Crazy for Bread
Yet again we grieve for shattered lives and families torn apart. Yet again we wait in anguish for news from family and friends. Yet again my native country is hit. As was my home country repeatedly over the past few weeks. As have many other countries. The world goes reeling from one killing to the next. Punched down and barely standing up again before another murderous blow lands. [Read more…]
This is a different kind of Meet the Baker story. One I wish I never had a chance to write and yet one that warms my heart. Full of sorrow and full of hope. Also, only a short one, hopefully an introduction to a more in-depth version next time I visit Paris. Let me go back in time and explain.
Better strike while the iron is hot! Since my baking mood has been elusive lately, I decided to take advantage of its tail end to make the “virtuous bagels” mentioned towards the end of my last post. Which is to say, use Martin Philip‘s formula but replace 50% of the flour in the final mix by sprouted wheat flour.
I debated a bit about the process. Sprouted grain flour is wonderfully flavorful and nutritious on its own. It needs neither a pre-ferment nor a long fermentation. Martin Philip’s recipe calls for both. What to do? Switch to a straight dough process or follow the recipe to a T? Since I used white flour in the poolish, the actual total ratio of sprouted to white was 42%. It made sense to stick to the process and see what would happen.
Well, what happened is that it worked. The bagels don’t taste exactly like the New York bagels of my memory but they are very good and the texture and consistency are spot on. I liked them much better than the 100% sprouted whole wheat bagels I made last year and they make more sense nutrition-wise than white bagels. That being said, we don’t have to eat virtuously all the time. With lox, I think I’d still prefer the taste of the white bagels. But that’s very personal. You might feel differently.
Of course I had to use more water to obtain the same dough consistency. I know for sure that I added 60g to the amount indicated in the original formula (I did measure that) but I added even more afterwards and I don’t know exactly how much. What happened to make me forget all about measuring is that my Kitchen Aid gave up the ghost just as I started mixing. It began by dragging its foot (the dough hook) at exactly the same spot on each turn, first rumbling then screaming under its breath, then it went on a general strike. It had done that two or three years ago and the Man had ordered parts online then gone and fixed it. And now it was misbehaving again. Just when I had bagel dough to mix!
There was still a lot of dry flour to incorporate and I was so frazzled by this new development I just added water as needed without bothering with the scale and started kneading by hand. The minute every last bit of flour was hydrated, I transferred the dough to the counter and switched to folding and stretching. My right hand not being in the best of shapes, I was a bit worried that it wouldn’t be enough but hey, it worked! Bagels by hand! Who would have thought?
The dough as it came out of the fridge the following morning
I am including the formula below but just remember, the hydration is a bit tentative since I don’t know for sure how much water I actually used. It doesn’t really matter though. Every batch of flour is different even when using the same brand. Go easy with the extra water is all I can say. You don’t want to end up with ciabatta buns but you still need to hydrate all that flour and sprouted flour is much thirstier than regular white.
Also I used bread flour (14% protein) in the poolish and all-purpose in the final dough.
I don’t bake much anymore. Partly because where we live now, a very good 100% whole-wheat and naturally fermented bread is actually available to buy at the store. When I do bake, I use sprouted wheat flour: great flavor, excellent nutrition, what more is there to ask for? So the first and only time I made bagels before this batch I used sprouted wheat flour and followed the Peter Reinhart recipe that the New York Times had published a year and a half ago. The bagels turned out very nicely. At least the Man thought so but I was dissatisfied. I thought they lacked the oomph that I had become accustomed and attached to after three decades of eating New York bagels.
As I recounted in my previous post, my 4-year granddaughter and I made two batches of crackers the other day. She wasn’t a huge fan of the first ones but she tackled the next batch with her energy, cheerfulness and enthusiasm intact. The making is undoubtedly much more important to her than the eating. Why, only the week before, we had made canistrelli. Hers were of the miniature variety (she used a tiny, tiny cookie cutter, of the kind likely designed to make treats for chihuaha puppies) and I had managed to burn every single one of them. The thing is I took them out of the oven ahead of mine and they were too pale. So I stuck them back in and set the timer to 5 minutes. Big mistake! [Read more…]