Tweaking the Recipe and Wishing for Sunshine...

Hello and Welcome to Kitchen Weekend Warrior Blogspot!

Rain Rain go away...will it EVER stop raining??? I had plans to get the rest of the garden in today and it's raining AGAIN. Yesterday Chuck and I mulched my Mom's landscaping which took most of the day and thank goodness the rain held out for us. Got a bit of sunburn and was worn out at the end of the day. Can't believe I can't plant again today due to rain...I'm so annoyed. I pulled all the weeds around what I already have in and was ready to put in my corn, green beans, tomatoes and peppers this weekend...and then it started pouring. Ug.

Well I have my bread project going, and that's a comfort that I am being somewhat productive. Laundry just doesn't feel productive somehow.

I was so excited to see I have my first follower this week! Welcome : ) I hope to see more following. Would love to learn some new things from my readers!

I have a request for the recipe for my recent sucess and am so  happy to share!

 The Honey Starter is posted on a previous blog and is a fantastic starter. If you ever feel your starter has lost some of it's power you can always add a packet of yeast to the feeder flour/water, and a tad of honey for the yeast to feed on...to keep it going. I fed my starter double last week and noticed it was a bit weaker this time, so I give it a boost. If you keep making the same amount of bread you should be feeding it the same and have no reason to need to give it a boost. I doubled the amount of starter I'm using and think I added too much food for the small amount of starter left last time, so felt the need to give her a boost. But like I said, you should actually never have to do this if you feed regularly and use close to the same amount each time.

Above in the picture you see my long shaped artisan loaves rising today...made a couple 'tweaks' this week to see how I can improve.

Here is the basic recipe I'm using and tweaking this time around:

5 cups flour/3 cups King Arthur Bread Flour and 2 cups King Arthur Whole Wheat
2 tsp vital gluten (Hodson Mills)
3 cups filtered/distilled or spring water
1 3/4 cups starter
2 tsp salt (mix in first knead)

Mix and let rest 1 hr. Turn out on to well floured countertop and use something sturdy to scrape bowl it will be sticky and messy. Keep flouring hands and sprinkling dough and counter with bread flour as you knead for about 5 min. Add the salt to this knead along with your flour while your kneading.  Do your rectangle shape of stretching and patting dough out so you can fold once, then fold to meet both sides in the middle. Turn over seam side down on floured countertop, cover with flour sack towel and let rise 2 hours.
Punch down and knead again in 1 hr. Cut into two pieces and knead into a nice shape and place seam side down on your baking stone, make your cuts with a very sharp serated knife and cover and rest for at least 1 hr, can go 2 hrs without harm.

Bake with muffin tin cups full of water on lower rack and your bread on upper rack at 475 for 20 min.
Take water out and finish baking at 425 for another 45 min our until your bread sounds hollow and has a nice brown crust.

Today my tweaking consisted of :

1) adding yeast to my starter. I fed my starter double last week and I thought it looked a bit weak, not very bubbly. I added one packet of yeast and a bit of honey. I shouldn't have to do this again, just a fluke I had about a cup of starter and added 2 cups flour and water last week. They say it should take but I wanted to bake successfully today. No more brick loaves.

2) I used 6 cups of flour so as not to knead so much into it like last week, then just kneaded with bread flour as you normally would. (last week I added flour MAJOR to get it to firm up).

3) I used 2 cups of starter instead of 1 3/4 since adding more flour from the start this time.

4) Added 2 tsp of raw organic sugar.

Here they are out of the oven. They have a slight whiteish glaze to them, as I heard from someone who had grew up in a family owned bakery, to glaze the hot bread with a cornstarch and water mixture. Well, needless to say it didn't make it shine, so I rubbed the crust with butter, but you can still see the cornstarch and water glaze areas a bit. Lesson learned.

The loaves are larger and lighter this time! Chuck says it's lighter and airier this time, and, more moist and soft. The crumb was slightly dry last time.
I think this Tweak was a great success! Next week I want to finish them with a sesame seed/egg white wash to make them shine and add the sesame seeds Chuck wants.

So this week we have arrived at this recipe:

6 cups flour/half bread flour half whole wheat
2 tsp vital gluten
3 cups water
2 cups starter
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp salt
Mix all in large shallow bowl and let rest 1 hr.
Turn out on to well floured countertop and use something sturdy to scrape bowl it will be sticky and messy. Keep flouring hands and sprinkling dough and counter with bread flour as you knead for about 5 min.  Do your rectangle shape of stretching and patting dough out so you can fold once, then fold to meet both sides in the middle. Turn over seam side down on floured countertop, cover with flour sack towel and let rise 2 hours.
Punch down and knead again, cut into two pieces and knead into a nice shape and place seam side down on your baking stone, make your cuts with a very sharp serated knife and cover and rest for at least 1 hr, can go 2 hrs without harm.

Bake with muffin tin cups full of water on lower rack and your bread on upper rack at 475 for 20 min.
Take water out and finish baking at 425 for another 45 min our until your bread sounds hollow and has a nice brown crust. (1 hour)

I have this whole process down to 4-5 hours which is awesome compared to the recipes I started out trying! And these days you need all the extra time you can get. We work 8hrs and still do all the household stuff we were expected to do 50 years ago that the stay at home women did, and it's so hard to do.

Brush with butter when you take out of the oven. Let cool if you can! I dare you!

I would love to hear from someone who wants to learn how to easily and inexpensively bake fresh loaves each weekend...and share our successes and failures...and learn how to perfect this process together!

THERE'S NOTHING LIKE FRESH HOMEMADE BREAD

If I wasn't so busy I would have tried to make the Rich Chocolate Cake from Prevention's Flat Belly Diet I've had on my mind...stay tuned for that post!!
I will be making that very soon! It has all mufa fats and low sugar, dark chocolate which is a healthy antioxidant : )

Thanks for reading, send me a comment!

Janie