BBB - Vienna bread and Kaiser rolls

 I've been taking advantage of a little lull in the sunshine to have the oven on and do some school prep baking.  I like to have at least one loaf in the freezer for sandwiches.  I was also out of burger buns yet again.  And I even made some for last month's BBBuddy-ness.  So I was quite pleased to read this recipe; it looked good, I like Peter Reinhart and I even had the barley malt syrup in the cupboard.  I love what it adds to homemade bread.  (Can't use the diastatic malt powder because it has dextrose [corn] in it, at least from the company I know carries it.  I should look around to see if I can't find a corn free brand.)  The things I really like about using a preferment are the added flavor and the extended shelf life.  I used half whole grain spelt in the pâte fermentée and regular AP flour for all the rest.  That was the only change I made.  The bread turned out light, soft and just slightly chewy with a hint of tang.  Very nice, it will make excellent sandwiches and toast.  Bet it would make abfab french toast as well.  Very nice dough to work with too, not super soft, but springy and fun.  And evidently I will have to make more buns next time because my four year old absconded with one right off the cooling rack and demolished it plain, crust and all.  She can tend to be picky about crusts so that is a good endorsement right there!  Here is the recipe as detailed on Astrid's post, the host kitchen for the BBB this month.

9-25-11 Have made this a few more times and my kids absolutely love it for sandwiches.  Have even added more whole grains - part whole emmer flour in the final dough; daughter loved it.  Now trying all light spelt and emmer for the final dough and the only white flour as half the preferment.

Vienna Bread or Kaiser Rolls

Pâte Fermentée

makes 16-17 oz

1 1/8 cups (5 oz) unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/8 cups (5 oz) unbleached bread flour
¾ teaspoon (.19 oz) salt
½ teaspoon (.055 oz) Instant Yeast

¾ cup (+ 2 tbsp) (6-7 oz) water, room temperature

Method:

1. Stir together salt, yeast and flours.  Add ¾ water mix on low speed with paddle attachment until everything comes together. The dough should be neither too sticky nor too stiff. When touched with finger it should stick to finger but be easily released (better stay on the stickier side than to be too stiff!)
2. Transfer dough on counter sprinkled with some flour. Knead until dough is soft and pliable (tacky, not sticky!) Knead for 4-6 minutes.
3. Oil your bowl and transfer dough to the bowl coating it with oil all around! Cover with plastic foil and let ferment until 1½ swelled in size (about 1 hour).
4. Degas dough trough kneading lightly and return to bowl again to go to sleep in the fridge over night.  I like to use  an airtight plastic bag. You can store it up to 3 days in you fridge now.

Peter Reinhart says:
"You can also use this on the same day you make it, if you ferment it at room temperature for 2 hours instead of refrigerating it.  Flavor enhances through the night in the refrigerator though,... "

Vienna Bread
makes two 1 pound loaves or 9-12 pistolets

2 1/3 cups (13 oz) pâte fermentée
2 2/3 cups (12 oz) unbleached bread flour
1 tbsp (.5 oz) granulated sugar
1 tsp (.25 oz)  diastatic barley malt powder
   or 1 tbsp (.75) barley malt syrup
1 tsp (.25 oz) salt
1 tsp (.11 oz) instant yeast
1 large (1.65 oz) egg, slightly beaten
1 tbsp (.5 oz) unsalted butter or shortening at room temp, melted
¾ cup plus 1 tbsp (6-7 oz) water, lukewarm
semolina flour or cornmeal for dusting

Method:

1. 1 hour before starting to make the bread: remove pâte fermentée from fridge. Cut into 10 pieces. Cover with a towel or plastic wrap.
2. Flour, sugar, malt powder, salt and yeast go into the mixing bowl. Add pâte fermentée pieces, egg, butter and ¾ cups of water. Stir together until you have a nice ball. If your dough is rather firm or stiff, use a little more water, we want the dough to be soft at this stage.
3. Knead for about 10 minutes on floured counter or on your machine with dough hook on medium speed for 6 minutes. Add flour if needed to achieve a firm but elastic dough (tacky not sticky).
   Peter Reinhard says: "the dough should pass the windowpane test" - honestly I've never done this and it worked for me without this test... dough temp should range between 77° and 81°F.
4. Transfer dough to lightly oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap. Ferment at room temp for two hours or until doubled in size.
5. When doubled in size, punch it down and return to bowl until dough doubles again.
6. Remove dough from bowl to counter and divide into 2 equal pieces for loaves. Or into 3 to 4 ounce pieces for pistolets  (French split rolls). Shape larger pieces into boules (balls) and smaller ones into rolls. Mist the dough lightly with oil and cover loosely with plastic.
7. Leave to proof at room temp 60-90 minutes or until they have risen to approx. 1 3/4 of their original size.
8. Preheat your oven to 450°F and place an empty steam pan in your oven.
   Just before baking mist the loaves or rolls with water and dust lightly with flour. Score loves and rolls down the center.
9. Slide loaves or rolls onto baking stone or baking tray. pour 1 cup water into your steam pan quickly close oven door. After 30 seconds open oven door and spray oven walls with water, close again. Repeat twice in 30 sec intervals. After final spray lower heat to 400°F for 10 minutes. Rotate breads 180° for even baking. Continue baking until breads are golden brown.
10. Remove breads or rolls from oven and let cool on cooling rack for at least 45 minutes before slicing or serving (if you can!)

  
(I think that's the hardest part for my kiddos - waiting until it is cool before slicing...)
This post will go up for yeastspotting!


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