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Tartine/King Arthur Olive Loaf June 19, 2020 |
The Covid-19 pandemic, and the attendant lockdown, has been a crazy experience. I have been cooking almost every night, and we've been home for lunch, too, so in three months I have done nearly a year's cooking. Which I like and which keeps me sane.
Like many other people, I have been baking. Notwithstanding a few cakes and cookies, this means BREAD!
Luckily, since yeast was not available in the markets, I use
levain (Tartine Bakery's version of sourdough) and a very slow-rising technique. King Arthur, my former go-to place for starter, was out, so I got starter from Breadtopia on line, and it is a very vibrant starter from the moment you get it. I feed it regularly, using the Tartine formula of 50/50 bread and whole wheat flours. And that's how I started my pandemic baking.
After She-Wolf Bakery came to the Upper West Side Sunday farmers' market, I virtually stopped baking bread, since there's was better and all I had to do was to pay for it. However, this changed when the pandemic arrived, and I decided to go back to baking my own.
To get my bread-baking chops going, I started with Tartine's
Basic country bread.
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Country loaf April 3, 2020 |
More than once.
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Country loaf April 7, 2020 |
Not surprisingly, the second effort was more successful.
Then I moved on to some of Tartine's more advanced breads:
Oat porridge bread:
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Oat porridge bread April 13, 2020 |
A good-tasting, gorgeous bread, but heavy and a bit flat.
Semolina bread with fennel, sesame and poppy seeds:
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Semolina bread with fennel, sesame and poppy seeds April 20, 2020 |
One of my all-time favorites, but a little flat. My technique was not quite there yet.
Country rye bread:
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Country rye loaf April 26, 2020 |
Farro porridge bread:
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Farro porridge bread May 1, 2020 |
Then back to my favorite
Semolina bread with fennel, sesame and poppy seeds
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Semolina bread with fennel, sesame and poppy seeds May 8, 2020 |
Success!
While wandering around on King Arthur's website, I came across a recipe for sourdough bread made in a way similar to Tartine's but with easier timing. You make the dough the night before (it has to rest and be folded once an hour for three hours before spending 8-48 hours in the fridge). On baking day, you just shape it, plop it into your covered iron bread baking pan (I use a Lodge Combo, as recommended by Tartine), wait three hours for it to come to room temperature and bake.
King Arthur's sourdough bread:
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King Arthur's sourdough bread May 14, 2020 |
And it was good. Lighter than Tartine's and almost as tasty.
Now a detour. A high school friend's daughter, Beryl Forman, sent me the recipe for her well-publicized olive loaf.
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Beryl Forman's olive loat (modified) May 26, 2020 |
Beryl uses the regular oven with a few sprays of water, rather than the Dutch oven method, to keep the moisture level right, but I opted for a hybrid of the Tartine and King Arther methods. A very nice loaf but not as olive-y or salty as I would have liked.
Then back to Tartine. Yet another go at
Semolina bread with fennel, sesame and poppy seeds:
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Semolina bread with fennel, sesame and poppy seeds June 6, 2020 |
Now I determined to use Tartine's formula for olive bread, which uses more olives and in bigger pieces than Beryl's (two cups mixed green and black olives, quite coarsely chopped), but with the King Arthur sourdough method.
Tartine/King Arthur sourdough olive bread:
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Tartine/King Arthur sourdough olive loaf June 13, 2020 |
It was great, lots of salty olive and olive oil taste with a lovely crumb. Just a tiny bit flat, though. So I tried again today, and nailed it! See the first picture at the top. And the recipe below.
Next I'm going to try the same thing but with toasted walnuts instead of olives. Will report back.
Bobby Jay
No-knead Sourdough [Olive] Bread
(King Arthur and
Tartine for olives and/or walnuts
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Make one big loaf
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Ingredients
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Directions
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· 1 cup (227g) ripe (fed) sourdough starter
· 1 3/4 cups (397g) lukewarm water
· 5 cups (602g) King Bread Flour
· 1 tablespoon (18g) salt
· Optional: 1 cup cured black and 1 cup green olives, coarsely
chopped and/or chopped toasted walnuts
· 2 teaspoons diastatic malt powder, optional for a more
golden color and stronger rise (I don’t use)
Day 1 time 0:00
1
Weigh your flour; or measure it by
gently spooning it into a cup, then sweeping off any excess.
2
Combine all the ingredients in a
large mixing bowl, or a large (6-quart) food-safe plastic bucket.
3
Mix and stir everything together to
make a sticky, rough dough. If you have a stand mixer, beat at medium speed
with the paddle attachment for 30 to 60 seconds. Or just stir with a big
spoon or dough whisk until everything is combined.
Day 1 time 0:00– 3:00
4
Leave the dough in the bucket or
6-quart bowl, cover it with the bucket’s lid or a piece of plastic wrap, and
let rise for 1 hour.
5
Gently pick up the dough and fold it
over on itself several times, cover it again, and let it rise for another
hour.
6
Repeat step 5 and place bread in
bucket/bowl in the fridge for 8-48
hours
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Day 2 time 0:00
7
When you're ready to make bread, turn
the dough out onto a well-floured work surface, and shape it into a rough
ball. Leave the dough seam-side up, cover it, and let it rest on a floured
surface for 15 minutes.
Day 2 time 0:15
8
Next, shape the dough to fit the
vessel in which you’ll bake it: a 13” log for a long covered baker, such as KAs
glazed long covered baker; or a large boule (round) for a round baker or
Dutch oven. Place the shaped dough into the lightly greased base of the baker
and cover it with the lid. Let the loaf warm to room temperature and rise;
this should take about 2 1/2 to 3 hours. It won't appear to rise upwards that
much, but will relax and expand.
Day 2 time 2:15
9
With a rack positioned in the middle,
start preheating the oven to 500°F one hour before you’re ready to bake.
Day 2 time 3:15
10
Just before baking, dust the loaf
with a fine coat of flour and use a lame or a sharp knife to make one or
several 1/2” deep slashes through its top surface. If you're baking a long
loaf, one arched slash down the loaf lengthwise is nice, or if baking a
round, a crosshatch or crisscross pattern works well.
11
Cover the baker with its lid and
place it in the oven. Reduce the oven temperature to 450°F and bake the bread
for 45 minutes.
Day 2 time 4:00
12
Remove the cover of the baker and
bake the bread for 10 to 15 minutes longer, until the bread is deep golden
brown and crusty, and a digital thermometer inserted into the center of the
loaf reads at least 210°F.
Day 2 time 4:10-4:15
13
Remove the bread from the oven and
transfer it to a rack to cool completely.
VARIATION: ADD 2 CUPS
COARSLEY CHOPPED GREEN AND CURED BLACK OLIVES AND/0R TOASTED WALNUTS AFER
STEP 4.
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