Stoneground Flour

26th April 2019 by Paul Merry

Stoneground Flour

Milling with stones, which was, until 150 years ago, the only way flour was made, is today a tiny niche in the vast field of flour milling which is dominated by the modern roller mill.

Although an anachronistic niche, its place in the market is assured because enough people are aware that what is special about stoneground flour is that it is truly nutritious. The same could not be said about roller-milled flour which is emaciated, being devoid of the grain’s minerals and vitamins when compared with the stonegound product.

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Oxygen in dough

17th July 2018 by Paul Merry

Function of oxygen in dough

oxygen

There is a misconception that yeast needs oxygen to work well producing gas to raise the dough. Actually it does not need oxygen present, since yeast is capable of feeding on sugars either aerobically (with oxygen) or non-aerobically (absence of oxygen). It is true that the yeast likes to feed for the early stages when there is oxygen present, when it adopts a feeding position called respiration. The oxygen is plentiful at the start of bulk fermentation because the process of kneading will incorporate oxygen in the dough by the thrusting of folding motion. However, within the first hour the respiring yeast will use up that oxygen, and then it adopts the fermentation feeding position, when its enzymes change the starch sugars to glucose, and as it feeds on the glucose it makes more gas and alcohol than it was when it was respiring at the early stage. Actually, yeast is remarkable for its ability to feed in an environment both with and without oxygen. During the early stage of dough life the yeast is keen to gather and store the oxygen since oxygen is essential for it to maintain health and have the ability to both grow and reproduce. That is why in a yeast factory where the object is to make tons of yeast, oxygen is bubbled into the huge fermentation tanks. But in dough, on the other hand, the object is to generate gas for puffing the dough, and fermentation without oxygen will see to that.

Bakers should be warned that long kneading involving the incorporation of much oxygen leads to bleaching of the flour. Craft bakers are not obsessed with whiteness like the industrial bakers have been, and craft bakers need to know that the bleaching effect of the oxygen is damaging the carotene pigment in the flour ( from which it gets its creaminess). Lodged in the carotene is not just colour but also compounds that create some of the attractive flavours of baked wheat, hence it is a real depletion of the bread to destroy the carotene. Further, more oxygen is incorporated into dough at higher temperatures, so this is clearly a call to dough makers to avoid making warm dough. Cooler doughs will not only retain more carotene, but they also have far better structure and gluten.

Another area where the of the presence of oxygen has a significant effect is the making of gluten. Free and available oxygen is drawn into the emerging gluten matrix as a necessary component, and there must be sufficient quantities of it to make high quality gluten. Although the yeast depletes the oxygen in the early stage of fermentation, the baker’s method of “folding” the dough will continue to incorporate oxygen for the gluten making.

Discussing the oxygenation of dough is not to create confusion with the oxidation of flour, which refers to the satisfactory aging of flour. During the aging of flour the proteins are oxidised and that has the effect of creating better gluten strands, giving better volume to the bread and less stickiness when working the mature dough on the bench. Craft bakers used to ensure that they had proper storage facilities to be able to age the white flour for several months of oxidation since the miller was unable to store it for long. (In times past businesses were happier to keep capital tied up in stock than they are today).

The aging of flour poses a dilemma for bakers who prefer to work with stonegrounf flour – those bakers seeking to offer the more nutritious product, since stoneground flour retains vitamins and minerals from the both the germ oil and the aleurone layer. As the oxidising of the protein occurs during aging, so too will the vitamins be oxidising, leading to their goodness being leached away. I work often with stoneground flour at Cann Mills, and my compromise is to age it for only 3 – 4 weeks.

Volume in a loaf

23rd May 2018 by Paul Merry

The volume of any loaf has great impact because it is the first thing to be noticed by an appraising eye. Nobody is attracted to a small or heavy loaf. On the other hand, a discerning customer or guest will be put off by an overblown and blousy loaf that has a structure that is too open. That overblown loaf will soon dry out, and for most people its open structure will not be a satisfactory vehicle for butter, toppings, or fillings.

An exception would be a bread like ciabatta, seen in the next picture. Its open structure is the very nature of the bread, and a tight crumb would be a failed version of it.

Imagine that ciabatta structure, with its open random bubble, being a sandwich loaf. A travesty, with honey all over the plate, or mayonnaise on your shoe. Hence the sandwich loaf maker must not only drive gas pockets from the dough, but also keep a tight rein on final proof to keep the uniform and consistent bubble suitable for toast or sandwich.

Any discussion of volume has to begin with the dough. To make good bread the bulk dough itself must achieve a satisfactory volume, it must be left to gas and rise. See the picture here where the soggy surface of the fully-proved dough leaves a distinct hole when the floury finger is inserted deep into it. Like the test shown at the top of this post, a poke with an outstretched finger is not to quickly close up, which happens when the gluten is still unripe.

To summarise, there must be proper volume in both the bulk dough, and the resting dough before it is shaped. Then the baker must judge the final proof so that the loaf springs in the oven and gives satisfactory volume to the final product. See the loaf in the next picture, a stoneground white high tin. Notice that when the volume is right, everything else looks right: lovely crust colour, handsome rip along the loaf’s length where the oven spring has torn it, overall proportions look right.

Oven spring can be viewed as the final accolade for the baker. When proof is right, volume is right, and you pop it into the oven when it has sufficient life to give a little spurt that results in handsome oven spring. For breads that get slashed, the oven spring opens out the cuts.

Now see a loaf that went into the oven a bit early. It was a sourdough loaf made with heritage wheat and thus had feeble and delicate gluten when compared with modern flour. Fearing it may collapse with the impact of sliding it off the peel onto the oven tiles, I made my misjudgment that led to an oven spring that was gross. A few slashes would have helped release that spring.

Now you have the full picture. There will not be satisfactory volume in a finished loaf unless there was satisfactory volume along the way – in bulk dough after its first rise, in resting dough pieces, and in final proof. To achieve correct volume of any loaf the gluten has been fully developed (ripened, “conditioned”), with good judgment of final proof, and with adequate gassing power at the time it is placed in an oven holding the right temperature.

Good baking, Paul

Poolish

17th April 2018 by Paul Merry

Here is an excerpt from my note about poolish that is handed out to PANARY students when they attend a course which has used this type of sponge in one or two of the breads on the programme.

POOLISH

This is the French term for a type of pre-fermentation that forms a portion of the dough into which it is incorporated many hours later or, possibly, the next day. It belongs in the category of the large family of what we call in English “sponges” and “ferments”, and some would call it a “starter ”.

One of its distinctive features is that it is a fairly liquid fermented culture, and in modern baking is usually made with equal amounts of flour and water. It is leavened with factory-made baker’s yeast, and is prepared with part of the main dough’s flour and water. The rest of the dough’s flour, water, salt, and yeast are added at dough-making time. Its flour as a proportion of total flour ranges from 15% – 50%.

In large commercial quantities, in the ambient warmth of a bakery, if the poolish is set to mature slowly over 8-10 hours or more, the amount of yeast added is miniscule, being only 0.1%, which is one gram of yeast to each kilogram of flour. Household bakers could use a little more. When I prepare a tiny poolish at night for a small dough in the morning I describe the amount of fresh yeast used as being the size of a green pea. If conditions were cold, or it was going to sit for less than 8 hours, enlarge the green pea to a marrow-fat pea. With dried yeast, it is only a pinch, denoting an eighth or a tenth of a teaspoon.

As a preliminary fermentation its function in breadmaking is to bestow benefits on the final dough. The benefits are many: flavour, moisture retention, and the creation of the open structure with large and randomly distributed gas bubbles so peculiar to the continental style of breads. Hence it is commonly associated with the baguette. The Parisian baguette was developed as bakers copied the remarkable and innovative pastry and bread methods of Vienna. These innovations occurred in the mid-nineteenth century, probably in the late 1840’s, just before fresh baker’s yeast (saccharomyces cerevisiae) began to be made in factories. At that time, when bread bakers still obtained their yeast from beer brewers (also saccharomyces cerevisiae) a shortage of yeast occurred when many brewers were changing from top-fermenting tanks to bottom-fermenting. Collection of yeast froth is easy from top-fermenters, but difficult from the bottom fermenting types of beer.

The sponge method certainly makes a small amount of initial yeast go further. For a short period the style and skills of Polish bakers must have influenced the Austrians. We assume the Poles’ technique became known as the poolish. Its sparse use of yeast would have continued to be attractive to the bakers of the 1850’s when compressed yeast remained scarce and expensive, being a new product.

A poolish must be set to work at room temperature for at least 3 – 8 hours before it is added to a dough, possibly 12 – 15 hours if conditions are cool. On the other hand, if conditions are warm, after 3 – 4 hours it would be wise to put it in a refrigerator. Although it starts with only a small amount of yeast it gets surprisingly active at room temperature because after about 5 hours those yeast cells start to reproduce. They will continue to multiply while they have food. (In any type of dough or sponge yeast will begin to reproduce after some 4 to 6 hours). After its long fermentation period the poolish will be classed as mature and ready for use because by then the feeding yeast will have created acids and by-products from their fermentation activity, and these will greatly enhance the dough that receives the poolish. More yeast has to be used if it is expected to reach maturity in a shorter time, such as 4 – 5 hours. There will be more flavour in the final bread, the crumb will be porous and open while giving a satisfactory chewiness, and the bread will retain its moisture for longer – meaning it is slower to stale.

The appearance of it when ripe reveals many bubbles on its surface, with the gas bubbles looking as though they are pushing upwards to burst. It is classed as over-ripe if it has begun to sink or settle down, and is no longer appearing to be moving upward. When over-ripe it may reveal around the sides of its storage vessel a line indicating the “high-tide” level that it had reached before sinking or collapsing.

Suggested poolish:

500 gm breadmaking white flour

500 ml water

½-1 gm fresh yeast ( ⅛-¼ teaspoon dried yeast)

Mix until a loose, batter-like dough is formed, with no dry patches.

Cover the bowl you have mixed it in, and put it aside in a quiet place for it to ferment for 8 to 12 hours.

That’s it. I hope you enjoy working with sponges and tinkering with poolish in particular. Good baking, Paul