Friday, January 16, 2015

Whole Wheat with Biga

For 13in Pullman Pan

A biga is simply a portion of dough made ahead of time and allowed to age and develop flavor before putting together the final version of the dough.

Biga
6.25 oz Bread Flour
1/2 cup water
1 1/4 tsp Breadmachine Yeast

Dough
23oz Whole Wheat Flour
2 cups Warm Water
2 1/2 tbsp Honey
3/4 tsp Breadmachine Yeast
1 tbsp Salt
Biga

Mix the Biga ingredients. Place in an enclosed container coated in cooking spray. Refrigerate overnight.

Remove Biga from refrigeration. Punch down flat and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Add cubed Biga and all remaining ingredients into bread mixer. Mix slowly until most of the flour is incorporated into the dough. Raise speed a little faster (Kitchen Aid speed 2). Mix for 6 minutes.

Spray your mixer bowl with cooking spray, Form the dough into a ball and place back into the mixing bowl. cover the bowl and let rise until doubled. This will take about 1 hour if you put it in an oven that is turned off, but has the light on.

Spray cooking spray on all interior surfaces of the Pullman Pan. Don't forget the lid.
Form the dough into a long tube that will fill up all of the bottom of the pan. Place in the pan, and using a silicone spatula, press the dough into the corners. Press the top to get a relatively smooth surface. Lastly, push down the middle 1/3 of the dough a little to counteract the tendency for the dough to rise higher in the middle. Spray the top of the dough with cooking spray, then slide the lid on the pan, but leave about 1 inch open so you can see the rise progress. Let rise again

After about 30 minutes of rising, take the pan out of the oven and preheat it to 400F. Start watching the rise of the dough about every 5 to 10 minutes. The rest of this procedure is all about timing. When the dough is about 1/2 inch away from the top, slide the lid closed and begin baking. This bread should take about 50 minutes to bake. When finished, check the internal temperature with a probe thermometer. It should read at least 205F. If it isn't hot enough, bake a few more minutes and check again.

Cool 2 hours on a cooling rack before slicing unless the entire loaf will be eaten warm.
Yields 16 slices.



Nutrition Facts
Servings 16.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 191
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 1 g 1 %
Saturated Fat 0 g 1 %
Monounsaturated Fat 0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg 0 %
Sodium 445 mg 19 %
Potassium 189 mg 5 %
Total Carbohydrate 41 g 14 %
Dietary Fiber 5 g 20 %
Sugars 3 g
Protein 7 g 15 %
Vitamin A 0 %
Vitamin C 0 %
Calcium 1 %
Iron 12 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

Friday, January 9, 2015

Basic Lean Whole Wheat Bread

for 13in Pullman Pan

A good neutral flavor bread that can work well with sweet or savory spreads or for sandwiches.

20oz Bread Flour
13oz Whole Wheat Flour
4 tsp Bread Machine Yeast
24oz Warm Water
2 tsp Salt

Mix Flours and Yeast together, then add Salt and Water.
Mix low (Kitchen Aid speed 1) for 3 minutes, then raise the speed a notch (kitchen Aid speed 2) and mix another 3 minutes.

Spray your mixer bowl with cooking spray, Form the dough into a ball and place back into the mixing bowl. cover the bowl and let rise until doubled. This will take about 45 minutes if you put it in an oven that is turned off, but has the light on.

Spray cooking spray on all interior surfaces of the Pullman Pan. Don't forget the lid.
Form the dough into a long tube that will fill up all of the bottom of the pan. Place in the pan, and using a silicone spatula, press the dough into the corners. Press the top to get a relatively smooth surface. Lastly, push down the middle 1/3 of the dough a little to counteract the tendency for the dough to rise higher in the middle. Spray the top of the dough with cooking spray, then slide the lid on the pan, but leave about 1 inch open so you can see the rise progress. Let rise again

After about 20 minutes of rising, take the pan out of the oven and preheat it to 400F. Start watching the rise of the dough about every 5 to 10 minutes. The rest of this procedure is all about timing. When the dough is about 1/2 inch away from the top, slide the lid closed and begin baking. This bread should take about 45 minutes to bake. When finished, check the internal temperature with a probe thermometer. It should read at least 205F. If it isn't hot enough, bake a few more minutes and check again.

Cool 2 hours on a cooling rack before slicing unless the entire loaf will be eaten warm.
Yields 16 slices.


Nutrition Facts
Servings 16.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 209
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 0 g 1 %
Saturated Fat 0 g 0 %
Monounsaturated Fat 0 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 0 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg 0 %
Sodium 296 mg 12 %
Potassium 148 mg 4 %
Total Carbohydrate 43 g 14 %
Dietary Fiber 3 g 12 %
Sugars 0 g
Protein 8 g 16 %
Vitamin A 0 %
Vitamin C 0 %
Calcium 1 %
Iron 13 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.

Thursday, January 8, 2015

Honey Wheat Beer Bread

for 13in Pullman Pan

1 lb Whole Wheat Flour
9 oz Bread Flour
2 1/2 tsp Bread Machine Yeast
2 oz Warm Water
1 tsp Salt
12 oz Beer (warm)
2oz Vegetable Oil
2oz Honey

Mix Beer and Wheat Flour until smooth. Cover and let sit 30 min. This soaking method is called "autolyse" and will soften the grains of the whole wheat, which gives the bread a softer texture.

Make a dent in the top of the beer/wheat mix and pour in the water and yeast. When the yeast is moist after a couple of minutes, add all remaining ingredients. Mix for 10 minutes (Kitchen Aid mixer speed 2).

Spray your mixer bowl with cooking spray, Form the dough into a ball and place back into the mixing bowl. cover the bowl and let rise until doubled. This will take about 1 hour if you put it in an oven that is turned off, but has the light on.

Spray cooking spray on all interior surfaces of the Pullman Pan. Don't forget the lid.
Form the dough into a long tube that will fill up all of the bottom of the pan. Place in the pan, and using a silicone spatula, press the dough into the corners. Press the top to get a relatively smooth surface. Lastly, push down the middle 1/3 of the dough a little to counteract the tendency for the dough to rise higher in the middle. Spray the top of the dough with cooking spray, then slide the lid on the pan, but leave about 1 inch open so you can see the rise progress. Let rise again

After about 30 minutes of rising, take the pan out of the oven and preheat it to 375F. Start watching the rise of the dough about every 10 minutes. The rest of this procedure is all about timing. When the dough is about 1/2 inch away from the top, slide the lid closed and begin baking. This bread should take about 45 minutes to bake. When finished, check the internal temperature with a probe thermometer. It should read at least 185F. If it isnt hot enough, bake a few more minutes and check again.

Cool 2 hours on a cooling rack before slicing unless the entire loaf will be eaten warm.
Yields 16 slices.

Nutrition Facts
Servings 16.0
Amount Per Serving
calories 212
% Daily Value *
Total Fat 4 g 6 %
Saturated Fat 0 g 2 %
Monounsaturated Fat 2 g
Polyunsaturated Fat 1 g
Trans Fat 0 g
Cholesterol 0 mg 0 %
Sodium 147 mg 6 %
Potassium 134 mg 4 %
Total Carbohydrate 38 g 13 %
Dietary Fiber 4 g 15 %
Sugars 4 g
Protein 6 g 12 %
Vitamin A 0 %
Vitamin C 0 %
Calcium 1 %
Iron 9 %
* The Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet, so your values may change depending on your calorie needs. The values here may not be 100% accurate because the recipes have not been professionally evaluated nor have they been evaluated by the U.S. FDA.     

Baking to the correct internal temperature

Rich breads (breads with egg, milk, cream, oil, or butter) need to bake until the internal temperature is about 185F.
Lean breads (breads with no added eggs or fats) need to bake until the internal temperature is about 205F.

Take your best guess the first time you bake a particular bread. Outside of the oven, use a probe thermometer to check the internal temperature of the bread. If the temperature is a little low, bake it about 5 minutes more then check again.

Breads that are not cooked to these temperatures will go stale faster, and may upset your stomach.


The Pan

I use a 13in Pullman pan made by USA Pans. All the recipes are measured for this size of pan. Each loaf will yield 16 slices. This manufacturer also makes a 9 inch pan which has 70% of the volume that the 13in pan has. Volume (pan) and density (dough weight) are clearly different things, but if you multiply all measurements of one of these recipes by 0.7 you will have a good start at a suitable recipe for the 9 inch pan.