The Boris Chronicles: Bread, Bread Everywhere

Sorry if you are completely bored by the constant stream of bread reports, but I remain unapologetic. I love making bread and have learned so much about myself as I have discovered this.

Back to Boris. Last week I taught a group from church about sourdough. Now, I don't consider myself an expert in sourdough, but I am in the process of gaining a lot of experience with it.

In any case, I spent three days preparing and baking bread. I must say I am very pleased with how Boris performed. Not only did each of the breads I made with him have a nice tangy flavor, but the breads themselves turned out nice. Oven spring is something I usually have issues with, but not this time!

 

Clockwise from top left: Sandwich Rye, Pain au Levain, Pain au Levain, Sandwich rye bursting at the seams, and 100% Whole Wheat Pain au Levain.

There is so much bread in my freezer, I'm not quite sure how to get rid of it all. But seeing all that lovely bread just made me feel so good. Vive le pain!

The Boris Chronicles: Rye Not?

***Please excuse the terrible pun in the title. I blame genetics (Thanks, Dad).***

It's been a while since I gave an update on Boris. So far, he has been doing quite well. While he took a little time to really get going, but he has made some lovely bread so far. In particular, he made some fabulous Pain au Levain, a french style sourdough that I tried for the bread testing.

One of the main reasons I wanted to start a wild yeast starter was for rye bread. According to Peter Reinhart, rye needs high acidity to keep its enzymes from compromising the texture of the bread, and a wild yeast starter should do the trick. I don't know if Boris is sour enough, but I tried rye bread this past weekend and the bread turned out just fine. Here is the proof (another bad bread pun) from start to finish:

Ready to mix.

 

Before proofing (raising).

 

After proofing.

 

In the oven, a little crowded on my pizza stone.

 

Cooling, a little dark because I left the temp too high for too long.


Ready to eat, full of whole wheaty/rye-y goodness.



The bread turned out a little thin, but looking at the picture in the book reassured me that the bread was just as it should be. Thank you, Boris!

The Boris Chronicles: First Steps

It has been a few days, but I did finally take my wild yeast starter on a test run and was moderately sucessful. The start, which has been named Boris (Thanks Bridget!), did very well and grew beyond my humble expectations. I don't think I've ever smelled a sourdough start that sour.

The big test came on Tuesday, when I made two different types of bread using the start. Both recipes came from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads. The first was the "master formula" or 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich bread (p 78 or p 95; yes, it is in there twice) and the second was Multigrain Struan (p 102). I actually made two loaves of the multigrain because I made a no-salt loaf for a friend. In addition to trying new recipes, and testing Boris, I also tried out some new functions on my camera. Please forgive my lack of photo skills.


The no-salt multigrain bread proofing in the bowl. According to Reinhart, having the flaxseeds soak overnight means that you can put them in whole rather than using them ground and still get all the nutritional benefits.

 

Proofing in loaf form.

 

Baking in the oven. Sorry the picture is fuzzy. I was trying to take it quickly so the heat wouldn't escape too much.

 

A beautifully baked %100 whole wheat loaf. I did mean to get a picture of all three loaves, but why show the mistakes? (They all turned out well enough, but one loaf did raise to long and collapsed a bit when baking)

 

I will have many, many opportunities to use Boris, especially since I just volunteered to be an official tester for Peter Reinhart's next bread book. Yes, I am a geek, but I'll have my name in the book if all goes well!

Thanks again for all of your name suggestions. It was certainly hard to choose, but Boris just seemed to fit. Hubby suggested that it was the Russian version of Bob, which is the name he gives to everything. (Bob was promptly vetod when he suggested it. There are just too many Bobs in the house right now.)