Potato, Cheddar & Chive Torpedos: BBA

We’re almost finished with the BBA Challenge!  Forty-two breads baked, one more to go!  #42 is Potato, Cheddar & Chive Torpedos. 

These batards are made using the mixed-method which means it utilizes wild yeast spiked with commercial yeast.  I like how Peter Reinhart describes these loaves: “They pucker open with a grigne of crispy Cheddar cheese, followed by a beautiful soft cheese spiral highlighted with bits of green chives.”

I loved this bread!  It was so good.  I thought it was very fitting that Mr. Reinhart saved this bread and the next one for the end of the book.  He tells a very interesting story of Tim and Crystal Decker; then shares two of the most popular breads from their Bennett Valley Bread and Pastry Bakery.  This is one of those extraordinary breads.  Tim bakes his breads in a wood-fired oven, but I’ll have to make do with a simulated hearth oven.

 

Potato, Cheddar, and Chive Torpedos

Makes: two 1 1/2-pound loaves

Adapted from: The Bread Baker’s Apprentice by Peter Reinhart

Ingredients:

• 1 large or 2 small unpeeled potatoes, coarsely chopped, boiled in 3 cups water until soft, and cooled. *
• 1/2 to 1 cup potato water, lukewarm (saved from above)
• 1 1/2 cups of mature sourdough starter
• 4 cups unbleached bread flour
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh chives
• 6 thin slices sharp cheddar cheese
• Semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting

* Yukon Gold or regular baking potatoes will work for this recipe, depending on your preference.

Directions:

Prepare the potatoes in advance and let them cool to lukewarm.  Set the potatoes and lukewarm water aside until needed.

Take the sourdough starter out of the refrigerator and measure the required amount.  Let it sit for 1 hour before making the bread to take off the chill.

Stir together the starter, half of the flour, the yeast, cooked potatoes, and 1/2 cup of the potato water in a mixing bowl. 

 

Let the mixture rest uncovered for 30 minutes. Add the rest of the flour and the salt and mix together until the ingredients form a ball.  Add as much of the remaining water as necessary.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead it for about 6 minutes, adding flour or water as necessary.

Add the chives and continue kneading until they are evenly distributed.  This will take about 2 minutes.

The dough should be very tacky but not sticky.  Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it in oil.

 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap. Let the dough bulk ferment at room temperature for about 90 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size.

Transfer the dough to the counter and cut it into 2 equal pieces.

Press each piece into the shape of a rectangle approximately 6 inches wide by 8 inches long.  Place slices of cheese on each rectangle.  You can use more cheese if you like to give it more cheese flavor.

Tightly roll up the dough, from bottom to top, jelly-roll style, creating a spiral with the cheese.

It should look like a log.

Seal the ends of the rolled dough into points.  This will give them a torpedo shape, plump in the center and tapered at the ends.  I’m not sure if I achieved that, but I liked the way they looked.

Place the loaves on a sheet of parchment paper sprayed with spray oil and sprinkled with cornmeal.  Mist the tops lightly with spray oil, and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Proof at room temperature for approximately 1 hour, or until the dough nearly doubles in size.

Prepare the oven for hearth baking by placing a steam pan in place.  Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F.  Score the top of each loaf with 2 diagonal slashes, making sure to cut through to the first layer of cheese.

Slide the loaves onto the baking stone. After 30 seconds, open the door, spray the walls with water, and close the door.

Repeat twice more at 30-second intervals, then lower the oven setting to 450 and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  After 15 minutes, rotate the breads 180 degrees for even baking. 

The loaves should be nicely browned all over, and sound hollow when thumped on the bottom.  The cheese will bubble out of the cuts, crisp up, and also brown.

Transfer the baked loaves to a wire rack and cool for at least 45 minutes before slicing or serving.

This was hard to do with this bread. It looked so good, I just wanted to eat it right when it came out of the oven, but I refrained and waited until it cooled to slice it. 

Then I sliced it.  You can see the hole where the cheese melted through.  Yummy!

On this one, you can actually see the cheese spiral.  And yes, I did eat both of those slices and enjoyed them immensely.  I didn’t need another taste tester for this one.

 

I will definitely make this bread again.   It is a keeper for sure.

Thanks for joining us again in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge.

 

These Potato, Cheddar, and Chive Torpedos have been YeastSpotted. Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Classic White Bread: BBA

The 40th bread in the BBA Challenge is Classic White Bread. White Bread is made from wheat flour in which the bran and often the germ have been removed. It is known under many names, including pullman, milk dough, pain de mie (bread of the crumb), and plain ole white bread. 

“There is no excuse for putting up with bad bread, particularly when a loaf prepared by hand and baked in one’s own oven is so little trouble and is likely to be so much better than most commercial products on the market.”  James Beard

This version is an enriched bread. It is a basic white bread that is good for sandwich bread, dinner rolls and buns.

White Bread (Variation 3) made with an overnight Sponge

You can view the recipe here.

Making the Sponge

To make the sponge, mix together the flour and yeast in a 4-quart bowl. Stir in the milk until all the flour is hydrated.

 

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 45 to 60 minutes, or until the sponge becomes aerated and frothy and swells noticeably.

Making the Dough

To make the dough, add the flour, salt, and sugar to the sponge.  Then add the egg yolk and butter or other fat. Mix with a large metal spoon or using a mixer until all of the flour is absorbed and the dough forms a ball.  I used my Danish dough whisk.

Kneading the Dough

Sprinkle some flour on the counter and transfer the dough to the counter.  Knead the dough for 6 to 8 minutes and add extra flour if necessary to create a soft, supple, and tacky not sticky dough.

 

Fermenting the Dough

Lightly oil a large bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it to coat it with oil.

Cover the dough with plastic wrap.  Ferment the dough at room temperature for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

Shaping the Loaves

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into two pieces.

Shape the dough into boules.  Mist the boules lightly with spray oil and cover with plastic wrap.  Allow to rest for about 20 minutes.

Then shape the boules into loaves as show below:

Flatten the dough with your hand and fold in the edges to make a rectangle about 5 inches wide and 6 to 8 inches long.

Roll up the dough one section at a time, pinching the crease with each rotation to strengthen the surface tension.

 

   

Pinch the final seam closed with the back of your hand and rock the loaf to even it out.

Keep the surface of the loaf even across the top.  Place the loaf in a lightly oiled loaf pan. The ends of the loaf should touch the ends of the pan to ensure an even rise.

 

Proofing the Loaves

Lightly oil two 8 1/2 by 4 1/2-inch loaf pans and place the loaves in them.

Mist the tops of the dough with spray oil and loosely cover with plastic wrap. Proof the dough at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until it nearly doubles in size.

 

Baking the Loaves

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Brush the loaves with egg wash if desired and score down the center.  I brushed the loaves with egg wash but opted not to make the slash down the center.

Bake the loaves for 35 to 40 minutes, rotating them 180 degrees halfway through for even baking, if necessary.  I usually just do this to ensure it bakes evenly.

The tops should be golden brown and the sides, when removed form the pan, should also be golden.  The loaves should sound hollow when thumped.

 

 

When the loaves are finished baking, remove them immediately from the pans and cool on a wire rack for at least 1 hour before slicing or serving.

I thought this bread tasted good with peanut butter & jelly and as a grilled cheese sandwich.  However, I like the light wheat bread better. I prefer a little more flavor and at least some whole wheat in my sandwich breads.  My youngest son really liked it.  He ate most of the first loaf. 

I sliced the other loaf, placed it in a plastic bread bag, and froze it for future use. Now it looks like a loaf from the store.  I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.

I enjoyed this bread even though it is pretty basic. Will I make this one again?  Possibly, but probably not because there are too many other breads that I loved.  It’s still pretty good for a basic white loaf.

 

Thanks for joining us in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Whole Wheat Bread. (page 270 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

Swedish Rye (Limpa)

The BBA Challenge continues … for me anyway.  Several of the other bakers have finished, but I slowed down a little bit to enjoy the ride and to try and master some of these breads.  I’m on Swedish Rye (Limpa) #37, only six more breads to go…

Swedish Limpa is flavored with molasses, citrus peel, anise seeds, fennel seeds, and ground cardamom. This version also utilizes an overnight sponge made with the barm we created at the beginning of the sourdough series.

I loved the idea of all of the spices in this dough; however the smell of licorice was pretty strong.  I’m not a big licorice fan so I wasn’t sure if I would like this bread.  I tasted the dough and thought “yuck”. Fortunately, the baked bread tasted much better than the dough.  I liked it and so did my taste testers.  My youngest son said, “I’m going to have some more of that!”

 

 

A friend on FB from Sweden saw the photo I posted of this bread on Facebook and told me that traditional Swedish Limpa isn’t scored. That’s too bad because I love the slashes!

Note: This bread was part of the BBA Challenge so the formula is not provided.  If this bread sounds good to you, you might also enjoy Swedish Rye Bread with Sprouted Wheat.  Since the ingredients are similar, you can refer to the list of ingredients for that bread and follow this process for making it.

 

Here is the process I used to make this Swedish Rye Limpa.

Making the sponge

The day before you make the bread, make the sponge by combining the water, molasses, orange peel, aniseeds, fennel seeds, and cardamom in a saucepan.  Bring the mixture to a boil, and then turn off the heat.  Cool to lukewarm.

Stir in the barm and rye flour until the flour is fully hydrated and evenly distributed.  It should make a thick sponge.  Cover with plastic wrap and ferment at room temperature for 4 hours, or until the mixture becomes foamy.  Refrigerate overnight.

The next day, remove the sponge from the refrigerator 1 hour before making the bread dough to take off the chill.

 

Making the Dough

Stir together the bread flour, yeast, salt, and brown sugar. Add the sponge and the melted shortening or warm vegetable oil.  I used vegetable oil. Mix until the dough forms a ball.  I used my dough whisk instead of a mixer.

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour and begin kneading for approximately 4 minutes.  Add more bread flour if needed.

The dough should be tacky but not sticky.  Don’t over knead because over kneading makes rye breads gummy.  The entire process should be completed within 6 minutes.

 

Fermenting the Dough

Lightly oil a bowl and transfer the dough to the bowl, rolling it around to coat it with oil.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap.

Ferment the dough at room temperature for about 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.

 

Shaping the Loaves

Remove the dough from the bowl, and knead it for 2 minute to degas. Divide the dough in half using a bench knife or serrated knife.  Then, shape the dough balls into batards (torpedo) or sandwich loaves.  I chose the batard shape. I just love this shape!

 

To make the batard shape, gently pat the dough into a rough triangle.

Without degassing the piece of dough, fold the bottom third of dough, letter-style, up to the center and press to seal, creating surface tension on the outer edge.

Fold the remaining dough over the top and use the edge of your hand to seal the seam closed and to increase the surface tension all over.

Set the batard aside while you shape the other one.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and sprinkle it with cornmeal. Transfer the loaves to the baking sheet.

 

Score the top of the loaves with 3 parallel slashes.  I used a serrated knife to slash the loaves.  The serrated knife worked really well although I think I made some of the slashes a little bit too deep – 1/2 inch rather than 1/4 inch.

Proofing the Loaves

Mist the loaves with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap. Proof at room temperature for approximately 90 minutes, or until the dough rises 1 1/2 times its original size.

Preparing the Loaves for Baking

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and brush the egg wash over the surface of the dough just prior to baking.

As you can see, the slashes opened up very nicely.

Baking the Loaves 

Bake the loaves for 20 minutes, then rotate the pan(s) 180 degrees for even baking. 

Continue to bake for 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the size of the loaves.  The loaves should be a light golden brown color and make a hollow sound when thumped on the bottom.

Remove the loaves from the oven and immediately transfer them to a wire rack to cool for at least an hour before slicing or serving.

 

Here are the finished loaves.  Cooled and ready to be sliced.

 

I really liked this bread.  The flavor was great!  It tasted really good with peanut butter and jelly. That’s my favorite test!  I’ll be making this one again. 

 

 

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

 

Thanks for joining us in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Tuscan Bread.

Happy Baking!

Cathy