Experiments in the kitchen

My Experiments in the kitchen.

First things - Flours expire because the protein in the flour degrade over time.
http://ask.metafilter.com/52221/What-to-do-with-evil-white-flour

November 17, 2015

CELERY-ONION-SMOKED BACON-CREAM CHEESE BREAD

Today I'm making a celery, onion, smoked bacon and bit of cream cheese bread. Lets see how the experiment goes.

One of the factors I have improved is bring the protein content of expired bread flour+maida+whole wheat flour to ~10% by adding gluten flour.

Rest is mainly going to be experimentation. Also, the yeast is a different one. The Blue Bird yeast is slow to act with large granules and not rising quick enough. However, it did double up in less than 15 minutes. The date is well within expiration of May'16. I am not using the one ordered from amazon which is super reactive.

This put to rest at 1245 hrs. Rest for 45 minutes until doubled.


1330 hrs - it has doubled up indeed and quite soft.

So what's happening right now is at 1545 hrs, I didn't use the rising basket (bread basket)
[ref: http://www.virtuousbread.com/how-to-make-bread/recipies/celery-and-onion-bread/].

Due to that, the bread has expanded flat though rising a bit too. I believe it shall raise only when the dough has reached the edges of the baking tray. I should have put it in some bowl or a basket where it shall have expanded vertically. Now, its just expanding in the easiest direction of gravity - sideways!

I hope it doesn't change the texture of the baked bread. Next time I shall let it rest in an oval bowl, that might help.

Verdict -

The bread tastes very different than what I had in mind. Maybe I wasn't thinking a lot, however, when I had sampled the combination of bacon+onions+chopped celery, it tasted quite delicious. In the bread, it just tasted confusing and lacking any texture from them! The crust though, is a different story. It is the crust you'd like to see in the bread every time it rises, crunchy! I haven't seen such crust ever since I have moved to India. This is quite the crust I was used to seeing in Europe.

Update -

After 2 days now on November 19, I feel my palate has gotten used to the taste of the bread. I'm going to keep trying new recipes and perhaps experiments. What would you be doing? One thing I'm certain of is, I won't be going for bread purchases to the market. My palate would just not accept the baking soda flavours from those commercial dough lumps which are much softer to my liking now. Also this bread tastes deliciously complex with hard cheese and olives. It should be an excellent addition to a hot or even cold lunch with fresh salads and tzatziki.




Thoughts to ponder over -

Does the taste have anything to do with the kind of yeast used? I think the taste has been mixed with so many flavours in it - this led to a confusion. What about the texture? It seems I've forgotten the texture - am I leaving it too long to ferment outside? Next time, I'm going to use lesser yeast. I used about 13.4 grams of yeast. I think I might settle for an even 8 grams for 600 grams of flour.

WHITE BREAD

I put to rest at 1255 hrs. It was expected to rest for 2-3 hours.

1605 hrs
It rose beautifully this time with maida+5% added gluten powder. I have also folded about 30g goat cheese. Lets see how that tastes. Its resting at 1605 in the bread pan.

1834 hrs

The bread looks incredible, but tastes very yeasty! Maybe I've forgotten how breads are supposed to taste after these years of eating commercial baking soda treated breads in India. But we'll see.

Update -

The bread has a crispy crust. The inside of bread is not very soft, but alright to chew on. Once in mouth, it feels like the mouth is doing some effort. I must tweak to ensure the interior remains soft. Does it have anything to do with the oven and the temperatures used?

Keep experimenting.