Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Hey, there's infinity in that box

So I am very behind, having never written about the results of the last batch. They were better, but still pretty dense. Frustratingly enough. I think the most frustrating part was that the loaves felt so ready and wonderful when I put them on the peel, but hardly expanded in the oven. I mean, I still have a good flavor, but not much else.

So. I asked my boss (who knows bread better than anyone) what I should do. He said: 1. stick to the formula, 2. scale back WW to 20% before trying anything too tricky, and 3. give up on Red Star yeast, which is engineered for quick rising rather than long fermentation. As I was leaving, he called out, "Infinity is in the box." "What?" I said, truly confused. "The formula," he said. "It seems like science when you're looking at it, with all those parameters, but really there's infinite things you can do with it. It's art."

Well, instead of using all of his suggestions, since I didn't have non-Red Star yeast on hand, I started a sourdough. I don't have the exact measurements with me, but I did make them, and I think it helped. I did a pre-ferment (levain, to get fancy) with the starter, some WW, water and white flour, and left it overnight on the counter. Then I mixed up the dough, kneaded for 5 minutes three times with 10 minute rests in between (it felt amazing!) and then let it rise for about 3 hours in the closed oven. I shaped it into loaves, and now it has been rising in the refrigerator for 18 hours. Which worries me just a little, since I won't be home to deal with it for a while yet, but hopefully because it's at 40 degrees it won't overproof. The one tricky thing about this bread as art thing is that it doesn't always fit too well with the rest of my life. Something I should work on. Anyway, I'll bake it off later this afternoon, and let you know how it goes, as well as actually give the formula I used :-)

p.s. I made cream puffs on Sunday, too! I used the Julia Child recipe for pate au choux, and made a sort of cannoli-esque filling with our homemade ricotta, flavored with orange and clove. Incredibly delicious. As a baking note, if you cut the puffs in half after they're done and then let them sit in the turned off oven insides-up for 5 minutes (as Julia recommends) they'll be much crispier.

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