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.

Jalapeno cheese corn bread mini loaves

This is such a delicious treat that I can't resist making it, even if it's only for myself.

Recipe: Jalapeno cheese corn bread (2 mini loaves)

Ingredients:
- 1/2 cup Hudgson Mill yellow corn flour
- 1/4 cup KAF all-purpose flour
- 1/2 TB sugar
- 3/4 tp salt
- a little less than 2 tp baking powder
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup fresh corn kernels
- 3 jalapeno peppers, chopped
- 1/2 cup cheddar cheese, cut into small cubes
- 1/4 medium onion, chopped
- 1/4 cup coffee cream
- about 2 TB to 1/4 cup water
- 2 TB potato starch for adjustment

Procedure:
1. Sieve corn flour, all-purpose flour, sugar, salt and baking powder in a medium bowl.
2. Mix corn kernels, chopped peppers, chopped onions, cubed cheese in a large bowl. Add in the dry ingredients. Mix.
3. Then add an egg and 1/4 cup of cream. Mix well.
4. Add water to adjust hydration. Add potato starch and adjust hydration.
5. Bake at 450F for 15 minutes. Then when top is nicely golden, cover with foil. Resume baking at 400F  for another 10 minutes.

Results:
1:57pm, most ingredients except the cream and water:

2:08pm, sieved dry ingredients, chopped onion, pepper, and cheese:

2:09pm, mixing the vegetables and cheese with the dry ingredients:

2:11pm, adding 1/4 cup of coffee cream to the mixture after adding egg:

2:15pm, adding 2 TB potato starch:

2:18pm, final batter after hydration adjustment:

2:18pm, spooning batter to generously greased pans (observe texture of batter):

2:22pm, batter flattened:

2:22pm, height of batter in pans:

2:25pm, loaves started baking at 450F:

2:39pm, loaves baked 14 minutes, top golden brown and sizzling, cheese bubbling:

2:40pm, loaves' height after baking 14 minutes:

2:41pm, loaves covered and resumed baking at 400F:

2:50pm, loaves baked 23 minutes in total:

2:52pm, loaves' top when baked:

2:52pm, loaves' heights:

2:52pm, loaves' edges to be detached from the sides of the pans before cooling:

3:03pm, loaves' allowed to cool for 10 minutes, then removed from pans with a soft spatula:

3:07pm, loaves' tops:

3:07pm, loaves' bottoms, nicely golden brown, just slightly deeper in color than tops (note: loaves are fragile and not subject to turning around when hot):

3:06pm, corners of the loaves:

3:07pm, loaf's corner details:

3:08pm, one loaf's top, detailed texture:

3:09pm, one loaf's side:

4:16pm, loaves' cooled height:

4:16pm, loaves' cooled heels:

4:16pm, loave's cooled color contrast between bottom and top:

6:20pm, a cross section of one loaf:

6:22pm, a bite on a piece from the first loaf (observe that the large hole seems to come from the melted cheese instead of lumps of baking powder):

6:25pm, the interior of the other loaf:

Observations:
1. Oh the batter is very yummy! That's a clear sign of a very yummy loaf.
2. These loaves are less cohesive than my previous loaf. Maybe I have added too much vegetables in proportion to flours.
3. When the loaves just come out of oven, they are very soft. It is absolutely necessary to let them cool in the pans. Before cooling, detaching the loaves from the edges of the pan is needed, so that the loaves won't tear. The loaves harden after cooling for at least 1 hour.
4. Sieving the dry ingredients seem to do a lot of good to the texture of the loaves. This time, the loaves seem to have much more uniform density. There are large holes in the crumb, but they seem to be caused by melted cheese instead of lumps of baking powder.
5. The down side of this recipe is that the jalapeno pepper burns the fingers, and the mild burning sensation stay on the tender flesh just above the nails for a few hours after I finish chopping the peppers and washing my hands.


I am simply fanatically in love with these loaves!