Good Bread Guide - beer lover's bread book

New Local Bakery

2006-07-31T19:42:00.000-07:00

Happiness is discovering a new bakery in town, especially one with a traditional wood-fired oven!

My husband and I recently discovered the Hideaway Bakery here in Eugene, Oregon. So far we've tried the Green Olive Loaf and the Yukon Gold Potato Ciabatta, and they were great.

Having tasted both loaves, I preferred the Green Olive bread. Other bakeries do a Kalamata Olive bread, but this one is saltier and has a great chewy sourdough texture, with a crunchy flour-coated crust. It's great toasted with my favorite unsalted "Plugra" brand butter slathered on it (www.plugra.com)

Hideaway is not in the DexOnline yellow pages yet, so here's the contact info: 3377 East Amazon, behind Mazzi's Italian Restaurant. Phone number is (541) 868-1982.

I haven't spoken to the Head Baker/Owner, Mazzi, yet (I've been too busy brewing beer at Steelhead this summer), but I spoke to his wife. She said they used the book, "Bread Baking Across America" as a reference book when building the bakery. I couldn't find that book on Amazon.com, but here is the book she may have meant, "Artisan Baking Across America: The Breads, The Bakers, The Best Recipes," by Maggie Glezer and Ben Fink (ISBN: 1579651178).

Here is Hideaway's blurb, right off the back of the special paper bag they put your fresh loaf in to take home. It warms the cockles of my environmentally-conscious heart:

HIDEAWAY BAKERY
Our goal is to offer our community artisan breads rich with the flavor of a traditional wood-fired oven, capturing the essence of bread which nourishes the body, while honoring the timeless practice of baking. From the harvest of organic grains, to the gathering of farm ingredients, to the oven, we bake with the soul of the old world style.

RECYCLED WOOD
At Hideaway Bakery, we are concerned with the health of the individual and the environment as well. The slabs of wood used in our oven are a bi-product of a small mill South (sic) of Eugene that would otherwise be waste wood. This wood now is the heart of our oven, producing a rich, even heat that radiates from masonry. Our oven is fired once every twenty-four hours, baking all of our breads and pastries. This style of baking on hot masonry is the method of the traditional artisan baker.

ORGANIC
We are committed to using organic, local ingredients whenever possible.

USAGE INSTRUCTIONS
Store in a paper sack at room temperature. To refresh bread, mist outer crust and bag before placing in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool in bag.
--

Check back here for an interview with Mazzi (the Italian version of Tommy) sometime down the road. Buon Gusto!

Two Recipes to Start

2006-05-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

My local homebrew club, the Cascade Brewers Society, sent an email asking for a recipe to put in their newsletter so they could help me get the word out about this project. Here is what I sent to them:

Here are two recipes that are favorites. Brewers should feel free to play with the recipes once they get the idea.

The basic recipe is 3 cups of "flour and stuff." I recommend you not let the "stuff" go over 1 cup. In fact, at first keep it down to about 1/2 cup to avoid a heavy loaf.

I use sea salt because the minerals add flavor. These recipes use regular dried bread yeast. I use the regular, not the fast-rise style. I prefer King Arthur unbleached flour. I often make lots of "bread mixes" at one time, just writing down in my breadlog notebook what dry "stuff" I put into each quart ziplock-bag.

Folks can certainly experiment with their homebrew beer yeast, as long as the beer yeast is in fresh, repitchable condition. Not sure of the quantity for that, but I'd guess start at 1/4 cup. All that's required is patience to see what the yeast wants and how long it wants to take. See below for baking instructions.

CRYSTAL - WHEAT GERM - POTATO BREAD

1 TBSP dark 135-165-L Crystal (minced in the blender)
2 TBSP Wheat Germ
1/4 cup Potato Flakes
1/4 cup Gluten Flour
2+ cups unbleached flour (Total for all "flour and stuff" listed above should be 3 cups.)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp yeast

Please note this bread uses a tiny amount of yeast. It is a slow-rising bread with a "sour tang" from the beasties in the air. If you want your bread to rise faster, use up to 2 teaspoons of dried bread yeast. The directions below follow this slow-rise (1/2 tsp yeast) method:

Mix all the dry ingredients in a 3- to 6-quart plastic bowl with lid. Make a well in the middle of the bowl. Warm 1 cup of liquid in the microwave for about 30 seconds or until bathtub hot only. You can use water, your favorite beer, half-water and half-beer, milk, cream with water, whatever you want. (In one experiment in 1989, I used half-milk and half-apple juice. That combination curdled, but you should experiment anyway!)

In the evening after dinner:

Add the warm (not hot!) liquid and stir it in with a fork. Keep mixing it until the liquid is absorbed. If the dough is too sticky, put the lid on the bowl and leave it for an hour or two. If you've used any whole wheat flour or other non-white flour, they take longer to absorb the liquid. Once most of the liquid is absorbed, knead the dough in the bowl if you can (keeps your countertop cleaner), adding more flour as the dough becomes sticky again. Knead by folding the dough over on itself and pushing down, then turn 1/4 turn, and repeat. Knead until the dough doesn't absorb any more flour, or for about 5 minutes. Put the lid on the plastic bowl and set on the counter.

The dough will rise faster in the summer than in the winter due to the temperature of your house. No need to push/force the dough by putting it near a heater! You could kill the yeast that way. Think of the dough as your homebrew. Cooler is good. Slow ferments force the yeast to reproduce more generations. Slow ferments also make for a smaller "bubble" in the loaf, and the bread will go stale more slowly. More salt gives you a crunchier crust, but will slow down the yeast. I find 2 teaspoons of sea salt just right for me, but I use unsalted butter on the bread. You will have to adjust the salt for your own taste buds.

If the dough has risen by the time you go to bed, punch in down just before bedtime, and knead it for a few minutes, adding flour if necessary.

The next morning:

Depending on how much time you have, you might have to shorten this longer method by begining the baking in a cold oven (as described below).

Punch down the dough and knead again for a few minutes until the dough seems tight and rubbery. If you push your finger into it, does it spring back? Or hold the finger shape? If it holds the finger shape, then knead it some more until it is springy. Form the dough into a tight ball, pushing any odd edges underneath.

Now here's where I follow the "undercover baking method" as taught by Elizabeth David in her book, "English Bread and Yeast Cookery." However, to keep this post shorter and simpler, I will just list some Regular Baking Directions, which are more common. At some point, I will post information on the Undercover Baking Method on this blog.

Regular Baking Directions:

Form the dough into a loaf and put into a greased loaf pan. Grease the top of the loaf with some olive oil. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 1-3 hours. Bake at 35-375 degrees until an instant-read thermometer reads 190-210 degrees in the center. Bread will feel hollow when tapped. Time will be about 45-60 minutes, maybe more. Cool on a wire rack. Wait at least 5 minutes before cutting so you don't squish the loaf.

If you have made a bread that has a lot of heavy four in it, such as 1/2 cup oat flour or more, or if you used pure first-runnings of wort (which I don't recommend) then your loaf will be heavy, probably won't rise as much, and you will probably need to get the interior temperature to 210-215 degrees or more to avoid a doughy center. Bread will feel hollow when tapped when done.

If your bread dough is a little shy of "doubled in bulk" and you're running out of time, then put the bread into a cold oven. The bread will rise more as the oven heats. If you peek in after about 5 minutes of baking time, and it hasn't risen enough, then with a sharp serrated knife, cut slits or cross-hatches into the top about 1/4-inch deep.

Here is the second recipe. Please follow the directions outlined above.

THREE GRAIN BREAD

1/4 cup Flaked Wheat
1/4 cup Flaked Barley
1/4 cup Flaked Rye
(Crush the above homebrew store ingredients in a blender.)
1/4 cup Gluten Flour
~ 2 cups unbleached flour (The above ingredients should measure 3 cups total.)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp dried yeast

Have fun and be creative!

How it Began

2006-05-12T12:47:00.000-07:00

Here I am at 10 years old in 1970 with my first two loaves of bread. No one in my family baked bread, but I just wanted to try it. I made a simple white milk bread, but I couldn't bake it until my folks came home from an antique show. I was too little to use the oven by myself.

Papa told me to underbake the second loaf so we could finish baking it another day and have fresh bread then. Bad idea. He went on to prove to me that some people are natural friends to yeast, but others accidentally kill the yeast every time. Pop has a black thumb when it comes to yeast.

My wonderful father is still alive, still married to my Mom (50 years in 2007), and he has given me much better advice since then. He has a bread machine now, and it's much harder for him to kill the yeast.

I still bake the old fashioned way, kneading by hand. I rarely use bread pans, prefering Elizabeth David's undercover method with a round loaf on a pizza stone. Buon Gusto!

My Background

2006-05-06T12:51:00.000-07:00

I've been the Brewmaster at Steelhead Brewing Company in Eugene, Oregon since 1990. Prior to that I was the Head Brewer at Triple Rock Brewing Company in Berkeley, California 1989-1990, and attended the Siebel Institute of Brewing Technology in Chicago, Illinois in 1988. I have judged beer professionally on an international scale, including gigs in Australia and New Zealand.

What makes me want to write this book? I love yeast, and I love to experiment with the breads I bake. I love "pushing the envelope" with my breads, and with my professionally-made beers. (As long as the beer isn't too far-out for our customers at Steelhead.)

There appears to be plenty of consumer guides for people searching for a good beer, but few consumer guides to good bread. I am interested in the smallest artisanal producers of both. And because I don't think anybody's put this slant on it before, I want to approach bread from a brewer's perspective.

I plan to cross-reference the bread and beer recommendations. That way I think there will be less personal bias toward picking your friend's beer (for example, if the beer recommendation is from a brewer) or picking your friend's bread (if the bread recommendation is from a baker). I hope to get honest preferences by people I consider gustatory experts in the grain fermentation field.

I use a lot of brewing ingredients when making my bread, and I don't see many other people doing that. So I'll be fine-tuning my own recipes and techniques. I hope to interview other brewers who are passionate about baking bread at home, and I plan to add a chapter or two on pushing the envelope with recipes and techniques for bread-baking that come directly from my (and other brewers) experiences using brewing ingredients and brewing techniques with bread.

I feel I am uniquely qualified to write a combination book of this type: A guidebook to good local commercially available artisanal bread (recommended by professional brewers), a guidebook to good local commercially available craft beer (recommended by bakers), and a guidebook to how to make your own bread (with a brewer's twist).

Another goal is to get the world of brewers and bakers to interact more. We have so much in common: good grain, yeast, water, temperature control, fermentation, flavor, and passion. Let's talk!

I've got nine chapters outlined so far, but I can't spill all the flour just yet. Please check back and I'll be writing updates (and bread & bakery reviews, as well as interviews with bakers and brewers) as I work on the book.

Prost!
(Also salut, kippis, bottom's up, cheers, etc.)

Hey, what do bakers say when they're about to enjoy some bread together? I'd like to know if there's any special words that are used on those occasions.

Cheers!

Welcome Everyone Else

2006-05-06T12:34:00.000-07:00

Welcome everyone!

This picture is of my excellent husband, Jon. He doesn't make bread, but he likes to eat mine. He also likes to drink my beer, and the GOOD BREAD GUIDE will be dedicated to him.

If you know any professional brewers or bread bakers, please point them toward this blog. I definitely need their help and opinions! If you've got comments of your own, feel free to post them here.

Please check back periodically if you want to follow my progress on this long-term project. Thanks for visiting my blog, and wish me luck!

And for those who are wondering about the fish, it is a steelhead caught on the Siuslaw River in Oregon, about 2 hours from Eugene. (A steelhead is an ocean-going trout, and Steelhead Brewing Company where I work is named after this fish.)

Welcome Bakers

2006-05-06T12:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome bakers! I don't know you yet, but I want to meet many of you.

I've been an amateur bread baker since I was ten years old. In 1985 I began homebrewing, and in 1988 I went pro, and I've been a professional brewer ever since. However, I never forgot my first yeasty love: good bread.

What I want are contacts in the bread baking world. And I want your opinions about... beer! Brewers call beer "liquid bread." Perhaps some of you are homebrewers. I doubt you've ever called bread "solid beer," but I could be wrong. I consider you a creative lot, therefore I have to assume you have lots of opinions, and I want to hear them.

Please send your comments to this blog about your favorite locally made beers. Do you know the brewer? Addresses and phone numbers would be quite helpful.

I'd love to hear from you. Please send the name of your favorite beer, the brewery name, your name, title, and the name of the bakery you work for. Plus a short description of who you are, what you love about beer, and why you recommend this particular beer. Plus any other tidbits and background that you think would be interesting to the readers of this blog.

Please include your contact information, such as a phone number. All comments will be moderated before posting, and I will remove your personal contact info, including your phone number before I post your comments.

Thanks for your help!

Welcome Brewers

2006-05-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome brewers. This is the easy part because I know many of you, and many of you know me. I've been a professional brewer since 1988, but I've been an amateur bread baker since 1970. Nobody in my family baked bread, I just wanted to when I was ten years old. I was too little to use the oven so I had to wait till my parents got home from an antique show before I could bake my bread. I've been baking and experimenting with baking ever since.

I'll be posting lots more about what I want to do with this book, but in the meantime I need your opinion. And if there's one thing I know about brewers, is that we've all got plenty of opinions!

I want to know about your favorite local loaf of bread. What's the name? Who makes it? Why is it special? Anything you want to tell me, and the other brewers and bakers who will be reading this blog.

Please send me the bread name, the bakery name, the city and state where the bakery is located. Addresses and phone numbers are helpful, plus information about you, what you love about bread. Do you bake? Any other stories, background, or tidbits that you think the readers of this blog might enjoy.

Please include your contact information, such as a phone number. All comments will be moderated before I post them, and I will remove your phone number and personal contact information before posting your comments.

Thank you for your support!