Improvised sesame bread (2nd time)

This is a bread that I made specially for some friends this weekend. I missed them so much that I decided to bake some breads to bring over for a visit. But it turned out that they stopped by, and we had a very nice evening getting together.

Recipe: Sesame bread (make 5)

Ingredients:
- 1 cup grocery store brand whole wheat flour
- 1.5 cup grocery store brand unbleached white flour
- 2.5 tp active dry yeast
- 0.5 cup water
- 2 eggs, lightly beaten
- 1 TB honey
- 2.5 TB maple syrup
- 1 tp kosher salt
- 2-3 TB melted unsalted butter
- 1 tp roasted white sesame seeds
- 1 TB white sesame seeds for topping

Procedure:
1. Mix whole wheat flour, white flour, active dry yeast and salt in a large bowl.
2. Heat 0.5 cup of water to slightly warm.
2. Add 2 eggs, 1 TB honey and 2.5 TB maple syrup into the mixed dry ingredients. Stir to incorporate. Add a small amount of water from the 0.5 cup to help incorporate the dry ingredients. When more than 2/3 of the ingredients are incorporated, add in the melted butter. Continue to roll in the remaining flour until all is incorporated. While mixing, add water in small amount, up to 1/2 cup. The dough that is formed should be tacky but not sticky. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes.
3. Rub dough with a little oil and allow to rest in slightly warm temperature until it has expanded to 1.5 times its original size. Meanwhile, coat 4 mini kugelhopf molds with oil. Sprinkle sesame seeds on the greased molds.
5. Punch the dough down and knead for 1-2 minutes. Cut into 5 pieces and place each into a mini kugelhopf mold. Moisten the top of each piece with water. Sprinkle some sesame seeds on each. Allow to rest until each piece has expanded to 1.5 times its size.
6. Heat oven to 450F. Place the molds in oven. Adjust oven setting to 400F. Bake for 10 minutes. Rotate the molds by 180 degrees. Bake for another 10-15 minutes.

Observations:

The bread is slightly sweet. The butter gives the crumb a nice taste, but it's not overly rich. I would want to increase the amount of salt by about 1/4 to 1/2 tp next time.

My 7th baking experiment - potato rosemary bread again

The bread with potato, rosemary and wild rice was so memorable, I wanted to try again. This time I try to make the dough drier than before and to experiment with "tackiness". 

Recipe: Potato rosemary wild rice whole wheat bread (make 1 loaf)


Ingredients:
potato water
- 1 medium potato
- 2 cups water
soaker
- 1+3/4 cups grocery store brand whole wheat flour (coarse grind)
- 1/2 teaspoon (tp) table salt
- 3/4 cup potato water
- 1 TB dried rosemary flakes
biga
- 1+3/4 cups grocery store brand unbleached white flour
- 1/4+1/8 tp active dry yeast
- 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoon (TB) potato water
final dough
- all of the soaker
- all of the biga
- 7 TB grocery store brand whole wheat flour
- 1+1/8 tp salt
- 3 tp active dry yeast
- 1/3 of the cooked potato mashed
- 1/8 tp black pepper ground
- 1/4 cup cooked wild rice
- 1 TB potato water
- about 1 TB water from cooking wild rice (to adjust the hydration accordingly)
- 1 TB olive oil


Result:


Day 1


Soaker after adding 1/4 cup of water:

Soaker after adding 1/2 cup of water:

Soaker after adding 3/4 cup of water:

Soaker after being kneaded (it is sticky to the hand), it's left to rest for 10 minutes:

At the end, the soaker needs all the 3/4 cup of potato water. When a fork is pressed down on it, a permanent mark is left on the skin:

Biga after adding 1/4 cup of water:

Biga after adding 1/2 cup of water:

Biga after adding 1/2 cup + 2 TB of water:

At the end, the biga only needs 1/2 cup + 2 TB of potato water. Biga becoming really tacky (cohesive) after some 10 minutes of kneading:

Final texture of the biga before putting into fridge:

End of Day 1's work; potato mashed, biga going to be chilled overnight while soaker staying on counter at 70F:

Day 2


10:18am, look of the pre-doughs after overnight resting:

10:18am, look biga's texture after chilling:

10:18am, look soaker's texture after overnight resting:

11:45am, sizes of pre-doughs (especially biga) after warming up for 2 hours:

12:01pm, texture of the soaker:

12:04pm, soaker after kneading:

12:04pm, texture of the biga when pulled:

12:08pm, texture of the biga after kneading:

12:09pm, sizes of the predough before chopping:

12:09pm, soaker chopped:

12:16pm, biga chopped:

12:20pm, pre-doughs mixed:

12:25pm, potato and wild rice mixed and hydrated with 1 TB potato water and about 1 TB wild rice water:

12:27pm, initial mix of the final dough:

12:39pm, final dough after 10 minutes of intensive kneading:

12:40pm, final dough's strength:

12:41pm, final dough finished kneading:

12:47pm, final dough oiled and preparing to rest:

12:48pm, final dough height when preparing to rest:

12:52pm, final dough rested 4 minutes:

1:14pm, final dough rested 26 minutes:

1:58pm, final dough rested 1 hour 10 minutes:

1:59pm, final dough punched down the first time, observe the texture and the non-sticky feel to the hand:

2:00pm, final dough's size after the first punching down:

2:11pm, final dough resting the second time, this time in the oven 

2:39pm, final dough rising rapidly in oven at 150F after just half an hour:

2:40pm, final dough punched down the second time, again observe the texture:

2:43pm, final dough to proof in the loaf pan in the oven at 150F:

2:52pm, final dough scored during proofing:

3:12pm, final dough's look before baking:

3:13pm, final dough's height before baking:

3:58pm, the loaf after 40 minutes of baking (to prevent over browning, the top of the loaf is covered with foil at the last 10 minutes of bakng):

3:59pm, the height of the loaf:

3:59pm, the edge of the loaf:

4:01pm, the bottom of the loaf, giving a beautiful hollow echo when knocked:

5:39pm, the loaf after almost 2 hours of cooling:

5:44pm, the loaf yielding 18 slices:

5:45pm, a center-of-loaf slice:

5:45pm, an end-of-loaf slice:

Comparison between a slice from todays' loaf (top) and one from my first loaf of potato rosemary bread (bottom):

Observations:

1. I mix the pre-dough by hydrating the flour progressively. After each 1/4 cup of potato water, I do some stirring and allow the flour to sit for a little while. The soaker does not seem to benefit much from the waiting. But the biga hydrates quite rapidly during the waiting time. 
2. On the second day, the pre-doughs are so dry that the surface has dried off and hardened overnight. It takes me a while to rehydrate the soaker. 
   
3. I've discovered the reason that, generally, the 2nd rise is slow. The heat of kneading before the 1st resting allows the dough to rise rapidly. When left on the counter for over an hour, the dough has cooled down. So the second rise is slow if there is not extra heat provided to the dough.
4. When the biga and the soaker are dry, I have a harder time mixing them. It can be observed from the baked loaf that some parts of the loaf is more white while other parts are more brown. This is because of the non-uniform mix of the two pre-doughs.
5. Perhaps the biggest difference made by using less water is the baking time. Compared with my 6th experiment, in which the dough was too wet, this experiment gives a nicely baked loaf after 40 minutes of baking. The loaf does not shrink much after cooling. The loaf also gives a nice echo when tapped at the bottom and the side. 
6. When I compare this loaf with my first potato rosemary bread (I saved a slice from that loaf), I do not see a distinctive difference in texture. Both are heavy bread, have similar crumbs, and holes of about the same size. Even though I use a bit less water in this loaf, the difference is not significant.

I might try using 7 TB of white flour instead of whole wheat flour in the final dough ingredients next time.