M O D E R NIS T
B R E A D
Nathan Myhrvold
and Francisco Migoya
M O D E R N IS T
B R E A D
MODERNIST BREAD
ISBN 978-0-9827610-5-2
ABOUT NATHAN MYHRVOLD
THE COOKING LAB FOUNDER
Nathan Myhrvold, lead author of Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking (2011), Modernist Cuisine at Home (2012), The Photog-raphy of Modernist Cuisine (2013), and Modern-ist Bread (fall 2017), is a chef, photographer, and scientist. Myhrvold founded the Modern-ist Cuisine team and led the development and production of all four books as well as the Modernist Cuisine Gallery in Las Vegas.
In addition to his culinary and photo- graphic pursuits, the former chief technology
officer of Microsoft is the founder and CEO of Intellectual Ventures. He is an avid inventor and prolific author in the fields of tech-
nology, paleontology, climatology, energy, bioterrorism, and more. He holds several degrees, including a doctorate in theoretical and mathematical physics; master’s degrees in economics, geophysics, and space physics; a bachelor’s degree in mathematics; and a culinary diploma from École de Cuisine La Varenne.
ABOUT FRANCISCO MIGOYA
THE COOKING LAB HEAD CHEF
Francisco Migoya is the co-author of Modernist Bread and leads the Modernist Cuisine culinary team as head chef. An innovative pastry chef, his most recent book, The Elements of Dessert (John Wiley & Sons, 2012), won a 2014 International Association of Culinary Professional Cookbook Award in the Professional Kitchens category. He has been recognized as a top U.S. pastry chef and chocolatier. Gremi de Pastisseria
de Barcelona awarded him the Medal of Master Artisan Pastry Chef (2013). Migoya owned Hudson Chocolates in New York and worked at both The French Laundry and Bouchon Bakery as executive pastry chef. Prior to joining the Modernist Cuisine team, Migoya was a professor at The Culinary Institute of America, where his areas of instruction included bread, viennoiserie, pastry, and culinary science.
The Modernist Cuisine team is an interdisciplinary group in Bellevue, Washington, founded by Nathan Myhrvold. The team comprises scientists, research and development chefs, a full editorial and photography department, and sales and marketing staff—all dedicated to advancing the science of the culinary arts through creativity and experimentation.
They have published Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking (2011), Modernist Cuisine at Home (2012), and The Photography of Modernist Cuisine (2013), and pro-duced The Photography of Modernist Cuisine: The Exhibition. In addition, The Cooking Lab has developed a spherification kit, gel kit, and the Modernist Cuisine™ Special Edition Baking Steel. Modernist Cuisine Gallery, located in Las Vegas, fea-tures the books and Nathan Myhrvold’s photography.
The Cooking Lab is Modernist Cuisine’s in-house publish- ing division. In addition to publishing, The Cooking Lab provides consulting, R&D, and invention services to food companies and culinary equipment makers, both large and small. Their new research laboratory, operated by Intellectual Ventures, provides one of the best-equipped
kitchens in the world and includes access to a full set of machining, analytical, and computational facilities. Equipped with a state-of-the-art photography studio, the team uses groundbreaking photography techniques, including in-house SEM, micro, and macro imagery.
ABOUT THE TEAM
6 M O D E R N I S T C U I S I N E B R E A D L E A N D O U G H 7
MODERNIST
BREAD
ISBN 978-0-9827610-5-2 5 volumes + kitchen manual More than: • 2,600 pages • 1,000,000 words • 3,000 photographs • 1,200 recipes Description:
Five 10.25 × 13.4 inch hardcover books with ribbon markers, two wedges, and wire-o kitchen manual. 13.75 × 11.13 × 8.63 inches (stainless steel slipcase)
FOREWORD BY CHAD ROBERTSON FOREWORD BY FRANCISCO MIGOYA
MY CULINARY JOURNEY BY NATHAN MYHRVOLD STORY OF THIS BOOK
ABOUT THE RECIPES
Volume 1
History and Fundamentals
CHAPTER 1: HISTORY The Ancient World The Premodern Era The Industrial Age The Information Age The Future of Bread
CHAPTER 2: MICROBIOLOGY FOR BAKERS Spoilage and Fermentation Foodborne Illness
Sources of Contamination Preventing Contamination CHAPTER 3: BREAD AND HEALTH
Dietary Systems
Medical Dietary Systems Nonmedical Dietary Systems Gluten Intolerance
CHAPTER 4: HEAT AND ENERGY
The Nature of Heat and Temperature Energy, Power, and Efficiency
Heat in Motion
CHAPTER 5: THE PHYSICS OF FOOD AND WATER Water Is Strange Stuff
Freezing and Thawing
Vaporization and Condensation Water as a Solvent
Water Quality and Purity FURTHER READING
Volume 2
Ingredients
CHAPTER 6: MAKING BREAD The Basics of Bread Planning to Bake Bread Bread Making by the Book
CHAPTER 7: GRAINS Amazing Grass Wheat
Other Grains
The Life Cycle of Grain
The Economics and Politics of Grain The Commodity System and Cheap Bread CHAPTER 8: FLOUR
Flour Milling What is in Flour? Wheat Flours Rye Flours
Other Flours and Powders CHAPTER 9: LEAVENING
Yeast Sourdough
Chemical Leaveners
CHAPTER 10: FUNCTIONAL INGREDIENTS Ingredient Classification
Salt Sugars Fats and Oils Improving Dough
CHAPTER 11: INGREDIENT PREPARATION Inclusions
Grain and Seed Inclusions Flavored Liquids and Purees Fruits and Vegetables Meats and Cheeses Nuts and Sweets FURTHER READING
Volume 3
Techniques and Equipment
CHAPTER 12: FERMENTATIONCommercial Yeast Preferments Levain
CHAPTER 13: MIXING
The Details of Mixing Machine Mixing Hand Mixing Bulk Fermentation
CHAPTER 14: DIVIDING AND SHAPING Dividing
Shaping by Hand Braiding
French Regional Breads CHAPTER 15: FINAL PROOFING
Proofing Equipment Final Proofing Methods Calling Proof
Cold-Proofing Dough
CHAPTER 16: SCORING AND FINISHING Scoring
Finishing
CHAPTER 17: HOW BREAD BAKES The Physics of Baking Ovens
Deck Ovens
Convection Ovens with Steam Convection Ovens without Steam Pizza Ovens
Tandoor Ovens CHAPTER 18: BAKING
Transforming Dough Into Bread Baking In Professional Ovens Baking In Home Ovens Baking Without An Oven Parbaking Bread
CHAPTER 19: COOLING AND SERVING Cooling
Staling and Spoilage Storing
Slicing and Serving FURTHER READING
Volume 4
Recipes I
CHAPTER 20: LEAN BREADS French Lean Breads Sourdough Breads Country Style Breads Ancient Breads Whole Wheat Breads High Hydration Breads
CHAPTER 21: ENRICHED BREADS Brioche
Challah
White Sandwich Bread CHAPTER 22: RYE BREADS
Farmer’s Bread High Ryes
CHAPTER 23: WHOLE GRAIN BREADS Breads Made From Whole Grains Bavarian Pumpernickel
Vollkornbrot FURTHER READING
Volume 5
Recipes II
CHAPTER 24: FLAT BREADS Crackers Injera Dosa Inflated Breads Naan Focaccia Pizza
CHAPTER 25: BAGELS, PRETZELS, AND BAO Pretzels
Bagels Bao
CHAPTER 26: GLUTEN FREE BREADS Gluten Free Ingredients
CHAPTER 27: BREAD MACHINE BREADS Lean Breads
Enriched Breads Rye Breads
Whole Grain Breads FURTHER READING
GLOSSARIES OF CULINARY AND TECHNICAL TERMS
SOURCES OF EQUIPMENT AND INGREDIENTS, REFERENCE TABLES THE MODERNIST CUISINE TEAM, CONTRIBUTORS, ACKNOWLEDGMENTS, STEP-BY-STEP PROCEDURES AND BEST BETS TABLES, INDEX
THE STORY OF THIS BOOK
When I tell people what we’ve been workingon since our last book, the reaction often goes something like this: “Did you say 2,500 pages? On bread?”
I’ll concede that at first blush, 2,642 pages might seem a little over the top. But we’ve been here before. We got the same initial reaction when we were working on our first book, Modernist Cuisine: The Art and Science of Cooking, which ran an encyclopedic 2,438 pages. When it was released in 2011, people in the publishing industry told us that a nontradi-tional $625 cookbook would never sell.
Well, Modernist Cuisine broke a lot of rules. And to my great relief, that worked. More than 230,000 curious and passionate food lovers— from home cooks to renowned chefs to staff at educational institutions—decided that the book fit the right value equation. It won numerous major food writing awards and has been translated
I was determined to tell the story of the role that the underappreciated and underpaid farmers play in our agricultural system.
Starting around the 1920s (but at an increas-ing pace throughout the 1960s), bread became an industrial product. Giant machines and fac-tories were cranking out millions of loaves of bland, precisely uniform sandwich bread, and people welcomed these snow-white loaves. By the 1970s, though, both bread lovers and bread bak-ers were beginning to rebel, eventually building what is today called the artisanal bread move-ment (page 128). In the United States, the search for quality led to the breads of Europe—and in Europe, bakers turned to the past.
The idea behind the artisanal bread movement was a great one: bread lovers wanted to increase the variety, flavor, and quality of bread beyond the cheap industrial products that swamped supermarket shelves. Going back to preindustrial bread-baking practices and returning to small-scale methods historically used by village bakers seemed like just the thing to do.
But it can’t possibly be true that all the best ideas in bread baking have already been discov-ered—creative bakers around the world have made some amazing new loaves. Science and technology are not the enemies of great bread. The laws of nature govern baking just like they govern everything else in the world. Knowing which laws affect your bread helps; understanding technology helps, too.
When it began, the artisanal bread movement was so liberating: it freed consumers from insipid, machine-made white sandwich bread by giving them choices. But any belief system can become stagnant if it is closed to new ideas.
This stagnancy is all the more troubling today, in a world in which bread is under attack from the gluten-free trend and the low-carb movement. Now more than ever, it’s vital to start unleash-ing the creative possibilities of bread. With all the excitement around today’s innovative, modern cuisine, it’s time to make bread more than just an afterthought. Why not have fun and explore what the latest science can add to the bread we know and love? At the risk of sounding dramatic, bread must innovate to survive and thrive.
We took an approach that is fiercely analytic into nine languages. It’s fair to say it has had a big
impact on the culinary world.
Now I am excited to introduce Modernist Bread: The Art and Science. It’s just as disruptive, just as comprehensive, just as visually appealing, and just as thought-provoking as its older sibling. In the space of five volumes plus a kitchen manual, we tell the story of one of the world’s most important foods in new and different ways. Through this story, we hope to enlighten, delight, and inspire creativity in others who love not only bread but also the science, history, cultures, and personali-ties behind it.
Why focus on bread? Because it has so many of the things that we love in a topic. Bread may seem simple, but in fact it is highly technological and scientific—it’s actually a biotech product whose creation requires harnessing the power
of microorganisms that ferment. Making bread is so technique-intensive that small variations in the method can make huge differences in the outcome. There is a tremendous amount of skill involved, to the point that bread making can be daunting to home bakers and professionals alike. During the baking process, bread’s sim-ple ingredients go through such a mind-blowing transformation that the product that comes out of the oven bears almost no resemblance to the flour, water, salt, and yeast that went in. That’s just cool.
Focusing on bread has given us the opportu-nity to explore such wide-ranging scientific top-ics as the structure of gluten and the phystop-ics of ovens. It has given us a window into the minds of the inventors and innovators who have made, improved, and transformed this important staple over the course of thousands of years. Our focus on bread has also allowed us to look closely at the evolution of cultures through the lens of a single food that has spanned so much of human history: bread was the primary source of calories for the ancient Greeks and Romans and the Western civi-lizations that followed. We also became intrigued by the evolution of our agricultural system. There is currently a lot of nationwide and global concern about this system, after all, and wheat is at its cen-ter. As the grandson of a Minnesota wheat farmer,
but also deeply appreciative of the artistry and aesthetics of bread. We studied exhaustively (or at least until we were exhausted!). We researched ingredients and history, milling technologies and dough rheology, grain botany, bubble mechan-ics, and more. We talked to grain farmers, mill-ers, food historians, statisticians, and every great bread baker we could find. Over time, we became even more convinced that our book could offer something fresh and new.
We believe the idea of Modernist bread—bread that looks to the future, not the past—should be celebrated. In these pages, you’ll find our con-tributions to what we hope will become a move-ment. This movement isn’t just about new recipes, though—it’s about the way we think of bread from the ground up.
For each of our key recipes, we developed a tra-ditional version and a Modernist version. You can follow only the traditional recipes and find much of value in this book—or you can branch out into our Modernist recipes to explore new ideas. Bet-ter yet, use this book as a jumping-off point to make new kinds of breads that no one has tried before. Whether you are a strict traditionalist or an avid Modernist, a home baker or an artisan baker or a restaurant chef, we hope that this book will open your eyes to the possibilities of invention and encourage different ways of thinking about bread. We believe this kind of disruption will even help change the economics of bread. (We’d like to see bread go the way of chocolate and wine, which are sold in a wide range of quality levels and price points.)
In short, we believe the golden age of bread isn’t some mythical past that we all should try to return to—the best days of bread are yet to come.
We spent over 4 years looking at bread from every angle. We devised experiments
to test the limits of techniques, develop new recipes, investigate bakery lore, find
the best ingredients and tools, and understand the science of bread making.
We traveled around the world to speak to bakers, chefs, farmers, scientists,
and historians and go behind the scenes at mills, ingredient companies,
museums, and even the Svalbard seed bank in Norway—tasting bread
at every stop along the way. And, of course, we baked tons of
bread. Literally.
Here’s a small sample of some of the discoveries,
techniques, recipes, and discussions you’ll find in the five
volumes of Modernist Bread.
Debunking
Does Pure Water Make for Better Bread?
Weird Stuff in Starters
Which is Better: Fresh or Aged Flour?
Are Whole Grains Healthier for You?
Discoveries
The Largest Loaf
Bread is Lighter Than Whipped Cream
How Much Payload Can Dough Hold?
Supercharged Yeast
Inside Look
Crumbs for the Farmer
The Great Autolyse Debate
The Evolution of a Sourdough
Fats: How High Can You Go?
A LOOK INSIDE MODERNIST BREAD
Historical Stuff
Marking (and Marketing) Bread with Stamps
Bread Through the Ages
A Long History of No-Knead Bread
New Techniques
Our Rye Flour Revelation
The Uses of Cold Proofing in a Wine Fridge
Best Damn Gluten-free Bagel
High Bubble Count Pizza Dough
Shaping Very Wet Doughs
Canned Breads
Dough CPR
Roman Bread Stamps
100% Rye Bread
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BREAD THROUGH THE AGES
When we read history books, we’re often learning about the big events of the past. But the more mundane facts of ordi-nary life aren’t always recorded. Some ancient and premodern recipes have been preserved, but not many. So what was the bread like? We researched paintings through the ages and from around the world in order to find out what they looked like in the past.
A few artists, like Pieter Brueghel the Elder and his son, also named Pieter, painted scenes of ordinary people. Others focused on royal scenes, so it’s reasonable to assume we’re
looking at fancy breads, some of which appear to be enriched. Still, the bread forms in all these works look very familiar.
Even the practice of serving bread swaddled in a napkin dates back centuries. At medieval banquets, the server carried the lord’s bread and knife to the table in a decoratively folded napkin called a portpayne, or portpain. That way the bread would not touch the server’s hands. There’s also a long Jewish tradition of wrapping a piece of matzo in a cloth and hiding it. Some say the wrapped afikomen symbolizes the way the Jews carried their unleavened bread as they left Egypt.
1460 1500 1550 1560 1570 1580 1590 1600 1610 1620 1630 1640
1467 • Belgium
1475•Spain 1530•Belgium 1594•Italy
16th century•Netherlands 1585•Belgium
1525 •Italy 1564 •Netherlands
1601 •Italy
1615 •Belgium 1620 •Spain 1635 •Netherlands
15th century
16th century
17th century
4 8 10 16th century •Belgium 1 2 3 5 9 1590 •Italy 7 6 11 1630 •France 17 14 16 19 1640 •Netherlands 20 1606•Italy 12 18 1625•Italy 1618•Spain 15 1606 •Belgium 131
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M I C R O B I O L O G Y F O R B A K E R S 1 9 1 8 V O L U M E 1 : H I S T O R Y A N D F U N D A M E N T A L SMolds
Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, when bread goes “bad” (not merely stale), mold is to blame. People are less tolerant of mold on food than they are of other kinds of microbial growth, for the simple reason that whereas viral and most bacte-rial contamination is invisible, mold is easy to see. And, in most cases, mold stinks—literally. Although bakers typically see mold as an enemy, many foods—from Stilton, Roquefort, and Brie cheeses to soy sauce and citric acid—owe their existence to the transformative power of molds (see page 174).
Molds are not a particular taxonomic branch of the fungal family tree; rather, they are one of the three main growth forms that fungi can take. Any species of fungus that, at a particular stage in its life cycle, weaves its hyphae filaments into a fabric-like network (called a mycelium) is behav-ing as a mold.
People often think of mold as an infestation that brings the shelf life of a fully prepared food— or, even more commonly, the leftovers of a meal— to an end. But molds play important roles at every stage of the food supply, starting in the field. Fungi cause nearly three-quarters of all crop diseases. They inflict annual losses on farmers tallied in the billions of dollars. In wheat farming, periodic out-breaks of several forms of fungal infections known as rusts can wipe out part or nearly all a farm’s yield. In recent years, rusts have damaged wheat crops throughout Asia, Australia, the Middle East, North Africa, and the United States. Farmers have bred rust-resistant strains of wheat, but the fungi have evolved new ways of attacking them. For-tunately, fungicides remain an effective, though expensive, way to halt rusts.
Stinking smut, also known as bunt, has been the bane of wheat farmers for centuries. This dis-ease, caused by fungi in the genus Tilletia, fills the kernels of the grain with black spores. As a thresher cuts the grain down during the harvest, the kernels burst, and black clouds of spores erupt and spread the disease across the field. Accord-ing to Don E. Mathre, emeritus professor in plant sciences and plant pathology at Montana State University in Bozeman, stinking smut single-handedly compromised a fifth of the wheat crop in Washington State in the early 20th century. The clouds of spores were so thick around the
horse-drawn combines that sparks of static elec-tricity from the equipment set off explosions— more than 160 in 1915 alone. The invention of effective fungicides in the 1970s brought the dis-ease under control in high-income nations, but the disease persists in regions where farmers cannot afford to treat their seeds.
Other grains commonly used in baking are also vulnerable to fungal disease as they grow. Oats, rice, and corn are all susceptible to various kinds of smut and to stunting diseases caused by molds that destroy their roots or rot their stalks.
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akingBetween harvest and milling, grain is typically stored in silos or warehouses, where fungi get another shot at it. Once the plant matter is dead, a different set of molds—the saprophytes—can set in and start to break it down. The economic losses caused by spoilage are significant and are one fac-tor in the fluctuating prices of grains. But some grain molds can also pose a food- safety problem for bakers because, under certain conditions, they produce poisons called mycotoxins. More than 200 kinds of mycotoxins have been identified so far, and they contaminate a quarter of food crops globally, according to estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
The most dangerous of these compounds are aflatoxins, which are made by the common yellow-green molds Aspergillus flavus and A. para-siticus. In high doses, aflatoxin B1 can cause liver
damage and immune problems. Aflatoxins are also among the most potent carcinogens yet iden-tified, at least in lab animals. In the United States, the toxins most frequently ruin corn, nut, and pea-nut crops after harvest. A robust testing system ensures that foods containing unsafe amounts of mycotoxins are thrown out, but losses are so fre-quent and severe in warmer climates that Aspergil-lus effectively dictates where in the United States these crops can and cannot be grown economi-cally. Unfortunately, there is no practical method yet for reliably protecting crops against contami-nation by Aspergillus molds, which are virtually ubiquitous.
For wheat, barley, and rye, the main threat is scab, a head blight produced by Fusarium gra-minearum and other species in this genus. In addi-tion to reducing crop yields due to the disease, this
A galaxy of spores erupts from moldy bread when it is given a gentle tap. Molds get around by producing tiny spores that waft through the air. The spores produced by Puccinia graminis, which causes black
stem rust in wheat, can drift on the winds for more than 3,000 km / 1,860 mi, carry-ing the disease from the Deep South of the United States all the way through the Mid-west and up to Canada. Spore collectors mounted on airplanes have shown that airborne fungi are able to cross oceans, drifting on the winds from one continent to another.
mold can produce toxins known as trichothecenes. One of these, called vomitoxin, is just as unpleas-ant as it sounds. Ingesting a large amount of the toxin, which is also known as deoxynivalenol, or DON, causes the rapid onset of gastrointestinal distress and illness, headache, dizziness, and fever. As with aflatoxins, scrupulous screening of grain supplies has largely prevented human illness from these mycotoxins in Europe and North America, though the blight has claimed wheat crops from North Dakota to North Carolina. In addition, outbreaks have occurred in Asia and Africa.
Several species of Aspergillus molds produce
ochratoxins when they infect corn, barley, wheat, oat, or rye. Ochratoxin A—secreted by species including A. niger, the same mold used to make citric acid—is known to cause kidney damage and poses a cancer risk. Penicillium molds, which are usually thought of as helpful or innocuous (they are used, for example, to make penicillin and blue cheeses), are another source of ochratoxins. And both Aspergillus and Penicillium molds also secrete
citrinin, a mycotoxin linked to kidney disease. Fortunately, ochratoxins and citrinin appear to be quite rare in grains produced in the United States.
Unfortunately, mycotoxins are remarkably heat resistant, and most can retain their poison-ous effects even when cooked to 121^ / 250|— well above the peak internal temperature in a fully baked loaf of bread. So the best protection against them is to buy flour and grains from reputable, well-managed vendors who comply with all gov-ernment regulations on grain handling, storage, and testing. The rules are designed to ensure that contaminants remain below levels established as safe for human consumption.
B
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adMold does terrible things to the flavor of breads, and that’s no doubt one of the main reasons that people generally don’t get sick from eating moldy bread—bread gone bad is pretty easy to avoid. It helps, too, that few molds are able to infect healthy people. Some do, of course: most adults
The waterborne fungus Phytoph
thora infestans caused the Irish
potato blight of 1845–1847 that— exacerbated by unconscionable mismanagement on the part of the government—led to famine and a diaspora that together halved the population of Ireland (see page 110).
Plasmopara viticola, a fungus that
causes grapevine downy mildew, wiped out the vineyards of Europe in the 1870s.
Although fungicides have been effective at controlling wheat rusts, they can have damaging side effects in some ecosystems. Fungicides have been implicated as a contrib-uting factor in bee colony collapse disorder, for example.
Some kinds of mold fluoresce when illumi-nated by ultraviolet light.
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The best invention since sliced bread? Maybe not, but the modern toaster can sure make sliced breads taste better. Before Alan MacMasters invented the electric toaster in Scotland in the late 1890s—as one of the first uses of household electricity other than lighting, pre-ceded only slightly by the electric kettle—unattended toasting had relied mostly on convective heating. Toast-ers for woodstoves tilted bread over a vented metal can; hot air pouring through the vents washed over the bread, browning it. But MacMasters’s idea of using a red-hot element, combined with the later addition by others of a pop-up spring and timer, transformed toast-ing into an exercise in irradiation. Greater convenience and reproducible results, however, came at a price: toast made by infrared heating is susceptible to a positive feedback effect, so it doesn’t brown as evenly as bread toasted by convection or conduction. For a practical guide to making perfect toast, see page 3·434.
Gravity takes its share of the bread as crumbs inevitably fall to the bottom and, because of their high surface-to- volume ratio, soon char. Much of the appealing aroma of toasting bread typically comes as much from the crumbs stuck in the machine as from the slice. Burnt crumbs don’t smell so nice, however, so it’s a good idea to empty the tray frequently.
White bread turns toasty brown as its temperature rises above 130^ / 265| or so, into the range where Maillard reactions—and also caramelization, for sweet breads— transform sugars and proteins into an array of aromatic and increasingly dark com-pounds. The darker the shade, the less incoming radiation is reflected and the more the heat gets absorbed. This positive feedback mechanism, known in physics as the albedo effect, is one of the reasons that toasting is tricky: the transformation proceeds slowly until darkening begins, and then it accelerates, leaving a narrow window of time between too little toasted and too much.
The steam that comes off bread as it toasts is invisible, but the hot water vapor often quickly condenses in the cooler kitchen air into visible wisps of fog. The surface of the slice must dry— which means the water in it must boil off into steam—before the bread can brown. As long as substantial moisture remains in the bread, the arriving heat goes into boiling that water rather than raising the temperature of the solid part. When the water is mostly gone, the temperature can climb into the range, around 150^ / 300|, where browning gets going in earnest.
Radiative toasting tends to darken bread unevenly compared with toast made conduc-tively (on a griddle) or convecconduc-tively by using hot air. Some parts of the bread inevitably contain more moisture than others, so they are slow to dry out and darken. And the toaster’s wire cage and support elements block some of the infrared rays, casting shadows that leave some spots on the slice slightly cooler than others. These small differences get amplified as the hottest spots darken and the toasting accelerates.
Controlling the degree of toasting is nearly impossible to do precisely with most toasters. There are simply too many variations among different breads—even different slices taken from the same loaf on different days will vary—to predict how the bread will respond to radiative heating. The color, cut, thickness, fat content, moisture content, starting temperature, and ambient humidity all affect the outcome.
Inventors have patented ideas for appliances that could monitor how toasted the bread is by using ionizing sensors—much like those in smoke detectors—to detect some of the invisible particles that waft from the bread as it bakes. Those smart toasters might be able to adapt automatically to bread slices of different colors, thick-nesses, moisture levels, and starting temperatures. But cost may be an obstacle: years after the patents were filed, even high-end toasters still lack a sense of smell.
Red-hot heating elements throw off a little red light—and far greater amounts of infrared radiation—when a strong electrical current passes through them. The wires, typically made of a nickel–chromium alloy known as nichrome, can reach temperatures above 1,000^ / 1,830|, well into the range where radiation dominates heat transfer. Because nearly all the toasting work is done by radiation, not hot air, toasters that have reflective interiors will be more efficient and toast the bread more evenly.
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The heading above is surprising but true, and you can test it yourself: put 1 L of whipped cream on the left pan of a balance scale and a 1 L brioche on the right. The scale will tip to the left.
The demonstration is hard to believe because it violates our expectation that a foam should be lighter than a solid. But bread is also a foam—it is just a set foam. The brioche’s crust is solid enough, but the crumb inside is mostly air.
This simple comparison illustrates that the density of bread— that is, its mass divided by its volume—is less than that of almost any other kind of food. Ciabatta, baguette, brioche, sandwich bread, and other common yeast breads typically have a den-sity of just 0.22–0.25 g/cm3. Whipped cream, by comparison, has a density of 0.49 g/cm3. A liter of whipped cream thus weighs twice as much as a brioche of equal volume!
Bread seems denser than it is in large part because its
mass is not evenly distributed: a crunchy baguette crust, which resists cutting and chewing, is 50%–100% more dense than the crumb. The crust is about as dense as pinewood (and whipped cream), whereas the density of the crumb is more like that of cork.
But if the crust is as dense as whipped cream, why does crust feel heavier? The short answer is that the chemistry of these two foams differs. To bite through bread (a set foam), you have to tear apart strong chemical bonds among adjacent molecules. But to eat whipped cream (a colloidal foam), you merely have to push adjacent particles apart.
Intuitively, you might expect that airier breads, such as a baguette, are less dense than loaves that have a tighter crumb, such as pumpernickel and other rye breads. And, in fact, that’s true, as the chart (at right) shows.
S U R P R I S I N G S C I E N C E
Bread Is Lighter Than Whipped Cream
sea sponge, 0.02 egg-white foam, 0.13 wheat kernel, 1.25 balsa wood, 0.15 pine charcoal, 0.35 cork, 0.21 apple, 0.46 red pine, 0.51 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1.0 1.1 1.2 olive oil, 0.92
Density Comparison
sandwich bread, 0.23 French lean bread, 0.25
pumpernickel, 1.09
vollkornbrot, 0.71
100Ă rye, 0.58 steamed bun, 0.40
proofed lean dough, 0.47
whipped cream, 0.49
brioche, 0.27
g/cm3
Whipped cream has a reputation for being light and airy, but it’s about twice as dense as a brioche. To demonstrate this using a scale, we baked a loaf of brioche in a 1 L container and carefully shaved off the extra bits that rose above the lip. Mean-while, we filled a 1 L acetate-lined container with whipped cream, froze it, and then gently peeled off the acetate.
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BASICS
RECOMMENDED
NICE TO HAVE
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From the combine, the wheat is dumped into the grain cart. Some grain carts can hold as many as 2,000 bushels. The work of harvesting requires team effort. During har-vest, enormous seed trucks are at the ready, waiting to be filled from the grain carts. They look like big, lumbering machines, but they get the job done—once they’re filled, they speed the grain to its destination.
Some farmers have local storage facilities where they can hold the grain until they can get the price they want. Others ship it directly to a local elevator, where it’s stored temporarily before being transported to a larger facility or a mill.
THE HARVESTING PROCESS
Farmers get just a few cents per pound of wheat that’s vested, so they want to harvest economically. Combine har-vesters require large capital investments, but they’re essen-tially efficient rolling factories that harvest and thresh the
wheat. A combine can harvest 900 bushels of corn in an hour. The rolling hills of the Palouse region of Washington state (pictured below) are prime wheat country, even though when you think of wheat, you’re more likely to think of the Midwest.
A combine harvester cuts the wheat and sucks it through a threshing mechanism that separates out the kernels and spits them into a holding tank while blowing the chaff out the back of the machine. Today, a combine operator needs less farm know-how
and more computer literacy. The job involves monitoring an onboard screen that does everything from tracking engine performance to verifying that the threshing mecha-nism is operating properly.
Companies are developing robotic technology for many aspects of farming. Farmers in Japan have used small radio-controlled crop-dusting helicopters for years.
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2 8 V O L U M E 2 : I N G R E D I E N T S Spike Stalk LeafWHEAT ANATOMY
Wheat is a type of grass that grows in long stalks, with bristly heads. The bristly part is called the spike. It’s what helped the wild wheat plant propagate because the spike would break
apart, and its seeds would disperse with the wind. Spikes can also stick to the coats of animals, which would deliver them to new locations. And thus, wheat, like many grasses, spread.
Spikelet
Awn
2nd glume 1st glume
Palea (upper hull)
Caryopsis
Bran Endosperm
Germ
Lemma (lowerhull) Brush
The awn is the slender strand that extends from the seed. It’s what gives wheat its hairy appearance.
The glumes act as husks that protect the seed.
Head
Germ: the germ is the embryo of the living grain. This part is often sepa-rated out in milling because the fat content in the germ makes the flour go rancid. Sometimes, it’s sold separately as wheat germ. Other times, it’s mixed back in with the rest of the flour to make whole wheat flour.
Bran: during milling, the bran is removed from the whole grain. It can be sold separately, but it can also be mixed back in with the endosperm and germ to make whole wheat flour. The sharp edges of the bran, and its capacity for water absorption, are detrimental to loaf volume (see Why Does Bran Make Bread Dense?
Whole kernel: botanists call this the caryopsis; in grocery stores, it might be called a wheat berry, but here we call it a wheat kernel. When we talk about whole wheat flour, this is what we’re talking about—whole wheat kernels that are milled, often in separate streams; recombined; and then bagged up for sale, including the germ, bran, and endosperm. You’re getting the whole grain, with each of the three components in the same proportions as they were found in the farmer’s field.
WHAT IS FLOUR?
Before we get into the process of milling, we’ll start with some basics. Grain is made of three main parts: germ, bran, and endosperm. The vast majority of flour on the market is made from the endosperm, which is softer and whiter than the other
two parts. You get the bran and germ when you buy whole-grain flour. The anatomy of the wheat kernel is discussed below.
Endosperm: pick up a bag of refined flour anywhere in the world, and you’re picking up a bag mostly filled with endosperm. That’s partly because grain itself is mostly endosperm. It’s also because the starchy endosperm creates the flour that appeals to consumers and bakers, so it’s the desired product of most mills. If you’re buying bread flour, enriched flour, high-gluten flour, or any kind of flour other than that labeled “whole wheat” or “high-extraction,” the endosperm is what you’re getting.
Germ
Endosperm Wheat flour imaged by scanning electron microscope (SEM).
Wheat’s germ is often processed separately from the rest of the grain (left and in close-up at center). The germ’s oil can also be extracted (right).
The caryopsis is the one-seeded fruit of the plant. Colloquially, it is often referred to as kernel, grain, or berry.
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3 0 V O L U M E 3 : T E C H N I Q U E S A N D E Q U I P M E N T 3 0 V O L U M E 3 : T E C H N I Q U E S A N D E Q U I P M E N TA horizontal hub on some stand mixers adds an extra degree of versatility. Power from the motor shaft can be delivered directly through this port to juicers, pasta makers, graters, slicers, and other laborsaving gadgets. Although a mixer doesn’t spin as fast as a food processor, it can stand in for that appliance on many low-speed jobs.
The beater shaft is the business end of the mixer. Vertically spin- ning attachments such as a hook, paddle, or whisk fit onto this pin and lock in place against the raised button.
A series of gears converts the horizontal rotation of the motor shaft into a combination of rotation and revolution around a vertical axis. This lower arrangement is called a planetary gear because the motion of the beater shaft resembles the rotation and orbit of a planet around its star.
A hook can take much of the manual labor out of mixing to full gluten development. The hook works just fine on sticky doughs (although you may need to scrape down the sides of the bowl periodically). So the mixer can often complete mixing without adding flour, as you would have to do with hand mixing.
The mixing bowl has a large dimple on the bottom to prevent food from getting stuck, unmixed, in the center as the stirring attachment makes its orbit. Clearances between the bowl and stirring utensil are typically quite close, so a dented bowl can cause problems. Steel bowls are not as robust as they might seem; a fall to the floor can easily ruin one.
The more powerful the motor, the better. Motors are rated in watts (W) or horsepower (HP), with 1 HP = 746 W . But only about a third of the rated motor power actually makes it to the bowl. A 1.3 HP mixer, for example, typically delivers around 0.44 HP to the food. The rest of the power is lost to heat and the gearing system. As a result, the metal case surrounding the motor can get uncomfortably hot after the motor has run for a while.
A speed sensor monitors the motor shaft and transmits information about the rate of rotation to the control board.
The Ankarsrum mixer is not very common, but we like it for our gluten-free breads in particular and for mixing other paste doughs such as 100 Ă rye breads. It has one arm that performs the mixing and another that scrapes the bowl, making for a very efficient mix. Also, because the bowl itself is spinning, which translates to an open top unobstructed by the motor housing that most stand mixers have, the extra open space makes it easy to pour ingredients into the bowl.
A spring-loaded lever lifts the bowl and locks it into the proper position for mixing.
STAND MIXER
The stand mixer is a small version of a planetary mixer that can comfortably sit on any work surface, occupy-ing minimal space. We recommend these mixers for home use and small restaurant production.
The pluses are clear: they’re comparatively eco-nomical; many small repair shops can fix broken parts if needed; and they can perform various functions besides mixing. Their manufacturers offer many at-tachments (sold separately) that can use the spinning motor to sheet pasta dough, grind meat, mill grains into flour, and chop vegetables; these attachments make the stand mixer a versatile tool.
In addition to having the same mixing attachments as planetary mixers (hook, paddle, and whip), stand mixers have a broad range of speed options, from very slow to very fast. The downside is that the motors of these machines are often not powerful enough for some drier doughs, such as our bagel dough on page 322, and the dough capacity is relatively limited. The latter limitation is acceptable if you’re making just enough dough to use at home, but it is a short coming for bakers interested in large batches. These mixers tend to move around the table as they mix, so keep an eye on them or they may fall. (Some crafty bakers place a jar-lid gripper or damp towel underneath them to keep them from moving too much. We use clamps or a bungee cord to solidly anchor them.)
Flat beater (paddle) Flex-edge beater Wire whisk
The paddle is useful when there is too little dough for a hook attachment to “catch” it, while the flex-edge beater scrapes the sides of the bowl. We some-times start mixing with the paddle and then switch to the hook after obtain-ing a homogeneous mass. We also use the paddle for doughs that are made up of mostly rye flour. The wire whisk is used to whip air into mixtures, such as the meringue used to garnish the Tarte Tropezzienne on page 288.
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3 2 V O L U M E 3 : T E C H N I Q U E S A N D E Q U I P M E N THOW TO
Divide Dough for a Particular Shape
Beyond cutting your block of dough evenly, you should also decide what shape you’ll be forming it into. It helps to cut a preliminary form that will make it easier to shape the dough for a particular loaf. For
example, if you want to shape round loaves (boules), divide your dough as illustrated in (a) rather than dividing it into long rectangles as illus-trated in (b).
For oval loaves (bâtards), you’ll want to cut the dough into short rectangles, as shown in (c).
For rolls, divide the dough into long, even strips, as illustrated in (b). Then cut the long strips into small squares, as shown in (d). Rolls are typically small in terms of size and, therefore, weight. For baguettes, you will also need squares, albeit larger ones than those used for rolls.
Ideally, the closer you can get to cutting square pieces of dough, the better off you’ll be for shaping round loaves.
Cutting long, narrow shapes would not work well for making boules but is best for making long, narrow loaves such as ciabatta.
1
Decide beforehand about the type of loaves you’ll ultimately shape and bake—and about the number of loaves you can make in sync with the recipe.2
Transfer the dough from the tub onto a lightly floured surface, handling it gently so that it retains the shape of its container.3
Mentally assess how you’ll divide the dough as shown by the guidelines at right.4
Use your bench knife to cut cleanly through the dough, all the way to the work surface. (Don’t worry if the dough degasses when you cut through it; that’s not uncommon.)HOW TO
Divide and Weigh Your Dough
This is the most common method used by home bakers as well as pro-fessionals because it’s also the most economical in terms of equipment; it requires only a bench knife and a scale. As your output increases, the process of dividing and weighing dough takes more time, which means that precision and efficiency become all the more important. We focus on dividing dough by hand in this particular section, but we discuss various machines used for dividing dough on page 139.
We prefer to use a square or rectangular tub for storing dough because once the dough settles into the container, it will generally take the tub’s shape, unless it’s a stiff dough with low hydration. (Typi-cally, a dough of 70% hydration or higher will settle into the shape of the tub.) For easier handling, we also suggest lightly oiling the inside
of any storage container. When a settled dough is then turned out onto a lightly floured surface, it maintains the shape of its container. The square or rectangular shape also makes it easier to divide the dough into equal pieces. It is important for the dough to be relatively flat and uni-formly thick—large variations in either aspect will make the dough hard to divide evenly. If the rectangle is uneven in thickness, fold it over onto itself. This is the best way of evening out the thickness of a dough. The part of the dough that is in contact with the work surface is the smooth-est (the most uniform). Keep this smooth side facing the worktable at all times until you are ready to preshape, at which time you will turn the dough over. You’ll want to work with a clean, sharp bench knife because it will cut your dough rather than tear it. Have your scale handy.
5
Immediately weigh the cut piece of dough as you go to make sure it is the correct weight before cutting a new piece. Doing so can help reduce the number of hand movements and also make theprocess of dividing dough more efficient.
6
Reserve one piece of dough that you can “harvest” from, or use it to make extra pieces of dough you can add to the main piece if needed. Don’t stack the extra pieces on top of each other on the main dough; spread them out.
7
Keep track of the order in which you cut and weigh all the pieces of dough. You’ll eventu-ally want to shape each piece in the order that you cut it.8
Cover your dough with a clean plastic bagor tarp so that it doesn’t form a skin.
9
Let your dough rest, covered, for 10–15 min-utes before you preshape it.
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HOW BUBBLES GROW IN DOUGH
Mixing infuses thousands of tiny air bubbles into dough (see page 82). As the dough ferments and proofs, the bubbles expand. Each bubble behaves like a little gluten balloon that inflates as gases of several kinds seep into the interior and then expand in response to the gas pressure. The bubbles continue
to grow during the initial stages of baking; they are what power the oven spring that enlarges the loaf. The pressurized bread then sets from the outside in. While the crust forms, reinforc-ing the final shape of the loaf, the pressure in each bubble rises to the bursting point.
Starch granule Gas bubble Gluten CO2 H2O O2 N2 Glutenin Disulfide bond Gliadin
A blend of gases inflates each bubble during proofing. Just after mixing, the bubbles mainly contain humid air, which includes nitrogen (N2), oxygen (O2), carbon
dioxide (CO2), and water
vapor (H2O). Fermenting
yeast add ethanol (C2H6O)
and lots more CO2 to the
mix. The heat of baking boils water into steam, drives dissolved gases out of solution, and causes all these gases to expand.
Wheat dough rises so effectively because it contains gluten. Gluten is an elastic, viscous aggregate composed of several different kinds of proteins, most notably glutenins and gliadins. The longer glutenin pieces link up to each other via disulfide bonds to form strong, stretchy polymers. These interlinked strands are among the largest protein
molecules yet identified. More compact gliadin proteins allow the dough to flow like a fluid. The ratio of gliadins to glutenins in the flour has significant impact on the handling and rising characteristics of the dough, but it varies from among varieties of wheat and is difficult to measure or control. Ethanol (C2H6O) Gases H2O Ethanol CO2
Bubbles can grow large in wheat bread (left), thanks to its high gluten content. Rye bread (center) contains practically no
gluten, so it traps less gas and has a correspondingly tighter crumb. And in gluten-free bread (right), other ingredients,
such as hydrocolloids, are typically added to retain gas—but so far none can match the stretchiness of gluten.
Wheat bread is more like bubble wrap than like beer foam. Bubble wrap can support a lot of weight without popping because the plastic in the bubble walls is both strong and stretchy. The same is true of gluten, as illustrated by the experiment shown above. After proofing 250 g / 9 oz loaves of dough, we put metal plates weighing up to 2 kg / 4.41 lb on the loaves, baked them, and then mea-sured the volumes of the resulting
breads. Amazingly, the weights hardly made a dent! Even the loaf carrying 2 kg / 4.41 lb on top reached 60% of normal volume.
The scanning electron microscope (SEM) gives a microscopic look at a stretched piece of French lean dough. Oval granules of starch (colored purple) are trapped within the gluten net-work. For more on the inner workings of the SEM, see Electrons Reveal More Details.
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HOW TO
Score a Baguette
A baguette is one of the most challenging shapes to score. You have less surface area to work with because most of the required cuts have to be made along a narrow strip, but the same rules apply: scoring needs to be deliberate (quick and assertive) and to the same depth. It’s also important that the score lines don’t overlap too much (about 1.25 cm / ½ in is enough). Decide on the number of scores you wish to make, add one to that number, and then mentally divide the dough
into that many sections. For example, if you plan to make five cuts, mentally divide the dough into six equal parts (see top photo below). Be sure to make your cuts in the middle third of the dough, width- wise. Practice, as they say, makes perfect, but when it comes to scoring baguettes, even the most seasoned bakers will falter now and then, whether the challenge is the angle, the depth, or the over-lap and spacing.
Baguettes typically have five scores, but who decided on that number? Why not one, three, or even seven? As these things often happen, there’s a “bound by tradition” reason for the count but no practical purpose cited. In fact, pick a number from one to four—however many cuts you make, fewer than five is more efficient because scoring takes less time. Although making a single score is the most practical approach, we’ve also bought into the five-score tradition for aesthetic reasons. But there’s no rule—at least not one that’s enforced—that says a baguette must have five scores to be called a baguette.
T H E N U M B E R O F
Baguette Scores
THE BAGUETTE SCORE UP CLOSE
There’s wisdom in the adage that a picture is worth a thousand words. Describ- ing how to cut something doesn’t necessarily create a clear and immediate impression, and the notion of scoring bread can be complicated for those who have limited experience with this step. In the hope of clarifying the process, we turned to one of the visual techniques we’re known for: we took proofed baguette dough, froze it, and, using a band saw, cut it in half to clearly detail the desired scoring angle.
Problem: This cut is practically straight down, and it’s too shallow (3 mm / Ć in), which will result in minimal ear formation.
Note the 45° angle of the blade and the depth of the cut (6 mm / ¼ in).
Thanks to oven spring, the pockets of carbon dioxide and water vapor within proofed dough will enlarge as the dough bakes. This bubble expansion creates the final crumb, which is typically more open than
the bubbles in unbaked dough.
From left to right: five-score baguette, classic épi, one-sided epi, and three-score baguette.
Cutting the dough into an epi shape will result in more crust surface area. The crust-to-crumb ratio for an epi is even more than for a typically scored baguette, whether the baguette has one, three, or five scores.
As the water within the dough becomes steam, the temperature rises in and around the loaf. The steam finds the path of least resistance outward, which will be toward the closest score.
Some bakers employ the nifty trick
of letting proofed dough sit uncov-ered in the refrigerator for about 30–45 minutes. This allows the surface to form a skin, which a blade can easily and cleanly cut through.
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For more on the trends in baguette shaping in Paris, see page 154.
1
Mentally divide the dough lengthwise, and then visualize performing the desired number of cuts within the middle third.2
Score the bread, overlapping the cuts slightly; cuts should be the same length, the same angle,and 6 mm / ¼ in deep.
3
Evenly space the cuts along the center of the dough’s surface.
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M A K I N G B R E A D 3 9
LEAN BREADS
ENRICHED BREADS RYE BREADS
Pumpernickel Vollkornbrot Whole Grain Loaf High-Ryes Farmer’s Bread
Gluten-Free Bread Machine
GLUTEN-FREE BREADS BREAD-MACHINE BREADS
Bagels Pretzels Steamed Buns
Crackers Injera Dosa
Inflated Breads Naan Focaccia Pizza
OUR RECIPE CHAPTERS
We’ve categorized hundreds of breads and placed them into the recipe chapters shown below. We also organized the breads into family trees.
BAGELS, PRETZELS, BAO
French Lean Bread Sourdough Ancient Grain
Bread 10o% Whole Wheat Country-Style Bread High Hydration Bread
BRICK-LIKE BREADS FLAT BREADS
20
ingredient variation
WALNUT BREAD
It’s not too common for French bakers to put inclusions in their breads, though this one—often offered with cheese courses—is a frequent exception. If you machine-mix the walnuts into the dough, however, the skin may impart a purple tinge. Alternatively, you can
peel them or fold them in during the bulk fermentation process as described in the hand mix method (note that it can be tricky to evenly incorporate the nut pieces).
INGREDIENTS WEIGHT VOLUME Ă
A Water 385 g 1¾ cups 75.49 Liquid levain, mature
see page TK 180 g ¾ cup + 1 Tbsp 35.29
Bread flour 365 g 2¾ cups 71.57 Medium rye flour 145 g 1 cup 28.43 Wheat bran, toasted 45 g ¾ cup 8.82 B Fine salt 12 g 2¼ tsp 2.12 C Walnuts, coarsely
chopped and toasted 50 g ½ cup 9.80
Yield 1.14 kg
For salt, flours, and other notes, see page TK. For notes on substitutions, see page TK.
NET CONTENTS
Ingredients Weight Ă
Bread flour 455 g 75.83 Medium rye flour 145 g 24.17 Water 475 g 79.17 Walnuts 50 g 8.33 Wheat bran 45 g 7.50 Salt 12 g 2
Deck Home Convection Combi OVENS
DIFFICULTY Easy: all aspects
GENERAL DIRECTIONS TIME
active / inactive
PROCEDURE NOTES
MIX by hand* mix A to a shaggy mass; autolyse 30 min; add B, and mix until homogenous
see Hand Mixing Options,
page TK 5 min / 30 min by machine* mix A to a shaggy mass; on low speed; autolyse 30 min; add B,
and mix to medium gluten development; add C, and mix on low speed until fully incorporated
see Country-style Breads Machine Mixing Options, page TK
38–41 min
BULK FERMENT by hand* 4 h total; 6 folds (one every 30 min after the first hour, 30 min rest
after final fold); after the first fold, add C; mix with your hands using a squeeze, pull, and fold-over motion; check for full gluten development using windowpane test
see Hand Mixing, page TK see Gluten Development, page TK
5 min / 4 h
by machine* 2½ h total; 2 folds (1 fold every hour after the first hour), 30 min rest after final fold; check for full gluten development using the windowpane test
see How to Perform a Four-Edge Fold, page TK and Glu-ten Development, page TK
5 min / 2½ h
DIVIDE/SHAPE divide lg boule/bâtard sm boule/bâtard roll miche see How to Divide Your
Dough, page TK
0–7 min do not divide 500 g 75 g do not divide
preshape boule/bâtard boule/bâtard boule boule page TK 1–7 min rest 20 min 20 min 20 min 20 min 20 min
shape boule/bâtard boule/bâtard roll boule 1–7 min
FINAL PROOF 13^ / 55| 14 h 14 h n/a 14 h see page TK for proofing times
for rolls
12–16 h
4^ / 39| 12–16 h 12–16 h n/a 12–16 h see Final Proofing Methods, page TK, and Calling Proof, page TK; see page TK for proofing times for rolls
SCORE for scoring options, see page TK 30 s–1 min
BAKE see the Country-style Breads Baking Times and Temperatures table, page TK 15 min–1 hr
TOTAL TIME *choose by hand or machine by hand
by machine
32 min / 21 h 50 min
27 min / 20 h 31 min
YIELD / SHAPES
1 lg boule or bâtard 2 sm boules or bâtards 13 rolls
Though walnuts aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, they add a textural com-ponent and a savory meatiness to bread. Their aroma is attributed to a combination of molecules derived from their oil. However, they are also high in polyunsaturated lin-oleic acid, a factor that makes them prone to rancidity. Because of this, walnuts should always be stored in the freezer.
You can substitute other nuts for the walnuts, such as pecans, hazelnuts, or almonds. Some bakers add cranberries, too, which is a classic pairing with walnuts. If you would like to add cranberries, use 50 g / 1.76 oz / 9.80 Ă.
You can also shape this dough into a baguette: divide the dough into three 330 g pieces, then see instructions for shaping baguettes, page TK. For baking instructions, see page TK.
When mixing by hand, you may need to perform more folds and lengthen bulk fermentation time to fully develop the gluten, especially when using inclusions.
1 1 4 V O L U M E 4 : R E C I P E S I TOTAL TIME Active 27 min Inactive 20 h 31 min DDT 24–26^ / 75–78|
Multiply this recipe by two for a miche.
Why does the dough turn purple? Walnut skin contains an antioxidant called DPPH (2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) that has a purple hue. When you agitate the skin, the antioxidant turns the dough purple. L E A N B R E A D 1 1 5 4·114
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FILONE
INGREDIENTS WEIGHT VOLUME Ă
For the Poolish
Bread flour 170 g 1¼ cups 100 Water 170 g ¾ cup 100 Instant dry yeast 0.17 g Ċ tsp 0.10
For the Dough
A Water 260 g 1¼ cups 65 Instant dry yeast 3 g 1Ć tsp 0.75 B Bread flour 315 g 2Ą cups 78.75
Poolish 340 g all from above 85 Durum flour 85 g ½ cup 21.25 C Fine salt 11 g 2 tsp 2.75 Yield 1.00 kg NET CONTENTS Ingredients Weight Ă Bread flour 485 g 84.26 Durum flour 85 g 15.74 Water 430 g 75.44 Salt 11.00 g 1.93 Yeast 3.17 g 0.55
GENERAL DIRECTIONS TIME
active / inactive
PROCEDURE NOTES
PREP preferment mix the poolish 12 h before using page TK 12 h
MIX
(choose by hand or machine)
by hand* dissolve A; add B and mix to a shaggy mass; autolyse 20– 30 minutes; add C, and mix until homogenous
see How to Mix in a Tub, page TK
5 min / 20–30 min
by machine* dissolve A; add B and mix to a shaggy mass; autolyse 20– 30 minutes; add C, and mix to medium gluten development
see French Lean Bread Machine Mixing Options, page TK
38–44 min
BULK FERMENT by hand* 3½ h total; 3 folds (1 fold every hour after the first hour), 30 min
rest after final fold; check for full gluten development
see How to Perform a Four-Edge Fold, page TK and Gluten Develop-ment, page TK
5 min / 3½ h
by machine* 2 h total; 2 folds (1 fold every hour after the first hour), 30 min rest after final fold
5 min / 2 h
DIVIDE/SHAPE divide baguette/short baguette ficelle see How to Divide Your
Dough, page TK
3–5 min 350 g 250 g
preshape baguette baguette see page TK 3–5 min rest 20 min 20 min 20 min
shape baguette ficelle 3–5 min
FINAL PROOF 27^ / 80|
65% RH
45 min–1 h 30–45 min see Final Proofing Methods, page TK, and Calling Proof, page TK
30 min–1½ h
21^ / 70| 1–1½ h 45 min–1 h
SCORE single score down the center; see Scoring, page TK 30 s–1 m
BAKE for baking details, see French Lean Bread Baking Times and Temperatures, page TK; crisp crust requires steam
10–20 m
TOTAL TIME *choose by hand or machine by hand
by machine 26 min / 6 h 10 min 35 min / 4 h 54 min TOTAL TIME Active 35 min Inactive 4 h 54 min Advanced: shaping (baguette) DIFFICULTY
Deck Combi Convection Home
OVENS YIELD / SHAPES
3 baguettes
or short baguettes 4 ficelles The filone is another Italian bread that is sometimes compared with the baguette,
though as with the pane francese (see page TK), the dough is in the high-hydration spectrum so has more rustic character than the baguette. Filone loaves are often a bit shorter and broader than the slender French loaf. This dough uses protein-rich durum flour, which contributes its distinctive flavor and yellowish hue to the bread.
BANH MI ROLLS
INGREDIENTS WEIGHT VOLUME Ă
A Water 345 g 1½ cup 57.50 Instant dry yeast, osmotolerant 7 g 2½ tsp 1.17 B Bread flour 600 g 4½ cups 100 Sugar 20 g 2 tsp 3.33 C Fine salt 6 g 1Ć tsp 1 D Shortening or lard, melted and
cooled 100 g ½ cup 16.67
Yield 1.00 kg
For salt, flours, and other notes, see page TK. For notes on substitutions, see page TK.
NET CONTENTS Ingredients Weight Ă Flour 600 g 100 Water 345 g 57.50 Sugar 20 g 3.33 Fat 100 g 16.67 Yeast 7 g 1.17 Salt 6 g 1
GENERAL DIRECTIONS TIME
active / inactive
PROCEDURE NOTES
MIX
(choose by hand or machine)
by hand* mix A to dissolve the yeast; add B and mix to a shaggy mass; autolyse 30 min; add C and mix to low gluten development; pour D in and mix to full gluten development
see How to Mix in a Tub, page TK
10–12 min / 30 min
by machine* mix A to dissolve the yeast; add B and mix to a shaggy mass; autolyse 30 min; add C and mix to low gluten development; pour D in and mix on medium speed to full gluten development
see French Lean Bread Machine Mixing Options, page TK
36–38 min
BULK FERMENT 1 h; book fold after the first 30 min see How to Perform a
Four-Edge Fold, page TK
5 min / 1 h
DIVIDE/SHAPE divide baguette see How to Divide Your
Dough, page TK
5–7 min 250 g
preshape baguette see page TK 5–7 min rest 15–20 min 15–20 min
shape 20 cm / 8 in baguette 5–7 min
FINAL PROOF 29^ / 85| 30–45 min see Final Proofing
Methods, page TK, and Calling Proof, page TK
30 min–1½ h
21^ / 70| 1–1½ h
SCORE chill the dough uncovered for 10 min; single score down the center 30 s–1 min
BAKE bake to an internal temperature of 90–93^ / 195–200|; crisp crust requires steam 10–20 min
TOTAL TIME *choose by hand or machine by hand
by machine 39 min / 3 h 40 min 35 min / 3 h 48 min TOTAL TIME Active 35 min Inactive 3 h 48 min DIFFICULTY Easy: mixing Advanced:
shaping Deck Combi Convection Home OVENS
Banh mi is one echo of the French colonization of Vietnam. The term translates liter-ally as “wheat bread” and refers to a baguette-like loaf or smaller roll that has a slightly softer crust and tighter crumb than French baguettes. Banh mi has also become syn-onymous with a sandwich, made on these loaves, of pickled vegetables, cilantro sprigs, fresh chilies, and meat or tofu.
YIELD / SHAPES
4 baguette rolls
Our version of banh mi is soft crumbed and crispy crusted, just like all the bahn mi we have tasted. It is hard to tell this bread apart from the Mexican bolillo (pronounced “bo-lee-yo”) that is used for making the classic Mexican sandwich called a torta. In fact, we would suggest using them for the same purpose.
We highly recommend mixing this dough with a machine rather than by hand as it is a rather firm dough and you must achieve full gluten develop-ment. Doing so by hand is time-consuming. If you use an 8 qt stand mixer, we recommend doubling this recipe so there is enough dough for the mixer to catch all the ingredients.
