Water-Proofed Bread {Bread Baking Babes}

When a recipe begins with “…the dough in this recipe is fairly difficult to handle,” it makes you wonder what you’re getting into and if it’s worth the effort.

This bread is called water-proofed because it is proofed in warm water for the first rise. I call it water-logged because it’s a very sticky dough. It can be a bit tricky to handle, but the result is a soft, buttery, and rich brioche-like bread with an eggy flavor. And, yes, it is worth the effort once you get the hang of it.

Elle, the host of the Bread Baking Babes (BBBs) for March, chose this floating loaf as our challenge. The recipe is from Beard on Bread by James Beard. I have the book, but I had never tried this bread. It is a fun bread to make and can be made in an afternoon or evening. Unfortunately, the analytic in me overcomplicated things so the first time I made it, I wasn’t very happy with the results.

First Attempt at Water-Proofed Bread

As I was making the bread the first time, I looked at the amount of yeast and thought “Wow! that’s a lot of yeast, especially for only 3 1/2 cups of flour.”  Then I thought “My goodness, that’s a lot of eggs!” I was okay with the amount of butter and sugar because I do enjoy brioche every now and then. Grin.

Even though I was hesitant to use the amount of yeast and eggs the recipe called for, I trudged on and made the bread according to the recipe, with the exception of using white KAMUT flour instead of all-purpose flour.

As I was kneading the dough, I realized I hadn’t adjusted the hydration for KAMUT. KAMUT is more absorbent than bread flour so you either need to add more water or use less flour. I hadn’t incorporated any additional water in the dough and had already dumped the remaining 1/2 cup flour on the bread board (per the instructions) so I used all of it.

I did not like the results. The loaves were over proofed, and they under delivered. They were not soft and delicate like brioche; they were a little dense and eggy. My first thought when I took a bite, was Yuck! 

These loaves are water-proofed and water-logged. They remind me of an eggy-tasting sponge.  Not that I’ve eaten a sponge, mind you.

 

2nd Attempt at Water-Proofed Bread

I decided to try again the next day. This time, I went with my initial instincts and adjusted the amount of yeast and eggs and the final proofing time. I also reduced the baking temperature from 375 to 350 degrees F.

I used 2 teaspoons of active dry yeast instead of two packets and 2 eggs instead of three. I also watched the final proof closely. The first loaves collapsed during baking because they were over proofed. This was due to too much yeast.

This dough makes two loaves, but they are small loaves. Neither one of my batches could have filled a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan which is what the recipe suggested that you bake the loaves in. 

The first time I baked the bread, I used 8 -1/2 x 4-1/2-inch glass loaf pans. The second time, I used slightly smaller nonstick pans. The second batch turned out much better.

I could tell this version was a winner when I took the loaves out of the oven. When I sliced one of the loaves and tried a piece, it just melted in my mouth. Now, that’s what I’m talking about!

 

Water-Proofed Bread

Adapted from: Beard on Bread by James Beard, 1973

Look for the original recipe on Elle’s blog.

Here is my adapted version:

Ingredients: (2 Small Loaves)

• 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup, plus 1 teaspoon sugar, divided
• 1/2 cup warm milk
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoons Kosher or Sea Salt
• 2 eggs
• 3 1/4 cups KAMUT white flour (or all-purpose flour), divided + more as needed to dust work surface and towel

Instructions:

I recommend doing this completely by hand without the aid of a mixer or bread machine, but feel free to use the method you prefer.

Add the yeast, and 1 teaspoon of sugar in a large mixing bowl, pour in the warm water and stir until the yeast dissolves. Let the mixture proof for 5 minutes. In the meantime, heat the milk with the butter and 1/4 cup sugar until lukewarm, then add to the yeast mixture. Add the salt and blend well.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix thoroughly. Stir in 3 cups of flour, 1 cup at a time. It will be a very wet and sticky dough. Stir vigorously to incorporate all of the flour. I used a Danish dough whisk.

Sprinkle your work surface with the additional flour.  I only used 1/4 cup of the extra flour for kneading and sprinkling the towel, but you may need more.

Transfer the dough to your work surface. For this part, it’s helpful to use a dough scraper or large spatula to work in this last portion of flour and make the dough firmer. Scrape the flour up and over the dough, lifting and folding inward. Repeat this process until the flour is well incorporated.

Once you have a workable dough, begin kneading. Knead by hand until the dough can be shaped. (The process of kneading with the scraper and then by hand is very effective for delicate dough. The dough will remain rather sticky, but that’s okay.)

Roll the dough in flour and place it on a clean kitchen towel sprinkled with flour. Wrap the dough in the towel, like you would a package. The original instructions say to tie the packet. I tried this the first time around, but I had to untie it partway through the water-proofing in order to give it room to expand. I didn’t tie the packet the second time around.

 

 

This is the fun part!  Gently submerge the packet in a large bowl filled with warm water (about 100 - 115 degrees F, approximately). Watch it sink.

Let sit for about 35 to 40 minutes, or until it rises sufficiently to float on top of the water. The first time I made this bread, it only took about 25 to 30 minutes for the loaf to float because of all the yeast. The second time, I let the dough proof for 1 1/2 hours before it floated.

 

 

Carefully lift the dough from the water and let the excess water drip off. Un-wrap the towel and turn out the dough to a lightly floured surface. As you can see from the photo below, it will be quite sticky. Scrape off any dough that adheres to the towel. Knead and shape into two loaves, using both dough scraper and your hands. After I had scraped the sticky mess from the towel, I incorporated all of the dough into a ball. The dough that I scraped from the towel was wetter than the other dough so I worked it into the rest of the dough. Then I let the ball of dough rest on the counter for about 10 minutes before shaping the loaves.

Butter two loaf pans and place one loaf in each pan. Cover the loaves with plastic or a kitchen towel. Let them rise, in a warm, draft-free place, until the dough rise slightly above the tops of the pans, or until almost doubled in bulk.

 

 

I used 8 x 4-inch loaf pans and the dough still didn’t reach the top of the pans, but it was almost doubled in bulk (see photo below).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  The original instructions say to preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  This was too hot for my oven and the pans I used, but you may need the extra temperature, depending on your oven.

Brush the dough with cold water. Place the loaf pans on the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 30 - 35 minutes, or until the loaves sound hollow when rapped with the knuckles, top and bottom.

When done, place the loaves directly on the oven rack, without their pans, to brown the bottom a little more and crisp the crusts. Cool on racks.

The baking time will vary based on the size of your loaves. I baked the second batch for about 25 minutes, then I removed the loaves from the pans and placed them back on the rack for a few minutes to let the crusts firm up. I turned the oven off so they wouldn’t over bake.

Remove and place on wire racks to cool.

I almost put all of the dough in one 9 x 5-inch pan to make a large loaf, but I’m glad I didn’t. This way, I can enjoy smaller slices for a snack or lunch. 

 

 

This is a good bread to serve with tea. It tastes great with butter, jam or marmalade and it makes great toast. It can be frozen for up to 3 to 4 weeks. Just wrap it in plastic.

Note on cleanup: The towel will get rather messy from the dough, but it’s not hard to clean.  I used a textured towel. I’m not sure if this made a difference or not. After I removed the dough from the towel, I scraped the towel really well with a dough scraper. Then, I used warm water to rinse off the towel in the sink before washing it with some other towels in the washing machine. It came out beautifully clean. Some of the other bakers found that using cold water to soak the towel worked better for them, but I didn’t have any problems with the warm water.

 

 

Bread Baking Babes:

• Bake My Day - Karen
• blog from OUR kitchen - Elizabeth
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Feeding my Enthusiasms - Pat/Elle
• girlichef - Heather
• Life's a Feast - Jamie
• Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
• Lucullian Delights - Ilva
• My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
• My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna
• Notitie Van Lien - Lien
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie

 

Would you like to join in as a buddy? Elle at Feeding my Enthusiasms is the hosting kitchen this month. If you want to join in, just make the Water-Proofed Bread and send Elle your link (instructions are included in her announcement post).  Submissions are due by March 29th.  Once you've posted, you'll receive a Buddy badge for baking along.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Rich Sandwich Bread made with Heirloom Flour

Last month, I made a Simple Milk Loaf and a Light Wheat Pullman Bread.  Both of those loaves are sandwich breads that can be made in a Pullman pan. One was made with white bread flour and the other was made with white bread flour and whole wheat flour, sifted. I’m continuing my theme of sandwich breads with this Rich Sandwich Bread made in the Pullman pan.  The difference with this one is that it is made with heirloom bread flour.

I’ve been doing a good bit of research lately about different types of wheat and other grains and how they’re harvested and milled into flour; the benefits of sprouting versus not sprouting the grains before milling; and heirloom and ancient grains versus modern wheat and how the milling process compromises the quality and flavor of the flour, etc.  Sounds like I’m studying for my thesis doesn’t it.

The information is fascinating, but it made my head spin. I decided the only way to really know the difference is to actually try some of these flours and grains for myself. So I ordered some heirloom flour and some ancient grains and I’ll be testing them over the next few weeks or so.

This Rich Sandwich Bread is made with Anson Mills French Mediterranean White Bread Flour and it’s from Charleston, South Carolina.  Flour grown and milled in the South. How cool is that! 

The flour is milled from 18th century white heirloom wheat emanating from Provence, in France.  As the story goes, Colonial Carolinians made their sandwich and toasting breads with flour milled from white wheat brought by French Huguenots. What makes this white bread flour so special is that it doesn’t have any trace of bitter white tannins in the bran.  All I know it that this flour makes a delicious toast bread. ‘Nuff said! I was totally impressed.

I used the Rich Sandwich Bread recipe from the Anson Mills site because they said their flours were fussy and wouldn’t work with just any recipe.  This is a good recipe. I totally had fun making this bread. It reminds me of Brioche.  It’s not as rich as Rich Man’s Brioche so it would probably be considered Poor Man’s Brioche, but that’s not a bad thing. I happen to like Poor Man’s Brioche. 

The dough can be mixed by hand or in a stand mixer. The dough felt so good as I was kneading it.  Just look at that luscious dough. It feels like butter in your hands.

 

I baked the loaf in my Pullman pan.  The recipe states that you don’t need to use the lid.  I used the lid but I might tend to agree with them. I’m not sure if was necessary.  I’ll have to test it without the lid and see how it turns out.

 

I was pleased with the results. The smell was heavenly and it produced a beautiful golden loaf of bread.

This bread makes great cinnamon toast and toast with jam or any toast for that matter, but it’s especially good as a grilled cheese sandwich. 

This bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

 

Thanks for joining me for my first heirloom bread-baking experience.

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Brioche: Mellow Bakers

I waited until the last minute to make this brioche, but let me tell you, it was worth the wait.  I only had time to make two of the breads for the Mellow Bakers this month. I’m so glad I opted to make this one. It is the best brioche I’ve ever tasted.

Brioche is a very rich delicacy.  It’s not quite bread and not quite pastry, but it is all delicious!  It is made with a lot butter and eggs and is very versatile.  It can be shaped into the traditional tête and grande tête shapes; it can be fashioned into loaves or freestanding braids; it can be used as the base for a variety of coffee cakes; and it makes wonderful French toast.

I’ve made Rich Man’s Brioche and Poor Man’s Brioche from the Bread Bakers’ Apprentice book.  This version would be considered the Middle Class Brioche.  Guess that’s why I like it so much!

Brioche

Source: Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.

Ingredients:

• Bread Flour 4 1/4 cups
• High-gluten Flour 1 1/4 cups
• Water, cold 1/4 cup
• Eggs, cold 6
• Salt 1 Tablespoons
• Sugar 6 Tablespoons
• Yeast 1 1/2 Tablespoons
• Butter, cold 1 1/2 cups (3 sticks)

 

Directions:

Day 1:

Make sure everything is cold.  I thought this was a rather interesting step, but I mixed all the dry ingredients together (except the yeast) and put it in the refrigerator anyway.  I only meant to keep it there for a few hours, but it took a couple of days before I actually got around to making the dough.  I keep my yeast in the refrigerator anyway so I didn’t need to cool it off.

Mixing the Dough:

Mix all of the ingredients except the cold butter in a mixer until the ingredients are incorporated.  Mix the dough until it is strong and tough.  This usually takes 5 to 7  minutes in a spiral mixer.  My mixer had a hard time with this so I had to use my hands to make sure everything was incorporated.

In the meantime, take the cold butter and beat it with a rolling pin until it is pliable.  This part is a little bit tricky so it’s best to do this between sheets of plastic or wax paper.  I used wax paper and the butter kept wanting to slide out from under the paper. I didn’t take a photo of this process because I was having too much fun and forgot. 

Once the butter is pliable and the dough is strong, start adding the butter a little bit at a time until it is completely incorporated into the dough and the dough is smooth and satiny.  This will take awhile, probably about 8 to 10 minutes.  All that butter was giving my mixer fits so I finished mixing this part by hand as well. It was fun squishing the butter between my fingers.  You ought to try it sometime!

When the butter has been incorporated into the dough, put it into a lightly floured bucket or bowl, cover and let it rest at room temperature for an hour.

Chill the Dough Overnight:

After an hour, fold the yummy dough, put it back in the container and refrigerate overnight.  Degas the dough 2 or 3 times over the next several hours.  If you remember that is.  I put mine in the refrigerator overnight so I forgot this part. However, I did degas it when I took it out of the refrigerator to shape it.

Day 3:

Shaping the Loaves:

I used about 14 ounces and shaped one loaf into a round ball and placed it in my brioche pan.  Then I made the topknot.  I filled the mold to about 50 percent capacity so that it would have room to rise a bit. 

I took some more dough and shaped it into a loaf, then placed it in a glass loaf pan.

I had just enough dough left for this cute little bun.

Proofing the dough:

When the dough is fully proofed, it is suppose to fill the mold or pan to 85 percent.  This dough was so cold, it took a while to warm up to room temperature.

But it finally did reach about 85 percent capacity. Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Baking the Loaves:

Once the loaves are proofed, brush them with an egg wash and bake at 350 degrees.  It took a while to bake the loaves.  I had to tent them with aluminum foil partway through because they were starting to burn on top but the inside of the loaves were still gooey.

The finished loaves should have a rich and deeply golden crust and a wonderful aroma.  Both of the loaves cracked a bit when they were baked and the topknot ended up sort of lopsided on this one, but they’re so good, it doesn’t really matter. 

My boyfriend and I (and his dog) enjoyed eating the bun.  Boy was it good!  Melt in your mouth kind of goodness.  So, of course we had to slice one of the loaves and have another piece.  It smelled and tasted heavenly!

This bread has been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

 

 

Mellow Bakers was started by Paul at Yumarama.
We’re baking breads from Bread: A Baker’s Book of Techniques and Recipes by Jeffrey Hamelman.

 

 

Thanks for joining us in the Bread Experience bread-baking blog.  We hope you’ll join us again soon.

Happy Baking!
Cathy