Conclusion

Over Interim I learned many baking skills that I am going to miss using since I do not have a kitchen in my dorm.  I guess that I will just have to find a friend and hijack their oven long enough to cook my bread.  I learned skills that were not necessarily baking skills, such as making corn chowder and bacon jam, and made new friendships.  It is nice to learn a skill that is extremely useful, and is a skill that I can continue to develop and strengthen as I make more bread.

Croissants

Cut croissant showing lamination

    Croissants are the epitome of French baking, this wonderfully flaky pastry can be eaten plain, served with honey or jam, or turned into filled pastries.  The croissant takes three days to make, but requires a relatively small amount of work over those three days.  We made both traditional croissants and filled pastries with our dough.

Dough with butter block

     The croissant takes three days to create but requires a relatively small amount of work over those three days.  On the first day the dough is mixed before being refrigerated over night. Also on the first day, we created a butter block.  A butter block is a flat square of butter which has been made by hitting European butter (used for its higher fat content) with a rolling pin until it is even, flat, and pliable.  The butter block is then refrigerated over night.  On day two, the dough is placed in the freezer for 30 minutes and the butter block is pounded again to ensure that it is pliable.  The butter block is then placed on top of the dough, which is folded over the dough to enclose it.  The dough is then rolled out, ensuring to regularly flip the dough to keep the top and bottom layers even.  Once the dough is about three times as long as it is wide a tri-fold is done to create layering ( this is what causes the lamination of the dough).  The dough is rotated 90 degrees and the rolling and tri-fold is repeated.  The dough is allowed to rest before a final trifold is done, which gives 27 separate layers of dough and butter.  The dough is placed in the freezer for an hour, before being placed in the refrigerator overnight. On the third day, the dough is placed in the freezer for 30 minutes before being rolled out and trimmed.  From here the dough is cut in to the shapes desired for the final product.  To make traditional croissants, the dough is cut in to skinny triangles which are then rolled up.  To make the filled pastries, the dough is cut into squares before the final cuts are made to create the final shape desired.

Filled pastries and traditional croissants

   For our filled pastries we used a combination of pastry cream and an apple filling, which created a delectable product that was wonderful fresh out of the oven and the next morning for breakfast.  Our croissants were very large, which may be from not rolling them out thin enough, but were very tasty and the flakiness was perfect.  The croissants were one of my favorite breads and are something that I plan on making to show off my baking skills to others.

Brioche

Traditional Brioche a Tete

     Brioche is somewhere between a bread a a pastry, with its light fine crumb and sweet taste while still having the structure of bread.  It is still made using the same method as other breads but features a much higher butter and egg content. Our recipe for example use two sticks of butter and six eggs for two 1-lb loaves.  Brioche is a very versatile dough that can be used for making everything from standard loaves to the traditional Brioche a tete(which is cooked in a fluted pan) to doughnuts or sticky buns. The richness of this dough lends itself especially well towards sweet creations.

Brioche fresh out of the oven

     Our recipe was considered a no-knead brioche and eliminated much of the work that is required for traditional brioche and the resulting product was remarkably similar to brioche made using the traditional process.  The traditional process uses softened butter that is slowly added to the dough after it is formed and all of the butter is allowed to incorporate before the next portion is added.  This intensive mixing (over 20 minutes in a stand mixer) raises the temperature of the dough so much it requires a 6 hour rest in the freezer before an overnight rest in the refrigerator.

Cross-section showing crumb

 Our recipe instead used melted butter mixed in with the eggs and four series of stretches and folds to strengthen the dough.  It was then placed in the refrigerator overnight and divided, shaped and proofed the next day before baking.
    The brioche was delicious and was one of my favorite breads we have made.  I want to try other recipes using the dough such as making doughnuts and seeing how it turns our.  I believe that this dough would be great with fillings such as chocolate and made into small rolls.  I had my brioche with lemon curd and it was wonderfully tasty.  The brioche along with the challah would make wonderful french toast because of the richness of the bread.

Quick Bread

Cheddar bread showing parmesan crust

On Monday, while we were prepping our brioche and croissants, we fixed a quick bread to take home. A quick bread is one that uses leavening agents such as baking soda and salt instead of yeast to rise the bread.  This means there are no  proofing steps involved, instead the batter is baked immediately after being mixed.  Four different breads were baked, pumpkin, banana, date-nut, and cheddar; I chose to bake the cheddar bread.  This bread used cubes of cheddar instead of shredded cheese which gives
large tasty chunks of cheese.  The top and bottom of the loaf is covered in shredded parmesan which gives it a nice salty crust.  The texture of this bread is more similar to a cake than traditional bread but had a very good taste.  This bread would go very well with soup or chili and I would like to experiment with other combinations of cheeses and seasonings to try different flavors. Being a quick bread it would also work to be cooked in muffin tins for individual portions.

No-Knead and Multi-Grain

"almost" no-knead bread

      Yesterday we made an "almost" no-knead bread and today we made a multi-grain bread, I am putting these together because half of the class made one while the other half made the other, and then we switched.  The no-knead I made was a variation on the original that included a small amount of vinegar and lager to give it a more developed flavor.  For this bread you mix the ingredients until it forms a shaggy ball, and then you let it rise for around 18 hours.  The next day you knead it 10-15 times and shape it into a boule, before letting it rise again.  The key to having a good shape is to make a "sling" out of two pieces of intersecting parchment and using these to lift the dough in to the dutch oven.  It is cooked in a very hot (500 F) preheated dutch oven.  After baking for about 30 minutes covered, it is cooked uncovered to allow it to brown.  This bread was very good for the small amount of work involved.  It had a strong "yeasty" flavor with a nice crust and slightly chewy crumb.  We had it with chili beans and it was eaten very rapidly.

Multi-Grain (notice the ridges from the basket)

      The multi-grain was started with a "soaker" of cornmeal, wheat bran, and rolled oats the previous day.  The day of baking flour, brown sugar, salt and yeast were mixed before adding the soaker, cooked brown rice, honey, milk, and water.  This is a VERY sticky dough it works best to do a pre mix with an electric mixer and then knead it on the table top.   It is important to keep the work surface well floured or the dough will absorb the flour and stick to the table top.  The finished dough is soft and tacky but should not be sticky.  This was hard to get to and we had to occasionally sprinkle flour on the dough itself.  Once it comes together let it rise for about 40 minutes do a series of stretches and folds and let rise for another 40 minutes.  Once it has doubled in size you can shape it into one loaf or make two.  We divided the loaf and used well floured wicker proofing baskets.  The bread was then baked on the hearth and the proofing baskets gave the dough a nice ridged appearance.  The multigrain had a soft crust with a very soft crumb.  The grains were noticeable but did not interfere with the softness of the crumb.  This was a very successful product.

Ciabatta

Our ciabatta fresh out of the oven

   The ciabatta has become the ultimate sandwich bread in the United States.  This is due to is crisp crust and its very light and open crumb structure.  Ciabatta is an Italian loaf whose name literally means "slipper." This bread can be formed into any size loaf desired, but is many times shaped in to large rolls which work well for making sandwiches.
    The ciabatta is the most relaxed dough we have used this far.  Its hydration rate is so high that when the stretches and folds are done you must do them in the bowl to keep the dough from sticking to the

work surface.  Once three or four sets of stretches and folds with 30 minute rest periods in-between are done, the dough is divided.  To do this you must heavily flour the work surface and then pour the dough out and roughly shape into a rectangular shape.  The portions are heavily floured on all exterior surfaces, and then placed on a well-floured bakers couche for the final proof.  Today the key was to use heavy amounts of flour.  The dough was placed on parchment and baked on the hearth which ensured a nice and crisp crust.

My delicious grilled chicken ciabatta

      My friends and I decided to use my bread in making grilled chicken sandwiches for supper.  We grilled onions and chicken strips and made chipolte mayo.  The sandwiches were served with lettuce, the grilled onions and chicken, lettuce, chipolte mayo and pepper jack cheese.  This bread went wonderfully with the filling and is another meal I plan on adding to my recipe collection.

Challah

One of our three strand loaves

      Challah is a braided Jewish bread that was usually eaten on the Sabbath.  In America it is eaten much more frequently and after making it I know why, It's so delicious.  Challah is very rich and  has a thin crust that is just enough to give the bread the "browned" flavor.  The crumb is soft but substantial and is slightly sweet . This richness is due to the use of eggs, egg yolks, and honey in the making of the dough.  An even richer version known as Berne Brot substitutes milk and butter for the oil and water, but this would make the bread not parve. Which would interfere with the traditional laws of Kashrut or kosher and could not be consumed at any meal that meat was consumed at.
     The challah was one of the most straight forward breads that we have created and it had wonderful results.  First, a sponge of flour, water, and yeast was mixed and allowed to rise for 30 minutes.  Meanwhile the other ingredients were gathered.  These included flour, sugar, salt, honey, water, whole eggs, egg yolks, and vegetable oil.  Once the sponge had risen all of the ingredients were mixed and then the kneading began.  This dough was so stiff it took alot of kneading.  It is better to work with a partner or your hands will be very sore.  Once the bread had been kneaded enough to develop the gluten so it could pass a window pane test, the bread was allowed to proof for 75 minutes.

Berne Brot, featuring the Windsor Knot

     After this came the most difficult part, the dough had to be divided in to equal portions (use a scale for this) before being rolled in to logs.  The dough is very stiff and does not want to be stretched, the best way to accomplish this is to use a spray bottle and spritz the work place.  The low hydration rate in this dough keeps it from sticking on the table top but a little but of water will help that.  The best method is to roll out one strand and once it starts resting move to a second one, repeat this until you are back at the first strand.  Continue this cycle of rolling and resting until all strands are at your desired length.  We then used a three and a five strand braid to make our loaves, which are allowed to proof

Unbaked loaves with egg wash

after being braided.  There are a multitude of ways to braid the challah including: the Windsor knot above, a stacked five and three strand braid, the traditional 6-strand, a special 12-strand and any number in-between.  This is where you can get creative and make your signature design.  Just before baking an egg wash is used to paint the tops of the loaves.  This creates an nice shine and browns more than the dough itself so this creates a nice contrast where the braids separate.   This is a wonderful bread and if you can keep from eating it all the first day it would be fantastic as french toast.

Pizza

To say that we created pizza on Friday would not be completely true as we made the dough on Thursday and allowed it to proof in the refrigerator overnight.  This is known as "retarding the dough" and greatly slows the fermentation and creates a much more complex flavor profile.  The dough was composed of bread flour, yeast, water, salt, and honey.  This was mixed until incorporated before olive oil was added.  It was then turned onto an oiled tabletop and kneaded until it was no longer sticky.

Pizza dough awaiting toppings

This took a VERY long time and required lots of patience.  I felt like there was more dough stuck to my hands and the counter than to the dough itself, but finally it became less sticky and started to tighten up.

One of our prepared pizzas.

       Since we let it rest in the refrigerator overnight all we had to do on Friday was make the toppings.  We used several types of cheeses, bacon, Italian sausage, pepperonis, caramelized onions, mushrooms and peppers.  My personal pizza was tomato sauce and pesto with mozzarella, fontina, and feta cheeses topped with pepperonis and caramelized onions.  My pizza puffed up a little too much but it had a very airy light crumb that was very nice.  It was much, better than most restaurant pizza except for select brickoven pizzerias.

Dessert Calzone

    For dessert we used our homemade nutella from the other day and marshmallows and bananas.
Someone made a calzone that included chocolate chips with the other dessert toppings and it was delicious.  As much a I love pizza(this was the third time this week having it) this recipe is one that I will use frequently at home to make delicious pizzas.

Baguettes

         On Thursday we made what may be one of the greatest examples of artisan bread, the baguette.  The baguette is made with a fairly simple recipe but the prep and shaping can be difficult and require careful attention to ensure good results.
       A preferment known as a poolish is created the day before and allowed to proof overnight.  This has a two-fold purpose, the first is increased air pockets and rise in the dough, the second purpose is the formation of a better flavor profile.  The poolish was a much sticker preferment than the biga as it was created with equal portions of flour and water and a very small amount of yeast.  This gave it 100% hydration, but required yeast to be added the next day.

Shaped dough on pleated couche

      The poolish was mixed with flour, warm water, yeast, and salt, today everyone mixed by hand using the technique we used on Wednesday.  This dough was slightly stickier than the previous day but it came together very well.  After proofing, the dough was streched and folded before being divided into four equal portions. This dough had a huge rise almost filling the bowl.  The portions were roughly shaped before a second shorter proof.  After this proof the dough was shaped in to the classic baguette log shape.  These logs were placed onto a pleated bakers couche and allowed to proof for a final hour.                    
      We used four different baking techniques for our baguettes. Two were placed onto baguette pans, one was a dark vented pan and the other pan was a shiny perforated pan.  The final two loaves were baked directly on the stone hearth.  One of these

Dragon Tail Baguette

loaves was scored in the traditonal baguette form and the final loaf was cut into what is known as a "dragon tail."  The scoring is essential to having a good final shape.  Most of our loaves had a very nice shape but one of the loaves had a slightly bulging shape which could be due to the cuts running horizontaly along the loaf instead of laterally.

Inner crumb structure of baguette

    The final product was very pleasing.  It had a very nice golden crust with a nice crunch.  The crust also retained some of the flour from the couche which created a nice color contrast.  The crumb was very open and soft.  Overall the bread turned out great and was worth the effort that was put in to the shaping and forming of the bread.
    In addition to the baguettes we created "Touch of Grace" biscuits, strawberry refigerator jam and

Touch of Grace biscuits

cooked some country ham.  The biscuits made with White Lily flour to ensure tenderness and the batter was much wetter than other biscuits I have made.  The batter was tossed into bread flour for coating to keep each portion divided.  These biscuits were extremely tender and fluffy and this may be my new go-to recipe for biscuits.
   

Pane Francese

      I've gotten a few days behind but on Wednesday we made Pane Francese, which is Italian for "French Bread."  So is it French Bread or Italian Bread? The world may never know.  This bread was much chewer and crustier that the Pain de Mie that we created on Tuesday.  The reason for this is that we created a pre-ferment know as a biga that day before that was allowed to set in the refrigerator overnight.  The biga is a very firm preferment which is caused by its lower 60% hydration.

      After fermenting overnight the biga is cut in to pieces and placed in to warm water before being mixed with more bread flour and salt.  Since the mixers were taken we chose to mix by hand.  This involves a stretch, slap and fold technique that is shown in the gif.  This process is repeated at least 300

times until a window-pane test can be done, which is where you stretch a small amount of dough to test the gluten networks.
     We then let it proof before dividing and shaping. The other groups formed their Pane Francese in to rolls, but we decided to create Fougasse.  Fougasse is a flat, decorative bread that is many times given as a gift due to its attractive appearance.  The name is derived from Latin for hearth because it was originally baked in the ashes of fireplaces.  Instead of baking ours in ashes, we cooked ours on a stone baking hearth which gave it a nice crispy crust.  It was brushed with olive oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper before baking to give

Our Fougasse

it flavor and a nice crust.  Many times people sprinkle it with herbs such as rosemary to increase the flavor.  The cuts are made to resemble a flower, as seen in the pictures.
   Our Fogasse turned out very nicely with a texture similar to breadsticks.   The crust was thick enough to give a contrast to the extremly open and chewy crumb.  This bread would pair greatly with pasta and makes three fougasse so it is also good for gifting.
        In addition to creating the fougasse me and my partner made homemade Nutella.  It blew commercial Nutella out of the water.  We first toasted hazelnuts and then placed the toasted nuts into a bowl which was covered and then shook to remove the skins.  I found that placing them in a dish towel and rubbing and hitting the dish towel removed the skins much more efficiently but it made for a very dirty dish towel, just pick which you would rather have more skins or a dirty towel.  The nuts were placed in a food processor and processed until it formed a smooth paste.  The paste was mixed with hazelnut oil, powdered sugar, and cocoa powder to form the final product.  It was divine and I plan on making it for myself, "all for my self!"
 

Pain de Mie

        Today was the first day of baking and it was an experience.  I love cooking and cook quite often when I am at home but I am unable to cook often at school due to the lack of a kitchen. This was my first time using mass to measure ingredients and I already plan on buying myself a kitchen scale, its nice not to have a large pile of measuring cups and spoons to clean when you are done cooking.
        We used the basic Pain de Mie loaf from Ciril Hitz's Baking Artisan Bread.  The prep was very straight forward and the recipe came together quite well.  At first we did not believe that our bread was rising well but we ended up with a very good result .  It is a basic sandwich bread with a nice texture without being overly chewy.  It has a much richer flavor than commercial sandwich bread which I believe is largely due to the use of whole milk and butter.
     The recipe was geared towards using a lidded Pullman pan but we used a regular loaf pan and instead of cooking at 375 for 30 minutes covered and lowering to 350 for 15 minutes uncovered.  We cooked it at 350 for the duration of the baking period.  The recipe advised removing the bread from the pan and cooking it for 3-5 minutes directly on the rack and this gave the crust a very nice brown color.
     If I added anything I would use and eggwash to give the crust a more appealing shine as it has a slightly dull appearance.  I would recommend this recipe for anyone that is wanting a easy, one-day bread that is going to be pared with something such as sandwich filling.

Introduction

I'm Jon Nick a Junior Chemistry major and Government minor at Wofford College with a love for cooking.  For the month of January I'm taking an Interim on Artisan Bread baking.  I will be using this blog to chronicle my baking and hope to continue using it in the future to post on my culinary adventures.  Please feel free to ask me any questions and give me any advice or just come along for the ride.