breadsecrets blog

Artos is the general term for a Greek celebration bread, usually enriched with eggs. The variation I baked from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice (buy the book here) is called Christopsomos (literally, Christ bread) and is normally eaten at Christmas. As well as the enriched dough which contained sourdough starter (as well as regular bakers’ yeast), olive oil, milk, egg, honey, allspice, cinnamon, nutmeg, orange zest, and almond extract, this version contains dried fruit and nuts. I used sultanas, dried cherries, dried figs, and walnuts.

Making the dough was straightforward - I decided to have the decorative cross free of fruit and nuts to give it a contrast from the main loaf, so I removed about 1/4 of the dough before adding the dried fruit and nuts (the book said to use 1/3 of the dough for the cross, but I thought it would look better with slightly thinner “ropes”). I incorporated the fruit and nuts in the main part of the dough by flattening the dough, covering with a third of these ingredients and rolling up, then repeating the process two more times. The un-fruited portion for the cross stayed in a bowl in the fridge while the main portion rose. The dough rose more slowly than I’d expected, despite the extra sugar from the honey, which I’d thought would give the yeast a boost. When it had risen, I shaped the main part into a boule:

The book says to divide the smaller portion of dough into two and form them into two ten-inch ropes. I tried this, and they just weren’t long enough to go over the boule with enough left at the end to form the scrolls, so I had to roll them out further. I found the ideal length was around 19 inches. (Humorous comments are left as an exercise for the reader …) This process took quite a few minutes as the gluten caused the ropes to shrink, so I had to stretch and roll them then let them relax several times.

I split the ends of the ropes with a dough scraper, and coiled them into scrolls as shown before putting into the oven.

I baked the loaf for about 30 minutes before applying an egg wash glaze - other people on the challenge had said the recommended honey glaze was rather sticky, so I decided to make a substitution. After glazing the main part of the loaf and sprinkling with sesame seeds, I brushed the egg wash on the decorative cross, so there was a contrast between the seeded & unseeded parts.

So, the finished loaf looked pretty good, if I say so myself, and smelled great. When I cut it, the texture was slightly more closed than I’d expected, and it tasted very much like English tea bread, which I used to eat frequently as a child. Haven’t seen any for sale in years - maybe it was just a northern/midlands thing? It was particularly good toasted, although it burns very quickly due to the high sugar content.

Next week’s challenge is bagels: I’ve made these many times, and will be using my own adaptation of Peter Reinhart’s recipe, which I’ve always found very successful.

The first recipe in The Bread Baker’s Apprentice (buy the book here) is Anadama bread. The recipe originates from New England and contains cornmeal (polenta) and molasses (I used Lyle’s Black Treacle, which has a runnier texture and slightly less bitter taste than raw molasses, but is close enough).

As other bakers in the group have found, I needed to add about 3oz/100g (I didn’t weigh it) more flour to get a firm, tacky dough. The dough rose quite quickly - the recipe uses a fairly generous amount of yeast, and the molasses/treacle will no doubt have made it very active - and there was a good oven spring. I dusted the loaves with polenta before baking, which makes for a nicely crunchy top - I might start doing this on other loaves.

The crumb has a soft, close texture, and I think it is slightly moister than standard loaf tin bread, possibly because of the molasses. It tastes good - the molasses flavour is perhaps more dominant than I’d like. So far, I’ve only had it toasted with butter. Someone else mentioned that it’s good with peanut butter … so perhaps I’ll have to nip out to the shop before lunchtime.

This week’s challenge is a traditional Greek Christmas bread called Christopsomos, I’ll post my results next week.

I’ve always wondered if the more expensive premium brand or organic bread flours are worth the extra money. So, yesterday I put three brands to the test by making the same recipe with each sort. The flours I used were: Tesco own brand strong white bread flour (12.6% protein, around 75 pence for 1.5 kg); Allinson’s Premium very strong white bread flour (13.9% protein, about £1.30 for 1.5 kg = 73% higher than the Tesco flour); and “Bio Bake” organically grown strong white bread flour from my local health food store, Daily Bread in Cambridge. There was no protein content listed on the bio bake, but the label said, “made from a high protein hard wheat from North America - a professional’s flour”. This one cost £1.29 for 1kg, which is 158% higher than the Tesco flour, weight for weight.

The recipe I used was a lean French style bread, direct method, as follows:
400g flour
240g water
8g salt
1 tsp instant yeast
Mixed ingredients with dough hook in a stand mixer on minimum speed until flour was all wet, then turned up to 1/3 maximum speed for five minutes. Each of the three different doughs would just about stretch to a windowpane at this point. I tested them again after twenty minutes, and they all formed a very thin windowpane very easily. Covered bowl, left to rise at cool room temperature for three hours. Gently degassed dough, stretched and folded, left to rise for another hour. By this time, the dough made from the Tesco flour felt noticeably softer than the other two. Shaped into batards, covered with lightly oiled cling film and left to prove in a warmer room for about one hour twenty minutes. Unfortunately I misjudged this step and the Tesco flour loaf (on the left in the picture) was clearly overproved and had started to flatten and sag.

Loaves were baked in electric fan oven at 230 celsius + steam (I have an electrolux oven that has a steam + heat function) for 10 minutes, then 15 minutes without steam.

This is not a great photo of the finished loaves, but there is some indication that there is an increase in height matching the increase in price of the different flours. You get a better idea from the slices - order is as before: Tesco, Allinson, Biobake.

My wife and I took it in turns to do blind taste tests. Here’s what we thought on each loaf:

Tesco: slightly rubber texture (probably from the overproving), pleasant but not pronounced flavour, very little crust
Allinson: Good flavour in the crumb, fairly firm texture, reasonably crunchy crust
Biobake: Very firm texture, noticeably resistant to the bite; thicker and crunchier crust with excellent flavour which dominated the overall flavour - the crumb probably tasted great too, but I’d have to try it without the crust to comment further.

So, to some extent, you get what you pay for. The lower protein content in the Tesco flour translated to less gluten elasticity in the dough, so it overproved in the time it took for the others to be ready for the oven (I baked the Tesco and Allinson ones together, then the Biobake, so in fact the Tesco loaf did have an extra ten minutes rising because it was mixed first at the beginning of the day. The shape and texture of the Tesco flour loaf were almost certainly not as good as they would have been if I’d only been using that flour, and I have used it very successfully many times. However, even if we take that into account, I think the other two flours produced superior results in terms of flavour and crust quality. Will I be paying 158% more for all my flour in the future? Probably not, at least most of the time - I don’t think the gain in flavour is worth the extra money for “general purpose” bread for toast and sandwiches. However for sourdough and other fancy-schmancy breads, I think I will probably go for the Biobake as an occasional treat.

Here’s a great idea from PinchMySalt - a group of bakers and bread bloggers are going to work their way through the whole of Peter Reinhart’s great book “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice”, at a rate of one recipe per week. Count me in! I’ll be posting pictures and descriptions here (but not all the recipes). If you want to join in too (and you’ll have to be quick, the aim is to complete the first recipe, Anadama bread, by May 18th) you can buy the book here.

This recipe is by the Michelin starred chef of “The Fat Duck” in Oxfordshire, England, voted best restaurant in the world a few years ago. His TV series “In Search of Perfection” showed his experiments with some popular dishes that many people cook at home (spaghetti bolognaise, pizza, baked alaska, trifle, etc.). Until now, I’ve not had much luck with recipes for soft bread rolls, they always turn out crusty on top. Don’t get me wrong, I like crusty - but sometimes it’s good to have a change. The recipe is from Heston’s book “Further Adventures in Search of Perfection” which you can buy from amazon.co.uk or amazon.com.

Preferment:

400g very strong bread flour - I used Allinson Premium Very Strong White with a protein content of 13.9%
400g cold water
1g (a good pinch) of instant dried yeast

Final Dough:
700g prefermented batter (there will be some left over which can be incorporated into another bread recipe)
200g egg yolks - I weighed out eleven yolks from large organic eggs!
60g water at 20°C
400g Very strong bread flour
100g unrefined caster sugar
70g skimmed milk powder
15g salt
14g instant dried yeast
60g browned butter, strained and cooled (see note below)
30g grapeseed oil
35g Trex solid vegetable oil

Egg Wash:
1 whole egg
1 egg yolk
5g water
2g salt
Sesame seeds as needed.

Method
To make the preferment, combine the flour and yeast and water and mix in a mixer with a dough hook on low speed until a liquid batter has formed. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 24 hours.

Weigh out 700g of the preferment, add the egg yolks and water and mix on low speed with the dough hook until evenly mixed and very liquid. Sift the flour, sugar, milk powder, salt, and yeast into a separate bowl and then add them gradually to the wet mixture, keeping the mixer on low speed. When all the dry ingredients are added, increase the speed to medium and continue to mix for 2-3 minutes. The dough will still be very wet and sticky.
Brown the butter in a pan over a low heat until it has a very nutty aroma. Strain out the solids and discard, and allow the liquid to cool, then add it to the dough with the grapeseed oil and Trex. The recipe in the book didn’t make it clear if you’re supposed to start with 60g of butter and use what’s left after the solids have been removed, or to use enough butter to get 60g of liquid once it has been strained. I hedged my bets and used 80g of butter, which left around 50g of liquid after straining. Continue mixing the dough with the fats for another 3 or 4 minutes, until everything is well combined. Stop the mixer and let the dough rest for 10 minutes to absorb the liquid, then continue to mix on medium speed for 4 more minutes.

Cover again with cling film and refrigerate for 30 minutes. The dough will firm up during this time.

While the dough is refrigerating, cut a piece of baking parchment to fit a large baking sheet, and prepare 8 rings from aluminium foil, as follows. For each ring, cut a sheet of foil 50cm long, and fold it in half lengthways, repeatedly, until you have a strip 50 x 1 cm. Tape one end over the other with some overlap, to make a ring 12cm in diameter.

When the dough has chilled, weigh out eight 85g portions and freeze the remaining dough for use another day. Roll each portion of dough into a small ball with lightly floured hands. Put the ball in a ring on the parchment. Wet your hands and lightly pat the balls down flat, then cover with oiled cling film and leave in a warm place for 1½ -2 hours.

When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 225°C/425°F/Gas mark 7. Mix all the ingredients for the egg wash except the sesame seeds. Wet your hands again and lightly flatten the dough balls within the foil rings. (I didn’t get a picture at this stage, but the dough had expanded widthways to fill the rings, and nearly risen to the top of the rings.)

Before baking, pour some water into the oven to generate steam to prevent the crust getting too thick and cracking on top.

Bake the buns for 7 minutes, then remove and brush with the egg wash and sprinkle generously with sesame seeds. Return to the oven for a further 7 minutes or until done. Cool the buns completely on a wire rack before cutting.

The verdict …
So how were the results? The buns were very soft and light as a feather. The tops looked overcooked - I cooked them at 210°C in a fan assisted oven - but they didn’t taste burnt. I will try a slightly lower temperature next time. On their own they tasted rather eggy. With a burger inside, however, they were strangely like a really good version of the dreadful buns you get from fast food places, so full marks to Heston for authenticity. It was an interesting exercise in making a really enriched dough, and in handling probably the wettest dough I’ve ever used, but I don’t think the results were quite exciting enough to make me want to repeat the process regularly. There are just too many other recipes to try out there …