Take Four: Babka, Streusel & Cheese

I'm telling you I followed the recipe exactly as written--I also just discovered there is a proof function on the oven--*sigh*--and I had to crank the oven up, way up and the baking time is nearly doubled. Where did I go wrong? I hope this is a 2016 finale, and not a sign of what is to come, which would possibly a cheesy mess? 

I made a Streusel & Cheese Babka from Uri Scheft's Breaking Breads. Or rather I should say, I got a version of it. As I type, the babka "thing" is cooling. I used King Arthur Cake Flour (unbleached) and their AP flour for the streusel.

Before going into the oven (I let the dough prove for an hour)

Close up of the raw streusel top (butter, flour, sugar, vanilla extract)

Edible concoction? Baked for approximately 30 minutes in total, anywhere from 325 degrees F to 400 degrees F convection

Edible concoction? 

UPDATE: I am not thrilled with this babka dessert by any means. The texture of the streusel and cheese layers are great, but the babka cake is dry and didn't rise much, if at all. I'm wondering if I kneaded the dough incorrectly, or if I rolled it out too much (deflating the CO2 from the dough). The flavor is a bit bland for my taste. I even added additional citrus, some grated orange peel, but it seems like it would be happier with a layer of lemon curd, or something. Seriously, it needs some personality. I think I'll try plopping some apricot jam on the top tomorrow.

Also, it's New Year's Eve and I'll be serving this babka sheet as dessert (eventually with some powdered sugar on top) to my family. I'm not big on holidays; I have anxiety, which isn't new if you've read my other blog(s) or know of me through some other avenue, about whether or not I'll get up in the morning. As I've mentioned before, I've found some solace, or so I thought, in baking. I'm kidding, about the babka; it smells delicious and I know what I put into it tasted good. But about myself, I've almost been meditating for a full year, but have gotten away from longer meditations lately. I won't be setting any resolutions. January 1st is another day. Change can occur at any moment and I certainly don't need to be lumped in with basic bitches, whatever they are. I will say that instead of my usual, "I wanna lose the 20 pounds," I'd rather do more and have more fun in 2017. I'd like to create many more delicious things to share, and hopefully, those things I've wanted will come along anyway. 

Happy New Year! xoxo 

Ari

Take Three: Babka, Chocolate Hazelnut

What's better than chocolate and hazelnuts and butter? I'll tell ya. When it's baked into a babka, a Polish / Ukrainian cake bread, that is! Is it Jewish, you may ask? Why, yes. Yes, it is. I've pictorially recorded the process that happened a few days ago. Once again, I used King Arthur (AP) Flour for the dough. Since I ended up with two babka, I split the free form babka creation in two and surprised the neighbors. Let's just say it went over.

Picture 1 (top left) and 2 (top right) are of the dough on Day 1. Picture 3 (->) is after I let the dough rest and ferment overnight in the fridge. The dough rose more than I expected.

The chocolate mixture in Pictures 4 and 5 include semi-sweet chips and chopped hazelnuts, with extra butter. I toasted the hazelnuts before chopping them.

The texture of the chocolate swirl was perfect; the temper on the chocolate left the consistency soft and pliable, and not at all chalky.

The Krantz Cake method was used for the design/construction for the dough placed in the loaf pan. I made a second babka, and placed it on a parchment on a half sheet pan. In the final picture, you can see the babka with the simple vanilla sugar glaze. I didn't want to overdue it with the glaze, as the glaze should complement the babka, not steal the thunder.

Talk about stealing the thunder, baking has gotten me to think about my life, more so than before. I think I've been saying I'm having a quarter life crisis for the last five years and I've found some content in the kitchen. To be frank, I had the hardest time cutting into this babka, although I've been perfectly able to eat it. The glazed babka looked beautiful, what I imagined to be right out of a magazine, but I also found myself filled with a sort of happiness and fulfillment, bordering on gratitude for having created something so delectable and so purposeful, which I haven't felt since I was in university. Is this a simplified version of feeling as one does giving life to human spawn? I suppose it's a flicker of that, but I have not had this feeling in any sort of job I've held. Maybe I do not feel as though I am creating anything worth while in the corporate environment. I think I'm struggling to find direction at work, and I just get baking. I suppose I am more creative than I would like to admit. That baking is both creating something lovely and inherently impermanent yet functional, is quite meaningful and fulfilling for me and delightful for those who partake in my edible creations.

In an effort to expand my baking horizons, I ended up a book store today and managed, magically, to score two fantastic books: Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice and Uri Scheft's Breaking Breads. I then ran over to the grocer to pick up some cake flour for a Streusel Cheese Babka in Scheft's book. Gotta go make the dough tonight! But let me return to  my previous statement. I was wondering, "what exactly is cake flour?" And do I really need it? I understand the protein concentrations vary, which I guess means the different flours do function differently. Protein content is another  topic for another post for another time.

Take Two: Bread, French, Pate Fermentee, Lean Dough

So I did what I set out to do. I made pate fermentee last Sunday afternoon. I watched the lil baby dough bolus grow for three days. I planned on bringing freshly baked loaves into work, but my coworkers decided to work from home. I ended up giving one baguette away to the neighbors, which I heard inhaled it in ten minutes. That's the problem with bread; it's damn delicious and goes down way too easy. 

One thing I failed to mention was that you really do need to measure the temp of the water, since the pate fermentee is coming from the refrigerator. 

 1. Pate fermentee (454 grams) with the King Arthur Bread Flour, salt, and yeast. I dumped the water in after I took the picture. I weighed out the pate fermentee, but it turns out you can use really any amount, considering it already has the yeast, water and salt it needed. I ended up with over two pounds of bread after the double bake load, so I'd probably make less next time...not that I really dislike having ten plus loaves of bread...it's just I don't need all that!

2. Here's the glorious dough ball going for a spin in the KitchenAid. Make sure the pin in your mixer is tight, or you'll have the mixer gyrating and flour flying everywhere.

  

3. Here's the majestic dough ball after the first stretch and fold. Oh my, how bouncy thy are. I'm going to skip over the second batch story, where I burst into tears because I added too much water to the shaggy dough. Let's just say I was a mess, and could have really used the bench scrape I ordered, which arrived one day too late as well. 

4. Here are the baguettes proving. I happened to get my linen couche the day after making these. I also got a banneton proving backed as well. I'll be reviewing these items, with accompanying photos, in a separate post. Instead of a bread lame, I used a serrated knife. Again, I didn't get ears or even definition really. Maybe my angle was off? 

5. Here is the finished product. Delicious! I've frozen some of the loaves, including the boule you see in the bottom left. 

Take One: Bread, French, Lean dough

Three French Baguettes

Can you say baking bread five times fast? I cannot, but welcome to the first installment of posts on Color & Crisp, a brand new baby blog about baking. Yes, that's right, folks. This is a blog strictly for baking and making foods. No melancholic posts, unless about a baked good gone bad. I'm sure you're wondering what I used to make these fantastic 18" thick sticks of pure heaven.

Ingredients: King Arthur Bread Flour. RapidRise Instant Yeast, it's gotta be Kosher Salt, room temp water

Tools: KitchenAid Mixer, or if you want to be old school, one mixing bowl and wooden spoon, clean surface (ahem, bamboo cutting board from Ikea, a section of granite, etc.), a bowl scraper & pastry cutter

(I didn't have either but they say these tools make bread making easier), plastic wrap and sheet pans with parchment paper. because I don't have any couches, olive oil, bread lame (didn't have this either), small tea towels, small mixing bowls for fermentation times, non stick spray.

French Boule Loaf

I caved and bought a handful of classes on Craftsy.com, including this one bread course taught by Peter Reinhart. I watched Peter's class for a good four hours last Sunday morning, and decided to give the dough a go at noon. To cut the story short, I had finished product at 5 PM that day, and was practically late to a date. Common misconceptions about bread making, as I know thus far, including the fact that not once did I knead the dough. The contemporary method is the stretch & fold process. I was thinking I'd get to pound and punch a sticky ball of "shaggy" dough, but I was wrong. Very wrong. There's none of that, unless I'm doing a boxing workout at the gym and I'm being punched in the gut. Interestingly, Peter never explicitly explained how long one should bake the cake, I mean bread. Depending on the shape, does baking take more or less time? I suppose I went rogue with my proved dough. I'm not even entirely sure what over, under, or just right "proofed" dough is. I just kept poking the dough with my index finger, looking for springiness. I guess my guess was good enough, if not right on. I baked the dough on a parchment sheet on the half sheet on convection bake 500 degrees or 260 degrees Celsius, for five minutes, having immediately poured a cup or two of water into the preheated sheet pan on the bottom rack (to create a steamy sauna for my lovelies.) I swear I watched the dough bloom and I eeked like a fangirl. After five minutes, I turned the temp down to 450 degrees Fahrenheit, and turned them after six minutes. I'd say they baked for a total of 21 minutes, unless I was so enthralled I have miscalculated.

I can tell you I was looking for that hollow sound when I thumped the baguette on the counter, and I got it. Each baguette and my baby boule had a nice rich brown color, and I could feel the crisp too.

Was I successful you may ask? *%$@ yeah! These bread babies didn't last more than 72 hours, and I didn't even mention how the crumb was fantastically dotted with medium and large-sized irregular holes. Those are what Peter calls artisanal characteristics, and let me tell you, I haven't had better bread; other than when I was in Europe.

I'll be attempting a pate fermentee very soon, and I cannot wait to eat it.