Baby Steps … to Bread

Jalapeno-Cheddar & Craisin-Nut-Cheddar

Foreward

Well, I was in the mood to bake and I thought a nice spicy loaf of Jalapeno-Cheddar was in order. I was also trying to figure out something that my spouse would like, so she decided on Craisin’s with Nuts and Cheddar. I didn’t fuss about weights of the inclusions and decided to just wing it. I know to limit the jalapeno’s to just two peppers but the cheese and nuts are always a guessing game. Well, it seemed to work out just fine.

Recipe

I mixed a double batch from the start using Elaine Boddy’s Master Recipe. Essentially, I used 1000 grams of flour (900 Bread & 100 Whole Wheat). There were also 700 grams of water and 20 grams of finely ground pure salt made by Redmond’s. I should have managed the dough temperature a bit better. After mixing everything in a cold garage I moved to the kitchen and placed the mix on a heated dough-mat. It adds a lot of predictability to the Bulk Fermentation process.

Adding the Inclusions

I always struggle when mixing a double match while knowing that each loaf will differ. This time I did one set of stretch & folds while combined and then split the dough into two 900 gram loafs. This followed a two-hour Fermentolyse. I’ve found that waiting until the two-hour point in the Bulk-Fermentation process before touching anything adds a lot to the dough structure and smoothness. I’m sure someone out there will prove me wrong, but so far it seems to work just fine in my kitchen.

Shaping

With all the inclusions, I wanted to bake in either loaf pans or in a Batard shape using one of my bakeware pans. I ended up going with the Emile Henry Artisan Loaf Pan which always works perfect. I used a double-layer of parchment on the bottom and sides just to help with possible bottom-burning. I also spritzed the loaf with my water sprayer to add some early steam to the process.

After watching a few youtube’s on shaping for a Batard, I settled on the process shown on the PerfectLoaf youtube channel. I really like his calm demeanor and instructional explanations.

Baking

In keeping with the foodbodsourdough technique, I cold-baked both loafs of bread from a cold oven. 450 for 55 minutes, removing the lid five minutes before done. I ended up extending the bake by three minutes with the lid removed for added color. Final dough temperature was 205.