My 116th experiment: pepperoni cheese bread

Haven't eaten savory bread for a long time. Today is a good day for it. The weather is getting a little warmer, with some sunshine. This is the best kind of day for kneading bread. I take another batch of pre-ferment, and make a dough out of it. This time, the dough is excellent. Perhaps it's just because I have just made one yesterday. The memory of what is a bad dough is still fresh. Therefore, in today's baking, I am keeping the dough warm and hydrated. When it proofs, it's so silky. The result would have been a perfect golden loaf, had I covered the top early to prevent over-browning. But despite the burnt cheese, the crust and the crumb of this loaf is just heavenly...

Recipe: Pepperoni cheese bread (1 large loaf)

Ingredients:
Pre-ferement
- 1/2 cup KAF whole wheat flour
- pinch of active dry yeast
- 1/4 cup water
Dough
- 1+1/4 cup KAF whole wheat flour (1 cup for initial dough, save 1/4 cup for adjustment)
- 1+1/2 cup KAF bread flour
- 2 tp active dry yeast
- 1 tp salt
- 2 TB honey
- 2 TB vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup (chilled) evaporated skim milk
- 1/3 cup Trader Joe's half and half
- 1/4 cup (chilled) orange juice
Filling
- 2 oz (about 1/3 of a 6oz package) of turkey pepperoni, coarsely chopped
- 1 oz low fat cream cheese, cut into small cubes
- 1/2 tp dried rosemary
- low fat shredded mozzarella cheese

Procedure:
Mix ingredients of preferment and allow to chill in fridge until use. About 3-4 days. Stir every other day.

On baking day:
1. Mix dry yeast in 1/2 cup skim milk until dissolved. Add the pre-ferment. Stir to dissolve.
2. Add 1 tp salt, 1 cup whole wheat flour and 1+1/2 cup bread flour to the wet ingredients. Stir.
3. Add 1/4 cup orange juice. Continue mixing.
4. Add up to 1/3 cup half and half to adjust hydration. Once the mixture is becoming like a dough, allow to rest for half an hour or so in room temperature. The mixture will slowly hydrate and become silky in texture.
5. Knead the dough a little to homogenize. Then add 2 TB honey and 2 TB oil and rub in the ingredients thoroughly. If the dough appears to be too moist after rubbing in honey and oil, add whole wheat flour by TBs to adjust the hydration. The resultant dough should be nicely spongy and soft, but not too sticky.
6. Cover and keep dough in oven that is warmed for 5 seconds at 150F. Allow to proof for about 1-2 hours until volume doubles. Watch the temperature in the first 30 minutes to make sure the dough is not overheated. Avoid cooking the bottom of dough.
7. When dough has doubled in volume, stretch it a little to form a sheet. Spread chopped pepperoni, cream cheese cubes and rosemary on dough sheet. Roll up and gently stretch into a long tube. Be careful not to over-stretch dough, else the fillings may be exposed. Then twist to shorten.
8. Place twisted dough in pan greased with crisco shortening. Proof in oven at very low warmth until puffy.
9. Bake at 350F for about 40 minutes. Cover top midway.

Results:
11:41am, yeast in chilled evaporated milk, mixed with preferment:

11:57am, initial mixture of flours, salt and wet ingredients:

2:07pm, mixture rested 3 hours, forming a soft dough through autolyse:

2:07pm, mixture's height after 3 hours:

3:36pm, dough rested another 1.5 hours:

3:53pm, 2 TB honey and 2 TB oil added to dough, then extra 1/4 cup whole wheat flour added to adjust final hydration; dough becoming comfortably soft and elastic:

4:30pm, dough proofed 50 minutes in gently warm oven:

4:31pm, great texture of proofed dough:

4:33pm, filling to be prepared:

4:37pm, pepperoni and cream cheese chopped, with rosemary:

4:38pm, folding fillings into the dough:

4:43pm, forming a long tube, with great care and gentleness to prevent tearing:

4:45pm, twisted dough:

4:45pm, twisted dough height in pan:

5:33pm, twisted dough proofed 1 hour in gentle warmth:

5:33pm, twisted dough proofed height:

5:36pm, scored dough opening up beautifully:

5:49pm, dough with mozzarella cheese toppings, and brushed with half and half:

5:49pm, height of dough just before baking:

5:50pm, dough to bake at 350F:

6:23pm, loaf baked 33 minutes, not quite done, but cheese already burnt! Should have covered it 15 minutes into the baking:

6:25pm, loaf returned to bake covered:

6:34pm, loaf baked 45 minutes, reaching 190F:

6:34pm, thermometer coming out clean:

6:36pm, height of loaf in pan:

6:36pm, corner and edge of loaf in pan:

6:37pm, loaf very easily turned out, so perfect!

6:37pm, loaf's bottom:

6:37pm, loaf's two sides:

6:38pm, loaf's heel:

6:38pm, loaf's top:

6:45pm, burnt cheese peeled off, leaving behind a nice layer of well done bread:

7:48pm, slicing after 1 hour of cooling down:

7:48pm, clean knife:

7:47pm, crust:

7:47pm, interior:

7:50pm, comparing center slice and heel slice:

7:50pm, center of loaf slice, really soft and spongy:

7:50pm, heel of loaf slice, with a hard crust:

Observations:
1. This dough has very silky texture when mixed. I do not know if that's because of the ambient temperature and humidity of the kitchen, or because of the ingredients, such as half-and-half, which make the texture smooth. But on the whole this is a great dough.
2. I love the warmth of the dough when it's proofing.
3. Bread making is easy, but it really takes attention.
4. This bread has the very soft spongy crumb of a good whole wheat sandwich loaf. Its taste and texture is in every way that of a sandwich bread, except for occasionally bites of cheese and pepperoni. Since the pepperoni has been cooked, it's a little dry like bacon, and still very yummy.