COUNTRY BREAD WITH CHIA SEEDS - SOME LIKE IT MILD

 

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In 2012 I had made a New Year's resolution - to give all my baking books a fair chance.

I wanted to bake one bread from every one of them, not only from my couple of favorite books. "Equal Opportunity Baking" was born!

With Malt Rye Rolls and Saatenbrot I was off for a roaring start. Also, Muesli Rolls and
Beer Rye Bread worked out after some tweaking.

But then some loaves folllowed that either required a lot of trials, or underwhelmed me with their taste. My initial enthusiasm was dampened, and the last posts endet up with the sympathetic hobby bakers of The Fresh Loaf, and didn't make it to my blog.

That is about to change now, I renewed my resolution (please, no knowlegeable grins!) In the meantime my baking book collection didn't diminish - on the contrary! - and the to-do-list of breads is large. So, here we go!

Was it my childish resistance against praying with St. Jeffrey's faithful congregation, or an unconscious dislike of dealing with a tome - so far I haven't baked a lot from Hamelman's "Bread".

Though one bread, the wonderful "5-Grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough", made it straight into Karin's Bread Hall of Fame, and I used his "Rye Sourdough with Walnuts" formula for testing a 1-step versus a 3-step starter. But that was it!

For my "Equal Opportunity Pledge", I wanted to kill two birds with one stone, having another go at "Bread", and finding a use for the chia seed I had just purchased for a bargain price. Therefore I chose a simple white loaf to jazz up with the omega-3-rich seeds: Country Bread.

Working with the recipe wasn't very difficult. I refrigerated the mature pre-ferment overnight, and upped the amount of water in the dough a bit to accommodate the seeds (I didn't soak them, because - according to the description on the tag - "You can eat them directly out of the package").

The dough was slightly sticky, as intended, and I gave it an extra Stretch & Fold right away, and let it ferment for an additional 50 minutes after the last S&F.

The result was a very pretty loaf, with a pleasant, slightly nutty taste - for goodie-two-shoes people who prefer a milder bread, without too much noticeable tang.

COUNTRY BREAD WITH CHIA SEEDS  (adapted from Jeffrey Hamelman's "Bread")

Pre-Ferment
227 g bread flour
136 g water
4 g/3/4 tsp. salt
1 pinch instant yeast

Final Dough
all pre-ferment
227 g bread flour
185 g water
45 g chia seeds
5 g salt
0.9 g/1/4 tsp. instant yeast

DAY 1
Mix pre-ferment ingredients just until smooth. Cover, and leave at room temperature for 12 - 16 hours (70ºF/21ºC.) It will be ready to use, when it has domed, and is just starting to recede in the center. (I refrigerated the mature pre-ferment overnight.)

DAY 2
Cut pre-ferment in 12 small pieces. Mix all final dough ingredients, at low speed, until all flour is hydrated, and dough comes together (about 3 minutes,) adjusting with a little more water, as needed. Dough should be slightly sticky.

Continue kneading at medium speed for 3 minutes more. Dough should be supple, and still a bit sticky (Desired dough temperature 75ºF/24ºC).

Transfer to a lightly oiled or moistened work surface. With oiled or wet hands, stretch and pat it into a rough square. Fold it from top and bottom like a business letter, then do the same from the left and right side. Gather dough package into a ball, tucking sides under, and place into a lightly oiled bowl.

Cover, and let rise for about 2 1/2 hours, with 2 folds at 50 minute intervals. (In my cooler kitchen the rising time was 50 minutes longer.)

Pre-shape dough into a round, and place on the lightly floured work surface, seam side up. Cover, and let relax for 10 - 20 minutes, then shape into a boule or bâtard.

Place, seam side up, into a floured banneton, sprinkle with more flour, cover, and proof for 75 - 90 minutes (at 75ºF/24ºC), or longer, when your kitchen is cooler.

About half an hour before baking, preheat oven to 450ºF/230ºC, with baking stone and steam pan.

Use the finger poke test, the bread is ready for the oven, when a dimple doesn't fill up again, only comes back a little bit. Transfer loaf to a parchment lined baking sheet (or bake directly on baking stone.) Score into desired pattern.

Bake bread for 15 minutes, steaming with a cup of boiling water. Rotate bread 180 degrees, remove steam pan, and continue baking for another 20 minutes, or until loaf is golden brown, sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom and registers at least 200ºF/93ºC.

Let bread cool on wire rack.

An attractive looking bread: mild, with a slightly nutty flavor

BreadStorm-Users, (including the free version) can download the formula here.

 

Submitted to Yeast Spotting

A FAIR CHANCE FOR ALL BAKING BOOKS

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Like some teachers have their "pets", I have some favorite baking books that I always turn to when I'm looking for new recipes.

 These books have old envelopes, supermarket receipts, movie tickets, and other odd papers stuck between pages as markers, my own volume/weight conversions (or corrections), and lots of scribbled comments.

And, they are also graded with stars, enthusiastic exclamation marks, or a scathing: "Not that great!"

Then there are The Others, bought or received as presents, that, for some reasons, never captured my attention.

Either because they have no appetizing photos, their layout is too dull, their write-up too boring (yes, I am that shallow!), or I just forgot all about them.

They end up in a dark corner of my bookshelf, forsaken and forlorn, probably hiding treasures that no one will ever know in the Anderson house - and NOBODY CARES!

This shameful negligence has to come to an end - these books are people, too! They, too, deserve a chance to be looked at, taken seriously, and, maybe, supply the next candidate for Karin's Bread Hall of Fame.

So my New Year's Resolution is this Equal Opportunity Pledge -  fair treatment of all my baking books, every one shall have a chance, no more "pet baking", but equal opportunity for all those disadvantaged recipe collections, that never saw the light of my kitchen!


LIST OF "EQUAL OPPORTUNITY BREADS"

Malzbrot - Malt Rye Rolls (Richard Ploner:"Brot aus Südtirol")

Saatenbrot - German Many Seed Bread ("Die besten Rezepte aus der Allgemeinen Bäckerzeitung")









 

Müslibrötchen - Muesli Rolls (Erika Casparek Türkkan et al.:"Brot und Kleingebäck") 

Beer Rye Bread (Bill Middeke:"Baking with the St. Paul Bread Club") 

Country Bread (Jeffrey Hamelman: "Bread")

PENDING: Arkatena Bread (Andrew Whitley: "Bread Matters")

PENDING: French Walnut Bread - Pain au Levain Complet aux Noix (Daniel Leader: "Local Breads")














 PENDING: Camembert-Trauben-Brot - Camembert Grape Bread (Bernd Armbrust: "Brot")

PENDING: Mandel-Vollkorn-Brot - Wheat Almond Bread (Cornelia Zingerling:"Brot backen")

PENDING: Pain au Levain de Sarrasin (Niels Schöner: "Notes From a Floury German Kitchen")












Jan Hedh: Cosa Nostra Bread ("Swedish Breads and Pastry") 
Peter Reinhart: Croissants ("Artisan Bread Every Day")
Fany Gerson: Conchas Blancas ("My Sweet Mexico")
Dan Lepard: Red Wine Loaf with Pine Nuts and Figs ("The Art of The Handmade Bread")
Bauernbrot - Farmers' Loaf ("Brotrezepte aus ländlichen Backstuben")
Vollkorntoastbrot mit Leinsamen - Whole Grain Toast Bread with Flaxseed ("Brot backen - Köstliche Rezepte aus der guten alten Zeit")
E. and J. Wood: Cranberry-Nut Sourdough ("Classic Sourdoughs")
Ute-Marion Wilkesmann: Allerweltsbrötchen - Ordinary Rolls ("Brötchen statt Brot")
Chad Robertson: Basic Country Bread with Sesame ("Tartine")
Rose Levy Beranbaum: Golden Semolina Torpedo - Altamura ("The Bread Bible")
Richard Bertinet: Breton Bread ("Crust")
J. Alford and N. Duguid: Ethiopian Spice Bread ("Flatbreads and Flavors")
R. Topp and A. Riffert: Heilkräuterbrot - Healing Herb Bread ("Vollkornbäckerei zu Hause")

So far, so good. There might be more.....