grissini - breadstick

i've been an advocate for 100% wholemeal (whole wheat) flour all this while and every loaf of bread i bake these days are all 100% wholemeal.

however, some breads just don't work well with 100% wholemeal. or is it i guess i haven't found the right tweak yet. a recipe meant for white flour will need slight tweaking (usually just more water) to work with 100% wholemeal.

anyway, tried this breadstick (italians call it grissini. some stores sell grissini for rm12!) recipe before using wholemeal. it didn't work well. still too moist, too chewy rather than crispy.

with white flour, it worked fine.

• 225 gm or 2 cups white flour - best is the organic variety which comes unbleached as well
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 135 gm or 2/3 cup water
• some olive oil, sesame seeds, cut olives or whatever you desire
  

mix flour, yeast, water and salt in this order. knead a few minutes. let it rise for an hour.

divide into eights. stretch and roll until long, thin and slender. roll on a plate of sesame seeds and cut olives. then drizzle with olive oil and place on an oiled baking sheet.

the recipe says you should get 20 grissinis but i got 12 i think. guess they are long but fat. hey, looks like me! okay, i'm not that tall if you are wondering.

bake at 200c for 15-20 minutes. or till golden brown. if need to, turn over the breadsticks at the last few minutes so that they brown evenly. nah, i didn't bother.


one last tip : don't stinge on the ingredients. it shows in the final product.

current favourite bread recipe

have been baking over 30 loaves with this recipe and absolutely love it!

baked various types too, ranging from rosemary raisin to multi-seed to 100% whole wheat. and this recipe just works great. no wonder richard bertinent says it's his favourite bread recipe.

actual recipe is for a ciabatta but found that could be used for all types of breads. it's a very wet dough so you need a dough knife/scraper as well as the "stretch and fold" technique shown by mr bertinent in this video here.

ferment
350gm flour
180gm water
2gm instant yeast  (i use less than 1/4 teaspoon)

baking day
450gm flour 
360gm water
50gm olive oil  (okay to use less)
10gm instant yeast  (i use slightly less than 1 teaspoon)
15gm salt  (i use only 11gm)

mix all the ingredients of the ferment and let it sit for 17-24 hours. it's quite a dry ferment as it's only 50% hydration. if it's too dry, add a bit more water. try 2 tablespoon each time.

mix everything on baking day, then "stretch and fold". it's a very very wet dough so you definitely need a dough knife.

do not flour the work surface. the dough will stick somewhat to the surface but as you work on it, it slowly gains shape and less and less of it sticks to the table. [watch the video!]

let it prove for an hour, then divide and prepare to bake!

the oven should be pre-heated to 250c. before placing dough in, squirt at least 15-20 times of water into the oven to create enough steam.

place dough in and squirt another few times. 5 minutes later, reduce heat to 220c and bake for additional 15 minutes or until golden brown.

note, no honey/sugar is used but bread still has a golden hue. this is due to the natural solutions developed during the fermentation process.

mr bertinent recommends 20gm less water for rainy days (humid weather) but his recipe is all white flour. if you use whole wheat, you may use same amount of water. when i bake with 100% whole wheat flour, the consistency feels a bit "dry". it's still a wet dough by any standards but after working with wet dough, this feels a little "dry"!

there you go. enjoy this recipe! enjoy the crust, the most delicious bread crust!

bread stick

of all the various mailing lists i'm on, very few i look forward to. most are just sales talk, hype etc. the only one i really look forward to, and the only one which i learn a lot every time i read them, is the king arthur flour's mailing list. the last issue that came into my mailbox talked about baking soft bread sticks.

that seems like another excuse to bake bread! but typical of me, went for 100% wholemeal.

i used basil (just love this herb!) and oregano as dried herbs and sprinkled olive oil and some sea salt before baking.

then cut them into slices (the scissors tip is a good one!) and baked them again for 5-10 minutes.

these are great for mopping up sauces, gravies, curries... or just slath on some jam/butter. or just eat it on its own!

actually come to think of it, if it's a little thinner, it's pizza bread!
if it's a little thicker and not cut into slices, it's like foccacia!

anyway, there'll be kids coming over to our house later this afternoon. let's see how they like it. let's see if i could bribe them to keep quiet and stop bumping my stuffs around... tall order i know!

sun-dried tomato bread

in a previous blog, i talked about how i sun dried some tomatoes. it was really fun! and our car smelled nice for a few days...

so the next step is to bake bread with it.

the thing with me though, i never really plan out things to do. just go with the flow! so this time just before baking bread, found that i dont' have enough flour for the regular 2 loaves of bread. dang! so had to improvise.

• 5 cups of flour - 3.5 cup wholemeal + 1.5 cup rye  (because i ran out of wholemeal)
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp honey
  
• 2.5 cups of warm water

the above is your basic bread recipe. i usually bake 2 loaves so have to use 6 cups of wholemeal but have so little left, so opted for just a single bigger loaf with more rye. of course you could use your regular basic bread recipe

it's the next part that's interesting.

• 1/2 cup or more of sun dried tomatoes. cut into smaller pieces. a pair of scissors is very handy here.
• 1 or 2 small cloves of garlic, minced.
• some dried herbs. went for 1 tsp oregano + 1 tsp basil. use whatever you have.
• some olive oil from the sun dried tomatoes. after a day or two of soaking the tomatoes, the oil now has a slight reddish tint to it.

knead in this ingredient to the bread combo. actually, it's more like "squeeze" rather than knead in. of course you could vary with more tomatoes or garlic, depending on you!

the resultant dough should be fairly wet and oily. and smells heavenly!

an hour or two later, the dough should have doubled or even tripled in volume. cut into 2 equal portions, shape it, place on an oiled pan (or loaf tin) and wait for another hour or so.

then bake it! i didn't use a loaf tin here so baked it at 180c for about 25 minutes,  or until desired "golden brownish".

this bread tastes fantastic! somehow the flavour of the tomatoes, herbs, garlic and oil all seap in to the bread and you have one hell of a good tasting bread! smells and tastes great!

this is another of our favourite now. no doubt about it! will do more in future.

will also list out our favourite breads here soon...

have not been experimenting much with bread these days...

... probably because i've been baking the same recipe over and over again!

can't seem to tire of current favourite. with more practice and experience, every loaf is getting more and more consistent! also, realized that we have gone 100% white flour free!


100% no white flour, wholemeal and rye bread

• 3 cups of wholemeal (whole wheat) flour
• 1 cup of rye flour
• 1-2 tbsp of honey
• 1/2 tsp of instant yeast
• 1 tsp salt
  
• about 1 cup full of seeds - sunflower seed, pumpkin seed and flaxseed.
• approximately 2 cups of water

have been using the same  recipe above for couple weeks now. only differ in the technique.

1. if you have time... try the biga method. mix 1 cup of rye flour, 1/4 tsp of yeast and 3/4 cup of water. let it sit overnight (12-16 hours). then mix the rest of the ingredients the next day.
2. if you don't have time at all. use the same above but increase to 1 tsp instant yeast. go for single rise.
3. if you have some time but not too much. then mix all the above. let it sit for 3 hours or until doubled in size. then stretch the dough and let it sit for another hour. go for 2 rises.

in all cases, i don't knead at all! there's not much gluten as there's no white flour at all so save your energy. instead let the yeast, water and father time do the work. you'll notice the dough will be kind of wet anyway so you still want to knead this glob of mess?

err, the amount of water is just a rough guide. the dough should feel kind of wet. if it looks a bit dry, add 2 tablespoons of water. in any case, should you decide you need more water, add in increments of 2 tablespoons.

before baking, sprinkle a liberal dose of seeds on top of the dough. some rolled oats look really good too!

as before, bake in a covered tin pan at 180C for 30 minutes, then remove cover and bake for another 15 minutes.

sorry, no pics. by the time i finished this loaf, it was kind of late. but it looks not much different from the other loafs of the approximately same recipe.

more reasons to go wholemeal

the original grant loaf called for 100% wholemeal flour. i went half wholemeal, half white for a lighter loaf but she is right to call for all wholemeal.

on this site, found out this interesting bit about her.

In the case of the nutritionist Doris Grant, who lived to be 98 and advocated the consumption of organic vegetables and wholemeal flour, it might be said that she practised what she preached. The inventor of the ‘Grant loaf’, she advised British women that ‘if you love your husbands, keep them away from white bread ... If you don't love them, cyanide is quicker but bleached bread is just as certain, and no questions asked.’

ok, i was an idiot to assume she's a housewive. sorry.

but she is certainly right! now 100% wholemeal is quite chewy and won't be as light as store bought bread but the additional fibre and nutrients (and great taste!) more than makes up for it.

if you have to use white, then at the very least go for the unbleached type. many organic stores sell this variety so you really have no excuse.

unless you intend to benefit from a big fat insurance policy at the expense of your better half...

multi-seed wholemeal with more pics

told you i can't have enough of those multi-seed bread...

this time i made 4 loaves, using the same method but with different ingredients.


multi-seed wholemeal

overnight sponge

• 1 cup of wholemeal
• 3/4 cup water
  
• slightly less than 1/4 tsp instant yeast

i mixed this about 9pm saturday nighte.

this is what it looks like 9am sunday morning.

it has risen and collapsed. it has a faint sweet smell.

on baking day, mix with

• 1 cup wholemeal
• 2 cups of white bread flour
• 3/4 cup soaked in warm water mixture of flaxseed, pumpkin seed and sunflower seed
• 1/4 tsp instant yeast
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 3 tbsp honey
• and suitable amount of water until dough "feels sticky"

after kneading for about 20 minutes, here it is in a dusted plastic container.

 2 hours later...

you could see the dough has grown quite a lot!



so take it out, proof it, shape it... you should know the drill by now. otherwise click on the "basic bread recipe" tags on the right.

baked at 180c for 20-25 minutes, or until desired "golden browness". 

voila!

bread baking is so easy!

went crazy with wholemeal and biga!

using the "better basic bread recipe", i went nuts and got on a bread-baking spree.

since this method is so much more fun, i decided to redo all our favourite bread recipes using this method and see how it goes.

all i can say is it works well with all our bread recipes! told you bread baking is easy!

first off, tried the rosemary raisin. used 1/2 wholemeal and 1/2 white. excellent! still our favourite bread.

then tried a plain wholemeal bread. my wife's company organized a potluck and they asked for my bread. hmm... either i'm doing something right or they are just to size me up. see whether i'm all hot air!

2 cups wholemeal flour


2 cups white flour















then tried the multi-grain again. again! but this time, went a bit nuts. went 100% wholemeal!

if you ever bake bread before, you know it's always a better idea to bake with some portion of white bread flour as it develops gluten better.

100% wholemeal is more difficult and the dough needs lots of encouragement.

i dared to try this as we have yeast on steroids! yes, using the pre-ferment method, the biga method.





pleased to tell you that this bread turned out very well. denser and chewier than those made with some proportion of white flour but it sure tastes divine!

all in all, this is the method i'm going to use for all future bread baking. highly recommended!

a tale of 2 foccacias

i was browsing peter reinhart's book on bread baking and got me interested in his foccacia. a search on the net shows a few folks have baked it, ate it and blogged it! best instructions came from annie's eats so i'd rather not repeat here.

i did 2 versions though, both the white and wholemeal versions. at the same time.

i started at 6pm and took out dough from oven at 12.30am! my wife said if only i work so hard in my day job... hate what do you mean?!


white foccacia

• 5 cups unbleached high-gluten or bread flour
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. yeast
• 6 tbsp. olive oil
• 2 cups water, at room temperature
• ¼ to ½ cup herb oil 

i used less salt and less yeast, and also less herb oil. having made foccacia couple of times, the herb oil is new to me. however, messy/disorganized me have only rosemary and oreganos, so have to make do with just these 2 herbs.


white foccacia just before baking.

during second rise, i spread out the dough as wide as possible, then made all the dimples using my fingers. herbed olive oil goes on top.

there were hell more dimples i made but after 90 minutes, the dough grew more and obscured some of the holes.




 wholemeal foccacia

• 4 cups of wholemeal (i didn't have enough wholemeal so went for 2 cups wholemeal + 2 cups white)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp yeast
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cups water (actually you need a little less than this)
• ¼ to ½ cup herb oil 

for the wholemeal foccacia, i made a mistake and used 2 cups of water. it was a very wet dough and i had a mess trying to knead it! in fact, it wasn't kneading at all, just stretching and keeping dough off my fingers.

wholemeal foccacia just before baking.

oh yeah, sprinkle some salt (table salt or sea salt, up to you) on the dough before baking.

the salt brought up a bit more flavour to the whole mix.

the recipe calls for quite a lot of herb oil on the dough. err, it's better to go less. just sufficient to cover the dough.

white foccacia!

wholemeal foccacia!

both taste wonderful! 

feel free to sprinkle some salt before serving.