Monday Mix 11/14/22
The dog ate my booklet
Happy Mondays, everyone. I hope you all had a nice weekend!
The Bread Baker’s Pocket Companion continues to sell at a nice pace, though things have slowed down enough that I don’t expect to run out of stock anytime soon once the new printing arrives later this month. If you want to order them for holiday gifts, I’d do it sooner rather than later, since I w
Two things to know about it: If you own a retail shop or bakery and want to stock the BBPC in it, or if you want to buy a large quantity (say to give to students as a gift, as a few baking instructors are doing), I do offer a wholesale discount for bulk orders, just reach out to me and I’ll send you the details.
And if your copy gets lost after delivery or gets eaten by your dog Boomer and you need a replacement, we can work something out too.
I made Jennifer Latham’s Molasses & Ginger Spice Cake for my mom’s birthday this weekend, and it was VERY GOOD. It is a “blender” cake that comes together in about 1 minute (the most time-consuming part is peeling the knobs of ginger). The batter is very loose, but it sets up beautifully, giving a cake with a supremely moist crumb. (One that only improves as it sits: it was even better on day 2.) I love this technique, and I plan to mess around with it for other recipes.
Finally, I’ve been making yogurt lately, and straining it, which has left us with a lot of tart, creamy whey. Naturally, I wondered how it would work in a bread ,and the answer is very well! It gives the loaf a pronounced lactic tang, just the sort of thing for those who like a punchy sourdough. It seems to make the crumb a bit chewier than normal, so I need to tweak the formula a bit to counter that, but I’ll share a whey bread recipe here eventually.
See you all on Wednesday, when we’ll have a guest post from one of the internet’s best practitioners of panettone, Olga Koutseridi, something that has been in the works here for a long time.
—Andrew
I made the ginger cake and it was fantastic (so good, in fact, I'm making it again within the week to bring to Thanksgiving). I did have some trouble with the volume vs. weight measure for the molasses and oil, but even with some educated guesses it was pretty perfect.
Since you brought it up……
HONEY WHEY SOURDOUGH WITH SPROUTED WHEAT
Levain:
40 g. mature (fed) sourdough 100% starter
80 g. Water
40 g. all purpose flour
40 g. Sprouted wheat flour
Dough:
300 g. bread flour
287 g. all purpose flour
85 g. sprouted wheat flour
475 g. Whey
200 g. Levain (all of it)
62 g. Honey
15 g. Salt
12-14 hours before making the dough, make the levain and maintain in a warm place (70-72 degrees).
When the levain is ready, warm the refrigerated whey to around 80 degrees. Combine the bread, AP and wheat flours. Autolyse with the warmed whey for 25-30 minutes.
Add all of the levain, the honey and the salt to the mixture. Mix for 3 minutes on speed 1, then turn out and finish by hand. The mixture will be goopy, but keep at it until you see good gluten development.
Bulk ferment for 3-3.25 hrs. @ 75 degrees, folding at 30 and 90 minutes. Do one more fold if needed.
Divide dough, form into balls and bench rest for 20-25 minutes.
Form into boules or betards , roll in barley flakes, and allow to rise for ~ 2 hours @75 degrees in linen-lined bannetons.
Preheat oven to 450 degrees 1 hour into final rise.
Bake for 30 minutes, removing steam after 15 minutes.
Yield: (2) 650 gram loaves