Vennoise Baguette

The last of the projects made this week in bread class was the "Vennois."
At first glance its made almost exactly like a standard baguette.
It has an egg wash (that you first brush on; refrigerate the bread for a couple of minutes, and then re-egg wash the bread) that makes it incredibly shiny.

The other difference is in how you "slash" the bread. If you slash it almost straight across it looks like mine (pictured here). If you slash it downward, towards the length of the bread, it almost made an "S" curve down the bread (which was very beautiful... sorry no pics).

RECIPE:
1 kl bread flour
20g salt
100g sugar
40g yeast
2 eggs
500g milk
150g butter, cold and cubed.

Again, just make this bread dough as you would any other. Add butter last.
Allow to rest for 1 hour. Portion your dough into 300g. Preshape into baguette
shape. Final shape bread into baguette and egg wash. Refrigerate for 3 minutes, then egg wash again. Slash bread and proof for 20 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

Wheat Loaf

As you can see, it's been pretty busy at school... all of this and it's only our 2nd day of class (I'm not even blogging about the 36 rolls I had to make + the additional 24 I had to make (me and the other 19 students in the class) to supply the "bistro" with enough bread to make it through the dinner shift.

RECIPE:
600 gm bread flour
400 gm wheat flour (it's tricky to use an "all" wheat recipe; doable - but tricky)
300 gm fermented dough (see previous post for recipe)
30 gm yeast (use 1/2 this ingredient if using "active/dry" yeast; explanation in previous post)
20 gm salt
50 gm butter, cubed
650 gm water

Activate yeast in water. Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and butter to dry ingredients. Knead until dough forms. Add fermented dough; knead again until dough is formed and you no longer see fermented dough. Place dough in a floured bowl and allow to rest 1 hour. Scale portions to 300 gm, and preshape to large rolls.



Shape dough into rolls and proof for 20 minutes. Score tops of dough into different designs. Bake in 220 degree celsius oven for 20-25 minutes. Cool completely and enjoy.

Country Baguette

Nothing says "Welcome back to pastry school" like a fresh bread.

RECIPE: (sorry... we use the metric system in school)
800 gm bread flour
200 gm rye flour
300 gm fremented dough (recipe to follow)
650 gm water
30 gm yeast (1/2 this ingredient if using "active/dry" yeast)
20 gm salt

Activate yeast in water. Mix dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients. Combine until dough comes together. Add fermented dough. Knead until you no longer see the fermented dough. Pre-shape dough into petite pain. Rest for 1 hour. Portion dough into 250 gm pieces. Shape dough into large navette.
Check out this cool video on shaping bread. Click HERE!
Cover with plastic wrap for 20 minutes. Score the tops of the baguette, bake in 220 degree celsius oven for 20-25 miutes. Cool completely.


RECIPE: Fermented Dough (almost forgot)
1 kl bread flour
650 gm water
30 gm yeast (remember what I said about "live" vs. "active/dry" - 1/2 recipe if using the latter)
30 gm salt

Activate yeast in water. Combine dry ingredients. Add wet ingredients and knead until dough forms. Place dough in covered bowl and allow to sit, overnight, in refrigerator. Use as needed.

Banana Nut Bread

Gosh darn it.
I was looking on my FoodBuzz profile and decided to check out who was "buzzin' me" when I came across a person of interest. I took a look at their website and they a great looking photo of some banana bread she had just made (there was even a cute story to go with it). I can't remember who the blogger was, which means I can't give her the 'just' credit that is due her.

She is the reason behind my bread tonight. It's her recipe... so I can't take any credit. I made 2 small alterations, but the basic recipe is all hers.

Sorry. Please forgive me.

RECIPE: (as copied from this "ghost" blogger)
1 c sugar
1/2 c milk (she used whipping cream)
1/2 c shortening (I used butter.... I ALWAYS use butter when baking)
1 tsp baking soda
3 medium bananas, softened and mashed
2 eggs, beaten lightly
1 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (I used 1 tbsp - oh, shut up!)
2 c flour
1 cup nuts

Preheat oven to 350. Mix sugar, milk, shortening (butter), bananas and eggs. Add remaining ingredients stirring slowly - don't overmix. Put in 9x5 loaf pan (or you can make muffins). Bake 1 hr 15 m (loaf pan) 30-40 m (muffin pan). You can cover yours with foil to prevent "over" browning.

She had problems with the middle remaining a little 'soft and gooey.' I baked mine for the recommended time and then sat out and let it cool completely in the pan.
Enjoy.

Honey Wheat Bread

On my quest to get out some of my baking frustrations this weekend, I tackled a wheat loaf. I haven't been able to bake anything from the book I recieved at Christmas (The Professional Pastry Chef - Bo Friberg) and I thought that now is as good of time as any.

RECIPE: (as followed from page 123 of the book) - I scaled the recipe in 1/2 which yieled 2 loaves.

1 3/4 c milk (240ml)
4 tsp salt (20g)
1 c honey (340g)
7 oz unsalted butter, room temperature (200g)
1 oz fresh compressed yeast (30g)*
1 c warm water, 105-115 degrees F
1 lb 4 oz whole wheat flour (570g)
1 lb 4 oz brea flour (570g)
Egg wash
Wheat bran (optional - I didn't use it; I used oatmeal flakes)

1 In a saucepan, combine milk, salt, honey and butter. Heat to 115 degrees, set aside.
2 In a mixer bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add milk mixture, wheat flour and all but 1/2 cup of bread flour. Knead dough on low speed, using a dough hook, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Add bread flour while kneading if necessary.
3 Cover dough and allow to rise until double in volume (approx. 2-3 hours)
4 Punch dough down (literally), cover, and proof again until double in volume (another 2-3 hours).
5 Punch dough down again, then scale dough into 4 equal pieces (570g each).
6 Form each piece into a loaf.

7 Egg wash all loaves, invert them in wheat bran; place loaves bran side up in pans.
8 Let loaves rest and rise until they are slightly less than double in volume.

9 Bake at 400 degrees, using steam** for 10 minutes. Continue baking for another 25-30 minutes; until golden brown and until you hear a hollow sound when you knock on the bottom of the loaf.***



Notes:
* when using dry, instant yeast, always reduce the recipe by 1/2. Dry yeast is twice as potent as fresh yeast (eg. 5g fresh yeast = 2.5g dry yeast)

** using steam - just place a pan filled with water in the bottom of so to create stem during baking.

*** the "hollow" sound means that air is present in the loaf of bread and the moisture is gone. The perfect loaf has no moisture present.

Dinner Rolls anyone?

So on my quest to become a better baker, I need to sharpen my skills to bake a variety of breads. This was suppose to be a "marquette" shaped bread (rounded pieces of dough - 1 in the middle and 5 other rolls around the inner 1), but because the only size round pan I have are the ones I use to bake cake in, it turned out to be an UBER-marquette shape.

DOUGH-tastic

So I was playing around in the kitchen the other day and decided to make some "brioche"... take a look at all the PUURRRRTY designs.


Sorry... I ate the bread, and gave it away, before taking pictures of the finished product.