Tartine Country Bread

B R E A D. I love you. I could eat you, romantically of course, every day, at every meal and loaves at a time. It doesn't matter if you're white, wheat or country. I will love you just the same and you'll never have to worry about me cheating on you with Mr. Cookie. As long as we can shake things up and throw goat cheese into the mix every once and a while, our love will be eternal.

I rarely do this, if I ever have, but I won't be including a recipe in this post. Not that I don't have it, but that I don't think I will be doing it justice by posting it on my blog. For Christmas last year, "A" received a copy of the Tartine Bread book from an old college friend. If you haven't heard of Tartine, I will assume you haven't been to San Francisco or don't have the obsession with bread that I do. To prepare myself for the Tartine method, I had been building up my starter and learning how to make bread all over again.  

I'm an experienced bread baker and I had to practice the Tartine method. That should be your first clue why the recipe won't be on the blog. The first few loaves were delicious and turned out fine, but the process to get there left me crying, yelling and pulling my hair out. It was hard and why was the dough SO STICKY!? Then one day it clicked. I remembered all the ratios and knew what the dough should feel like between my fingers. During the long bulk fermentation phase, the billowing air bubbles brewing in the bread is now a welcome comfort. I get it and it gets me. 

So I urge you, if you have any desire to make sourdough bread, please, pick up Chad Robertson's book . It's a work of art with pages upon pages of science and instruction. If that doesn't suit you, he has the most wonderful step-by-step photography that a frustrated baker could ask for. If more proof is needed, look at this bread. I did not a minute of kneading and the dough was able to rise in the fridge overnight as to produce a fresh loaf right before a dinner party.

Guest Post: Kalamazoo Sourdough

As you may know, I occasionally host a guest blogger or two on The Ginger Cook. Usually this just happens to be a member of my family, but I'm opening to having anyone! Friends? Want to post? As long as I deem your picture as worthy, you may have a shot.


A little bit of background information before I leave this post in the hands of my Dad. A few months ago my dad bought my Mom a standmixer for "her birthday." I say this in quotations because she neither waited to get it on her birthday nor is she the one who primarily uses it. In tandem with the mixer, I bought her a 1973 vintage copy of one of my favorite bread books, The Tassajara Bread Book. 


As you may have guessed, someone else started using it much more than she did. That's right, my Dad stole it from her! How dare he! You really shouldn't stay mad at him for long though, he has been killing it on the bread baking. When I was home for Christmas, he was whipping out some truly extraordinary loaves. Without further ado, here is his new prized loaf of bread: Kalamazoo Sourdough

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Kalamazoo Sourdough

Why should the City by the Bay get all the glory when it comes to sourdough? I’m here to claim some of the glory for the chilly state of Michigan. In this guest Ginger Cook post, “I” am Katherine’s dad, Ed. Lest you fear that I’m diluting the ginger-ness of this blog, rest assured that I’m a redhead as well.

Regular readers may wonder why I’m calling this bread recipe Kalamazoo Sourdough, since Katherine is from Brighton, about 2 hours from K-town. There are three reasons for this. First, “Kalamazoo” just has a ring to it, much more so than “Brighton”. Second, our other daughter Caroline is attending college in Kalamazoo at Western Michigan University. Finally, Kalamazoo is home to Bell’s Brewery, one of the best craft brewers in the country and the source of a vital ingredient for this recipe.

This recipe was written assuming that you are using a baking stone or pizza stone. A Dutch oven will also work very well, however it is harder to get the loaves into a hot Dutch oven, so I prefer the pizza stone. If you use a Dutch oven, you don’t need the Pyrex baking dish, since the moisture from the dough will create steam in the Dutch oven. The steam is the secret to a perfect crust.

Ingredients:

•  3 cups bread flour (all-purpose flour is fine also)
• 1½ teaspoons salt
• 1 cup sourdough starter *
• ¾ cup water at room temperature
• 8 tablespoons Bell’s ale (anything ale that isn’t strongly flavored)

 *If you want a little extra rise, you can add one-eighth of a teaspoon of instant or rapid-rise yeast without affecting the sourdough taste too much

Directions:

1.  Mix sourdough starter with water in a large bowl and whisk vigorously until thoroughly mixed. If using yeast, add it to the liquid and whisk some more. Add salt and whisk into liquid.
2. Add flour to water and using a rubber spatula, fold in flour until water is absorbed, then add beer and fold some more. You should have a shaggy ball of dough. If needed, add water a couple of tablespoons at a time until dough reaches the proper consistency.
3. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 hours or more, until the ball has roughly doubled in size.
4. Place bowl in refrigerator and let sit for an additional 6 to 8 hours.
5. Cut parchment paper to fit onto a baking stone or into a Dutch oven. Remove dough from refrigerator and knead about 15 times. Shape into a large loaf, or if a smaller loaf is desired, divide and shape into two loaves.
6. Place the loaf or loaves onto parchment paper and spray surface of loaf with olive oil (use a mister). Cover loosely with plastic and let rise at room temperature until doubled in size, about 2 or 3 hours.
7. 30 minutes before baking, adjust upper oven rack to lower middle position and place baking stone on rack. Place a Pyrex baking dish half full of water on the lower rack to create steam in the oven. Set oven temperature to 425 degrees F and let temperature stabilize for 30 minutes.
8. Slash top of loaf with a sharp knife, remove baking stone from the oven, and place parchment paper onto baking stone. Immediately place into oven.
9. Bake for 45 minutes or until internal temperature of the bread reaches 205 to 210 degrees F (a digital thermometer is helpful here).
10. Remove bread from oven and allow to cool on a mesh rack for 10 to 15 minutes before enjoying.

Sourdough Pizza Crust

I know, it's been a while.  And I think of some really good reason why my posting has become more infrequent than thunderstorms in Seattle (more on that sad fact later). This time I have a really really good reason, I mean, really good, as to why I am once again allowing myself to be backlogged.  I was sickest I've been since my bout of Swine Flu (pardon me, H1N1) last year.  What began on Saturday as a sore throat and a stomach full of angst transformed into a full-blown "can't get out of bed" sickness.  On Monday, I couldn't lift my head off my pillow.  When I made phone calls to my mom and work, I had to gingerly set the phone on my ear and squeak as loud as I could to try and make my little voice heard.  Hopefully I pulled at your heart-strings enough and you'll forgive me for my slip-up.

The original date of this photo is so prehistoric, I think dinosaurs pondered over the artistic value of it.  That's right - I took this photo in early September... of this year!  I made this pizza dough the second time I was going to hang out with who I am now happy to call my group of friends.  Friends, consider this your official shout out.  I had met Matt though Nick (who I know from U of Michigan).  While I met technically Julie and Christine at the same place I met Matt, I barely did, so it doesn't count.  Matt introduced me to Julie, Christine, Aaron and David when we went out one night to Barca in Capitol Hill.  We all realized (except for Julie and kind of Matt) we were all new to Seattle, we liked each other and make a very good decision to be friends and hang out that coming Sunday.  At said Sunday pizza making/game playing night I was introduced to Gabe, Christine's boyfriend.  Phew, get all those 6 degrees of separation from Mr. Bacon?

Anyways, I made some pizza dough to use for the pizza decorating part of the gathering.  This photo does not do it justice.  While it doesn't have the stereotypical tang of sourdough, it did have a depth of flavor that most doughs don't have.  It also had a wonderful texture.  I was able to stretch one batch of dough into two large thin crusts pizza's - and even the thin crust had a nice crunchy chew to it.  The best part of this recipe?  It uses the discarded cup of starter from feeding the sourdough starter!  That's a win in my book!


Sourdough Pizza Crust
Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Ingredients:

• 1 cup sourdough starter, unfed (straight from the fridge)
• 1/2 cup hot tap water
• 2 1/2 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon instant yeast

Directions

1. Stir any liquid into the sourdough starter, and spoon 1 cup starter into a mixing bowl.
2. Add the hot water, flour, salt, yeast, and Pizza Dough Flavor. Mix to combine, then knead till smooth and slightly sticky, about 7 minutes at medium speed using a stand mixer with dough hook. Place the kneaded dough in a lightly greased container, and allow it to rise till it's just about doubled in bulk. This might take 2 to 4 hours; it might take more. A lot depends on how vigorous your starter is. For a faster rise, place the dough somewhere warm (or increase the yeast). To slow it down, put it somewhere cool.
3. Drizzle two 12" round pizza pans with olive oil, tilting the pans to coat the bottom. Place half the dough in each pan. Cover, and let rest for 15 minutes. Gently press the dough towards the edges of the pans; when it starts to shrink back, cover it, and let it rest again, for about 15 minutes. Finish pressing the dough to the edges of the pans.Cover the pan, and let the dough rise till it's as thick as you like. For thin-crust pizza made from fairly fresh starter, this may only be an hour or so. For thick-crust, using an old, little-used starter, this may take most of the day. There are no hard-and-fast rules here; it all depends on the vigor of your starter, and how you like your crust. Once you make it a couple of times, you'll figure out what time frame works for you.
4. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat your oven to 450°F.
5. For a thicker crust, pre-bake the crust for about 8 minutes before topping. Top, then bake till toppings are hot and cheese is melted and bubbly, about 10 minutes. For thin crusts, bake for 4 to 5 minutes, then top and bake for an additional 8 to 10 minutes, or till toppings are as done as you like.
6. Remove from the oven, and loosen the edges of the pizza with a table knife or heatproof spatula. Carefully lift it onto a cooling rack; you can serve it right from the pan, if desired, but a cooling rack helps keep its bottom crisp. Serve hot.

No-Knead Sourdough

Here is another delicious no-knead bread to add to your repertoire.  It's made in a similar fashion as other no-knead breads, but with the your sourdough starter instead of a little bit of active dry yeast.  Sometime, hopefully soon, I hope to write a tutorial on sourdough.  Sadly, I feel as though I'm a genius on the subject yet and I in no way want to lead you astray.  As I have mentioned earlier, the first attempt at a sourdough starter was a little bit lackluster and I had difficulty starting it.  I sort of 'cheated' and used a little tiny bit of active dry yeast.  I really mean it, MAYBE a 1/4th of a teaspoon, but more like an 1/8th.  Then I combined it with some flour and water in a large jar and let it sit. 

But sit it did not.  I came back from class a few hours later (remember, I was making this my senior year of college) and it had exploded all over my kitchen.  Well, not technically, but I did had the blob reincarnated.  It was spewing out of its jar, onto the counter and I think a little even crawled onto the floor.  And I had no idea how to stop it.  I remember hearing once (I think it was Alton Brown?) that "yeast hates salt" - i.e. it stops it from growing.  It helped, but then it never came alive again.  When I made some bread with said starter, it had the right texture but no sour taste.  I read more about sourdough and tried to revive it (partially successfully), but it was laid to rest in a plastic garbage pail tomb before my move out west.  My current starter, given to me by my friend Ann, is fantastic!  So sour!  The texture is consistent and it's not fussy!

This no-knead wasn't as sour as other loaves of bread that I've made, but it was easy, definitely had a chewier texture and a 'sour' aftertaste.  But the crust, OH, the crust… it was wonderful!  So thick and with the right amour of crunch.  It was wonderful on my sandwich I made for lunch the next day or on the peanut butter toast I made for breakfast the day after.  If you're uncomfortable with sourdoughs but want to try your hand at making them, I recommend this recipe!

No-Knead Sourdough
Ingredients:

• 15 oz bread flour (about 3 cups)
• 1.5 tsp salt
• 11 oz lukewarm water (1.25 cups, plus a tablespoon)
• 1/2 cup sourdough starter, fed

Directions:

1. Mix the salt with the flour, and the sourdough with the warm water. Then combine all the ingredients and mix for 20 seconds or just until all of the flour is wet. If you work the mixture, you will have a loaf with a tight crumb.  I wanted one that had big air pockets, so I worked it as little as possible.
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and then a tea towel (this helps trap in heat), and leave it to rise at room temperature overnight (about 18 hours).
3. The next day dust the dough with a bit more flour and fold the sides into the middle to form a round loaf, dust a towel with stone ground cornmeal (or coarse salt) and place the loaf onto it seam side down, putting more cornmeal on top then fold the towel over.
4. Let the loaf rise until it has doubled in size again. When the loaf has almost doubled in size, but the dutch oven in the oven and set it for 475 degrees (it is important to put the dutch oven into a cold oven so it doesn't experience thermal shock).
5. When the dutch oven is rocket hot, place (toss) the dough, seam side up, into the dutch oven, and put the lid back on. Bake for 25 minutes, during this time the lid will trap moisture from the dough which will allow the crust to stay stretchy as the bread continues to rise. Then take the lid off and turn the oven up to 475. Take the loaf out of the oven once it is brown and crusty, 15-20 more minutes.

Sourdough Bread

I finally made a successful loaf of sourdough bread.  Back in April I attempted to make a sourdough starter from scratch.  At first, the starter bubbled out of its container like a middle school science experiment gone dreadfully wrong.  Once I controlled that, it decided it wasn't going to listen to me and just exploded all over my kitchen, engulfing my counter.  I had no way to control it but to add some salt to try and kill the yeast.  Bad decision.  Turns out, I also killed the ability for the starter to get sour.  I made two loaves of bread from the starter and while they had the texture of sourdough... they just weren't sour.  As you could probably guess, said starter for shoved to the back of my fridge and was sorely neglected...

Jump to August and a new starter.  While hanging out and cooking with Ann Dornfeld a week ago she mentioned how her dad was an avid baker and had a well loved sourdough.  Lucky for me, I was able to take half of it home!  Post yoga class the following day, I excitedly procured half of a very sour smelling starter.  Soon after arriving home I fed it and promised to love it forever.  As I would have to discard a cup of the starter the next day anyways, I decided it was time to foray into sourdough once again.  This time, I would try King Arthur Flour's "Extra-Tangy Sourdough" to try and ensure I would have a sourdough.  Success!!!

While I wouldn't say this was a super sour loaf, but it did have that "tang" to it.  It definitely had an amazing texture and a good crust, so I have to give a shout out to Ann for giving me such an amazing starter.

But sadly, while I was cutting some bread to make croutons to put in my soup, I gave myself a pretty good cut on my thumb (don't we all?).

Extra-Tangy Sourdough
Adapted from: King Arthur Flour

Ingredients:

• 1 cup "fed" sourdough starter
• 1 1/2 cups lukewarm water
• 5 cups unbleached AP flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 1/4 teaspoons salt

Directions:

1. Combine the starter, water, and 3 cups of the flour. Beat vigorously.
2. Cover, and let rest at room temperature for 4 hours. Refrigerate overnight, for about 12 hours.
3. Add the remaining ingredients, kneading to form a smooth dough.
4. Allow the dough to rise in a covered bowl until it's relaxed, smoothed out, and risen. Depending on the vigor of your starter, it may become REALLY puffy, as pictured; or it may just rise a bit. This can take anywhere from 2 to 5 hours. Understand this: sourdough bread (especially sourdough without added yeast) is as much art as science; everyone's timetable will be different. So please allow yourself to go with the flow, and not treat this as an exact, to-the-minute process.
5. Gently divide the dough in half.
6. Gently shape the dough into two oval loaves, and place them on a lightly greased or parchment-lined baking sheet. Cover and let rise until very puffy, about 2 to 4 hours. Don't worry if the loaves spread more than they rise; they'll pick up once they hit the oven's heat. Towards the end of the rising time, preheat the oven to 425°F.
7. Spray the loaves with lukewarm water.
8. Make two fairly deep horizontal slashes in each; a serrated bread knife, wielded firmly, works well here.
9. Bake the bread for 25 to 30 minutes, until it's a very deep golden brown. Remove it form the oven, and cool on a rack.