Rye

Please excuse the lack of posts this past week, I got sick.  Had to take an extra day off after my regular two.
Not fun.

Yesterday I was out longer than I expected so I didn't start any doughs. Got a bunch of new books to read though.  Next week I am going to have to try something new and funky. Maybe I'll just close my eyes and put my finger on the table of contents. Leave it up to chance.  I got a huge bag of whole wheat flour I need to start using.  

Today I am making my usual sourdough with a twist. Grapefruit Stiegl into the final dough. I just gave the dough it's first fold, so it's only a few hours away from baking.

I also made a soaker and a starter for some rye bread.  Going to go to the beer store and find a stout or porter to use in it. Hm. What goes with caraway?

Split days off suck

So for the last week my shifts at work have been all over the map.  Split days off, working mornings, then closing, I haven't really had the energy to do as much baking as I'd have liked this past week.

However I have been making sourdough consistently every couple of days.  I have a formula that works, using Baker's Percentage to adjust my batch sizes.  This past Wednesday I used tomato juice instead of water, add 15 grams of dried rosemary and voila! Tomato Rosemary Sourdough!!

Anyway I think I have two days off in a row next week, so I'm going to get creative then.

Sourdough Success!

     My stiff levain starter is a success! Tastes delicious, and strong enough to make the bread rise.  I did two loaves, and left one in the fridge over night.  Pulled it out around 5 am, and baked it at 8:30, ate it at 9:15.  Going to make a couple more loaves today, and a focaccia loaf with strawberry beer.

On Monday I am going to make a loaf with Noble Pig Pilsner, I think.

     The foccaccia is amazing.  I can actually taste the strawberry beer.  Nothing overwhelming, and you have to look for it a little, but it's there!

 Made two sourdough baguettes that I am going to bake off this morning, and then it's off to work.

Not quite

     Not quite there yet.  The breads proofed okay, but it was getting late and shoved them in the oven around 10:30 last night.  I probably could have let them proof for another hour or so.  The flavour was good, the crumb was nice, and the crust was crispy so that was good.  Not tangy enough for me though.  I think on my days off I will retard them in the fridge over night, and then proof and bake the next day.  That should give me the level of sour that I like.

Got some action!!!

     My starter's are moving! I don't know what you were thinking. My sourdough starters have some movement, and smell ripe, but I don't think they are strong enough to leaven bread on their own.  I have whipped up a couple of tester loaves, with a little added yeast, just to see what the flavours are going to be.

     No beer in the final dough, because I used it in the initial mixes of the starters.  Grapefruit lager for the stiff and liquid levains and blackberry porter for the rye.  They really took on the smell of the beers, so I'm hoping for the best when it comes to taste test time tomorrow. Hope you like the use of alliteration there.

Moment of Truth

     Rye dough is soooo sticky, and it gets everywhere.  Didn't look like any of my cultures had any movement last night, but as the day progressed there are some bubbles forming.  I fed all of them once this morning, and need to feed all but the rye starter again tonight.  It usually takes a few days of regular feeding to get a culture going. 

         So I realized after the fact that the cheese in the blue cheese loaf was supposed to have been rolled into the middle of the loaf, and sprinkled on top.  I put the cheese in the dough directly.  It helps when you read the entire recipe I guess.  Yet that is the beauty of bread.  You can mess up some of the ingredient measurements or procedures and it can still turn out fine. To stiff? Add some water. To wet? Add flour.  Proofing to fast? Put it in the fridge. Even if something goes "wrong" you can call it an experimental loaf and nobody is the wiser.  A meringue or puff pastry? Not a chance.  That's why when I pulled the Blue Cheese Rye out of the oven and it looked fine I wasn't too worried. When I tasted it I was even happier.  The sharpness of the cheese really took front and center, but not in an overwhelming way.

     The fougasse tasted good, but was a little dry. Brushed it with olive oil when it came out of the oven. I bet it would be good with hummus and a glass of wine......  Yup, it is.
I think if I rolled it out really thin it would make a good cracker.

    The Onion Parmesan Caraway turned out amazing!  Moist, crispy crust, great flavour.  I'm really happy with this one. The kicker is that I have never made this recipe before, so I am not entirely sure how the beer is affecting the flavour.  All I know is that it is delicious.  I guess it's like running an experiment without a control group.

  

A very successful baking weekend I think. 










    

Day One

       My name is Phil, and I'm a baker.  Being my first blog, I'm totally improvising here.  How about a little background?  I got my start in baking working at Safeway.  I was there for five years, until I got bored and enrolled at Vancouver Community College in their Baking and Pastry Arts Patisserie program. Graduating in spring of 2012, I got a job at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Center right out of school.  I worked with a guy named Henry, who introduced me to the over-night fermentation process.  I worked with Henry for the next year and a half, and learned so much from him.  His techniques helped shape me into the baker I am today.  After the Convention Center I worked at a little pizza joint called Nook for about a month, before relocating to Kamloops.  Now I work in the meat department of Costco.  Ironic, eh? I keep telling people all I need to do is learn how to make candles and I'll be set.
 

     So between the monotony of work and my lack of mental stimulation, this blog is the result.  I enjoy writing, and beer, and baking, and baking with beer, so why not put it all together in a lovely little package on the internet to share?  Exactly. The first time I put beer in my dough, I was a few wobbly-pops in and figured, 'Beer and pretzels go good together, so why not put beer IN my pretzels!?!'.  After some experimenting I found a good ratio of beer to water, and rolled with it.  The progression was natural.  Guiness Rye with caraway seed, Granville Island Lager pizza dough, and Grolsch Pretzels were the beginning of this mad scientist's endeavours.
 

     Anyway, today I have started three different levain cultures (liquid, stiff, rye), a biga, and a pate fermentee.  The levain starters will not be ready for use until some time next week when they are active and strong enough to be used in dough.  The biga will be used for an Onion Parmesan French Loaf with caraway seed and an Olive Fougasse.  The pate fermentee will be used for a Blue Cheese Rye loaf.  My water to beer ratio is 50/50.  I used 100% beer in my pretzels once and it didn't work out so good. The dough consistency was not very elastic and more like putty(?).  The Guiness Rye is the only dough I've done with 100% beer and worked out.


     In the rye starter I used Cannery Brewing Blackberry Porter because I think the combinations of hops and blackberry would compliment a dark rye nicely.  The other two cultures I used Stiegl Grapefruit Lager because the citrus and tangy notes of the beer would be a great addition to the standard sourdough flavour.
I'll just have to wait a day or two to see if and how it affects the fermentation process.  Then if the culture develops as it should, we'll see what the effect on dough activity and flavour is.


     In the biga I used Noble Pig Brewhouse Peppered Belgian Ale. Should compliment the Onion and Parmesan loaf nicely, along with the Olive Fougasse.  The pate fermentee will be used in the Blue Cheese Rye, so I used the Blackberry Porter. I'll let you know tomorrow how it turned out.
 
     I'm doing this for fun and experimentation so I'm not going to spend a lot of time on details about the formulas other than the beer flavour and ratios.  If you have any questions, ask.