the experiments continue

this crumb's not bad

we're keeping this cloche prototype in business and discovering The Joys of the Scientific Method too!

the last loaf i baked (not the rye sourdough and unfortunately not pictured here) was perplexingly sticky as dough, to the point of being unworkable. i avoided abject loaf failure, always looming on the horizon, only narrowly. after baking it in the cloche and tasting the result, i discovered the reason for the dough's weird consistency: i'd forgotten to add the salt. the always-reliable bread nerds at king arthur tell us that "bread baked without salt will have a flat and insipid taste ... salt tightens the gluten structure. when salt is left out, the resulting dough is slack and sticky in texture, work-up is difficult, and bread volume is poor." don't forget the salt.

this time, i didn't forget the salt. this is a white (93%) and whole wheat (7%) sourdough boule, 1.8% salt. slightly lower hydration ratio (63%) compared to the sourdough rye, but with a longer autolyse (12h), longer bulk fermentation with more folding (14h!), and a much longer proof (5h!). no kneading on this one, just many cycles of stretching and folding. i think the unseasonably low temperatures in massachusetts are messing with things. the crust on this one is great (crunchy, glossy, caramelised), crumb is good and improving (more uniformly aerated through the loaf, fewer dense spots), flavour is excellent (mildly sour, richly flavoured, a marvelous lactic aroma), but the dough is still too wet in the shaping stage and the shaped dough spread too much as it proofed.

the crumb issues are, i think, associated with the hydration ratio on the dough. a slightly drier dough may proof better and (maybe) yield a better crumb. next time around, i'll drop the hydration even more (maybe 61%). flavour is good, so i'll keep the flour types and proportions and the approximate autolyse/bulk/proof times.

a note on the cloche: so far, the cloche seems to be associated with consistently excellent crust and great oven spring (3 for 3) even when i do something boneheaded like forgetting to put in the salt and the dough spreads out into a huge puddle during the proofing. but you know what they say about the relationship between correlation and causation.

[another guest post from the sap also rises]

sourdough rye boule

hello, hello. judy mentioned a cloche for experiments and now here, just weeks later, is an actual experiment. up above, for your viewing pleasure, is a 1.6lb 64% hydration sourdough boule. the flours were 80% white wheat, 10% whole wheat, 10% rye. the loaf was retarded in the refrigerator for 14 hours, shaped and proofed for 2 hours, and then baked in judy's cloche-style breadpot for 20 minutes covered at 500F, and another 20 minutes uncovered at 425F. this array of numbers is the hallmark of a bread nerd. if you are also a bread nerd, you may relish these additional details:

starter hydration = 70%
autolyse = 30 minutes
salt = 1.5%

during baking, there was a pronounced and pleasant lactic aroma, and the crust developed a warm brown colouration. waiting for it to cool completely was difficult, owing to the fragrance of warm bread that permeated throughout. the loaf has a crisp, robust, crackly crust rich with flavour, and a completely aerated, gelatinised, mildly sour crumb with irregular bubbles. if you are a bread nerd, you will have noticed the well-defined edges where the loaf was slashed open prior to baking, to allow for expansion of the dough. did you know that these edges have a special name in french that is all their own? i will tantalise you no longer: they are called grigne.

let us not forget the taste of this loaf: it is mighty tasty. in addition to being staggeringly delicious (especially with some sharp cheddar), this bread formula is also easy and accommodating to people whose schedules see them at home only in the evenings. more details and full instructions when i've baked this a few more times.

the breadpot cloche verdict:

• the loaf: lots more oven spring with this cloche than with my previous duct tape and baling wire attempts to create a high humidity baking environment, often involving exciting times with preheated cast iron skillets and boiling water, ice cubes, spray misters, and pyrex bowls. judging by the rate at which the loaf is being consumed, the quality of crust and crumb far exceed previous attempts. 
• usability: the cloche shape seems already nearly perfect. handle on the lid is easy to use even with oven mitts on. the slope of the base sides exactly contains a boule of the size i like. 

[vaughn, guest-posting from the sap also rises]

smoky saggar fired experiment with BreadPots

I will be firing a batch of new brown toast stoneware BreadPots tomorrow to  cone ten 2350F. I am trying an experiment in this kiln load that will make a connection between these pots and my saggar fired work. I have built a container in a bottom section of the kiln and filled it with sawdust and two bakers. I also filled one of the three oversize cloche shaped bakers with sawdust. I made these on a request by Vaughn Tan, who wants to experiment with this  form for his baking. I will let you know how it turns out.

Breadpots on breadexperience.com

The BreadPot is featured on the Baking in Pots feature on www.breadexperience.com.

Whole wheat Tofu Challah

This is a very different bread recipe. It is a variation on challah, but I've been using silken tofu instead of butter. As for the flour, almost any kind or any combination of different flours will work. I've been experimenting with this for a long time. The bread is on the cakey side - but great toasted. It turned out great in Judy's BreadPot - so cute!

Tofu Challah – makes 4 loaves
4 pkgs yeast
4 cups warm water
Mix and let bubble (add a little sugar )
Then….add
1 cup sugar
1 package of silken tofu (put between paper towels to soak up moisture for about ½ hour before using)
4 eggs
4 tsp salt
12 cups of flour (I have been experimenting with all kinds of flour – including whole wheat, buckwheat, spelt, quinoa, oat, etc.)
I also add a little bit of protein powder

I also do this in 2 batches (using 2 big bowls) – which makes it much easier to work with.

Cover the bowls with a damp cloth – put in refrigerator overnight or even up to a few days (doesn’t seem to matter).

Braid the dough into 4 challah loaves. The one for Judy’s BreadPot can just be formed into a circle.

Brush with butter – sprinkle with sesame and/or poppy seeds

Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown on top

Check out the bread baking day #29 Bread in Pots theme at www.breadexperience.com

The Great American BreadPot -- phase 3

The BreadPot Experiment is entering a new phase. I have been teaching Brenna, a young potter/intern, how I make these and she is a quick study. She has helped me make a batch last week and we will be firing them next week. We plan to have them available, with bread tastes, at the Cambridge Open Studios/North on April 23-24. We will be in Porter Square at beneath the Star Market. We also will be sending an email offering them to a preferred list of community, family, friends and customer. They are coming out great. A handful have been shipped out to people in the bread blogging world and beyond. There are toasty brown, white stone and brick clay BreadPots. We are also offering a BreadPot gift kit which comes with the dry mixings for my favorite rye, caraway seeds and all. Potter's choice is also available, a select pot with something special about it--that je ne sais quoi. I am starting to find decorating the white ones irresistible...

Toasty brown stone

New  no knead bread pots, a whole kiln load of 'em.
They have tested well over the last few months and I am just now putting them up for sale. They mold the bread into a nice form, letting it bake evenly and slice well. They are strong, simple, unglazed stoneware with integrated handles on pot and lid. They get a lived in patina with use. They are a beautiful bird-like form. The brown stoneware is coming out toasty. The rough brick clay is a nice autumnal orange.
Contact me for info, call for credit card by phone or use paypal.

Freshly baked breadPots.. later this week

Wheel thrown stoneware in a variety of humble brown clays, cloche or casserole style, knob or strap handle, slip decorated, inlaid recipe or proverb inside. These are some of the variations of the BreadPots  I will be firing  this week. There will be a great variety to choose from. They are for advance sale here, in our virtual clay boulangerie, for $78. Please pass this along to any no knead bread bakers you know. You can call, visit the studio, send a check or use paypal button. They will ship after Passover and Tomb Sweeping Day and Nceca.
www.motzkin.com/breadpots.htm

Irish Soda Bread

For a few weeks now, I've been thinking about Irish soda bread again. Soda bread is a treat I should make more often, as it's comparatively abstemious (at least for me). I like John Thorne's very simple recipe:

3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/4 - 1 and 1/2 cups buttermilk (as much as it takes)

Mix all the ingredients together quickly, as lightly as possible, like biscuit dough. I roll in some golden raisins. shape into a rough ball and throw into a baker preheated to 425F. Bake covered for about 45 minutes, until golden brown.

I suppose one could slice it, but I tend to tear pieces off it hungry-wolf-fashion, with the excuse that it's never as good as right out of the oven anyway. It has no butter at all and is better than all but the best biscuits.

Pistachios

I haven't posted for awhile, but that doesn't mean that I'm not happily baking in my Breadpot. I think that I've shared the important points of my baking with Judy and am now happily anticipating the first batch of pots for sale. Just want to share that of late I've been mixing in a "bunch" of pistachios and love the taste of the finished loaf. I'm bring a loaf of this bread along with cheeses for a cheese course at a friend's house this weekend.

The Eagle Has Landed

 The eagle has landed. The travelling pot of brick clay has finally landed in its permanent home in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. It arrived in perfect condition and is doing just fine, thank you. Here it is with a loaf of wheat/rye bread with flaxseeds and wheatberries. Its flatter, wider shape also makes it a great breadbox. Thank you so, Judy. 

And don't think I'll be ignoring the original glazed pot. It's become one of my best rising vessels, and keeper for all sorts of things, and I still hope to bake beans in it someday soon.

Judy's Rye bread

This is Judy's rye bread. It has been the best fit for the pot so far. I have had too much dough with the other recipes. I think this is due to the warmer weather. I began this loaf on a gray cold day. It was still cold, but sunny on my baking day. This loaf had great texture and crust. The pot is holding up quite well. No pings since the first baking.

















My next trial was to make a double batch. I cooked half in the clay pot and half in an enamel pot. This bread was not the best batch. The dough seemed quite dry when mixing, but was extremely wet the next day. I tried adding extra flour and probably kneaded more than I should have.






This is the blob I ended up with after it was supposed to rise. The bread was divided between the two pots. They were each cooked at 450, 30 minutes with the lid on and 15 minutes with the lid off. Both breads were cooked through. There were no doughy centers. Both breads had smaller cells than the previous batch.




As you can see from this photo, the bread in the clay pot has a warmer color to it. I found the bread cooked in the enamel pot was too chewy, almost a rubbery texture to the crust. We all agreed the texture of the bread cooked in the clay pot was far superior. I wonder if the unglazed clay soaks the moisture from the clay at a faster rate than the enamel pot. I could see this as a selling point for the clay versus the enamel.


The bread cooked in the enamel pot is slightly larger, but less tasty. We ate it toasted.

Name that baker

Joan and I held an impromptu focus group about the selling phase of these pots with Ellen, Libby, Robbie, and Zach. We talked about the name? Do you have the perfect name in your mind? What should these be named? Branded as? Any thoughts? Some like Motzpots, some find it silly sounding or unprofessional.
Earth-Hand-Grain? Bread Bearer? Hand Made Bread Baker?
Talk among yourselves. New pots are nearly ready for sale.

At long last bread ( a long post)

Although I baked the NoKnead bread recipe immediately after it appeared in the Times I soon left it behind in favor of kneaded breads and other baking adventures. When Judy offered me this chance though I happily volunteered. I was in the 2nd wave of pots and had various family and work stuff that slowed me down but I finally post.

Even before I received my pot I did some practice rounds. It had been a while. (Did I remember how "shaggy" the dough really was?) My first try was with some French SAS yeast that was still good by date but clearly had lost it's lift. I don't have a photo of that mess.

New yeast . I used an old Copco enameled pot that I thought I had used previously. I got a pretty bread with a perfect crust . Not as "holey" an interior as I would love but yummy.

Richard then delivered this beauty to me. Oh my goodness, just lovely. Seeing pictures in previous posts I was thinking a lot about handles and lids but these looked beautiful and functional. Hooray.My only concern was that it looked small.

I baked a loaf. I followed the original NYT recipe with 1/4 t yeast because I used all white flour in these test bakings. The loaf looked good, but seemed to not be browning well. I took it out after 55 min total and it was just not quite done enough and had not risen as high as I had hoped . The very center was a little mushy but I didn't think I could have baked it longer.
It came out of the pan easily.

I baked a second loaf and it had a beautiful crust. It was also not as round and high as I hoped

and it too had a mushy core, not really raw but different than the crumb surrounding. I don't think it was undertimed and I got to thinking about volume.

The original NYT article says to put the loaf in a 6-8qt casserole/cast iron pot. Other articles said that the size didn't matter too much but when I measured out my beauty it only held 2 qts.

That makes it only 25% or 33% of the ideal. I am thinking that the air space around the covered loaf must have some effect on the outcome.

I spoke with Judy and decided to try a side by side from one double recipe to limit the variables.

I used a big red cast iron that hold 7 quarts and my Judypot. (which I think looks like a bird,maybe Breadbirds for a name.

I switched oven position during both the covered and uncovered bakings.

My bread from the larger pot clearly was bigger . My little pot still had that tiny soft core. I think the energy that is expanded while covered in the space must be turned inward in the little pot. This might not be as useful a characteristic in breads as it is people. I will next try the judypot with a 1/2 or 2/3 recipe to give it more space.
I havn't been part of the comments yet but here are some of my thoughts:

I look at too many school supply catalogs to think Motzpots is a worthy name of these bakers.

Something more elegant. I added the BreadBird thought after I wrote this but I still like it.

I was going to link to the hydration article in the NYT but you have done that for me. All this thinking about volume and hydration is liking taking a class.

As much as bakers buying for themselves I see the pots as a lovely gift. In light of my volume problem I would be looking for some consistency in the volume versus the recipe. Bread baking is an art but there is also chemistry and many people may want to bake without a great deal of experimenting.

My white pot has some beautiful signs of use, it is aging well.

Brick clay baker journey

I brought a baker with me on my recent circle of visiting dear friends. This pot is made from the red sculpture clay that looks like brick. I love the color, though the sandy, groggy clay has worn off my fingernails. The shape of this pot is nice, taller, more volume. The lid fit is a little rocky though serviceable. I decided dear Katya, with her avid baking and thorough posting, deserves something beautiful, with safe handles, instead of the original ugly second class one she got when she visited the cape house. So I brought it with me to Northampton from whence it will go to Brooklyn.

First, however, it traveled to Bristol, Vermont. I arrived at my friend Beth's store, Almost Home Market, with a rye bread dough that had been rising in the car. We put the baker in the commercial Blodgett Oven and cranked it up, set the dough out to rise in the lovely kitchen while Beth and Larry finished up the evening work and soon had a bread out of the oven. Here we are learning how to use Beth's iphone while it is in the oven.

Yummy taste of new york corn rye! Beth took pics on her phone.The next day we did a back country ski on heavenly Bolton Mountain. That Beth is tough, she does this several times a week, for me, once in a lifetime opportunity

Next day off to Northampton where this pot got its third baking in the kitchen of Joan and Stan.

Another rye ...

Yummmmm the smell of fresh bread is filling my house.
i tried putting cornmeal all over the bread this time to help with the difficulty getting the baked loaf out.

i actually made two loaves ... on in the Bread Pot and one in a dutch oven. i do love our little rounded loaves!!

i will post in a little while about:
1) ease of getting it out of the pot
2) cleaning the pot

We KNOW it will taste divine!! LOL

Going on the radio - will talk about the Bread Pot

Judy - do you want to sell pots yet? On April 25 i am being featured on a public radio station where i am featuring my Grandma Peggy's Chicken Soup AND i am going to bake a seeded rye and bring in the Bread Pot! i'll bet people will be very interested.
Let's figure out the best place to send people. This blog maybe?

Sweet Soft Sandwich Bread

One of my favorite commercial sliced breads is a Pepperidge Farm brand called 'Oat-Nut.' Sounds healthy, but it's really a soft squishy sweet bread with bits of nutty things, that I could eat straight from the bag, toppings optional. I've tried a few times to reproduce it in a home version, and I think I've finally gotten pretty close. The following is an adaptation from a recipe for 'Toast Bread' from Jeffrey Hamelman's Bread.

I made one loaf in a loaf pan, and one in the baker, and they were pretty much exactly the same in crumb, crust, and consistancy. The difference in texture on the tops of the two loaves was largely because I dusted the pot loaf with wheat germ to keep it from sticking. I could eat it all day, toppings optional.

Formula;
2 lbs flour (about 7 and 1/4 cups) - I used mostly All-Purpose with about 1/4 cup of whole wheat)
2 and 5/8 cups water
2 tsp sugar  (I used maple syrup, bet honey would be good)
1 Tblsp soft butter (or hard butter cut in tiny pieces)
Malt powder or syrup (optional) 3/8 tsp
1 Tblsp salt
1.5 tsp Yeast

Nutty things--flaxseeds, wheat berries, nuts, etc...whatever...

Knead all ingredients, ferment for 2 hours, folding once in the middle, shape, proof for 1 - 1.5 hours, bake at 430 degrees, 30-45 minutes (making allowances for large or small loaves).

More beautiful bread

What I like is the beauty of the rounded loaf - no matter what I dump into the hot pot, it comes out reliably adorable. I find the wetter doughs make a higher loaf and I like that better. I am liking the size a lot (compared to my original posts wondering if the pot was too small.) I made yet another bread with the original rye recipe and it was good. I baked it in a pot/oven heated to 500 degrees for 1/2 hour and then, when I took off the lid for 10 -15 minutes, I lowered the heat to 450. I don't think I am going to post any more breads with pictures after this because they are so reliable.
I love my little bread baker.
-Joan

Still at it.....

We've been baking up a storm, the challah recipe is wonderful, and the deli rye is, too! I am currently without a digital camera, so I have no pictures, but our bread looks a lot like everyone elses!
Also, Judy, I added a comment to the question about pricing. (I'm anonymous, apparently.)
Our pot is holding up beautifully, no cracks, no problems.
I wanted to inquire if anyone washes their pot? If so, how? I have not washed mine at all, but this morning Thiago asked if he could wash it.
happy baking, and thank you for all the great recipes!