Vienna Bread: BBA

I had high hopes for the 39th bread in the BBA Challenge.  Most of the other bakers had good things to say about it.  Plus, the Dutch Crunch topping, made with a mixture of rice flour, a little bread flour, yeast, sugar, salt, vegetable oil and water sounded so good.  So, I set out to make the Vienna Bread.

I began the process of making this bread about 6 days before I planned to bake the bread. I wasn’t able to find diastatic barley malt powder locally and I didn’t want to order it online, so I decided to sprout some wheat grains and make my own malt powder. 

Making Diastatic Malt Powder using Sprouted Wheat Grains

It took about 3 days for the wheat to sprout, then another day to dry the sprouted grains so I could grind them in my bread mill without clogging it up. 

If you’re interested in learning how to sprout wheat grains, refer to my post on sprouted wheat bread.

Just for kicks, here is a comparison of the dried sprouted grains versus regular grains that haven’t been sprouted. The dried sprouted wheat is on the left.

After I dried the sprouted grains, I ground them in my bread mill.  Here is the freshly ground diastatic malt powder.

Making the Pre Ferment

Now, it was time to make the Pâte Fermentée, but there was a slight problem.  The formula for the Pâte Fermentée makes 18 ounces and this bread only uses 13 ounces. So right off the bat, this bread was making me work. 

In order to get the right percentages, I had to scale the amounts.  Fortunately, Phyl Of Cabbages & King Cakes provided an easy breakdown of how to use baker’s math to do this step.  Thanks Phyl!

So, I made the Pâte Fermentée, let it rest for 2 hours, then put it in the refrigerator overnight. For a step-by-step breakdown of how to make Pâte Fermentée, check out my post on French Baguettes.

The next day, I took the Pâte Fermentée out of the refrigerator, cut it into pieces, covered it with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter for an hour to take off the chill.

Making the Dough

Stir together the dry ingredients.

Add the Pâte Fermentée pieces and the liquid ingredients.

Then stir everything with a Danish dough whisk (or your mixer if you must) until the dough comes together to form a ball.

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour and knead it for about 10 minutes to make a firm but supple dough.  It should be slightly tacky but not sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and roll the dough around to coat it with oil. 

Cover it with plastic wrap and let it ferment at room temperature for 2 hours.

Shaping the Loaves

Remove the dough from the bowl and divide it into 2 pieces.

 

Shape the pieces, into boules.

Spray them with cooking spray, cover with plastic wrap and let them rest on the counter for 20 minutes.

Shape the pieces into batards, then transfer them to a parchment lined baking sheet sprinkled with semolina or corn meal.

For step-by-step instructions on shaping batards, refer to the Tuscan Bread post.

Proofing the Loaves

Brush the Dutch Crunch on the loaves.  Brushing the crunch topping on before proofing is supposed to provide greater separation and mottling; whereas if you brush it on right before baking, the coating is more even.

Mist the dough lightly, cover with plastic wrap, then let the batards proof at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until about 1 3/4 their original size.

 

Preparing the Loaves for Baking

Prepare the oven for hearth baking by placing a steam pan in place.   Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

Right before baking the loaves, mist the loaves with water and dust lightly with bread flour by topping some flour through a sieve.

I was so proud of myself when I did this part because I thought it looked really cool with the dusted flour.  Little did I realize that I had just made a mistake.  More about that later…

Moving right along… I scored the loaves down the center.

Then put them in the oven to bake.

I rotated the loaves about halfway through for even baking.

I let them continue baking until they reached a medium brown color. About 30 minutes total baking time.

Then I transferred the loaves to a cooling rack to cool for about an hour before I got to taste them.

Here are the finished loaves.  I was so proud of the way they looked, I just couldn’t wait to cut a slice and taste it. 

So, I sliced a loaf and took a bite!

Boy was I ever disappointed!  I couldn’t taste anything but flour.  My taste tester tried it and said it tasted dusty.  I thought it was the Dutch Crunch Topping that we didn’t like and I was wishing I had made one without it so we could compare, but I finally realized it was the flour I had dusted on the loaves just before baking them. Remember, I said I made a mistake.  Well, I shouldn’t have dusted the flour since I was using the Dutch Crunch.  Oh well!  That’s what I get for trying to do too many things at once.  I’m sure you never do that, right?

I had another slice warm with butter and it tasted better, but I just really wasn’t thrilled with it. My taste tester liked the bread and said I was being too hard on it. Since he liked it, I sent the rest of the loaf home with him and froze the other one.

 

It’s a beautiful bread and I worked really hard on it so I’m sending it over to be YeastSpotted.  Please visit Wild Yeast to view all of the lovely breads in the roundup.

 

I do plan on make the Vienna Bread again sometime because I don’t think I gave it a fair shot. Next time, I’ll make one loaf with and one without the Dutch Crunch and reduce the amount of Dutch Crunch made.  As some of the other bakers have mentioned, it makes more than you need for these loaves.

 

Thanks for joining us in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is White Bread.  I plan to make Variation #3 (page 269 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge
And, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

Happy Baking!

Cathy

You might enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in the Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.

Pesto & Pine Nut Focaccia: HBinFive

For the first bread of the March 15th HBinFive Bread Braid, I made Focaccia using the Healthy Bread In Five Minutes Pesto & Pine Nut Bread dough.  My avocado wasn’t quite ripe enough to make the Avocado bread yet so I started with this one.

This dough had such a wonderful flavor that I thought it deserved to be made into something different than just a freeform loaf.  Pesto and pine nuts seemed like the perfect combination for Focaccia.  I used jarred pesto this time, but as soon as my basil plant starts producing, I plan to make some fresh basil pesto.  Can’t wait!

The dough is made with a mixture of white whole wheat flour, spelt flour and all-purpose flour. I used freshly-milled flour made from organic white winter wheat.

I’m really enjoying milling my own grains.  The flavor is so much better and it’s better for you. I still use commercial all-purpose flour, but I try to mill my own whole wheat whenever possible. I used Arrowhead Mills Organic Spelt flour this time (it’s really good), however, I found some organic spelt grains at the farmer’s market so I hope to be milling my own spelt flour soon.  

I didn’t add any additional spices or ingredients to the Focaccia dough – it didn’t need them.  I just formed the dough into a ball, then spread it out into a rectangle.

Then, I dribbled olive oil over the top and dimpled it before letting it rest on the counter for 30 minutes.  Just before baking, I added a little more olive oil and sprinkled some kosher salt and crushed black pepper on top.

Then, I baked it on the baking stone with the steam pan underneath for about 20 to 25 minutes.

Let me tell you, I was not disappointed! Oh my goodness! This dough is awesome!  I’ll be making it again for sure.

 

I only used half of the dough for the Focaccia, so I decided to make a freeform loaf using the remainder.  I almost wish I had made two Focaccias because my son and I really enjoyed it, but from the looks of the loaf, we’ll enjoy it as well. 

We’re still snacking on the Focaccia so I didn’t want to cut the loaf yet.  However, once I do, I’m sure it won’t last very long.

 

About the HBinFive Baking Group

The HBinFive Baking Group, started by Michelle of Big Black Dogs, is baking through all of the breads in the Healthy Bread in Five Minutes book. For more information on the HBinFive baking group, check out Michelle's blog.

 

Thanks for joining me in the bread-baking blog.  Check out Michelle's blog to see what everyone else bakes for the March 15th bread braid.

 

Happy Baking!
Cathy

Here are some additional bread-making resources:

• Pizza Recipes
• Bread Recipes
• Bread Cookbooks
• Bread Making
• Baking Supplies
• Bread Flour
• Bread Mixes

You might enjoy some of the other breads that have been featured in the bread making blog.

Tuscan Bread: BBA

We’re moving right along… to the 38th bread in the BBA Challenge, Tuscan Bread. 

Several of the other bakers in the BBA Challenge mentioned they didn’t like this bread because it is salt less.  The book also states that the lack of salt makes Tuscan Bread rather dull and flat tasting.  To me, it was neither dull nor flat tasting. It had a wonderful, slightly sweet flavor. I really liked it and so did my taste tester! 

You do have to “think outside the box” with this bread or should I say, taste outside the “bread” box. Don’t get hung up by the fact that it has no salt.  It is definitely a different experience on your palate, but it’s a good one!  I don’t know about you, but I probably eat too much salt as it is so it’s refreshing to know that I can make and actually enjoy a salt-free bread.  Of course, I spread it with stuff that had salt in it so there you go…

It actually took me 4 days to make this bread from start-to-finish rather than the 2 mentioned in the book. I made the flour paste two days before I made the dough and then I let the dough retard in the refrigerator overnight due to my schedule. This could be why the flavor was so good.  As Peter Reinhart explains in the book, the cooked flour paste is yet another way to control flavor by manipulating time, temperature, and ingredients. Well, I’d say it worked!

 

Making the Paste

Make the paste 1 to 2 days before making the bread.  It ended up being two days for me due to my schedule.

To make the paste, pour boiling water over the bread flour in a mixing bowl and stir vigorously until the flour is hydrated and makes a thick, smooth paste.  Cool, cover, and leave out overnight at room temperature. I really liked the flavor of the paste. I thought it might taste like the glue paste we made with flour and water when I was growing up, but it didn’t.  I didn’t use any special bread flour so I’m not really sure why I liked it so much.

 

Mixing the Dough

The next day, make the dough by mixing together the flour and yeast in a mixing bowl, then add the paste and olive oil.

Stir or mix, adding as much water as necessary to make a soft, supple ball.

Transfer the dough to a counter sprinkled with flour and hand knead for about 10 minutes or if you’re using a mixer, mix for 6 to 8 minutes.  Add more flour as needed to make a dough that is tacky but not sticky.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl and roll it around to coat it in oil.  Let the dough ferment on the counter for 2 hours.

Gently divide the dough into two pieces being careful not to degas it too much.  Shape the balls into boules.  Cover and let them rest on the counter for 15 minutes.

Then shape the boules into batards.  To make the batard shape, gently pat the dough into a rough rectangle. 

Then without degassing the piece of dough, fold the bottom third of dough, letter style, up to the center and press to seal, creating surface tension on the outer edge.

 

Fold the remaining dough over the top and use the edge of your hand to seal the seam closed and to increase the surface tension all over.

 

Form the other ball of dough the same way, then transfer the loaves to a parchment-lined baking sheet for proofing.  Mist the loaves with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap.

Proof the loaves at room temperature for 60 to 90 minutes, or until they nearly double in size.

Baking the Loaves

Prepare the oven for hearth baking by placing a steam pan in place.  Preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. and pour 2 cups of water in the steam pan.

Just before baking, spray the loaves with a little bit of water and lightly dust with bread flour by tapping some through a sieve.

 

Score the loaves by making 3 slashes using a lame or serrated knife.  I used a serrated knife.

I think I made the slashes a little bit too deep.

 

Slide the breads directly onto the baking stone.  After 30 seconds, open the door, spray the walls with water, and close the door.

Repeat twice more at 30-second intervals, then lower the oven setting to 450 and bake for 10 minutes.  Remove the steam pan 10 minutes after loading the oven being careful not to splash yourself if there’s any water left. Check the breads and rotate them 180 degrees for even baking.

Continue baking for 10 to 20 minutes longer, or until the loaves turn a rich golden color.

 

Transfer the loaves to a wire rack and cool for at least an hour before slicing or serving.

Once the bread is cooled, it’s time to enjoy a slice and see what you think about salt-free bread. My taste tester thinks it would taste good with almost anything.

I tasted a piece spread with peanut butter, one with jam, and then another one with plain butter (not at the same time). Each slice tasted great.  For one meal, I toasted some slices and served them with homemade Tuscan Bean Soup and some olive oil and herbs for dipping.  Yummy! 

I also had it with Bruschetta.  I think that was my favorite.

Thanks for joining us this week in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge. The next bread in the Bread Baker's Apprentice Challenge is Vienna Bread (page 261 in the Bread Baker's Apprentice).

Be sure to Follow along with other bakers in the challenge
And, join the BBA Challenge Facebook Group

 

Happy Baking!

Cathy

You might also enjoy some of the other breads that we've featured in the Bread Baking Blog.

Feel free to leave a comment about this blog, or submit your own bread experience. We'd love to highlight your story on The Bread Experience site.