left-over bread with poppy seeds

air bubbles 🙂 (baton-shaped loaf)

I try to bake every weekend to quench my interest in yeast and its activities, and to consume.

This week, I had planned a “left-over” bread that included the left-over green olives (they have been in my fridge for some time now) and the piece of the sourdough starter I was supposed to throw away yesterday (my starter was on its 5th day yesterday and quite a monster, I must say). Since I was inspired by a blog (which, sadly I cannot remember now), I also added poppy seeds to dough.

It was a dough that rested at the fridge over-night (I prefer this kind of dough – in my opinion it makes better breads).

Overall, the green olives were not enough and kind of got lost during the kneading/stretch and fold attempts. I do not know what to think about this now… Poppy seeds are okay and not overwhelmed the taste, which is pleasing. The dough had a slight sour taste – I am almost sure that it was not because of the starter but the olives, but I may as well be wrong. Crust was crispy while inside was soft and tasty.

I also experimented with the roaster I purchased a while ago to see whether baking bread in a container like roaster really makes a difference. I prepared two loaves from the same dough and baked one in a baking dish without a cover and another one in the roaster at the same time. In fact it does; the crust of the roaster-baked loaf was more browned and better looking. I may as well continue to bake breads in the roaster.

I seem to have shallow scoring cuts on the loafs. I will remember to make deeper cuts next time.

On a final note, parchment paper seems to be a baker’s best friend. If you do not have a roll, you may consider having one. It keeps everything clean and helps with not using vegetable oil, spray, or cornmeal that we would otherwise use in the oven dishes while baking.

Recipe

1. Activate 1/2 teaspoon of dry yeast in 1.5 cups of warm water and 1 tablespoon of sugar by mixing all and resting at room temperature for 15 min (cover the bowl).

*Note that the amount of dry yeast is really low. I find that dough that rests at the fridge does not need a lot of yeast

2. When the yeast is activated, add 1/2 cup of sourdough starter, 2 cups of bread flour, 2 cups of whole wheat flour. Mix with spoon or hand and let rest at room temperature for 20 (the autolyse step)

3. Add 1/3 cup of green olives (you should add more if you are looking for an olive loaf), 1 tablespoon of salt, and 2 tablespoon of poppy seeds and knead on a clean, flour sprinkled surface for a couple of minutes to make sure the ingredients all mix.

4. take the dough in a clean, vegetable oil spread bowl (i use a pot) and let rest at room temperature for 30 min. After that do stretch-and-fold for a total of 4 times, each time with 30 min rest in between.

*this technique is supposed to eliminate the need for kneading and develop the gluten structure equally. Basically hold a corner of the dough, stretch it as far as you can and then fold it over the dough. repeat this with other corners of the dough (4-6). Turn the dough over so that the folded part lies at the bottom

**my experience with kneading is pretty conflicting. I cannot knead even though I know it would make my bread structure better. So I failed in today’s attempt too as the dough did not become a mature, elastic dough. That is why I decided to stretch-and-fold

***you will notice that over-time the dough becomes fluffy but not necessarily overly risen

5. Put in the fridge over-night. I left the dough in the fridge for a total of 12 hours and then let rest at room temperature for 2 hours

6. Take the dough out and spread over flour-sprinkled surface, degassing at the same time. Cut into two loafs, shape, and let rest on the bench for 15 min (covered)

*since the dough is not sticky, there is no need to add more flour than required

7. Re-shape if needed, cover, and proof for 1 hour 45 min at room temperature. I used a bowl to proof the round loaf and a cookie sheet for the baton/francala. Cover the loafs so that they will not dehdyrate and keep warm.

8. Pre-heat the oven to 400F (keep the roaster inside too). When the proofing is done, transfer the loafs in the oven dish (I used this for the round loaf with parchment paper at the bottom) and the pre-heated roaster.

9. Score the top of the loaf and bake for a total of 50 min; after the first 25t minute take the lid off the roaster.

activating yeast – the small amount of yeast causes a small foam 🙂

shaggy dough ready for autolyse

after the autolyse, add salt, poppy seeds, and green olives into the dough

form a nice dough ready for stretch and fold

place in a clean pot brushed with vegetable oil to keep it hydrated

after 14 hours of fridge rest. my dough has a funny shape 🙂

expand the dough on the bench and degas

cut the dough into two and shape

after the bench rest, I placed the round loaf in a bowl with a clean clothe for proofing

this loaf was proved covered with a long/deep lid of a pot; no shaper/basket was used

after the proof, the loafs have risen a little bit (but not too much). transfer the round dough upside down and score the surface

proofed baton loaf

final product; I need to score deeper

the air bubbles are very pleasing to see 🙂 (round loaf)

air bubbles 🙂 (baton-shaped loaf)