Tuesday, March 18, 2014

The Lazy Loaf

(Hello everyone! Yes, this is the blog formerly known as the Tartine Bread Experiment. Be sure to visit the Tartine Bread Experiment for past posts and bread formulae. I will be keeping the blog up for reference, but will be posting all new experiments here at our new home. Welcome to Girl Meets Rye!)


I have been outrageously busy this past few weeks friends, I do apologize. I must confess, I have only baked three loaves of bread since we last met up here. Two of them were rosemary boules and one was this lovely BoerenKaas and scallion loaf that i made up on the fly for a friend. It is the perfect bread for a super lazy bake, right, no milling, no bolting, no fancy maneuvers. I had some BoerenKaas on hand, a bundle of scallions, and loads of bread flour at my fingertips, et voila! An easy Sunday afternoon.




The Lazy Loaf, in BoerenKaas & Scallion

BoerenKaas is a gorgeous farmstead gouda, aged for several months so the paste becomes persimmon orange. Artisan crafted in small batches, it's a raw milk cheese with lovely crystals, a crumbly texture, and a nutty/sweet/tangy flavor. You can sub UnieKaas Robusto for it, which you have seen at Whole Foods, and incidentally, this is the same bread I make with gruyere with fantastic results. I believe it is posted on the Tartine Bread Experiment blog.

Since the loaf was for a friend, I could not photograph the interior, but when she (begrudgingly) shared a slice later that evening, the first thing I thought was, damn, why didn't I make two? The crumb was uber tender and open. And the flavor was just what I needed to end my lazy day.

So, I confess that I'm feeling uber lazy today (again), so I will keep this brief. I really didn't want to go another week without a post, and I thought that you too might enjoy some time off from our labor intensive breads so I decided to put this one up. What a joy it was to open the cabinet and grab a sack of bread flour and be done with it, especially when the resulting loaf was this darned good!

Here are the lazy details.


The Lazy Loaf, in BoerenKaas & Scallion



Two days before you plan to make your levain, throw your starter into overdrive by feeding it three times each day for two full days. On the third day, build your levain:

11g 100% dark rye, 100% hydration starter
75g h2o
75g Community Grains hard red whole wheat flour

Mine fermented for about 7.5 hours

DOUGH DAY

All of the levain
360g h2o
400g KA organic bread flour
100g Community grains hard red whole wheat flour
4 scallions, thinly sliced
135g aged gouda such as BoerenKaas, UnieKaas, or Parrano, cubed. The cubes should be the size of a die
12g kosher salt

When the levain is at its peak, mix it with the flours and h2o until you reach a shaggy mass. Autolyse for 2 hours, but you can autolyse for 1 hour with fine results.

After the autolyse, squish the salt into the dough so that it is thoroughly incorporated, then fold in the cheese and scallions, trying to keep it in within the dough as much as you can. It's fine if a few pieces peek through, but by the end of the bulk, the majority of it should be encased in the dough or it will burn on bake day. Now begin your 4-hour bulk fermentation. Here you will perform a series of turns until the dough really starts to expand and feel tight. You will intuitively know that this is the time to stop your turns. Now let the dough ferment for the remainder of the bulk.

After the bulk fermentation, scrape the dough onto a worktable that you have dusted with brown rice flour, gather it into a loose round and let it rest for about 10 or 15 minutes.

After it has rested, shape it into a taut boule, and pop it into a banneton or abowl lined with a linen that has been dusted with brown rice flour. Get it into the fridge and ferment 15 - 18 hours. (You know, since I didn't plan to do this post, I cannot for the life of me remember how long I fermented mine, but I think it was 15 hours. I'm going to make another one of these next week, so I will tighten up the instructions then, double checking all of my times and measurements. This is all done by memory, but luckily I have a memory like an elephant. I will also get some pix of the crumb for you, so check back next week!)

BAKE DAY

One hour before you plan to bake the bread, preheat the oven to 500 degrees, installed with a baking stone and both halves of your combo cooker.

After the hour preheat, remove the dough bowl from the fridge, place a piece of parchment over the mouth of it, then a pizza peel on top of this, now flip the whole thing over so that the dough ends up on top of the parchment and peel. Remove the linen (if you have over dusted, now is the time to brush away any loose flour. I know, I have been the victim of some snowy loaves too).

Snip or score the dough, the slide it into the shallow end of the combo cooker. Cover with the fat end and steam the loaf at 500 degrees for 15 minutes. Now turn the oven down to 475 and bake for another 15. After the steam, remove the lid and bake till chestnut brown. You may have to toggle the oven between 450 and 475, because the cheese can make the crust brown quickly. Take the internal temp to 210 - 212 degrees.

Allow to cool for at least an hour, preferably two, before slicing.




To the staff of life!

9 comments:

  1. I found it! Congrats on new site. There are indeed other fine bakers (including you!) to utilize and it is brave of you to embrace to start fresh. I haven't tried feeding three times. Do you find it adds volume? What is your feeding schedule?

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    1. hi Josh! thanks for the congrats. i could not agree more. i needed a little bit of a blog break, but i will be baking again this week, so check back. my three feed days make the dough more alive and active for sure. schedule? when i wake up then again when i think of it, then when i'm about to go to bed :)

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    2. I'm glad to hear that you took some time for yourself. This blog must take quite a bit of work. Thank you for all you do!

      I fed TOBy (my starter) some bigger meals this week and then fed him three times on Saturday before starting the next batch Saturday night. I don't know if it was this or warmer temperatures but I had the biggest rise in bulk fermentation and biggest oven spring by far. I feel like I am finally getting close to where I want to be! In no small part thanks to you (BTW have you have tried fresh ground flour in pancakes?!)! It will be time to get a "checkin" loaf from Tartine soon.

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    3. keep the fire stoked! more feedings mean more activity, which is what we want for our breads.

      you know, i actually don't eat pancakes. :) too heavy for me. but that sounds lovely, fresh flour in sourdough pancakes. perhaps i will have brunch one weekend and make them for friends.

      i'm glad to hear things are working over there. keep taking notes Josh!

      f-o

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  2. I have been following your Tartine Bread Experiment for some time and will continue reading your posts on Girl Meets Rye.

    Being Dutch I caught something odd when reading the word "boorenkaas". Unless this is the name it goes by in the world outside the Netherlands I think it should be "boerenkaas", where the word "boer" means farmer. Boerenkaas = farmer's cheese.

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    1. yikes! i will change that toute de suite!

      thank you!

      xo

      fo

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    2. (changes made, and i am so glad that you have been following the blog. i will have to check yours out too!)

      xo

      fo

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    3. My blog hasn't been updated for ages so I won't promise that there's much to read there at the moment. As I do bake regularly I will definitely try to pick up on blogging too.

      I will keep checking your site for sure because I do enjoy reading your detailed write-ups.

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  3. How long does it take to get my starter going once I have taken it out of the refrigerator... ie if I haven't made bread for 2 weeks and now I want to get my starter going again to make bread... how many feeding before I would be able to make bread... and thank you

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Hey. So, I answer all of my comments, but it may take me a few days to get to it. Go ahead and leave a comment or ask a question and I will respond the best I can!