Here we go Friday!

By Liz on January 16, 2015

The weather forecast for today and more notably, this weekend, calls for snow/rain/wintry mix kind of precipitation and then on and off of the same through the middle of next week.

In preparation, I’ve been spending several 15-20 minute sessions each day doing a little cleanup and removing some snow weight from things that I thought might be vulnerable…like the slide toppers and awning on the motorhome…

and the edge of the roof where ice dams had formed.

Even with the roof rake, or maybe especially with the roof rake, it is physically challenging: balancing the long tool and pulling the snow.

I was happy to finish what I wanted to get done yesterday (Thursday) morning.

During a brief Thursday morning perusal of recipes, I found The Kitchn’s Rye toasting bread with dried cherries and pumpkin seeds. I love a dark rye or pumpernickel bread and this caught my eye with the addition of fruit and seeds.

But, I’ve been a no knead/high moisture bread making girl for over 4 years and I didn’t want to fuss so I did a quick conversion of the recipe for what I thought would work and it did!

My recipe conversion and full method is at the end of this post, but the short story: I quickly mixed all, covered with plastic wrap and let it sit on the counter until last evening. Then, into the refrigerator overnight and this morning I pre-shaped the dough, let it sit for 30 minutes, did the final shape, slashed the top and popped it into a dutch oven for baking.

It is delicious toasted with plenty of butter and I think would be wonderful with a poached or soft boiled egg on top.

Perfect Friday treat to get me started on the last work day of the week and the start of another round of Winter!

My recipe and method adapted from The Kitchn’s Rye toasting bread with dried cherries and pumpkin seeds.

165 grams Rye flour (I used King Arthur Medium Rye)
160 grams Bread flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill Artisan Bread flour)
105 grams White Whole Wheat flour (I used Wheat Montana White Whole Wheat flour)
2 tsp salt
1 tsp caraway seed
2 tsp instant yeast (I like SAF instant)

Mix all above with whisk or sift all together.

1/4 cup dried cherries (or other dried fruit)
1/4 cup sunflower seed (I didn’t have pumpkin seeds, you can sub a seed that you enjoy)
1/4 cup finely shredded unsweetened coconut (I like Let’s do Organic)

Add to flour mix and combine

3/4 cup water
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup molasses (I used unsulphered … I might measure this just a bit on the light side next round – the bread is plenty sweet)

Combine all liquids and warm. (The original recipe says to 110. I wing it and get it very warm nearly hot).

Add warm/hot liquid to flour and combine thoroughly. I use a spoon and my hands. You can use a mixer, but that’s one more thing to wash and I’ve never used a mixer for the high moisture doughs. Now…I’ve been using this method for over 4 years and have a good idea of how the dough should feel, i.e. is it good, do I need to add more flour, more liquid ?? The above measurements worked for the flours I used. I think you should be good to go if you measure by weight. The dough should be sticky and shaggy but not wet and sloppy. It is a heavy dough.

Cover dough with plastic wrap and let it sit in a warm spot for 8-10 hours, then refrigerate until ready to bake.

When ready to bake, put the dough on a clean and lightly floured counter. Knead and stretch gently just 30 seconds or so and then round the dough onto the counter in a smooth ball (gluten cloak method) and cover with flour cloth. Let sit for 15-20 minutes.

At the end of the 15-20 minutes, put cast iron dutch oven in the oven and preheat to 500F.

Turn the dough over and do the final shaping into a round boule and put the dough on a piece of parchment paper large enough to allow you to use the paper to lift the dough. Cover with flour cloth and let sit for 30 minutes.

At the end of 30 minutes the oven and dutch oven should have been at temperature for at least 10 minutes. Check the boule – it should be taut and a brief finger indentation should spring right back.

Dust with flour (I forgot!) and slash – I used an asterisk slash.

Remove the dutch oven, carefully lift the dough with parchment and set in the dutch oven. Put the lid on the dutch oven and carefully … the dutch oven is VERY hot!!! – put it back in the oven.

Bake for 20-24 minutes (I went 24 with this dense dough). Carefully remove the lid from the dutch oven, reduce oven temp to 475 and bake for 12-14 minutes more. The edges should be dark/some black. This dough has a lot of sugar from the molasses so it is softer than a ciabatta or baguette, but it should still be crisp on top and hard on the bottom. Remove bread and cool on a wire rack for 2-3 hours.

Credit for some of this method has to go to the following three books:

I started with Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. This link is for the latest version of this book and it has some wonderful updated information about the method.

This fall, I read In Search of the Perfect Loaf: A Home Baker’s Odyssey by Samuel Fromartz and learned a lot about why the minimal knead/high moisture bread works and made some adjustments in the method I’d been using from “Artisan Bread in Five…”. Samuel Fromartz, in his book, referred to Della Fattoria’s Meyer Lemon Rosemary bread which had me nearly in a swoon and I immediately bought the Della Fattoria book for that recipe.

Della Fattoria Bread by Kathleen Weber. In addition to the Meyer Lemon Rosemary bread which I made immediately, this book furthered my knowledge pre-shaping/shaping, baking, and understanding how the dough should look and feel.

Like Mr. Fromartz, I am always in search of the perfect loaf! I enjoy the chemistry of bread baking and of course, I LOVE the results.

Did anyone make it to the end of this post :) ??