Yup, I'm Still Baking Bread

Last week, I shared my reflections about the first half of the yeasted breads chapter of the King Arthur Baking School book, as well as my start to the journey of baking through this book cover to cover. I am still chugging along through this journey, and I can say I am eating more food fully prepared in my own home now, than ever. I am in a two person household though, and trying to bake through this book much faster than we can eat everything, while also completing other projects. This led me to pulling the trigger on something I have been going back and forth on for a while now- a chest freezer! My chest freezer has allowed me to bake so much more and so much more frequently as I can save my baked goods to share and enjoy later. Now its time to tell you about everything I have baked and stocked my freezer with.

Speaking of investing in my baking journey, the next recipe required an investment that I am so glad I made, my baking stone. The recipe that called for the baking stone initially was for "pizza dough", I hesitated with this purchase and thought I could bake my pizzas on a sheet tray or in a cast iron pan like I had done before, but I wanted to tackle this recipe how the book instructed, and increase my comfortability handling dough and moving it in and out of the oven. I have since used this baking stone probably everyday since for my bread baking and I absolutely love it. The pizza dough recipe in this book was very easy to follow, the dough was easy to handle, and was easy to hold in the fridge overnight. I baked one pizza the day I mixed the dough and one pizza the next day after leaving the dough in the fridge for 24 hours.

Also requiring my baking stone, was the next recipe for "Spelt Pita". This pita came out deep in flavor while also soft and fluffy. I made some delicious roasted carrot hummus to serve alongside the pita. This book has required me to get creative with toppings and sides for my baked goods! This recipe required me to bake the pita rounds in quick 3-5 minute batches on the stone, flipping the dough and monitoring the doneness of various dough rounds while going in and out of the oven. I have since become much more comfortable taking my dough on and off of the stone, but when I was baking the pita, I hesitated and tore a few pieces of pita.

The "French Bread" recipe is the first in the book to introduce a Poolish. A poolish is a preferment that is mixed about 15 hours before the final dough is made to create a more complex flavor profile and create a creamy texture and mouthfeel for the bread (51). Techniques like preferments seemed intimidating to me before and a lot to keep track of, as well as folding my dough during the bulk fermentation. This recipe showed me the importance of those steps and how beneficial they can be to a final loaf.

The most frustrating recipe for me so far has been for "Ciabatta". This recipe starts with a Biga, another preferment. A biga has a lot less hydration than the poolish used in the last recipe. The biga rests at room temperature for 16 hours and gives a deep flavor to the bread with a lacy crumb (62). The dough was easy to mix, and came together well, my frustration came with shaping. The book reccommends three variations for this dough, focaccia, ciabatta rolls, and an olive rosemary ciabatta. This recipe yields three loaves, so I decided to make one third of the dough into a loaf of ciabatta bread, and the rest into a double batch of ciabatta rolls because I thought they would be useful to keep in the freezer for sandwhiches. The dough was very wet and sticky, and much harder to handle than the others I had made so far, and the book did not provide much information about shaping the rolls or the loaf. I was a sticky, floury mess, my oven was covered in burnt flower, my pizza peel that I used to get the bread in and out of the oven was covered in sticky dough, and my hands were caked in crusty flour. I probably won't make ciabatta again following this method and recipe without doing some prior research first about shaping and handling this dough- the bread was incredible, but not entirely worth the headache and flour-coated kitchen.

The next recipe also used a biga, but introduced inclusions, the "Rasin Pecan Bread" produced two beautiful boules of hearty and delicious bread. This dough had a blend of bread flour, whole wheat flour, and rye flour, it was fun to see the different texture in the dough and taste the difference in the final loaf. Mixing in the nuts and dried fruit was such a simple process and has given me the confidence to try some of my ideas for endless ways to enhance future loaves.

The final recipe in this chapter was for the masterclass on the "Unkneaded Six-Fold French Baguette". I invested in a baguette transfer peel and a couche to proof my baguettes as well. I have used both of these tools again, and will also probably return to this recipe. This recipe introduces baker's percentages, discusses how you can try different baking times for a different outcome, and also provides detailed instructions for shaping the baguettes. I was fairly satisfied with my baguettes, I just wish I had a larger baking stone, my loaves were a bit short and stout to fit the demensions of my baking stone.

That's a wrap on the Yeasted Breads chapter of the King Arthur Baking School book. I truly learned so much through baking my way through this first chapter of the book. I have gained increased confidence in handling dough, mixing doughs, proper temperatures of ingredients, evaluating doneness of something in the oven, and tackling my goals and trying something new. Next week I will share my thoughts from baking through Chapter 2: Sourdough.