Filled Sourdough Breads Bake-off

Hello from the newbie!

I arrived too late in the game for the spelt bake-off, but loved the idea and enjoyed reading the discussion (and looking at the photos!). 

I have a question about the term 'filled' --- by 'filled' do you mean a pocket of stuff in the dough (like the jam in the middle of jelly donut).... or stuff spread on the dough and rolled up (like a cinnamon roll).... or stuff mixed into the dough (like a fruit and nut bread) and distributed evenly ... or everything above (like anything beyond four, water, salt etc)?  This is just for clarification --- because I don't think of caraway (in caraway rye) as 'filled' - but it (caraway) is an addition much the same as olives or rosemary... what do you think?  The brain and books are primed!

Catharina

see that, off to another category when I just finished baking a 100% loaf!

 

OH well, gonna do an olive when I get a chance!

 

 

I made two loaves of this today, with half of the dough from my buttermilk starter.  Granted, there's a little yeast added to the dough, but not much considering it makes 4 good-sized loaves.  I'll be using the completely commercial-yeast-free starter tomorrow, and if it works out well, I'll probably cinnamon-swirl that one too.  I always brush the dough with water before sprinkling on the cinnamon/sugar, by the way; it doesn't separate while baking that way.

i just procured a couple of kilos of 'chocolate' malted barley from the microbrewery attached to my restaurant. it makes the most bizarre but spectacular bread...does this count as a filled bread?

There's some dry yeast in the starter, but now that it's been going strong for over a month now, I suspect the initial addition of dry yeast has been killed off by the acid in the starter.  I do add a little dry yeast to the final dough to make really soft, panned loaves, but I've also baked boules without adding the extra yeast and got some really beautiful, chewy, ww sourdough bread with lots of holes and that texture peculiar to sourdough breads.  I'm not sure the cinnamon swirle would work with that, but I'm making some commercial yeast free bread today with a flour/water/wild yeast starter, and I'll let you know how it turns out.  You would need a good supply of buttermilk to keep that starter going, but I've got a recipe for a buttermilk 'plant', using fresh yeast, water, and milk, which would, according to Irish writers, keep you well supplied with buttermilk.  I've yet to try it because I can't get my hands on fresh yeast and I'm loathe to try it using dry yeast.

A friend gave me some dried wakame (Japanese seaweed) today, to try a loaf inspired by Richard Bertinet's book Dough.

I made a 75% hydration loaf, stuffed with rehydrated wakame, date and preserved lime chutney (homemade), provolone cheese, and ham.  It was absolutely delicious, and I ate half the loaf for dinner...

i have the perfect bread methinks......will give it a crack and see how it goes

Same dough, but with just wakame and sesame seeds - nice combo.

[color=blue]After my abysmal failure at a white starter feta basil pesto twist....
















































...that sat like a fossilized turd... this morning I made an old standard Sourdough Rye with Caraway seeds (Leader) to rekindle my faith...
































This starter is only 2-3 weeks old and tastes wonderful.  Each loaf weighs just over 2.5 lbs.  I used the trick I saw somewhere on this forum of placing a pan and pouring water into it twice in the first 3 mins in the oven  --- and the spring was amazing and the crust was crisp and crunchy (much better than anything I've had before) --- so it was worth joining this forum just for that!
And for TP --- the (slightly out of focus) crumb shot...
 
























This is not my 'offical' entry :) in the  bake-off --- I'm going to have another go at the feta/basil white sourdough once I have my confidence back in the flour.
C [/color]

Nice job, Cat ! Y'know, I always have difficulty getting sourdough to work in a plait/braid form - I find the definition just proves out during the final rise.  Maybe a spiral might work better for the pesto loaf ?

Cheers, Celia

Green olive and rosemary spelt loaf, at 75% hydration, with gluten added.

[quote=celia]
Y'know, I always have difficulty getting sourdough to work in a plait/braid form - I find the definition just proves out during the final rise. 
[/quote]

[color=blue]Maybe, that is exacly what happened... I can hear my mum's voice in my head saying don't overwork the dough (she had this theory that scones were better when the dough was sloppy and not manhandled).  I had picked up a Maggie Glezer's A Blessing of Bread at the second hand bookstore and was anxious to try some of the different shapes --- and just got over zealous I suppose. 

Thanks for the compliments --- and it right back at you all (everything so far looks so yummy) --- I am feeling very inspired!
 [/color]

TP, the Heston clips were fantastic !  I was wondering though - if you have a cast iron pan, why you couldn't get your pan blazing hot on the cooktop, then actually slide your pizza into the pan (right side up), and THEN put them under the grill ?

Jeremy suggested that I try making Bialys after I posted my Bagels a while ago.
Actually I have never tasted or seen the real article, but the section in Maggie Glezer's book makes them sound wonderful, so I had been planning for a while to make them.

This bake-off provides a good excuse. So here is my first entry in the bake-off.





































Jeremy - you'll have to let me know if these look anything like the local ones in NY.
This was a moderately stiff all white dough (58% hydration), shaped into rounds, and retarded overnight so that I could bake in the morning. (I don't think the retarding is traditional, but then neither is the sourdough). Not sure why the onion went pink!

There is a little Greek deli at a local market that sells olives, cheese etc. We have been often tempted by the owner into buying some of his sundried tomatoes and sweet ginger. I don't know quite what he does with the ginger - it is not the sort of sickly sweet ginger in syrup that you can buy (which I also happen to like). But it doesn't have the kick of fresh ginger. It is a heavenly combination with the sundried tomatoes in pasta, or just on sandwiches.

So this loaf is a mostly white sourdough (10% Spelt), at ~67% hydration. The tomato and ginger were laminated in at an early fold.





































And the obligatory crumb shot



































(Note on the photos. That is the bialy dough in the background above.
The hatched pattern on the left loaf comes from banneton I used for that loaf - It is a gorgeous German cane banneton that I got from Graham a couple of years ago. I don't think he sells them in the shop though.)

TP,

you are very kind, but I am very much the amateur - both in terms of photography and bread. Your breads (and cakes) are gorgeous. (Is your business from home still going?)

Dom

Dom, you are the king of holey bread !  I'd never considered ginger as an addition...thanks for the suggestion...

I made spelt fruit loaf yesterday - it tasted like Christmas.  Sultanas, currants, cranberries, Drambuie-soaked persian figs, medjool dates and mixed spice.

how is it you guys are able to post pics on the forum? i have heaps of new ones, but cant seem to upload them still. help?

You can use hosting sites or online albums. There are plenty on the web. I use photobucket, but there are lots of others.

Hi all.

The Gallery at sourdough.com.au/gallery still works. You can upload photos, but need to select "Upload Applet" not "From Web Browser" when you upload items. I always use the Upload Applet anyway..it is a very convenient way of uploading files.

thanks as always! filled bread pics will be up next week, but in the meantime have put some other breads up in blog. I work at a winery, and am now doing the bread for the entire complex, all sourdough. its somewhat of a challenge to say the least, especially scaling my home recipes up for up to 20 loaves at a time. the funniest thing is, the results are better than i have ever done! (this is not visibly filled bread, but bear with me while i sort the photo thing out...and thanks TP for the photo advice, coming along nicely) white sour ciabatta, and a sour rye made with shiraz grape pressings fresh from the winery.
thanks as always for your help!

Y'know, given that the bake-offs came about because Jeremy and Boris were going to teach the "rebel sheilas" a thing or two about baking to percentages, they've both been surprisingly quiet.  Jeremy made a spelt loaf, but Boris' contribution has been sorely missed (and noticed).  Did we girls scare you off ?

:P

Much to busy to join you Sheilas, but I have had some success with potato levain at work, as well some spelt in a pot!





 






















































Happy baking, hey listen to David Aplin from Cliffsidebakery talk on my blog, he is from Toronto and a big fan of this site!

Graham hello!

Edited by TP to show pix here instead of links.
Jeremy dear, do you mind labelling them?

Et Voila it's filled!

Jeremy: I'll have to start charging you for having to edit your picture links every time you post them. BTW, the sandwich (your cheat filled bread) looks soooo gooood! TP

hopefully the customers feel the same way! so far i've had luck, and in the last two days have processed over 40kg of dough!! not bad for a home baker hehehe. have got a rye and caraway sour and a white and barley sour proving atm, and will have pics next week...hope the customers like them!!
thanks for the encouragement as well

Semi-dried tomatoes, basil and smoked scamorza (brined mozarella) - made rolls and a loaf.

[quote=celia]
Y'know, given that the bake-offs came about because Jeremy and Boris were going to teach the "rebel sheilas" a thing or two about baking to percentages, they've both been surprisingly quiet.  Jeremy made a spelt loaf, but Boris' contribution has been sorely missed (and noticed).  Did we girls scare you off ?

:P
[/quote]

You wish!

You've missed mine; but you and others are doing a fine job without me and besides I've never baked with spelt and haven't even had it in my hand, excepting in a bag at my local Macro store. I'm endeavouring to get some and bake a few samples soon.

Pin-up boy ...eh? Wow you are gonna be really disappointed, TP. LOL

Hey Dom,
Been so busy and TP reminded me you asked about bialy's, when I get a chance I will go down to kossars and snap a photo, hell I will maybe pick up a few too! Look good, the pink is weird? And I want to mention usually there are poppy seeds in the middle as well, been years since I ate one too, they are a different creature then bagels for sure!

Your ginger bread looks great!

Spelt, with onion marmalade, proscuitto crudo and pecorino romano cheese.  Will send this to school for lunch on Monday ! :)




















TP, your foc looks GREAT !  I'm having a lot of fun with this, but we need more people to join in ! :)

I made three rolls, one we'll eat tonight, and the other two will go into the freezer as soon as they're cool (which is what I always do when I'm making things for school).  They'll defrost perfectly !

The onions are also in homemade onion marmalade (jam), so they've already been caramelised.

Raisin and walnut sourdough with cinnamon swirl.

this is a version of Peter Reinhart's fruit bread from the Breadbakers' apprentice.

(the cinnamon sugar made a bit of a mess in the bread tins, not sure if it was wise to retard it overnight)

thanks Jeremy - look forward to seeing pictures of real Bialys. Perhaps you will make some for us to show us how it is supposed to be done?

[color=blue]Half white spelt, half organic white using my wholewheat starter (still struggling to get a white one going!) --- this loaf with Golden raisins, cranberries and pecans... and a hint of allspice.  Delicious! Can you see the steam rising from the cut loaf? [/color]