Khorosan Wheat

 Khorosan, aka Kamut, is similar to durum wheat.  Durum is commercially used for pasta primarily.  Some day that khorosan is not that good for bread.  Out of curiosity, I got some khorosan flour from Azure and decided to see what it could do.  First up was pancakes, where it made a yellow batter.

The finished product was pretty yellow, too; I usually make pancakes out of 100% red whole wheat.

 The flavor was... ok, but nothing great.  Next up was bread, baked more or less 50/50 with white bread flour.

 The bread is fine structurally--the dough was a bit brittle (insofar as wet dough can have that property); it cracked a bit as I was forming it into the loaf shape before putting it in the proofing basket.  But the bread itself looks pretty much like normal bread.  It tastes like dry spaghetti, which validates its durum lineage.  That's not necessarily the best thing in bread, IMO, but I may try pairing it with red whole wheat to see how that tastes.  I'm not thinking I'm going to stock up on a lot of this.

 

 

 

 

Another Cinderblock?

 As I recently mentioned, I do sometimes have pretty good success with 100% whole wheat loaves.  There have been some epic fails with 100%, however, and then sometimes there are loaves that turn out like this:

At first glance, it doesn't look all that bad.  It looks a little odd on the top, but that's not a series of oven-spring splits.  More on those momentarily.  The issue with the loaf is apparent when it's on the slicer:

It's a wide-angle lens, so there's some distortion, but at the back are a couple of slices cut from last week's loaf, a standard 50/50 blend.  You can see they're a little wider.  The 100% loaf in the foreground is very compact and dense.

 

Cut open, it's pretty obvious. For comparison, here's the 'victory' loaf referred to in the post linked at the top:

The ultra-dense loaf doesn't really constitute a fail; it's salvageable and will make decent sandwiches.  This time I know what the issue was: the sponge was too dry.  As I mixed it, it seemed very (very very) dry, but I wanted to try it to see what would happen.  On oven proof, it actually did eventually rise a bit, but overall it remained pretty dense. The bands visible on top were just legacies from when I formed the loaf before putting it in the basket.

In a cold house, there are only two periods when it rises: before going into the proofing basket and once it's in the oven.  In this case, more time on the initial rise might have been helpful.  When I formed the loaf and put it into the basket it was apparent it was very small. I may experiment a bit more with it to see if I can make it work.

Bread-More Thrills of Victory and Agonies of Defeat

 Cold temps require heat-assisted proofing, but also generally provide for the potential for dramatic oven spring.  The oven proofing also has the potential to cause uneven gas pockets in the dough. However, sometimes cold-temp bread turns out great.  A couple of weeks ago, I baked a 100% red whole wheat loaf that turned out like this:

And once cut open, it was nice:

It was still denser than white or 50/50 bread, but whole wheat doesn't turn out much better than this (at least not for me).

As I often do, I followed the 100% whole wheat loaf with a 100% white loaf the next week.  I had visions of airy perfection. What I got was...disappointing.

It's worse than it looks in the picture.  Cut open, it's approaching unleavened status.

That may be a bit harsh, but only a bit.  The (minimal) rise was very uneven.  It looks like Swiss Cheese--big gas pockets and solid otherwise. I'm not sure what happened.  Conditions for the two loaves seemed pretty similar: a cold house, followed by oven proofing for a few hours, then baking.  There are obviously things about bread baking that I still haven't figured out.

Fall Bread

 With my sourdough starter, I get optimal rise in the dough (aka sponge) at about 75 degrees.  Above 80 the rise is explosive, and letting it sit on the counter for 7 or 8 hours leads to big prebake rise, sub-optimal rise while baking.  In the colder months, I have the opposite problem.  My dough doesn't rise much at all, so needs an oven proof session of about two hours.

This fall has yielded a rapid transition from warm (> 80 indoors) to cool (barely 70).  I baked one loaf that turned out great before I had to go back to oven-proofing.

Obviously, in the summer I could switch to a daytime rise, when I could control the time a little better than when it rises overnight.  But that would be disruptive to other things in the routine. So overnight rise it is.  That will work well for the next few months.

Lower-Carb Blueberry Pie

 I've posted before about using almond flour for pie crust to lower the carb content of a pie.  I haven't done this for fruit pies previously, mostly because fruit pies typically have some sort of top crust.  I decided to give it a try with a topless blueberry pie.

I used my go-to recipe for the almond flour pie crust:

1 1/2 c almond flour

2 tbsp Whey Low D

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 c almond oil (or butter, or coconut oil)

I mixed this up and pressed it into the pie plate:

The filling ingredients I got from a recipe online somewhere, but don't have the link:

1 1/4 c Whey Low D (as a lower-carb replacement for sugar)

1/3 c clear jel (as a low-carb replacement for flour)

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

5 c blueberries

The powdered ingredients are substantial:

 

In the shell, ready to go in the oven:

 

 As usually seems to happen, the crust got a little over-done, at least in appearance (after about 40 minutes at 425).

I don't have any pictures of what happened when it was cut open, but I have not had much success in getting blueberry pie filling to  hold together.  It tends to fall apart when cut, and that held true this time, as well.  Still, it was no worse than normal.  This was my first attempt with clear jel, and I thought that might be the solution (as well as lowering the carb count).  However, it didn't work out as hoped.  The crust's flavor was fine, even though it was dark.

The blueberries themselves have a lot of carbs, of course (about 18 net grams per cup, accoring to Fat Secret).  Assuming the Whey Low D has about 20% of the carb hit of regular sugar (see discussion here), the carb load for the entire pie would be about 300 grams, or 38 grams per slice.  That isn't exactly great; it's a pretty solid hit for someone who has carb issues.  However, it compares very favorably to a pie made with wheat flour and sugar, which would be around 150 grams per slice (increasing to about 168 grams if a top crust is added).  Relatively speaking, it's not bad--though a nut-based pie would be much lower.

It's something potentially useful to keep as an option for lower-carb baking.

White Bread

 I don't make it very often, but every once in a while, I bake a loaf using all white flour.  It rises much more than all whole wheat or 50/50.

The process is pretty much the same as for my standard loaves, which are usually 50/50 (or occasionally 100% whole wheat).  The only thing that varies is the amount of water needed to get a workable sponge.  My grain mill grinds the flour somewhat more coarsely than normal, so it does not take as much water.  Ironically, using all white flour means more water is needed, even though it's usually the opposite.  The flour is also somewhat stickier when wet (though not as bad as dough made with rye).

With no fiber, the dough rises aggressively, and the loaf balloons in the oven.

Large gas pockets are visible, but as long as the rise is even, there aren't huge holes in the slices.

This is too decadent and non-nutritive to eat on a routine basis, but every once in a while, it can be nice for a change of pace.

Another Bread Fail?

 ...Or at least call it a less-than-optimal rise.  I baked another 100% whole wheat loaf, this time with Red Fife wheat, which is (so far) my favorite.  Here's the result:

It's not exactly a failed loaf; it's just more dense than normal. The comparison loaf is 100% white flour, which is always very fluffy. The rare 100% whole wheat splitting top crust was nowhere to be seen.  Still, I have had worse experiences.

 I think in this case the flour may have been slightly too hydrated, and the stones of my grinder may have snuck apart on me and may need adjustment again.  That was a main factor behind the epic Emmer disaster. The other factor was over-hydration, and the two may go together.  Under-ground wheat = less water needed for making the sponge.  If one does not adjust for that, it's a soggy, grainy mess that doesn't rise.  I'll try again, but will go back to 50% for a while in the meantime.

More Whole Wheat...

I've posted a few times about successes baking with 100% whole wheat flour.  It's definitely different from white flour, and I don't do it that often.  However, every couple of months I find myself baking with it again.  White whole wheat is pretty easy to eat, though still dense; a 100% loaf with red wheat is intense.

I used to use vital wheat gluten, but haven't put that into my loaves in the last couple of years. It helps somewhat, but not all that much.

My most recent effort was in mid-May, with white wheat.  Although it was a cool early May (with a near-freezing low the second week), the house temps had warmed to the low 70s, allowing the overnight rise to accomplish something without supplemental heat.

The crust actually broke along the top.  This very rarely happens with 100% whole wheat (at least for me).  While this was a nice surprise, it's still a pretty dense loaf:

I still stick with about 3 3/4 cups of flour per loaf, 1/4 cup of sourdough starter, and 1/2 teaspoon of salt; the amount of water varies according to the flour mix and coarseness of the whole wheat, but is usually about 1 2/3 cups.  This mix with whole wheat leads to about 1/2 cup of whole wheat flour per two slices, or 200 calories, 32 net grams of carbs and 8 grams of fiber (according to the Fat Secret site).  That's pretty decent.

A Winter Whole Wheat Loaf of Bread

As I noted last winter, in my new/old house, it's challenging to get bread to rise when it's below 70 indoors.  Here's what a recent batch of 100% white whole wheat dough looked like after "rising" on the counter for about eight hours:

As you can see, there's essentially no rise to it.  I put it in the oven on the proof setting for about 3.5-4 hours, yielding this:

That was enough to start baking.  The end result was a very respectable (if slightly underbaked) 100% whole wheat loaf.

Within a month, this should all be moot until fall.

Skipping the Pre-Baking: Another Low-Carb Black Walnut Pie

Last year I tried a black walnut pie with a swaged almond flour crust that I pre-baked.  The results were okay, insofar as way-overdone almond flour can be okay, but it was apparent that an improvement was possible.

This year I skipped the pre-baking.  Below is the crust after forming and after adding the filling

There was enough butter in the crust to hold it together, so pre-baking doesn't even seem to be helpful in any way.  Below is the final result.  It looked and tasted better than last year's effort.  It's not low-calorie at all, but should be extremely low in carbs.

Bread Comparison

FWIW, here are two loaves:  on the left is one made with all white flour; the one on the right was made with a 50/50 blend of white and white whole wheat.  Both turned out extremely well (or as extremely well as things get with me).

Everything else is the same (except the amount of water used in making the dough). I generally use 3 3/4 cups of flour, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 1/4 cup sourdough starter, and about 1 2/3 cups of water. Baking is 35 minutes at 475 followed by 15 minutes at 450 with the lid off.  I bake it in a Romertopf clay baker. It initially rises in a large mixing bowl with plastic wrap over the top.  I put it in a proofing basket with a liner for the final brief rise (I'm not a Breadtopia affiliate and get nothing from anyone buying things there; the links are for reference only).

The countertop rise is about 8-9 hours at ambient temperatures, though when it's cold in the house I either let it rise for a longer period of time (up to 12 or even more) or put it in the oven on the bread proof setting, which keeps the oven at 100 degrees.  After forming the loaf, it rises about another 25-30 minutes while the oven is heating to 475.

Another Bread Post

I seldom bake white bread.  While it has its pluses, overall I prefer some whole wheat flour.  Since I just baked a loaf of 100% whole wheat, however, I decided to go the other way and do a loaf of white.

Temps for the overnight rise were rather warm, probably about 82 or so, and rise it did: over about 8 hours, it bumped up against the plastic wrap covering the bowl.

This has happened before with all-white flour dough, and it has always been in the summer when it has done this--I have never seen anything this explosive with dough mix that includes any amount of whole wheat flour.

Ordinarily, a vigorous pre-baking rise seems to portend poor oven spring, and that may have actually happened in this case.  However, the volume of the dough mass that went into the baker was so large it didn't really matter.

What came out of the oven was pretty nice.

I haven't often (or maybe ever) used a ruler for scale, but this loaf has a bigger cross-section than anything I have ever baked with whole wheat (even with vital wheat gluten added).  That's just the way it usually goes.  For a semi-useful comparison, here's the 100% whole wheat loaf again from the last baking session:

Back to the white loaf:  the structure shows that the rise, while pretty dramatic in comparison, was well-controlled and uniform (unlike what I was getting last winter when I let the dough sit out overnight at 60 degrees then switched to the oven for a couple of hours at 100).

So it was a success.  Maybe it's easier to be successful with white flour, but I usually get at least decent results (if not serve-to-guests-good) with some blend of whole wheat, despite occasional spinouts.

A Nice 100% Whole Wheat Loaf

...Nice for summer, that is: the house is cooling down a little, but was still about 80 overnight during the rise.  With the newly fine-ground wheat from the Mockmill, the loaf turned out decent (no vital wheat gluten).

The first rise was about 8 hours and the second one was about 25-30 minutes.  It's white whole wheat, so the flavor is pretty mild.  The first two slices were rather small, but that's typical of 100% loaves--and much better than the nasty disaster of a couple of months ago.

More Bread Developments

Back in July I wrote about the worst loaf of bread I had ever baked.  It might not have been the very worst.  I have had some rye loaves turn out pretty badly, too.  But July's loaf was definitely a D- (at best).

I noted in July that "I might need to adjust the stones in my mill."  That was indeed the case.  My emmer grain is all gone for the moment, but ordinary white hard wheat was on the table for last week's bake.

I finally checked my Mockmill and found that it was indeed grinding coarse.  It had drifted to about setting 3 (1 is finest and should be calibrated to where the stones just barely touch when the mill is running empty).  I moved it back to 1 and was pretty pleased at the fineness of the grind.  It wasn't as powdery as some commercial whole wheat flours, but it was comparable to some (e.g., King Arthur red).  This was probably the finest whole wheat flour I have worked with in several months. 

It's still summer here, so the house was very warm.  In the overnight rise, the dough almost filled the bowl. That's usually not a good omen for the loftiness of the final loaf, so I was prepared to be disappointed.  I think I got the dough form a little misshapen when folding it over and getting it ready for the proofing basket.  During the second rise in the proofing basket, once the oven was warming, the loaf got a little more distorted. Normally there isn't much rise because I have cut the second time short to just the preheating time: about 25 minutes.  However, this time it did noticeably bulk up.

The final product was pretty good, if asymmetric.

As you can see, the rise is very decent and the crumb is okay (or at least as okay as it ever is with my efforts).  There will be substantial slice size variation, but I have long ago learned to be satisfied with asymmetry and sandwiches of all sizes.

I'll have to wait until the next baking session to see if this was just a serendipitous confluence of factors that can't be replicated or if it is something I can do going forward.

Update: the next baking session has come and gone, and the results were similar--a pretty good loaf.

This I can definitely work with.  The first rise was about 9 hours and the second, as normal, about 25 minutes.

Bread Fail-2

Previously, I've written about failed loaves of rye and wheat bread.  Last week I had probably the worst ever loaf come out of the oven.

It was pretty sad.  It's a 100% whole wheat loaf (actually, it's 100% Emmer).  Breadtopia has an Emmer sourdough recipe that looks like it turned out somewhat well, but it's also fairly compact and doesn't show much rise.  My bread looked like this when sliced:

This made for a week of disappointing sandiwches.  The flavor was pretty typical of 100% whole wheat bread, which could be a good or bad thing, depending on your preferences.  Aside from the all-whole-wheat factor, there were a couple of additional things that might have played a role:  1) I over-hydrated the dough.  I knew I should've restricted the water a little but didn't.  My Mockmill grinds grain somewhat more coarsely than some whole wheat flours I have seen, and the coarser grind doesn't absorb as much water. 2) My flour might have been unduly coarse.  I might need to adjust the stones in my mill.

A third possible contributing factor is the climate.  It's summer now, and my house is warm, which can lead to excessive pre-baking rising of the dough. If the dough rises aggressively before going in the oven, my experience is that further rising once it's baking is curtailed.  That can be addressed through a shorter counter-top rising period, but I usually let it rise overnight, so it's going to be sitting on the counter at least 7-8 hours in most cases.

The next week (this morning), I decided to go back to a basic 50/50 mix.  The results were much better:

More on Bread in a Cold House

Temps are now rising, so the troubles I was having getting dough to rise are a thing of the past--at least until November.  I have done a few more trials of both methods discussed in the previous post.  There is one issue with the short finishing cycle in the oven at 100 degrees:  there'll be a lot of very large gas pockets in the dough. Shown below is a standard 50/50 loaf.

This isn't by itself a problem (though it poses certain challenges for peanut butter sandwiches; the peanut butter leaks out through the holes that go completely through a slice of bread).  A lot of white breads look like this.   However, there's a marked contrast between the loaf above and the one I referenced when discussing soft wheat for bread baking:

Here there are a few larger holes, but the crumb looks a lot more uniform.  In my baking this last winter, I saw this more often with the shorter cycle.  When I left it in for the whole rising time I got what was more like a summer-risen loaf: uniform crumb with unimpressive oven spring.   I'll do more work on this next fall.  For now, temps in the house have risen to the mid-70s, so the dough rises well enough on its own.

Getting a Rise out of Dough in a Cold House

I've mentioned previously that I have issues with getting my sourdough to rise in the winter, when the house is cooler.  This winter two things have changed: 1) the house is a little cooler than previously and 2) I have a new oven that no longer lets me keep the light on for an extended period of time :-(.

In the previous post, I noted that the light could heat the oven up to about 75, which was great for the sourdough starter to do its thing.  My new oven (alluded to in the other post) has a bread proof setting, but the traceable thermometer revealed that it heats the interior up to 100-110.  That seemed like too much of a good thing, but I have gotten reasonably good results sticking the hours-old but little-risen dough into the oven for 3-4 hours at those temps, then baking.  I didn't think it'd work to leave the dough in there all day or longer: during the summer, when the house is around 80, it can go wild in a few hours, leading to over-risen dough and under-risen bread.

As you might expect, I eventually forgot about the dough--I had the sourdough starter in the oven on proof so it could get good and bubbling after being fed--then I put the dough in and forgot to turn the oven off.  So it got about 6-8 hours at 100+.

It definitely rose a lot but didn't overflow or anything.  It made a pretty good loaf (apologies for the sideways picture; for some reason I can't get that one to rotate).

I'm still working through the issues--a subsequent loaf definitely showed signs of overly-aggressive rise (see below).

 Even with that, for now this seems to be working okay, though I'm sticking to the practice of letting it  s l o w l y   ferment at room temperature overnight, then sticking it in the oven for the final rise.

More on Low-Carb Black Walnut Pie

Last year I posted a recipe for relatively low-carb black walnut pie. I decided to eliminate the grains from the crust to try to lower the carbs further.  I found this recipe for an almond flour crust and made a couple of subtle adaptations:

1 1/2 c almond flour
2 tbsp Whey Low D
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 c butter

I melted the butter and mixed it with the other ingredients:

Then tried pre-baking for 10 minutes at 325 per the recipe.  This is what it looked like when it came out of the oven.  I thought I might run into trouble given that it was already browning at the top.

I mixed the filling up using the recipe posted last time and put it in the oven.

One change that I didn't appreciate the significance of until later: normally I put a thin metal pizza pan under the pie dish to catch any overflow, but that's seldom a problem with fruit pies and has never happened with nut pies.  So I skipped it.

When I checked it mid-bake, I saw the crust above the level of the filling was getting very brown, so for the second time in my life tried putting foil strips over the exposed areas, and for the second time in my life the oven updraft blew most of them off when I opened the door to return the pie.  So I just decided to roll with it.

The final result is shown.  Both the filling and crust are somewhat overdone, but the taste is actually not at all bad.

I think the next time I do this I'll skip the pre-baking of the crust--it really isn't necessary--and see how things turn out.  I may also try foil-wrapping at the outset, because even without pre-baking the crust will probably get overdone.

Note that the crust is very friable and crumbles above the level of the filling when leveraging pieces out of the plate.  However, it eliminates most of the carbs in the crust, which can only help for people who are insulin-resistant or diabetic. I'm neither but a large and increasing proportion of the population is.

Other almond flour crust recipes on the web suggest using up to 2 1/2 cups of almond flour, but that much is unnecessary. This amount worked out fine.