Saturday, November 14, 2009

Almond Buckwheat Batard with Poolish (B&P#34)




Fresh bread can be sheer torture. It's the aroma while baking, the crackle of the crust or the delicious flavor when you bite into your slice. I like the loaves that get a bit toasty in the oven. Those loaves are a joy to tear into once they've cooled.

This is one of those loaves. It never made it to toast for breakfast or sandwiches for lunch. We divided it amongst the four of us and slowly devoured it.

This is a wonderful flour combination. When baked the flavor is very reminescent of a stone ground wheat loaf or at least how I remembered it tasting. My husband, who can glutenize, thought the flavor was evocative of a wheat loaf that was baked in a brick oven. Oh, my heart was skipping with that comment...that's high praise. I hugged the sweetness of his compliment to me. He knew that my first attempt with buckwheat and tepary beans tasted like old musty beans.

Enjoy!

Recipe

Protein Content:
Original Content: 50.7 g
GF Content: 49.18 g

Poolish

45 g Almond Meal (9 g)
50 g Buckwheat flour (7.25 g)
35 g Arrowroot Starch (0.105 g)___________replacement for whole wheat flour
15 g Instant Dry Yeast
15 ml Agave Syrup
180 ml Water (120 - 130 deg F/49 - 54 deg C)

Final Dough

20 g Brown Rice Flour (1.8 g)
25 g Sweet Rice Flour (1.5 g)
25 g Arrowroot Starch (0.3 g)
54 g White Bean Flour (11.61 g)
6 g Chia Seed Meal (1.26 g)______________replacement for bread flour
45 g Almond Meal (9 g)
50 g Buckwheat Flour (7.25 g)
35 g Arrowroot Starch (0.105 g)___________replacement for whole wheat flour
4 g Agar Agar Powder
15 g Instant Dry Yeast
10 g Sea Salt
254 g Poolish (above)
90 ml Water (120 - 130 deg F/49 - 54 deg C)
15 ml Agave Syrup


Directions for Poolish

Pour all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and blend together. Then add the water and agave syrup and stir until incorporated. Set the bowl in a warm location to rise for 40 minutes.
 
Directions for Final Dough

1. In a large bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and stir together. Add the poolish, water and agave syrup and blend together until a soft ball forms.  If the dough is still too soft, add arrowroot starch by the tablespoon (1 Tb/15 ml) until the dough firms up.

2. Place the dough in the center of a sheet of parchment paper that has been sprinkled with arrowroot starch.  Gently roll the dough into a cylinder about 10 in/25 cm long and taper the ends. Take a sharp knife and slice a cut in the center of the cylinder at an angle.  Then place a parallel slice on either side of the center cut. Slide the parchment paper onto a cookie sheet and place in a warm location to rise for 1 1/2 hours.

3. Place an oven proof bowl filled with water on the bottom shelf of the oven.  Then place a baking stone on the top shelf. Preheat the oven to 470 degrees F/243 degrees C. Place the loaf in the oven and spray water over the oven box and the top of the loaf.  Bake the loaf for 25 minutes. Prop the oven door open and continue to cook the bread for another 10 minutes.  Remove the loaf and allow it to cool before serving.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

Stollen (B&P#33)



For me, holiday baking has to include something decadent.  That means I need to make one of the different types of Christstollen or stollen.

It is a traditional German Christmas season fruit filled bread covered in powdered sugar. The fruits (golden raisins, raisins, currants, lemon peel, orange peel, citron peel and zests) can be soaked in dark rum or white wine. It can also have nuts, almond paste and other dried fruits in the dough. The bread itself has only a slight bit of sweetener with the vanilla and powdered sugar coating providing an incredible finishing touch.

Stollen isn't one of my husband's favorite breads, so  it always means more for me.  Unfortunately, I have to make sure there isn't more of me by the time New Year's rolls around.

While collecting all the ingredients to make my stollen, I found myself perusing the virtual aisles of Fantes (it's one of my favorite online baking and pastry supply stores). They carry a very nice non-stick stollen pan made in Portugal. I decided to buy one to give it a try with my gluten free version. (It's okay, you can say my will was weak...it was.)

This pan will make up to a 2 lb/.907 kg loaf. I was making a 1 lb/.454 kg loaf, so I turned the stollen pan upside down and evenly filled out the pan with the bread dough. After rising, the bread dough had filled out the shape nicely, creating the classic stollen shape.

This is a fabulous tasting bread and goes extremely well with a steaming cup of French Roast coffee. So, break down, make some stollen. Then afterwards, you can join me in working it off with Jillian Michaels. Well, maybe you don't want to...she's helping me rediscover my post radiation pecs. So, my language isn't always that nice. Or maybe I should do it the other way around...that way I can recover from trying to get my right pectoral muscle to remember how to move and stretch with stollen and a hefty dose of French Roast.


Recipe

Protein Content:

Original Content: 20.28 g
GF Content: 19.84 g


Sponge

100  - 130 ml milk, room temperature
30 ml agave syrup
30 g instant dry yeast
14 g brown rice flour (1.26 g)
12 g sweet rice flour (.072 g)
14 g arrowroot starch (0.042 g)
18 g almond meal (3.6 g)
20 g white bean flour (4.3 g)

Fruit & Nut Mix

1028 g golden raisins
37 g candied lemon peel
16 g candied orange peel
13 ml dark rum or white wine
47 g blanched almonds

Final Dough

14 g brown rice flour (1.26 g)
12 g sweet rice flour (0.72 g)
14 g arrowroot starch (0.042 g)
18 g almond meal (3.6 g)
20 g white bean flour (4.3 g)
6 g chia seed meal
4 g agar agar powder
7 g cane sugar
4 g sea salt
1 g lemon zest, grated
pinch ground allspice
pinch ground cinnamon
pinch ground cloves
pinch ground ginger
7 g almond paste
136 g fruit & nut mix
85 g butter, softened
125 g sponge (from above)
60 - 90 ml milk, room temperature

Finishing

clarified butter, as needed
vanilla sugar, as needed
powdered sugar, as needed


Directions

Fruit & Nut Mix

Place all the ingredients in a resealable container and shake together. Put the container in the refrigerator and allow the mixture to blend together for at least 24 hours before using in the recipe.

Sponge

Pour all the dry ingredients in a medium sized bowl and blend together. Then add the milk and agave syrup and stir until incorporated.  Set the bowl in a warm location to rise for 40 minutes.

Final Dough

1. Place all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and stir together.  Then add the milk and softened butter and stir until the dough forms a soft ball.  If the dough is too soft work in a small amount of arrowroot starch to help firm up the dough (i.e. 1 Tb/15 ml at a time). 

2. You can either use a stolen pan or shape the loaf by hand. For the stollen pan, place the pan upside down on a parchment paper lined baking sheet. Prop up the sides with sides with balls of parchment paper, then line the pan with parchment paper.  If you shape the loaf by hand, lay out a sheet of parchment paper and sprinkle it with arrowroot starch.  Then pat out the dough until it is an oval shape and about 1/2 inch/1.27 cm thick. Then fold one side of the dough over the other until about 1/3 of the dough is uncovered. Use arrowroot starch as needed to shape the loaf.  Set the loaf in a warm location to rise for 2 hours.

3.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F/177 degrees C. Place the stollen in the oven and bake for 35 to 45 minutes.  Remove from the oven and allow to cool before you remove it from the pan.

Finishing

Place the stollen on a serving tray and brush with clarified butter. The press on the vanilla sugar and sprinnkle with powdered sugar. Slice and serve.


Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts


Index of the Baking & Pastry Project

Baking & Pastry Project Week 17- A Sponge & A Poolish
Baking & Pastry Project #32 - Gugelhopf
Baking & Pastry Project #31 - Panettone
Baking & Pastry Project Week 16 - Holiday Breads
Baking & Pastry Project #30 - Multigrain Bread With Pate Fermentee
Baking & Pastry Project #29 - White Bean Lean Bread With Pate Fermentee
Baking & Pastry Project Week 15 - Lean & Multigrain


Want More?

You can also follow me on Twitter, where I'm glutenagogo.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

Baking & Pastry Project Week 17 - Sponge & Poolish




Schedule

Tuesday - Stollen

Thursday - Whole Grain Bread with Poolish


Shopping List

Brown Rice Flour (Fine or Superfine Grind)
Sweet Rice Flour (also called glutinous rice flour)
Arrowroot Starch
Almond Meal
High Protein Flours, such as: Soybean, White Bean, Black Bean
Whole Grain Flour, such as: Buckwheat, Millet, Sorghum, Quinoa, Teff
Instant Dry Yeast
Binding Agents, such as: Xanthan or Guar Gum, Chia Seed Meal, Agar Agar Powder
Candied Orange & Lemon Peel
Raisins & Golden Raisins
Almond Paste
Lemon Zest
Almonds
Spices: Ground Cloves, Cinnamon, Allspice and Ginger


Resources

Flours & Binding Agents: Authentic Foods, Barry Farm, Bob's Red Mill
Instant Dry Yeast: Barry Farm
Agave Syrup: Wild Organics, Native Seeds
Nuts & Candied Peel: Barry Farm
Almond Paste: Kerekes

Equipment

Stollen Pan - Fantes


What's Going On?

I was a very lucky woman and received a copy of the Culinary Institute of America's Baking & Pastry book along with their culinary dvd's from my family for my birthday and our anniversary. After watching all the DVDs, I decided to work my way through the CIA's Baking and Pastry book - of course making it gluten free. There were so many skills that I wanted to develop and work on. I hope you will be interested in sharing my journey with me.


Other Baking & Pastry Project Posts

Index of the Baking & Pastry Project

Baking & Pastry Project #32 - Gugelhopf
Baking & Pastry Project #31 - Panettone
Baking & Pastry Project Week #16 - Holiday Breads
Baking & Pastry Project #30 - Multigrain Bread With Pate Fermentee
Baking & Pastry Project #29 - White Bean Lean Bread With Pate Fermentee
Baking & Pastry Project Week 15 - Lean & Multigrain


Want More?

You can also follow me on Twitter, where I'm glutenagogo.