BBA Challenge – Bagels

The BBA Challenge is moving along nicely! What this is all about is to bake every single recipe in Peter Reinhart's book Bread Baker's Apprentice. More than 200 bread lovers around the world are engaged in this, sharing findings, successes and failures on blogs, Flickr, Facebook, Twitter and a Google mailing list. (Wow, that really sounds serious, how did I end up in this anyway?) The founder if this adventure is Nicole of Pinch My Salt, who had never dreamt of such interest, but nevertheless has taken on all the administration and management that a group this size requires.

Time for recipe #3, bagels. Our whole family loves bagels. I have actually baked bagels once a long time ago, and as I remembered it, the result was good, but it was quite complicated so I didn't think I'd bother to bake them again. But that was a looong time ago, and of course I'll bake them again, now with Peter Reinhart and the BBA group there to hold my hand.

What makes bagels so special is that you boil them before baking. That makes them chewy in a very special way. According to Peter Reinhart, a true bagel shall also retard in the fridge at least one night before it's baked. The long and slow fermentation lets the flavours develop to the fullest.

I cheated on one thing, and that was substituting honey for malt, which you can't find easily in Sweden. However, I know some online stores where it can be bought, so next time I will do it all correct.

The night before, the bagels are ready to be tucked away in the fridge over night.

In the morning, have just taken out the bagels from the fridge (and removed the plastic film that covered them).

Preparing the toppings: blue poppy seeds, sesame seeds and a herbs & salt mixture.

The first real question mark appeared here: when boiling the bagels, you are supposed to add 1 tbsp of baking soda. And I only had 1/2 tbsp. Would that mean disaster? I threw out a quick question on Twitter, but foolishly didn't hang around to wait for answers, I just let the bagels take a swim with half the amount of baking soda.

When I checked again, a twitter from Wendy of Pink Stripes pointed me to the introduction of the bagel chapter in the BBA, where PR explains which additions to the boiling water that can be used, and why he recommends baking soda. Well, I could have thought of actually reading the book, don't you think?

According to Peter Reinhart, there are many views on what you should add to the water, but the most important factor is actually the time that the bagels spend in the water. However, the baking soda alkalizes the water, which affects the starch on the surface so that a little more shine is added.

Apparently, no big deal about the missing half tbsp of baking soda!

Boiling the bagels, three at a time, one minute on each side.

They look like me when I have been in the bathtub too long!

Add the topping as soon as they come up from the bath.

Three bagels without topping as per my husband's request.

Six bagels on each sheet, means baking two sheets at once, that'll be interesting. PR suggests baking them 5 minutes, then let the sheets shift places AND rotate them, and bake another 5 minutes. Swedish electrical ovens are quite small, bit our oven happens to have a hot air function which I used here. I lowered the temp a bit to compensate for that.

And I have to say I'm pretty pleased by the result! They are by no means perfect, but that's not really my ambition.

Which one shall I taste first?

Mmm, I think I'll start with a poppy seed bagel ...

... with philadelphia cheese, serrano ham, rocket and tomatoes.

And one with blueberry jam, and one with cherry preserve.

Unfortunately I chose a bagel with herbs & salt for the sweet ones: blueberry + herbs + salt made an interesting combination! The cherries went on the underside of the bagel, which meant no interference there.

BBA – Christopsomos

Yesterday, I made the second recipe in Peter Reinhart's Bread Baker's Apprentice which was Artos. I chose to make the Christopsomos style – well, because it involves more goodies of course!

I have an insane schedule today, so I'll let the pictures speakt for themselves most of the time:

I used sourdough starter and organic wheat flour from ICA (only another Scandinavian would know what I mean by that) and the result was a very loose dough. After adding an extra 100 grams flour things looked better:

Now, this is what I like to see in my DLX:

Adding goodies. Had no walnuts, so substituted hazelnuts and almonds. Golden raisins, dried apricots and figs:

Put dough in oiled container:

This is where I put all my doughs to rise. It's very handy because I can place the container anywhere, and even place things on top of it.

After first rise:

2/3 of the dough becomes a boule, 1/3 goes into the fridge.

Made 2 strands out of the chilled dough – appr. 40 cm/15".

Shaping the Christopsomos:

Ready to bake:

Oops, only 15 minutes in the oven and already brown – covered with aluminum foil rest of the time.

After about 40 minutes, the inner temperature had reached 87 °C. It was teared on top, I don't know why really and how to avoid it – but I didn't think it was such a big deal.

After glazing and sesame seeding:

Mmm, the crumb!

We brought the bread to a gathering and everybody liked it a lot! A bit unusual for Swedish traditions, but we all enjoyed it – it's not that sweet really, but very tasty. I will definitely make this again!

- And now it's posted on YeastSpotting!

A birthday gift – Leaf Lace Stole

Leaf Lace Stole: A birthday gift for an old friend – I finished it just hours before we were off to her birthday party yesterday. It was a treat making this, every single row. The yarn – yum – kid mohair, unbelievably soft and light. Very nice to work with, besides from the inclination to get entangled.

I'm thinking this might be a perfect garment for chilly Swedish summer evenings when you don't want to go inside just yet. As a matter of fact, I have two more skeins of this yarn. I'm going to cast on for another one. And that one will have my name on it.

It's really a fairly simple knit, the pattern is free and can be downloaded here.

BBB - Italian Knot Bread

Our host this month, Ilva of Lucullian Delights, decided that is was time for the BBB:s to shape up. We were going to tie some serious, Italian style knots. This bread recipe calls for very fine flour, no whole grain in sight. But hey, we don't have to be on short leash all the time, do we? And as it turned out, I found this bread to be excellent together with all kinds of healthy food that you can sweep up with a piece of bread.

The recipe also calls for lard, which for me was new, specifically in bread, but also in general. I have actually never used lard for anything, so this was the first time! It seems however that some people in Sweden really do use lard, since you can buy it at all large supermarkets.

Italian Knot Bread

makes 20-24

Biga:
500 g /1,1 lb normal bread flour
5 g/0,17 oz fresh yeast
240 ml/1 cup water (maybe a little more, depending on the flour)

1. Dissolve the yeast in a little water and quickly work the dough together.
2. Put it in a high container, cover it with a half closed lid or a kitchen towel and leave it for 15–24 hours.

If you get delayed and are not going to bake within 24 hours, just retard the the biga by placing it in the fridge. I believe it will hold for at least a couple of days, maybe a week. Just remember to remove it from the fridge in good time to allow it to assume room temperature before using it.

Dough:
0,500 g/1,1 lb biga
1 kg/ 2,2 lb 00 flour*
450–550 ml/1,9–2,3 cup water, finger warm
30 g fresh yeast (or 10 g instant yeast/13,5 g active dry yeast**)
50 g/ 1,7 oz extra-virgin olive oil
60 g/ 2,1 oz lard
25 g/ 0,88 oz honey
25 g/ 0,88 oz salt

* The flour assortment in Sweden isn't very impressive, 00 flour can not be found, I use ordinary (AP) wheat, organic flour instead.

** A yeast conversion table can be found here.

• Put the flour either in a big bowl or on a baking board, add the lard and mix it with your fingers until it has 'crumbled' and is completely mixed with the flour.

Ilva usually works her doughs by hand, whereas I use my Electrolux Assistent as often as I can, so from this point, my M.O. was a bit different from hers:

• Pour the (lukewarm) water into the mixing bowl, add the the yeast and dissolve it. Add the biga and the rest of ingredients. Mix and knead the dough in your stand mixer or Assistent (or by hand) until it's smooth and tacky.
  

I made a mistake and didn't take the biga out of the fridge early enough, so I had to work the dough quite long in the Assistent to bring the temp up, I'd say at least 10 minutes.

I also had to add a little extra water, probably due the different type of flour that I used.

After that, I had a very nice, smooth, tacky, but not sticky dough that passed the window-pane test.

• Place the dough in an oiled plastic bowl or container and cover it with a lid or cling film. Let rise until it has doubled in size, or about 1 hour.

Shaping

• Take up the dough, degas slightly and divide the dough into smaller pieces, about 100 g/3,5 oz each.

I got 22 pieces @ 100 g out of my dough.

• Now, roll out the pieces to long cords so you can make the knots out of them. Ilva made her cords 25 cm/9,8", but I found that I had to make them 45 cm/18" in length to be able to tie the knots.
• Next step is to shape the knots out of the cords! Over at Ilva's site, you'll find the instructive pictures from the book she used. And here's how my knots took form:

• Cover the knots with a towel and let them rise about 1 hour.
• Bake the knots in 200 °C/390 °F for 30–35 minutes or until they have become golden brown.

Enjoy!

And head over to the other BBBabes for further tales about tying knots!

Bake My Day (Karen), Canela y Comino (Gretchen), Cookie Baker Lynn (Lynn), Notite van Lien (Lien), I Like to Cook (Sara), Living in the kitchen with puppies (Natashya), Living on Bread and Water (Monique), Lucullian Delights (Ilva), My Kitchen in Half Cups (Tanna), The Sour Dough (Mary aka Breadchick) and Thyme for cooking (Katie).

Swedish thin pancakes and "pancake cake"

I don't actually know if this cake only is made in Sweden, but anyway I don't think you'll find it in so many other places.

This cake is simply made out of a stack of thin pancakes with whipped cream and berries or jam between the layers. Top with more whipped cream and more berries, and you're done!

Our two daughters love this cake and it's a standing request for their birthdays in May and June, respectively. Our youngest one turns 16 today, and she turned into a vegan a couple of months back. Since the rest of the family prefer natural dairy to soy, I made two cakes.

For North Americans, a typical pancake is thick and puffy, whereas Swedish pancakes are thin. Swedish pancakes contains eggs but no baking powder or baking soda. Making vegan pancakes without eggs requires something to create a little volume, which brings the baking powder back on to the scene again.

Swedish regular thin pancakes

Makes about 12 pancakes
3 eggs
600 ml/2,5 cups milk (1,5–3 % fat content)
300 ml/1,2 cups AP flour
0,5 tsp salt
butter for frying

1. Beat the eggs with half the milk. Add flour and salt and beat until smooth (I use an electric handmixer). Add the rest of the milk and blend. Wait at least 15 minutes to let the flour swell.
2. In a medium hot to hot frying pan, add a little butter (about half a tbsp for each pancake). When the butter has melted and turned yellow-brownish, pour in a small amount of mixture in the pan -- the whole frying area of the pan should be covered, but only after you tip the pan back and forth.
3. If the pan is hot, the frying will only take a minute or so – stand by with a spatula, lift up the rim to peak under and be ready to flip over the pancake when its golden brown underneith. The other side will bake even faster.
4. If this turns out to very difficult and the pancakes keep tearing to pieces, you may need to add a little more flour to the mixture. Just be sure to blend thorughly after adding flour. (Remember that even if some pancakes are teared, you can still use the pieces in the cake!)
5. Repeat from 2. until you have used all mixture.

Vegan pancakes

Makes 8–10 pancakes
500 ml/2,1 cups soy milk, medium fat
400 ml/1,7 cups AP flour
2 tsp baking powder
0,5 tsp salt
50 g/1,8 oz milk-free margarine (can be excluded)

Follow the steps above to bake the pancakes (without the eggs obviously). You will find that these pancakes will turn out a little thicker.

Pancake cake

Now to the fun part – the cake building! The traditional pancake cake contains whipped cream and berries and/or jam, but basically you can use whatever you like for the filling – custard, chocolate mousse or lemon curd to name some examples. You could of course make savoury versions too, but my healthy conscience tells me that I should save pancakes to rare occasions, this is not the healthiest food in the book.

Today, for one regular and vegan pancake cake I used:

500 g/18 oz fresh strawberries
250 g/9 oz frozen, thawed natural blueberries + 1 tbsp sugar, mixed
1 small jar organic strawberry jam with high fruit content
Whipped regular or soy cream with a little vanilla aroma added
Some left-over custard (of course only on the regular cake)

Whipped cream goes here

A couple of layers done

This layer gets jammed

Wasn't there a strawberry there a minute ago?

Happy birthday, and watch out for the strawberry landslide!

Older sister wanted to place 13 candles instead of 16. Decided to place 16 after all, probably thinking about possible vengeance and personal health.

BBA – Anadama

Yes, I must be truly insane, but I have signed up to the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge, which is an adventure created by Nicole of Pinch My Salt. The challenge is to bake every single bread from Peter Reinhart's book Bread Baker's apprentice, at the pace of one bread per week. I think there are 54 recipes in the book, so this will take a little more than a year to accomplish.

I got lured into this was inspired by Tanna of My Kitchen In Half Cups who entered before me, and I didn't have to think long – I already had the book and liked it a lot.

At this moment, the group has 123 members, and is still growing. There is also a Google emailing list, a Flickr group, a Facebook group and most of the members are on Twitter. Gosh!

But however grand this may be, my first priority will still be the BBB – Bread Baking Babes. That makes it 5 breads per month, no big deal, right? We eat a lot of bread in this family!

 

Anadama bread

I will not recite the whole recipe, but this one includes a soaker, consisting of corn flour/polenta plus water prepared the day before the baking. The final dough has wheat flour and a substantial amount of molasses (I used Swedish "ljus sirap"). No wild yeast, just baker's yeast.

It was easy to prepare, but to be honest, we weren't overly thrilled by this bread – OK, I guess we'll finish it, but I won't be baking it again. But I'm definitely not sorry about that, it was fun trying!

I'll give this a 2. Or 3? No 2,5 – that's my final bid!

 

 

Both loaves were baked in aluminum pans, the left one with black non-stick coating, the right one without coating.