White Flour Warm Spot Levain

The reason why this bread is called Warm Spot Levain is because the sourdough starter is fed three times in a fairly short period of time and then allowed to sit in an 85 degree environment between each feeding. The final levain is stiffer than most (70 percent hydration), and has a uniquely sweet/sour flavor.

You will need three days to make this bread (three days????) but it is worth it.

For my "warm spot," I placed the levain in the garage (it is summer right now). You could also place it in the microwave along with two coffee cups of freshly boiled water, under a heat lamp, or in a gas oven with the light on.

The resulting bread has a super crispy crunchy crust and an amazingly soft, moist interior.

Because making this bread required feeding a levain three times in a short period of time, I had quite a bit of starter left over. Since I hate tossing out that much levain, I used some of the excess to make this Sourdough Polenta Bread.

This bread freezes well. Once it cools, wrap it in foil and then plastic wrap, and freeze it immediately. To thaw, remove the plastic wrap and let it sit in the foil until it has thawed.

White Flour Warm-Spot Levain Bread

Adapted from Flour Water Salt Yeast: The Fundamentals of Artisan Bread and Pizza.

Ingredients

First Levain Feeding

50 grams sourdough starter that has been fed about 24 hours ago

250 g white flour

175 g 85 degree water

Second Levain Feeding

50 g of the first levain

250 g white flour

175 g 80 degree water

Third Levain Feeding

100 g of the second levain

500 g white flour

350 g 85 degree water

Final Dough

750 g white flour

605 g 80 degree F water

20 g fine sea salt

1 g instant yeast

425 g of the levain

Instructions

1. Around 9 am on the first day, mix the first levain with your hand or a spoon and cover with plastic wrap. Place it in a very warm place (85 degree F) to rest. 
2. Eight hours later, discard (or save for another use) all but 50 g of the levain, and feed it again. Mix with your hand or a spoon, and cover with plastic wrap. Place in a very warm place (85 degrees F) to rest overnight. 
3. The next morning, discard (or save for another use) all but 100 g of the levain and feed it again with the ingredients listed above under "Third Levain Feeding." Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest for 6 hours in a very warm place (85 degrees F). You should have about 2 quarts of levain. 
4. To make the final dough, mix the white flour and water in a 12 qt bucket or very large bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it sit for 30 minutes. 
5. Sprinkle the salt and yeast over the top of the dough and add 425 g of the levain to the bucket/bowl. A scale is essential. 
6. Mix with your wet hand by alternatively folding and pinching the dough to fully mix in the salt and yeast, as well as incorporate the levain. 
7. Cover the container, and do four stretch and folds, every 30 minutes. When the dough is 2 1/2 times its original size, about 6 hours later, it's ready to divide and shape. 
8. Dust your work surface with flour.
9. Gently remove the dough onto you work surface, and divide it in half with a bench knife. 
10. Form the dough into two medium tight balls and place them, seam side down, into two floured proofing baskets. Cover with plastic wrap or place in a plastic bag, and refrigerate overnight, 12 to 14 hours. 
11. About 45 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 475 degrees F with two empty covered Dutch ovens placed on the middle rack. 
12. When you are ready to bake, cut parchment into two 9 inch by 15+ inch pieces. 
13. Remove the Dutch ovens from the oven and remove the tops. One loaf at a time, place the parchment over the dough and place a plate over it. Flip the dough over, remove the basket, and lift and place the loaf in the Dutch oven by using the parchment as a sling (leave the paper under the dough). Cover the Dutch oven and place it in the hot oven. Repeat with the second loaf. 
14. Bake covered for 30 minutes, and then remove the Dutch ovens from the hot oven, uncover, and place the loaves on a baking sheet. Be careful not to burn yourself! Place the baking sheet into the oven and bake for 20 to 25 minutes more, until the interior of the bread reaches 205 to 210 degrees F and the bread is a deep brown. My loaves were ready sooner, so check early. 
15. Cool completely on a wire rack. 

This bread has been Yeastspotted

Sourdough Polenta (Grits) Bread

I'm pretty excited about this polenta sourdough bread. First, it definitely takes crunchy chewy crust to the next level. Second, the combination of the sweet polenta with a thrice fed 70 percent hydration levain creates an amazing flavor.

"Thrice fed 70 percent hydration levain." Did I just say that?

Polenta is the Italian version of grits, which is corn meal boiled in water to create a hot cereal. Corn is actually a native American food, so you could also call this "grits bread."

I had some leftover levain (sourdough starter) that I really didn't want to throw away. It was from a Ken Forkish bread. If you are familiar with the amazing book, Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, you probably know that tossing out extra levain is part of the program. While I do toss out my share of levain, I do my best to find ways to use as much as possible.

When Elizabeth of Blog from OUR Kitchen posted this polenta bread for the Bread Baking Babes, I decided to use the leftover levain to make this bread. It worked out perfectly. The crust was super crunchy, and the bread was light, moist, and airy. I also baked the loaves in cast iron pans.

You can still make this bread if you don't happen to have extra levain sitting around. Elizabeth's post provides a way to quickly create a starter.

I used a lot more sourdough starter than the original recipe called for to get as much "oven spring" as possible. In addition, I coated my bannetons with some corn meal prior to proofing the loaves to add extra crunch to the crust. Delicious.

This recipe called for slashing the dough in a spiral pattern. I need to work on my bread slashing skills. I'm pretty sure my spiral is "rustic."

I will be making this bread again. And again.

Sourdough Polenta Bread

Inspired by Artisan Baking Across America: The Breads, the Bakers, the Best Recipes

Ingredients

Polenta

35 g (3 T) coarse cornmeal

175 g water

Dough

390 g water

1/8 tsp instant yeast

600 g bread flour

360 g mature sourdough starter (mine was 70% hydration. If yours is higher, adjust the flour in your final dough to accommodate the extra water)

18 g salt

all of the polenta

cornmeal, flour, and rice flour for the bannetons

Instructions

1. To make the polenta, pour the water over the cornmeal and bring the mixture to a boil. Cook the ingredients, stirring constantly, until the mixture thickens, about 5 minutes. Pour the polenta onto a plate to cool. 
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the water, yeast, and flour. Mix to blend and let the ingredients rest for about 30 minutes, covered.
3. Add the sourdough/levain, salt, and the polenta. Mix with the dough hook for about 5 minutes. 
4. Place the dough into an oiled bowl or dough rising bucket, cover with plastic wrap, and let sit for 30 minutes. 
5. Stretch and fold the dough and re-cover with the plastic wrap. 
6. Let the dough rise until doubled. 
7. Divide the dough in half and form it into two preliminary boules. Cover with oiled plastic wrap. 
8. Dust two small bannetons or towel lined bowls with a combination of wheat and rice flour. Then dust with cornmeal. 
9. Form the dough into boules and place each into the bannetons, seam side up. Cover with oiled plastic wrap.
10. Place two cast iron combo cookers on your oven rack and preheat the oven to 500 degrees F. 
11. When the loaves have doubled in size, cut parchment into two 9 inch by 15+ inch pieces. 
12. Remove the Dutch ovens from the oven and remove the tops. One loaf at a time, place the parchment over the dough and place a plate over it. Flip the dough over, remove the basket, and lift and place the loaf in the Dutch oven by using the parchment as a sling (leave the paper under the dough). 
13. Slice the dough in a spiral pattern. I hope you can do a better job than I did. 
14. Cover the Dutch oven and place it in the hot oven. Repeat with the second loaf. 
15. Reduce the oven temperature to 425 degrees F. 
16. Bake covered for 20 minutes, and then remove the Dutch ovens from the hot oven, uncover, and place the loaves on a baking sheet. Be careful not to burn yourself! Place the baking sheet into the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 400 degrees F, and bake for 15 to 25 minutes more, until the interior of the bread reaches 205 to 210 degrees F and the bread is browned.
17. Cool completely on a wire rack. 

This bread has been Yeastspotted

Baking Powder Biscuits | Tuesdays with Dorie

Baking Powder Biscuits! This is a quick post for a quick recipe.

I got home from work and was determined to make this week's Tuesdays with Dorie selection from Baking with Julia, a wonderful baking book edited by Dorie Greenspan from Julia Child's PBS show of the same name. 

I cut the recipe in half, and used half butter and half shortening in place of all shortening. Within 30 minutes, I had seven wonderful little biscuits. I promptly ate three. One with butter, one with cheese, and one with butter and jam. I loved them.

Baking Powder Biscuits

Makes 7 biscuits.

Ingredients

1 C all purpose flour, plus more for dusting

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp shortening

1 1/2 tsp unsalted butter

1/2 C milk

Melted butter for brushing the biscuits before baking

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F with a rack in the middle. 
2. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
3. Whisk the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl.
4. Drop in the butter and shortening and coat them with the flour. 
5. Using your fingers, pick up the pieces of butter/shortening with your fingers, break the pieces apart, and drop them back in the flour. Continue to rub the flour and shortening/butter together until most of the shortening and flour are mixed, but there are still small visible pieces. 
6. Stir in the milk with a fork. The dough will be "messy." 
7. Sprinkle flour onto the counter and scrape the dough out of the bowl. Knead the dough ten times. 
8. Flatten the dough to about 3/8 inches thick and cut with a 2 inch round biscuit cutter. Gather the scraps together and flatten again to cut more biscuits. You should end up with 7 biscuits.
9. Brush the tops with melted butter and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden.

Maggi Steak Banh Mi with Daikon and Carrot Pickle

These Maggi Steak Banh Mi sandwiches have been on my mind ever since I made these Banh Mi rolls a little less than a month ago.

About a month ago, I bought the book The Banh Mi Handbook: Recipes for Crazy-Delicious Vietnamese Sandwiches. The first thing I made were the Banh Mi Rolls. Honestly, I had no idea that the book had a recipe for the rolls when I bought it, but if you follow this blog, you know how obsessed I am about bread baking.

Roasted Vegetable Focaccia

This roasted vegetable focaccia is the perfect vehicle for all of the zucchini from your or your friends' gardens. Roasting vegetables definitely brings out the sweetness in them and the results are seriously tasty.  I took this focaccia to work the day after making it. I set it in the break room with reheating instructions. It was a huge hit and gone by 10am.

The original recipe calls for roasted green onions. Unfortunately, I burned the green onions into pieces of charred straw.

Fortunately, I found a sweet onion in my pantry, which I sliced, tossed in olive oil and King Arthur Flour Pizza Seasoning, and roasted for about 15 minutes. It turned out to be the perfect addition to this bread.

The participants in the Avid Baker's Challenge are making this recipe from King Arthur Flour this month. To see the original recipe, click here.

Roasted Vegetable Focaccia

Ingredients

Starter

57 g cool water

Pinch of instant yeast

60 g unbleached all purpose flour (I used King Arthur Flour)

Dough

All of the starter

1 tsp instant yeast

57 g lukewarm water

120 g unbleached all purpose flour

Scant 3/4 tsp salt

6 g nonfat dry milk

13 g olive oil

Topping

3 medium zucchini, trimmed and sliced

olive oil

King Arthur Flour pizza seasoning, or other Italian seasoning

1 sweet onion, peeled, halved, and sliced

8 to 10 ounces of grape or cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

Freshly grated Parmesan cheese

Instructions

1. To make the starter, mix the ingredients in a smallish bowl, and cover with plastic wrap. Let sit overnight, about 12 to 14 hours. 
2. Combine all of the ingredients, including the starter, in the bowl of a stand mixer. Knead for about 7 minutes on the second speed. 
3. Place the dough into an oiled bowl and let rise for an hour, covered. 
4. Deflate the dough, re-cover, and let it rise for another hour. 
5. In the meantime, toss the zucchini in olive oil and pizza or Italian seasoning and bake in a 400 degree F oven for about an hour, turning it over half way through. Remove them from the oven earlier if they are golden brown.
6. Toss the onions with olive oil and pizza or Italian seasoning and place them on one side of a half sheet baking pan. Place the tomatoes on the other half of the baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes at 400 degrees F.
7. Set all of the vegetables aside. 
8. When the dough is ready, sprinkle olive oil into a quarter sheet (13 by 9 inch) pan. If you don't have one, use half of a half sheet pan. 
9. Place the dough into the pan, and dimple it with your fingers to spread the dough out. When the dough begins to spring back, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rest for 15 minutes. 
10. Continue to dimple the dough and nudge it out to fill the pan. 
11. Place the zucchini on top of the dough. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rest until puffy, about 2 to 3 hours. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.
12. Bake the dough with the zucchini on a lower rack of the oven for 15 minute. Remove the pan from the oven and top with the tomatoes and onions.
13. Bake for another 10 minutes. 
14. Remove from the oven, move the bread to a wire rack, and top with freshly grated Parmesan cheese. 
15. This bread can be reheated in a toaster oven at 350 degrees F for about 5 to 10 minutes. 

This bread has been Yeastspotted 

Individual Potatoes au Gratin

I am now on the Potatoes au Gratin diet for the next week. These potatoes are so good that I figured I might as well go with it, and the leftovers reheat beautifully in the toaster oven.

One of my favorite cities to visit is Portland, Oregon. One of my favorite breakfast spots there is Mother's Bistro. We've been to Portland several times, and have always made sure to have breakfast at Mother's.

During our last visit, we decided to drop by for lunch. The food was amazing.

Guess what? There is now a Mother's Best cookbook! This book is filled with comfort food, and you will have a difficult time choosing what to make first.

I went with the Potatoes au Gratin. Potatoes au Gratin is the perfect comfort food, and this recipe is so easy. Plus, I have these adorable 8 ounce mini cast iron baking dishes that I have been meaning to use. How serendipitous is that?

Individual Potatoes au Gratin

Ingredients

3 C half and half

3 pounds russet potatoes

1 T minced garlic

Spray oil

2 tsp Kosher salt

3/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

12 ounces sharp cheddar cheese, grated

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 
2. Place the half and half into a 6 quart or larger sauce pan.
3. Peel the potatoes and cut them into 1/4 inch slices. 
4. Place the potato slices into the half and half in the sauce pan.
5. Rub 12 individual 1 cup baking dishes or a 13 by 9 inch baking dish with the garlic and let the juices dry. Once the pans have dried, spray the pan/s with spray oil. 
6. Add the salt and pepper to the potatoes and half and half and bring the pan of potatoes to a boil. Once it is boiling, reduce the heat, and simmer for five minutes, stirring occasionally. 
7. Evenly divide the potatoes among the baking dishes. Pour the half and half mixture evenly over the potatoes and sprinkle with the cheddar cheese. 
8. Bake for 30 to 45 minutes, until the tops are browned. 
9. Let the dishes rest for 10 minutes before serving.

This dish can be prepared in advanced and reheated in a regular or toaster oven. 

Disclosure: Mother's has no idea that I am in love with the cookbook or the restaurant.