping through one of my bread books, Flatbreads & Flavors: A Baker’s Atlas, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, and noticed a recipe for a different type of Ethiopian bread: Ambasha.
After reshaping, allow dough to proof until almost double in size before baking.
There are many different regional variations of ambasha, made with different grains, and sometimes with yeast. This particular yeasted ambasha is spiced with cardamom, coriander seed, and fenugreek and made with wheat flour (almost 50% whole wheat).
Allow the bread to cool on a wire rack for at least 1/2 hour, to allow moisture to redistribute through the bread.
I was quite happy with the result, especially considering it was made with almost 50% whole wheat flour.
Mmm… Can you smell it?
The bread has a subtle spice aroma and flavour, complimented with a soft, even crumb.
Ambasha (Ethiopian Spice Bread)
Based on original recipe from Flatbreads & Flavours: A Baker’s Atlas, by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid. The original recipe measured the flour by volume rather than weight. I used the original volumes for the flour, as I completely forgot to weigh how much flour I used.
Ingredients
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2½ cups lukewarm water
3 cups hard unbleached white flour (bread flour)
1 Tablespoon Kosher salt or sea salt
Seeds from 1 green cardamom, dry roasted, finely ground
½ teaspoon fenugreek seed, dry roasted, finely ground
1. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Stir in the white flour. Stir until well incorporated, about 1 minute, to develop the gluten.
2. Sprinkle on the salt and the spices. Gradually stir in the whole wheat flour until you can stir no longer. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured bread board and knead for 8 to 10 minutes, until smooth and elastic.
3. Clean out the bowl, oil lightly, and return the dough to the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap, and let rise for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, until approximately doubled in volume.
4. Gently turn out the dough onto the bench (help the dough out of the bowl with a bowl scraper), divide into 6 equal portions, pre-shape dough into tight round balls, cover with a clean towel or plastic wrap, and allow to bench rest for 15 minutes.
5. Preheat oven to 205°C/400°F
6. Re-shape the dough balls into tight, round balls, flatted gently with your palm to about 2 inches thickness, and place on one large or two small, lightly oiled baking sheets. Cover and allow dough to rise until almost double (about 30 minutes).
7. Just before baking, with a serrated knife, slash an X about 1/4 inch deep on the top of each small bread. Bake in the center of the oven for approximately 25 minutes. To test for doneness, tap the bottom of a loaf – it should sound hollow. Remove and cool on a rack before serving.
Preshaped dough balls are bench rested for 15 minutes.
I also love the smell of fresh baked bread. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t, do you?
These 100mm egg rings help contain the dough and provide more lift to the finished hamburger buns, or, make them look like big mushrooms. It’s all good. Besides, baking rings are cool.
It’s a perfect match: Fresh baked hamburger buns for a great homemade hamburger.
Dough balls have doubled in size and now fill the baking rings. Ready to bake!
Well, a cheeseburger is what I have in mind…
A gentle brush of eggwash gives a beautiful golden hue and helps the sesame seeds stick. Sesame seeds are required. I believe there is a law for that…
Did I mention I made this dough by hand? Yeah, I don’t have a stand mixer. I used the French slap & fold technique. Just follow the kneading technique in this video by Richard Bertinet:
Wait. Mmmm. Can you smell it? Yep, fresh baked bread. Man am I hungry. They’re just about done…
I pulled these out of the oven after baking for 13 minutes.
While the buns were cooling, I was thinking of hamburger toppings.
Place the buns on a wire rack to cool. These buns are even better the next day. Store in plastic bag after completely cooled.
This was the second batch of brioche buns (I’ve been working on a recipe…). The first batch did not rise, possibly because I used old active dry yeast. Or, because I am still learning how to knead bread… I threw that batch of old yeast in the rubbish bin and bought a fresh batch. Much better.
L to R: Nature’s Fresh Sesame Hamburger Buns (I bought from the local Countdown); the first batch; today’s batch. Which would you rather eat? Yeah, that’s what I thought, too. 🙂
Resist all temptation to immediately have at these buns. You must allow them to properly cool, to redistribute the moisture in the crumb. They are actually better the next day. I couldn’t wait that long…
Note the proper bun to burger ratio: Top & bottom bun equal the thickness of the burger patty. Also note width of burger patty exactly matches burger bun. Cheeseburger perfection.
Handmade Brioche Hamburger Buns
Note: It is more accurate to weigh your ingredients, rather than measure by volume, especially for flour, therefore, I have provided the amount of flour in weight, rather than cups. Make sure you use fresh active dry yeast. If your active dry yeast is more than six months old, toss it in the rubbish bin and buy some new active dry yeast.
Makes 8 X 105 g hamburger buns
Ingredients
250 ml (1 cup) water at 42°C/108°F
2 ½ tsp (7 g) active dry yeast
2 Tblsp (28 g) granulated sugar
450g unbleached bread flour
2 large eggs (about 100 g in total)
2 tsp (8 g) sea salt/Kosher salt
35 g unsalted butter, cut into small cubes, softened, but not melted.
Egg wash: Blend 1 whole egg and one egg yolk.
Sesame seeds
Method
1. Combine water, active dry yeast, and sugar. Let stand 10 minutes, until foamy.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt.
3. Add yeast mixture and 2 eggs to flour mixture and mix with bowl scraper until
well combined (no dry bits!). Dough will be a bit wet. Wash and dry bowl.
4. Turn out dough onto bench and knead with French Slap and Fold technique, for about 8-10 minutes, or until the bench is left clean and dough is smooth and elastic (I’m still learning, it took me about 15 minutes…).
5. Spread dough into rough rectangle on bench and place butter onto dough. Fold dough over butter and continue Slap & Fold technique for about 6-8 minutes, until dough is smooth and springy (I’m still learning… It took me about 10 minutes). The dough will quickly lose its cohesiveness and become a bit mucky – do not worry, it will come together again pretty quick.
6. Form dough into ball, place into clean bowl, cover, and leave in a warm place to rise, until doubled in size, about an hour (mine took 45 minutes today, but it depends on the temperature of the room, etc. May take longer than 1 hour.).
7. When dough has doubled in size, lightly dust the bench and turn out the dough onto the counter, helping the dough out of the bowl with the bowl scraper.
8. Spread the dough into a rough rectangle and gently fold first one long side into the centre and press, then the other long side into the centre. Then, fold again along the long axis and seal the edge, leaving a long roll.
9. Using a scale, portion the dough into 8 X 105 g pieces.
10. Form each piece into a ball and tension by rolling the ball on the bench with your fingertips into a tight, round ball. Repeat for remaining pieces.
11. Cover dough balls on bench with a towel or plastic wrap and bench rest for 15 minutes.
12. Meanwhile, line a half sheet pan with silicone baking mat or baking paper, butter 8 X 100mm egg mold/english muffin mold and place on half sheet pan. (baking rings are optional, but very cool).
13. After dough balls have bench rested for 15 minutes, uncover dough balls, flour very lightly, and reshape dough balls into tight round balls. Place dough balls into molds and flatten slightly. Cover dough balls with clean towel or plastic wrap and keep in a warm area until doubled in size.
14. Preheat oven to 220°C/430°F.
15. Make the eggwash: In a small bowl, blend together (with stick blender) 1 egg and 1 egg yolk.
15. After dough balls have doubled in size, uncover and very gently brush tops with eggwash. Sprinkle sesame seeds over eggwash.
16. Bake until golden brown, about 12-14 minutes.
17. Remove from oven and allow to cool on wire rack.
18. When cool, slice in half and toast before making hamburgers.
When completely cool, you may place them in a plastic bag until ready to use.
Disclaimer: To bake great pizza in a home oven requires a bit of experimentation for best results for your oven. Every home oven is different. This is what I have worked out for my home oven and my style of pizza. Your oven will be different. What works best for my oven may not work best for your oven or for your style of pizza.
Today I continue my Baking Steel pizza stone with the same dough used in Pizza at home: Baking Steel, this time after a two day cold ferment.
I placed a 1/2 inch Baking Steel approximately 8 centimeters from the top broiler of my oven, on top of a terra cotta paving tile.
Oven setup for 1/2 inch Baking Steel, located approximately 8 cm below electric broiler element.
I turned the oven setting to high. At the same time, I removed two portions of dough from the refrigerator.
Tartine sourdough, two day cold ferment.
My current go to pizza dough recipe is the Basic Country Bread recipe from Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread: just flour, water, salt, and leaven (from wild sourdough culture) at around 78% hydration (I suppose that would be about 80% total hydration if you account for the leaven which is at 100% hydration). I typically fold the dough once after 30 minutes, then divide the dough into 280g portions and place each portion in a separate container and place in the fridge to ferment. I typically bake with the dough anywhere from a 1-4 day fermentation.
After about 30 minutes, I shaped the dough into balls and let them bench rest for 30 minutes. Again, I found the dough easier to work with after about 45 minute bench rest. I need to remember to allow at least 45 minutes bench rest before stretching.
The dough was shaped and bench rest was about 30 minutes before stretching. Handling was improved after about 45 minutes.
For the first pizza, I forgot to set the oven to broil before stretching the dough, so after I launched the pizza, I set the oven to broil and propped the oven door slightly ajar with a metal spoon.
My mouth was watering even before this pizza was launched onto the Baking Steel.
Two things: 1. Because I forgot to set the oven to broil before stretching the dough, the pizza stone did not have sufficient time to heat prior to launch. 2. With the door propped slightly ajar with the metal spoon, the broiler element stayed on, so the top of the pizza cooked faster. OK. Three things: 3. I must learn better how to drink beer and remember all my pizza baking steps!
I love the aroma of ham & mushroom pizza hot from the oven!
I removed the pizza when the first spots on the cornicione were just turned black: 2 minutes, 53 seconds. The pizza was removed to a cooling rack for two minutes to preserve crispness of the crust before plating and slicing.
Note: I was lazy and did not turn this pizza halfway through cooking for an even bake. That is why the pizza is a bit more cooked on one side than the other. Even in a proper woodfired pizza oven, the pizza needs to be turned half way through cooking. I have added an 8″ round pizza tool to my wish list…
Less heat, less char
I neglected to let the stone heat under the broiler prior to launch so when the top was cooked, the bottom was not charred as much as it could have been.
Bubbles! Delicious bubbles…
With the broiler element glowing through the entire bake, there was plenty of heat for great oven spring. Unfortunately, since I neglected to preheat the baking stone prior to launch, there was insufficient heat in the stone to bake the pizza from below and match the baking from above. The end result is that the pizza coloured on top before the dough was completely cooked through. I must remember to preheat the stone under the broiler prior to launching the pizza…
All things considered, this was a most excellent pizza.
Onto the second pizza: Pizza Margherita!
Just before stretching the dough, I set the oven to broil and let the upper element heat to glowing. Because this second dough ball had more time to relax on the bench, it was much easier to work with.
Pizza Margherita ready to launch.
This time I actually remembered to preheat the stone before launch and left the oven door closed through the bake.
Pizza Margherita!
I removed the pizza when the first spots on the cornicione were just turned black: 3 minutes, 50 seconds. The pizza was removed to a cooling rack for two minutes to preserve crispness of the crust before plating and slicing.
Nice char from the preheated stone.
Looking very good so far…
Those air bubbles in the dough create areas of thin dough and leopard spotting! (that’s a good thing)
This was a most excellent pizza. The cornicione was baked through, light and airy. The crust had decent char. Not too bad.
Note: As with a proper woodfired oven, the pizzas need to be turned at least once during baking for even cooking. I did not turn these pizzas, hence the uneven cooking. I have added an 8″ round pizza tool to my wish list.
I still do not have a non-contact infra-red thermometer, so was unable to check the temperature of the stone just prior to launching the pizza. I hope to buy one soon…
The flavour of the two day sourdough was more pronounced than the one day ferment and the dough was easier to work with: Greater extensibility and lower elasticity.
Disclaimer: To bake great pizza in a home oven requires a bit of experimentation for best results for your oven. Every home oven is different. This is what I have worked out for my home oven and my style of pizza. Your oven will be different. What works best for my oven may not work best for your oven or for your style of pizza.
In the last pizza post, I documented baking pizzas in a home oven using the Lodge Cast Iron Pizza Stone. In my home oven, even the relatively thin cast iron pizza stone created greater oven spring and better leopard spotting on my pizzas. This time I take it a step further and begin experimenting with A36 steel. Steel has a slightly higher heat transfer rate than cast iron and a 1/2 inch thick piece of steel will hold considerably more heat than the relatively thin cast iron of the Lodge Cast Iron Pizza Stone.
I placed a 1/2 inch Baking Steel approximately 8 centimeters from the top broiler of my oven, on top of a terra cotta paving tile.
Oven setup for 1/2 inch Baking Steel, located approximately 8 cm below electric broiler element.
My current go to pizza dough recipe is the Basic Country Bread recipe from Chad Robertson’s Tartine Bread: just flour, water, salt, and leaven (from wild sourdough culture) at around 78% hydration (I suppose that would be about 80% total hydration if you account for the leaven which is at 100% hydration). I typically fold the dough once after 30 minutes, then divide the dough into 280g portions and place each portion in a separate container and place in the fridge to ferment. I typically bake with the dough anywhere from a 1-4 day fermentation.
I decided I to bake two pizzas and set up my mise en place.
The oven was set to high and preheated for at least one hour. Just before baking a pizza, I set the oven to broil and let the upper element heat to glowing before stretching the dough.
After shaping, I waited 30 minutes before stretching the first dough ball. I have consistently found the dough to be more relaxed after about 45 minutes after shaping and much easier to stretch. I need to remember to time the shaping to a minimum of 45 minutes prior to stretching and baking the first pizza.
One day sourdough ferment.
After stretching the dough, I made the first pizza and launched it onto the Baking Steel.
Pizza Romana: Tomato sauce, fior di latte, red onion, capers, anchovie, Kalamata olive, fresh thyme.
I removed the pizza when the first spots on the cornicione were just turned black: 3 minutes, 26 seconds. The pizza was removed to a cooling rack for two minutes to preserve crispness of the crust before plating and slicing.
Pizza Romana upskirt
Even after less than 4 minutes, the crust was browned evenly and the cornicione was beautifully soft and airy.
After letting the oven temperature recover, I once again switched the oven to broil and prepped the next pizza.
Pizza Margherita: Uncooked tomato sauce, fior di latte, fresh basil
I removed the pizza from the oven when the first dark spots on the crust turned dark black: 4 minutes, 42 seconds. The pizza was removed to a wire rack to cool for two minutes to preserve crispness of the crust.
Pizza Margherita upskirt
The cornicione was sufficiently cooked and reasonably light and airy. Bear in mind this was just a one day sourdough ferment. Later pizzas should have better development and leopard spotting, especially after 3-4 days.
Pizza Margherita cornicione
Note: As with a proper woodfired oven, the pizzas need to be turned at least once during baking for even cooking. I did not turn these pizzas, hence the uneven cooking.
I still do not have a non-contact infra-red thermometer, so was unable to check the temperature of the stone just prior to launching the pizza. I hope to buy one soon…
I was very happy with how these two pizzas turned out, even after just a one day sourdough ferment. Today’s pizza on the Baking Steel seems to have already outperformed the Lodge Cast Iron pizza stone. I look forward to baking more pizzas over the next several days.
I put my sourdough culture into deep freeze in January, whilst we went on holiday to East Cape. I restarted the culture about a three weeks ago and baked a few pizzas with it last week. It was time to bake some bread.
Yesterday, I mixed up a batch of Tartine sourdough, formed two boules, and left them to retard in the fridge overnight. This morning, I baked off the boules. The weather was a bit rough last night and I was not sure we would still have power in the morning, but the power stayed on and I was able to bake two boules early this morning without interruption.
Fresh from the oven. Quick, grab a bread knife!
There’s nothing quite like the hot, steamy, almost custardy texture of a slice of home made sourdough bread fresh out of the oven. It needs no adornment; but, if you must, a slathering of Lewis Road Creamery Premium New Zealand Butter goes down a treat!
