May 1, now with a freezer full of pretzel-shaped thingees. Fodder for next week's first Book Club meeting.
As I studied my textbook (Peter Reinhart's 'The Baker's Apprentice') to try and figure out what I had done and what I can do with mis-proportioned biga, I had a real good homework assignment on my hands.
After heating up the keys of the calculator, I at last figured out that I had used way too much yeast. The basic proportions for a loaf of bread are flour = 100, water = 60, salt = 2, and instant yeast somewhere around .66, for a total of 162.66%. (The flour = 100%, TFW, or Total Flour Weight). The author actually gives the yeast weight for fresh yeast, at 2%, then goes on to say that instant yeast actually weighs a third of fresh yeast. A biga should use 2/3 water, 1/3 flour and half the yeast of the bread recipe you're using. I used something like three times too much yeast!
This sad biga sat in the fridge for 24 hours while I labored over the books, the calculator and my incoherent notes. At one point it filled the bowl right up to the plastic wrap. A few hours later it had collapsed a little. That meant the yeast was running out of sugars to feed on. It would die if I didn't feed it pretty soon.
I had a dinner date with Oliver. We were meeting at six, at the new German restaurant upstairs from my Web training school. Last year we never needed such a formal arrangement. We shared a kitchen at our dormitory housing, as teachers at Changzhou University. We often bumped into each other there, while one or the other of us, or both, were preparing a meal. A quick trip into the kitchen for some hot water would turn into an hour long conversation. We never ran out of things to talk about. We both missed that companionship, so we were looking forward to this long leisurely get together.
I rode my ebike home, getting back after nine. It had started to rain, but not until after we had digested our meal with a walk around the extensive Xin Tian Di park which adjoins that shopping center.
I sat down again with the books to decide what I would do with this sponge. (Any preferment is called a sponge, whether it's a poolish or a biga.) Of course, I could have thrown it out and started afresh, no loss but for two cups of flour. I saw this as a great learning opportunity, as mistakes tend to be our best teachers.
I pulled apart the ingredients I had used, figured them out proportionally, then looked for a recipe that could use them--especially the large amount of yeast. I would build a recipe around the yeast.
I am not yet ready for a baguette or other french style, because I don't have the right shaped molds and this oven just isn't up to the misting required, nor the hot temperatures.
I looked for a pretzel recipe. I was disappointed to discover in the 'Apprentice' index that Peter's only reference to pretzels is in the page on shaping instructions. There was no recipe listed in the index.
Next I checked RLB's 'The Bread Bible'. But she shapes her pretzel dough into little footballs. ? That doesn't help me for baking time or temp.
I fired up the computer and searched there. All the recipes I found required molasses. By now it was too late to add a sweetener, and besides, I don't have any molasses.
I took a side trip through Taobao and Alibaba, while I was at it, and discovered that I could order molasses online. But not tonight.
I added the required flour, water and salt to a large bowl. Adding a sweetener at this stage was too dubious for this apprentice. I did not add anymore yeast!! I did add as much bran as I dare, and I used the coarse bran not the fine-ground stuff. I added a cup or more of flour (precisely according to my calculations), which I felt would be enough food for the yeast to reawaken and feed upon. I tried cutting the biga up into big pieces as I added it to larger bowl. Peter says slice it, don't stretch it. Had I been an octopus, I probably would have adhered to that detail quite nicely. I worked the wet mass in the bowl. It took a while to incorporate the new flour, bran and water. I worked it with the scraper as long as I could, folding and pressing. At last I had to work it by hand; it was quite sticky. I worked it for a long time, all the while remembering about the big rough bran cutting through the delicate bubbles. In the end the dough smoothed out, and I set it in an oiled bowl and covered it.
It did rise nicely.
Pretzels call for an alkyline wash, but I did find an online baker who makes his without the wash and swears they taste fine. Pretzels also call for toppings, like kosher salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and even cinnamon and sugar.
Well, I had the last of this list, so why not. I missed out on getting molasses or any sugar into the dough proper, so why not augment the loss through a topping.
You know, I missed out on kindergarden. My mother pushed me into the first grade. (I've been ahead of my time ever since.) I took the dough out of the bowl and started working with it, dividing it, shaping it. This must be what kindergarden feels like; being creative with playdooh.
Most of what went into the oven looked pretty much like that, too, a child's first attempt with playdooh.
I dutifully brushed each 'pretzel' blob with an egg wash. The instructions said egg and water. So I beat up an egg and threw in a dash of water. Enough? Who knows.
I dipped most of them in a soup plate of crystal sugar and cinnamon. That was a trip. How to keep the pretzel shape while lifting it up, turning it upside down, and rolling it around the bottom of a dish? The first mix was a tad too heavy on the cinnamon. I replenished it with more sugar.
And some I left without topping.
The dough, worked into a long strand. Twisted, washed with egg, and dipped in cinnamon sugar.
The first ones were rather large, as I followed directions ('cut a piece 2 to 3 ounces'). As I went along I was cutting smaller and smaller pieces, which worked out better.
It was 1 a.m. when I finished. I laid ten of the eleven into two plastic bags, and set them in the freezer. A big juicy cinnamon sugar one I left out. Now that ChuChu the Little Dickens is no longer a resident, I didn't have to worry about it getting eaten while I slept.
This morning I made a lovely cup of fresh-ground Yunnan French Roast coffee, and enjoyed the pretzel roll. The topping was delicious, if rather overwhelming; I could not taste the bread. But, being one of the first of the batch, it was a large bun so I was able to attack it from beneath and find mouthfuls without sugar coating.
Of course, it doesn't have the taste of pretzel. Still, a flavorful bread. I will bring it to the Book Club meeting, and if I am industrious, will make some sour cream dips for the plain ones.
This afternoon I will go back to one of the restaurant equipment stores and write down prices on a long list of big equipment. Like, work tables, cooling racks, proofing box, sinks, ovens.
I need a good oven!!!
As I studied my textbook (Peter Reinhart's 'The Baker's Apprentice') to try and figure out what I had done and what I can do with mis-proportioned biga, I had a real good homework assignment on my hands.
After heating up the keys of the calculator, I at last figured out that I had used way too much yeast. The basic proportions for a loaf of bread are flour = 100, water = 60, salt = 2, and instant yeast somewhere around .66, for a total of 162.66%. (The flour = 100%, TFW, or Total Flour Weight). The author actually gives the yeast weight for fresh yeast, at 2%, then goes on to say that instant yeast actually weighs a third of fresh yeast. A biga should use 2/3 water, 1/3 flour and half the yeast of the bread recipe you're using. I used something like three times too much yeast!
This sad biga sat in the fridge for 24 hours while I labored over the books, the calculator and my incoherent notes. At one point it filled the bowl right up to the plastic wrap. A few hours later it had collapsed a little. That meant the yeast was running out of sugars to feed on. It would die if I didn't feed it pretty soon.
I had a dinner date with Oliver. We were meeting at six, at the new German restaurant upstairs from my Web training school. Last year we never needed such a formal arrangement. We shared a kitchen at our dormitory housing, as teachers at Changzhou University. We often bumped into each other there, while one or the other of us, or both, were preparing a meal. A quick trip into the kitchen for some hot water would turn into an hour long conversation. We never ran out of things to talk about. We both missed that companionship, so we were looking forward to this long leisurely get together.
I rode my ebike home, getting back after nine. It had started to rain, but not until after we had digested our meal with a walk around the extensive Xin Tian Di park which adjoins that shopping center.
I sat down again with the books to decide what I would do with this sponge. (Any preferment is called a sponge, whether it's a poolish or a biga.) Of course, I could have thrown it out and started afresh, no loss but for two cups of flour. I saw this as a great learning opportunity, as mistakes tend to be our best teachers.
I pulled apart the ingredients I had used, figured them out proportionally, then looked for a recipe that could use them--especially the large amount of yeast. I would build a recipe around the yeast.
I am not yet ready for a baguette or other french style, because I don't have the right shaped molds and this oven just isn't up to the misting required, nor the hot temperatures.
I looked for a pretzel recipe. I was disappointed to discover in the 'Apprentice' index that Peter's only reference to pretzels is in the page on shaping instructions. There was no recipe listed in the index.
Next I checked RLB's 'The Bread Bible'. But she shapes her pretzel dough into little footballs. ? That doesn't help me for baking time or temp.
I fired up the computer and searched there. All the recipes I found required molasses. By now it was too late to add a sweetener, and besides, I don't have any molasses.
I took a side trip through Taobao and Alibaba, while I was at it, and discovered that I could order molasses online. But not tonight.
I added the required flour, water and salt to a large bowl. Adding a sweetener at this stage was too dubious for this apprentice. I did not add anymore yeast!! I did add as much bran as I dare, and I used the coarse bran not the fine-ground stuff. I added a cup or more of flour (precisely according to my calculations), which I felt would be enough food for the yeast to reawaken and feed upon. I tried cutting the biga up into big pieces as I added it to larger bowl. Peter says slice it, don't stretch it. Had I been an octopus, I probably would have adhered to that detail quite nicely. I worked the wet mass in the bowl. It took a while to incorporate the new flour, bran and water. I worked it with the scraper as long as I could, folding and pressing. At last I had to work it by hand; it was quite sticky. I worked it for a long time, all the while remembering about the big rough bran cutting through the delicate bubbles. In the end the dough smoothed out, and I set it in an oiled bowl and covered it.
It did rise nicely.
Pretzels call for an alkyline wash, but I did find an online baker who makes his without the wash and swears they taste fine. Pretzels also call for toppings, like kosher salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, and even cinnamon and sugar.
Well, I had the last of this list, so why not. I missed out on getting molasses or any sugar into the dough proper, so why not augment the loss through a topping.
You know, I missed out on kindergarden. My mother pushed me into the first grade. (I've been ahead of my time ever since.) I took the dough out of the bowl and started working with it, dividing it, shaping it. This must be what kindergarden feels like; being creative with playdooh.
Most of what went into the oven looked pretty much like that, too, a child's first attempt with playdooh.
I dutifully brushed each 'pretzel' blob with an egg wash. The instructions said egg and water. So I beat up an egg and threw in a dash of water. Enough? Who knows.
I dipped most of them in a soup plate of crystal sugar and cinnamon. That was a trip. How to keep the pretzel shape while lifting it up, turning it upside down, and rolling it around the bottom of a dish? The first mix was a tad too heavy on the cinnamon. I replenished it with more sugar.
And some I left without topping.
It was 1 a.m. when I finished. I laid ten of the eleven into two plastic bags, and set them in the freezer. A big juicy cinnamon sugar one I left out. Now that ChuChu the Little Dickens is no longer a resident, I didn't have to worry about it getting eaten while I slept.
This morning I made a lovely cup of fresh-ground Yunnan French Roast coffee, and enjoyed the pretzel roll. The topping was delicious, if rather overwhelming; I could not taste the bread. But, being one of the first of the batch, it was a large bun so I was able to attack it from beneath and find mouthfuls without sugar coating.
Of course, it doesn't have the taste of pretzel. Still, a flavorful bread. I will bring it to the Book Club meeting, and if I am industrious, will make some sour cream dips for the plain ones.
This afternoon I will go back to one of the restaurant equipment stores and write down prices on a long list of big equipment. Like, work tables, cooling racks, proofing box, sinks, ovens.
I need a good oven!!!
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