A late post of a bread for the St. Patrick's day potluck at work. I had made two trial attempts earlier. This bread had ingredients similar to Spinach Bread 2 from the attempts, except it used all bread flour. This was probably only the third or fourth time in two years that I made an all bread flour bread. It's a very different feeling kneading such a dough, it was very sticky initially but then smoothed out wonderfully.
I was going to have to bake the bread the evening before the potluck and it was going to be a short evening because I had other things going on. So I decided to make this over two days using delayed fermentation.
Day 1
6.15 oz baby spinach... lightly sauteed and pureed. The pureed mixture weighed 5 oz
490 g bread flour
½ tsp instant yeast
1 Tbsp oil
1 tsp sugar
¾ tsp salt
1 tsp dried basil
180 g water (little more than 1 cup)
(4 oz grated cheese (1 cup) on day 2)
(If making a 8½ x 4½ loaf, use about 450 g of flour, and 150 g of water to begin with. Use less salt if the cheese is quite salty.)
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| Ingredients |
I mixed all the ingredients and kneaded well for 5 minutes or so. The bowl was covered with a plastic wrap. The dough sat for an hour and was then refrigerated overnight. I wasn't sure about cheese going through the slow fermentation, so I decided to add it between the first and second rise.
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| Ready for delayed fermentation in the refrigerator |
Day 2
The dough was removed from the fridge about four and a half hours before it needed to go in the oven. It had risen quite a bit. After an hour and a half (or so), when the dough was close to room temperature, it was time to add in the cheese. I used pepper jack to add a little kick to the bread. |
| 6:10 pm: Ready to add the cheese in |
I didn't want to destroy the gas that had built inside the risen dough. So the cheese had to be added in carefully. This is how I blended the cheese in.
(Left to right, top to bottom)
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| Second rise done |
Shaping
Using Laurel Robertson's shaping technique (even though it is the one for a loaf)
(Left to right, top to bottom)
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The dough was placed in a cast iron combo cooker which had preheated with the oven as it preheated to 400° F. When the dough was placed in the oven, the temperature was turned down to 350° F. The lid on the combo cooker was removed after 25 minutes, letting the crust form. After another 25 minutes, the bread was taken out of the oven.
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| A limb trying to sprout out the right side |
Because the cheese had not been added when first preparing the dough, it did not become one with the dough and was quite likely not evenly distributed. Also it melted unevenly and tried to flow within the dough. The result was a distorted boule with cheese trying to bubble out of it.
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| Chopped off limb showing a very hole-y crumb |
The good thing about the distorted shape was that I could slice of a tiny piece to take a picture as well as taste the bread, without losing the boule shape. It was fairly spicy and I was afraid it wouldn't be liked at the potluck. I wasn't going to participate in the potluck as I was attending an off-site training workshop, so RH got to take the bread. I heard from him that a few colleagues said they liked the bread. I got to eat the last piece that he brought back for me.
Date: March 15, 2012
Recipe: My own recipe
Flours: Bread flour
Bread specific ingredients: Spinach, cheese (pepper-jack), dried basil
Sweetener used: Sugar
Liquid: Water
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