Valentine's Baking: Chocolate Cherry Bread

If Valentine's Day conjures only one image, it is surely that of chocolate.  And what better  accompaniment to chocolate than tart dried cherries!  (Ok, maybe a nice zinfandel, too).

Although many bread purists argue - and not without merit - that adding anything to bread other than the basic ingredients that compose it - flour, water, salt and leavening - is a sacrilege, the fact is that some of our favorite breads have flavorings, whether cheese or walnuts, spicy peppers, or nuts and seeds that result in a delightful eating experience.

So if we are to be heretics let us at least enjoy it!

This Valentine's creation, Chocolate Cherry Bread, is a favorite of mine as a tasty, offbeat loaf.  Offbeat because it's more like a dessert than a bread, and in fact, it's sometimes referred to as a dessert bread.  What's clear to me, at any rate, is that this isn't something you'd toast and have to accompany eggs and bacon at breakfast.  But lightly toasted after dinner, with a nice glass of wine and perhaps some cheese to accompany, yes, this definitely works.

Here is the recipe I used to create three small - about 1 lb each - boules of chocolate cherry bread:

Two brief notes: 1) The salt percentage may seem low, and in fact is.  However, it's my feeling that what should dominate this bread is sweetness, and thus I've reduced the salt content from its more normal level of 2%.  Feel free to step it up if you wish.  2) The percentage of yeast is definitely higher than typical.  This is, in part, to counter the acidic effects of the cocoa powder which will significantly retard the functioning of yeast - much as does the addition of cinnamon.  The higher level of yeast - along with the addition of levain which is more tolerant of acidity - is one way to guarantee that your loaves proof properly.

Begin by preparing the levain 12 -14 hours in advance of mixing the final dough.  I use a levain that is 100% hydration, so equal weights flour and water.

The next morning when my levain was fully ripened I prepared and weighed the ingredients.  I use Callebaut chocolate, a nice and reasonably priced Belgium chocolate.  It comes in this box as batons, which are used to create pain au chocolat, or chocolate croissants.  A portion of the chocolate batons was melted in a doubleboiler.  To create the chocolate chunks I took the batons (thin, rectangular strips of chocolate about 4 in long and 1/4 in wide) and chopped them into roughly quarter-inch pieces.

To create the final dough, the levain was combined with water to disperse it, and to this was added the sugar to dissolve it partially.  To this mixture was combined the flour, instant dry yeast (IDY) and salt.  Mix time on speed 1 was about three minutes.  After that, the dough was mixed on speed 2 for about two minutes.  Then, with a little gluten development showing,  the mixer was put back on speed 1 for about three minutes while the cocoa powder, chocolate and butter were added.   Finally, the dough was mixed again on speed two for about two minutes - until moderate gluten development is noted.

The dough is fermented for 1 1/2 hours, with a fold at 45 minutes to increase its strength.  Here is the dough after its fold and just before dividing.  Honestly, doesn't that look good enough to eat just as it is!

Once the primary fermentation is completed the dough is divided into three equal pieces and gently rounded into boules.

The shaped boules were placed on a wooden peel on parchment paper, and then covered with plastic wrap and allowed to proof for about one and a quarter hours.

They were prepared for baking by lightly sprinkling the tops with flour and slashing each loaf.

The boules were baked in a 450 degree F oven with steam for 30 minutes, and then the oven was turned off, the door cracked, and the loaves allowed to sit for another 5 minutes on the baking stone.

Here's what came out of the oven:

Pretty tasting looking! And here is what the Chocolate Cherry bread looks like sliced:

       A lovely gift for someone special this Valentine's Day.  Or, hey, just for yourself!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Viennoiserie: Croissants and Pains au Chocolat

Viennoiserie inhabits a murkey borderland between bread and pastry.  It is a bit of both, and yet neither fully one or the other.  Bread is about grain and the flavor that can be developed from essentially manipulating it.  Pastry, on the other, is about adding ingredients to grain in such a way that the additions create an end product distinctly different from the starting point.  Another way of distinguishing the two - one I once heard from a distinguished Master Baker, if I recall his words correctly - is that bakers are of two types: those who like to wrestle dough and those who have more artistic bents when confronting it.  It was not a critical comment, but intended to draw attention to the fact that most bakers (in fact) tend to be drawn to one or the other side of baking and that few excel at both.

Fair enough, at least in my opinion. 

I am a bread baker at heart and in practice.  But there is a small spark that is drawn to pastrywork, and it finds its occasional expression in attempts at viennoiserie (so-called because its origins were in Vienna) - for the most part in making croissants and pains au chocolat.

It is winter where I live, and so my kitchen is cooler than usual.  Good conditions for working with laminated dough.  Today, on an off-day from work, I decided to take a baker's bus-man's holiday and make croissants.

Actually, I began the journey last night, when I mixed my dough and created a butter block to be incorporated into it. 

Today was spent laminating the dough through a series of manipulations called 'turns' which involve rolling out the dough and butter block into a rectangle, folding it into thirds (much like a business letter) and then, after chilling it, re-rolling it out, so to increase the number of laminations.  Eventually (the third fold), the rectangle is rolled out to an extent that both ends are folded towards the middle and then one over the other (called a 'book fold').

Here is what the lamination looks like after the book fold:

After the book fold the dough is then refrigerated again and then cut into two piece, each of which is rolled out to a rectangle of about 7 inches high by 18-22 inches long.  At this point, the dough is cut and subsequently shaped into either pains au chocolat or croissants:

Here are some photos of the steps involved in each:

The shaped croissants and pains au chocolat are then proofed from 1 - 2 hours, eggwashed, and then baked for 15 - 18 minutes.  I like to begin the bake at 425° F and then lower the temperature by 25° after each 5 minute increment.

And here is how the finished product turned out today:

A few lessons learned from my experience with viennoiserie:

• work in a cool kitchen and on a cool counter.  The secret to laminated doughs is keeping the butter and dough laminations from melting into one another.  A warm kitchen will defeat this.

• liberally sprinkle the counter top with flour.  Once the dough sticks as you roll it out, you destroy the laminations.

• work quickly.  Roll out the dough with confidence and vigor.  Even chilled butter will melt if worked on for too long a period.  Don't pussyfoot about handling the dough.

• respect the dough.  If, after repeated rolling, it is not stretching, surrender to it and place it back into the refrigerator for 10 - 20 minutes.  It will relax and once again bend to your will.  If, on the other hand, you turn the exercise into a test of wills, you will lose - the dough will tear and all your elaborate preparations will be for naught.

Here then, with lessons in hand, and the frank admission that I am still a beginner in the world of viennoiserie, are the results of today's bake:

Not bad, though the laminations could be clearer and more distinct.  I'd give myself a grade of a B.

But the flavor, ahhh, that is something altogether better!

And reason enough to keep working at crafting the perfect croissant.

More Joy of Rye

For a special lady's birthday I wanted to do something special.  I should mention that she loves the cocktail ryes I make.  So how to tweak something that had a pretty good flavor and texture to begin with?

The answer is to attempt a Detmolder method of sourdough rye.  This involves building a rye sour (levain) in three stages.  Each stage is intended to bring out fully a characteristic of rye sourdough.  The process spans a day as the sour is first allowed to develop its maximum yeast production.  In the second stage, by manipulating temperature and hydration of the sour, it develops its full acetic acid (sour) potential.  And finally, in the final stage of development, the sourdough develops lactic acid which serves to smooth out the acidity developed in the second or "basic sour" stage.

A full accounting of this arduous, but ultimately satisfying method of making rye sourdough is found in Jeffrey Hamelman's masterful book Bread: A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes.

Developing the rye culture that would eventually be incorporated into the final dough required constructing a makeshift proofer that allowed me to fairly accurately maintain differing temperatures within the sour during each stage of development.

A buspan with a lid, and a breadpan filled with a wet towel that had been heated in the microwave served to generate sufficient heat to maintain the desired temps.

Because the leavening power of the sourdough is developed so extensively during the three-stage build, once the final dough is mixed, there is a very short fermentation period before the dough is shaped and allowed a final proof. 

In this case, the rye I decided upon is 72% rye flour and 100% hydration, meaning that it contains as much water as flour.  The resulting 'dough' is in true a paste, and shaping is little more than pouring it into a breadpan and then gently pressing it out to fill the pan.  I also added sunflower and sesame seeds which impart a nice added flavor to the sweetness of the rye - all the more so if it is lightly toasted.

The fermentation period was just under 30 minutes.  Final proof after shaping was a brief one hour, and then the bread was baked at 460 degrees F for 15 minutes, before lowering the temperature to around 400 degrees for an additional 45 minutes.

The end result is a loaf that still requires nearly 48 additional hours for the crumb to fully develop and dry out sufficiently.   Once cooled, the loaves were wrapped in linen and stored on the counter for 2 days.

 

A long wait, but ah, one that was truly worth it.  This cocktail rye is moist and sweet and the nuttiness provided by the sunflower and sesame seeds makes for a nice contrast with its sweetness.

This is rye that demands much attention in its construction, but whose payoff is undeniable!

Fruit Mousse with Ladyfingers

Sometimes the most impressive desserts are the easiest to actually create.  This is the case with an almond mousse fruit charlotte ladyfinger cake.

Pant....lots of words in that name!

But the picture is worth more words yet.

Now, on to the recipe.

Fruit - I used blackberries, raspberries and blueberries, but substitute as you wish.  One half pint of each will yield a mousse that will easily feed six.

To begin, take 1/2 pint of each fruit you are using and - with the exception of blueberries - cut the fruit in half and lay on a sheet pan and freeze for 2 hours.

To make the mousse dissolve 1 3/4 tsp granulated gelatine in 2 tbls of water.  In the meantime, take the frozen fruit and cut the larger berries in half lengthwise.

Place the dish with the gelatine in hot water and add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1/2 tsp vanilla, and 1/2 tsp of almond extract.  Wisk until the gelatine and sugar are dissolved.

Whip one pint of heavy whipping cream until you reach moderately stiff peaks (don't go for butter!)

Fold in the gelatine, the fruit that has been halved and 1/2 tsp vanilla  and 1/2 tsp almond extract.

Place the mousse into a mold of ladyfingers (sides and bottom), top with remaining fruit and freeze for 4 hours.

Before serving, remove from the refrigerator and allow to stand ar room temperature for 1 1/2 hours - 2 hrs.

Slice and serve!

Rut or Rye?

Ok, rye and rut do start with the same letter,  and I'm probably in a rye rut, but it's a tasty place to be so I'll live with it awhile longer.

I was so pleased with the openness of my last loaf that I decided to repeat it with a few variations to see if I could still obtain a fairly open crumb structure.  Here's the recipe:

Although this is, like the previous loaf, a 72% rye with 100% hydration, I decided to omit the hot rye soaker.  In its place I substituted a cold soaker for the seeds on the morning of the bake - so a soaker for about an hour.

The rye sour was prepared the previous evening, and because our temps are starting to fall, it took a full 14 hours until I deemed it sufficiently domed and ready for use.  In the meantime, I prepared the seed soaker using sunflower seeds, sesame seeds and all the remaining water that would go into the final dough.

Rye sour and soaker were mixed together on Speed 1, and while they incorporated I mixed the high gluten flour, rye flour and salt.  These were added and mixed on Speed 1 for 10 minutes.  Like the former loaf, there is no discernable gluten development - what you have is a pudding.

The primary fermentation was allowed to go for 50 minutes until I saw a good increase in volume.  I then gently scraped the dough into an oiled bread pan, degassing it slightly, but trying to retain as much of the gas as possible.  The final proof was a full hour until the dough had increased about 50% in volume.

The bread was baked with steam for 75 minutes, starting at 460° F, and stepping the temp down by 25 degree increments every 15 minutes.

As with the previous loaf, when it had cooled I wrapped it in linen for two days before cutting.

Here's the result:

  

I'm again very pleased with the openness of the crumb given the relatively high rye content.  The seeds provide a nice added  flavor, and this time the inclusion of more sunflower seeds than sesame by weight gives the bread a noticeable crunch that I like.  Lightly toasted, the flavor of the seeds is even more pronounced.

While I'll probably start playing with 80 and 90% ryes next, this one at 72% is a real keeper that just doesn't disappoint.