Breadmaking and Breadmolding
Name: Carl Garris
Date and Time:
2017.[September].[27] - 2017.[October].[2]
Location: Apartment at 121st and BroadwaySubject: Breadmaking and Breadmolding
Being inexperienced in bread making in the first place, I decided to stand on the shoulders of Giants and follow Xiaomeng Liu's account from Spring 2017, with reference to the sources provided. (https://making-and-knowing.wikischolars.columbia.edu/Liu-Breadmolding+SP17).
MATERIALS USED:
Sourdough Starter (provided)
King Arthur's All Purpose White Flour
King Arthur's All Purpose Whole Wheat Flour
Aunt Jemima's Self Rising Flour
NYC Tap Water
Morton's Salt
Parchment Paper
Baking Sheets
Modern Gas Oven
Smoke Detector (unintentional, but useful).
From discussion in class, it became clear that the ingredients of early modern bread were flour (of varying types--oats or rye seems to have been more common in "commoner" bread
and wheat in higher quality bread). Having little experience with bread making, I therefore decided to go with wheat flour as it seemed the "simplest"--in retrospect, having prepared the bread, this strikes me as me surrendering to a modern preconception. Prior to the baking process, I first fed the sour dough starter with flour and water. At the time not yet knowing better, I used white wheat flour. I did this incorrectly, twice in the first week. I didn't add enough water. On adding enough water after class on the 25th September (enough water to liquidate the flour) the sourdough starter actually expanded while keeping its properties overnight.
Bread 1 (September 27):
For my first attempt, I decided to just try to make simple modern bread using the sourdough starter. I used King Arthur All Purpose White Flour which I got from my local grocery
and mixed it together with a cup of the sourdough starter, a cup of flour, and a cup of water.
After letting it sit overnight, the result was a very wet substance with a filmy top. I decided I must not have added enough flour, so I added an additional cup of flour, which produced a doughy
substance. I kneaded this, which I had not done the first time, and then I allowed this to sit for seven hours. I then floured my hands and formed the "dough" into a ball, which I placed onto parchment paper over a baking sheet. The "dough" was very sticky and approximately 1/5 was lost in transit. I then baked it on 450 degrees for 20 minutes (by this point following Xiaomeng Liu's guide, despite my different ingredients). The result was something which might be called bread, but rather hard on the outside and irregular in shape. I did not dare eat of it. For I had realized to my horror I had forgotten the salt.
Bread 2 (October 1-2):
For my second (and third) attempts, after having been out of state for several days, I decided to follow Xiaomeng Liu's recipe as best I could. Xiaomeng was adapting the Pain du common recipe from John Evelyn which seemed to me to be the closest to modern bread. I was hesitant to use rye or oats (a mistake, I think as they would possibly have been easier to mold), so I used whole wheat flour, again King Arthur All Purpose, in order to partially imitate Xiaomeng Liu's work.
This time, I mixed two tablespoons sourdough starter, a tablespoon of salt, two parts flour with one part water to produce a doughy substance which I kneaded. I then let it sit seven hours before returning to it. Discovering that it had risen, I transfered it as above, losing considerably less of the substrate, before I baked it for 18 minutes on 450 degrees. I had intended 20, but due to an issue with ventilation and the oven, the smoke detector in my apartment was set off and was only disabled following a half hour of utter chaos. However, Bread 2 appeared to have turned out well, if dense and relatively low of height. I quickly cut it in two and pressed a plastic compass deep into one side to produce a bread mold. Most pictures below (TO BE ADDED) are of this bread, as it was the most successful.
Bread 3 (October 1-2):
My name is Ozymandias, king of kings. Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair. - Shelley
Bread 3 was intended to be a control group, a modern recipe for use if Bread 2 did not turn out. Rather than using Sourdough starter, I relied on Aunt Jemima's Self Rising Flour, which I mixed in a 2:1 ratio with water and to which I added one tablespoon of salt. Out of curiosity (perhaps herein lies my folly) I added two tablespoons of Sourdough Starter. I allowed it to sit seven hours and it appeared to rise. I transferred it to a baking sheet as above described, but lost perhaps a third of the dough. Bread 3 proved calamitous, as its parchment paper somehow began to singe during cooking (it was cooking in the same oven simultaneously with Bread 2) and resulted in an early ending to the cooking process. Bread 3 will not be spoken of again, for it was clearly displeasing to John Evelyn's spirit. Or perhaps Aunt Jemima, I do not know.
One final matter--in both Bread 2 and Bread 3, I attempted to use the method of fist-planting the dough to determine when it had risen.
However, the dough in both cases came back up with my hand, rendering the method useless. I assume I made a mistake in dough preparation.
Additionally, I was unable to use the bottom-testing method described by Xiaomeng Liu from Evelyn due to the smoke detector debacle.