Improved Basic Bread Dough

What, again with the bread? Yes, because I’m obsessed by the memory of a flavor.

I have this taste memory of bread from the bakery in Rettigheim–it’s too small to be located on any but the most detailed maps of Germany–and I want bread like that again. I want a crust that resists the bite without shattering, a somewhat dense bread that isn’t really heavy, with moist chewiness but not too much of it. I want the flavor of good wheat, a hint of the sweetness of oats, and just a bit of the sharp bite of rye. I want a bread that, with a glass of wine, makes a meal, and with some cheese, fruit, and nuts, makes a feast. I want a bread that olive oil wants to marry, that marmalade dreams of. In short, I want a bread that I can eat for the rest of my life and be satisfied, even if I never have any other variations on the theme.

There are many good books out there about bread baking, like The Bread Baker’s Apprentice. If you want to get serious about bread baking, buy it, it’s a great book. I read it, and tried a few things from it, but it involves more work than I really want for my everyday bread. I’m just not that serious about bread baking.

Honestly, I’m most happy with the simplicity of the basic bread recipe in Ratio:  20 ounces of flour, 12 ounces of water, 2 teaspoons of salt, and 1 teaspoon of yeast. If you haven’t yet purchased a copy of Ratio yet you really need to get one.

What I’ve finally settled on–okay, maybe it isn’t final, but it’s close–is 1½ ounces of rye flour, 1 ounce of oat flour, and 17½ ounces of unbleached white flour, all from Bob’s Red Mill. I use a heaping teaspoon of Bob’s Red Mill Active Dry Yeast to compensate for the heaviness of the oat flour. I also add a splash of extra virgin olive oil and about a teaspoon of honey to feed the yeast; I don’t measure either of these ingredients.

I proceed as in the standard bread dough recipe in Ratio and my previous post; usually I’ll do this when I start making dinner. Once the bread is kneaded and has risen for about an hour (and the dinner dishes are done), I put it into the refrigerator to continue rising overnight. The next morning I punch it down, shape it, and let it rise until nearly doubled in size. Then I score and bake it.

The resulting bread is moist, fairly dense without being heavy, has a nice crust that doesn’t shatter, and a really good flavor. It would be better if I had the patience to make a sourdough starter, but I don’t. I wonder if adding a small amount of semolina will improve it?

Garlic, Apple, and Bacon Bread

For the past couple of weeks I’ve been thinking about how nice it would be to make some bread using garlic confit for Michael Ruhlman’s BLT Challenge. This is my first attempt, and although it wasn’t entirely successful, it’s still a tasty bread.

I started by making a basic bread dough. Toward the end of the first rise I sautéed some bacon to make crispy bits, then added apple chunks and a hint of rosemary. After draining the apple and bacon on paper towels, I went ahead and punched the bread dough down, then rolled it out and put the bacon-apple mixture on top, along with some garlic confit.

As I rolled the dough over the filling, I added more garlic confit. Then I tucked the ends under and let the bread proof. After proofing, I scored the loaf and baked it.

The final result is tasty, but I’m really not satisfied. The flavor isn’t quite what I was looking for, and it’s not a good bread for sandwich making, which means it won’t work well for the BLT Challenge.

I’ve learned a few things making this experimental loaf. First, I didn’t put in enough garlic confit for a really garlicky flavor.

Second, I’d have done better to put what I used as a filling into the dough during the initial mixing. Distribution would have been better that way, I wouldn’t have had air pockets in the loaf, and slices wouldn’t tend to fall apart where there’s filling. If I don’t want to put the filling into the dough, I need to roll it out much thinner.

Third, I needed more rosemary. Perhaps I should brush the outside of the loaf with oil and rosemary if I want to add that flavor.

Finally, I learned that if I’m going to stuff a loaf, I don’t need as much filling as I thought I would need, and that the bread will be more successful baked in a pan rather than as a hand-shaped loaf.

While I may not have hit the target I aimed for, I learned a lot doing this. I’ll definitely try again!

Strawberry-Ricotta Tartlet

Strawberries may well be my favorite food. Not surprising, really, when you consider that I was born within sight of Mt. Hood at the time of year when Hood strawberries are just right! To celebrate my birthday I thought it would be lovely to have a nice strawberry tart. But I couldn’t decide exactly how it should look, so I made tartlets.

I started by making some Vanilla Shortbread Dough. I used Madagascar Bourbon vanilla extract instead of Tahitian, and replaced the vanilla paste with powdered freeze-dried strawberries to give the dough a bit of kick. I followed my own instructions, and didn’t worry when the dough cracked before baking. Remember to chill the tartlet shells before baking. I baked them for about 13 minutes at 350°F/175°C.

While the tartlet shells were baking, I mixed some whole milk ricotta with about a teaspoon of honey,  some puréed strawberries, and a hint of cinnamon. Once the shells were finished baking and cooling, I filled them with the ricotta. If I had had some, I would have used strawberry honey, which is honey from hives in which the bees harvest pollen from strawberry fields.

The strawberries went into a bowl of cold water along with several sprigs of spearmint from the garden. Then it was just a matter of selecting berries that were just right, slicing them, and laying them into the shells, sometimes with mint leaves interspersed. To finish, I melted some strawberry jam and brushed it onto the berries.

As I said, I couldn’t decide exactly how the tart should look, so I made two sizes of tartlets and then decorated each a little differently. One of them featured whole berries.

I also made several smaller tartlets, decorating them as flowers.

Now the only problem I have is that I have to eat them, and I can’t figure out which one to eat first!

Basic Bread Dough

I had an interesting experience the other day. I’ve been enjoying Ratio, Michael Ruhlman’s newest book, and decided to try the basic bread ratio. He explains that the actual quantity of yeast isn’t all that important, and that less yeast just requires more time, with better-developed flavor as your reward for patience.

Well, I mixed up the dough. I didn’t worry about water temperature and I used a small quantity of yeast. After kneading, I covered the dough and waited for it to double in size. I checked it after an hour, and it looked like nothing had happened. Two hours, and it was the same result. I shrugged, figuring I’d gotten a batch of old yeast and went on about my day, intending to throw the dough away and start over.

Oops, I got distracted, forgot all about the dough, and didn’t rediscover the bowl sitting in a quiet corner until the next day. Hmm, it had finally doubled in size. And it smelled fine. So I punched it down, let it rest a bit, formed it into a boule, wrapped it in plastic, and put it in the refrigerator.

The next day I pulled the dough out of the refrigerator and let it proof for a couple of hours. Then I popped it into the oven with a pan of steaming water, baked it until done, and let it cool.

The crust color was a bit odd, but at this point it was just an experiment, so I didn’t much care. I cut into the boule and the structure of the bread was absolutely marvelous. Well, I decided I should taste it to see if it was alright. It certainly smelled fine.

Oh my, what a delight! It was, hands down, the best-tasting bread I’ve ever made: dense without being heavy; very tasty but without the overly yeasty flavor I’d usually achieved. And long-lasting as well. It didn’t dry out for the three days it lasted, and every bite of it continued to satisfy.

Was it a fluke? Only one way to find out. First, the recipe.

Basic Bread Dough
from Ratio by Michael Ruhlman

20 ounces bread flour
12 ounces water
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon active or instant yeast

Put the flour and salt into the bowl of a stand mixer. P0ur on the water–I also added 1½ tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil and 1½ tablespoons honey–then sprinkle the yeast on top. If you have patience, let the yeast rehydrate for a couple of minutes. Mix with the paddle attachment for a few seconds until the dough comes together. Then fit the dough hook onto the mixer and knead for about ten minutes, until it’s smooth and elastic.

Remove the bowl from the mixer and cover it with plastic wrap. Allow the dough to rise until it doubles in size. When you push a finger into it, there should be some resistance and it shouldn’t spring back.

Turn the dough out onto a floured surface. It’s going to stick to the bowl a bit, so just keep pulling it away from the bowl until it’s out. Knead it a couple of times to expel excess gas and redistribute the yeast, then cover with a towel and let it rest about 10 minutes. Form it into the shape you wish–Ruhlman gives excellent instructions for different shapes–then cover with plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight.

Pull the dough from the refrigerator, remove the plastic wrap, place it on a baking sheet, cover with a towel, and let it proof for 1½-2 hours. Near the end of proofing, preheat your oven to 450°F/230°C and place a cast iron skillet in the bottom of the oven. Set aside a cup of water to add to the pan at baking.

Put your bread in the oven, add a cup of water to the pan, and bake for 10 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 375°F/190°C and continue to bake another 45-50 minutes, until done. Let it cool on a rack as long as your patience will allow before cutting the first slice.

If you’ve never made bread before, try this method. It produces fantastic bread with minimal effort. And if you haven’t looked at Ratio yet, get a copy. You’ll be glad you did.