Testing the limits

27Feb08

A little while ago, I was reading in Harold McGee’s On Food and Cooking that the notion of holding bread in the refrigerator (or some other cold place) was formalized by the Viennese bakers at the turn of the 20th century.  They did this because (in a nutshell), working all night baking bread for the morning rush is tough, and if you can do it the evening before and then bake off in the morning, you are not kneading dough at 3am.  I think that we can all get behind this concept.I wanted to make up a recipe, just to see what would happen.  I decided that I wanted to make a potato-poppy seed bread, so, triangulating my ingredients between recipes by Reinhart and Hensperger, with input from McGee (for proportions and the why of it all), I created a new recipe.  Now, granted, potato-poppy seed bread is hardly revolutionary, but I learned something along the way– namely, that you can use your refrigerator to adjust bread baking to your busy schedule.This had kind of occurred to me before, since Reinhart is such a big fan of the slow rise, but I was still always working according to his schedule.  This time, I was making it up as I went along anyway, and my weekend got a little hectic, so I tried two new things at once.  Usually, this results in some sort of mishap– flat bread (as opposed to flatbread), undercooking, random weird burns on my hands– but this time, things seemed to work out. Potato-Poppy Seed BreadFirst step: Boil a russet potato in unsalted water until soft.  Save the water.Sponge:1½  c. potato water (room temperature)½  c. soy milk (You could substitute milk-milk, I just don’t swing that way.  Or even more potato water.)½  t. instant yeast2 c. bread flourMix these ingredients together– the texture will be like a thick batter.  Ideally, you would let it ferment for an hour or two at room temperature, then refrigerate.  However, I got to this late at night, so had just enough time to mix and then shove the bowl in the fridge before falling deeply asleep.  No matter, though.The next morning, take the bowl out of the fridge and let it come to room temperature.  If, like me, you immediately chilled it after mixing, let it sit for an hour or so to let the yeast do its thing.  Then add the rest of the ingredients.Dough:1 russet potato, without skin, mashed or riced (a potato ricer is fab for this, leaving no big chunks of potato to mess up your bread’s texture)2 T. corn oil (you could sub melted butter)1 T. sugar (I added this because I was slightly panicked that my sponge looked a bit flat– probably didn’t need it, but what the heck)1 T. saltIn the mixer, using the paddle attachment, add these ingredients into the sponge, then add 2½ – 3 cups of bread flour and ¼ cup of poppy seeds.  Switch to the dough hook when the dough begins to form.   You want the dough to be tacky, not dry– it should stick to the bottom of the mixing bowl, but not really the sides.  Knead with the dough hook for about five minutes, then oil a bowl and move the dough into it.  Mist with oil and cover with plastic wrap.So, in an ideal world, you would let it rise again, then form loaves, another rise, and then pop it into the oven.  Three hours, tops.  This is where the involuntary experimentation begins.  At this point, I was on my way out of the house to see a movie, which in San Francisco takes forever, even if you are driving.  There is the getting to the theater either on foot or by the rarely-reliable Muni, or driving and finding a parking place, then arriving early because you are sure that people will be lining up to see There Will Be Blood on its third week of release (they weren’t), then the previews, ads, movie, and getting home.  Then there was the unexpected early dinner (ramen) and trip to the Japanese hardware store to look at small saws and lathes.  Even without the ramen-and-unusual hand tool addition, it’s still a solid three hours, maybe even four– we take moviegoing very seriously in this house.But I digress.  I knew that I’d be gone way too long to let the bread sit out– bread that rises too much turns out flat in the end.  So I stuck it back in the refrigerator with the idea that I’d come home after the movie, let the dough sit out and rise, then form loaves, let rise again, and then bake it off.  No problem.Except that (1) hand tools are interesting, (2) ramen still takes a while to eat, and (3) the movie was pretty long.  We arrived home after 7pm.  Since I fall into a coma around 10, my rudimentary math skills told me that no bread would be baked tonight.  A bread recipe that, in theory, could be finished in a day was now looking like a three-day affair.With this in mind, I let the bread sit out for about two hours (one hour to bring it to room temperature, another to let it rise), then formed loaves and, you guessed it, stuck it back in the fridge.The following morning I took the bread back out and let it once again sit out, come to room temperature, rise, etc.  This took up another hour or two, during which I also preheated the oven (375°F)– multitasking is fun!  After about 40 minutes I checked the bread for doneness, using my eagle eye and a digital thermometer.  This was the result:This was remarkably successful.  The extra-long rise added flavor and a nice texture.  I guess that the lesson was this– if you give the dough time to come to room temperature and rise, and you don’t go completely crazy with the chilling, and (most important) you have room in your refrigerator, you can make bread fit into your schedule.  This extended rise actually improved the bread (at least, that’s my guess).  And I got to see a movie and sleep and everything.  Hurray!

Filed under: Uncategorized   |  Leave a Comment
Tags: experimentation, long rise, potatoes