Shelf-stable 100% Whole Wheat Bread

One of the problems with doing breads with long-term storage is that not all of the ingredients of bread are shelf-stable. The flour is a particular culprit. The wheat grain is easy to store, but as soon as it's ground, the inner parts are exposed to the air and begin to degrade. This is especially true of bread flour. I don't like to make bread with flour that's more than a month or two opened. I just don't get as much gluten, nor as much rise.

Add to that the problem that whole wheat flour doesn't develop much gluten anyway. That leaves you stuck with a lot of compromise. To get the lift and the fluff that the gluten gives, a lot of people will add fresh bread flour to the whole wheat, usually at a ratio 70% whole wheat to 30% white bread flour. That works, but the problem, again, is storage.

On the other hand, baking a loaf out of fresh-ground whole wheat flour works very nicely, but it won't have the gluten, so it won't get all stretchy and fluffy. It'll be more dense and crumbly. Still edible, of course, but not what most folks are used to.

This recipe takes a bit longer, because the ground flour pre-soaks. This helps boost the gluten development, so that it can trap the gas the yeast makes and rise more fluffy.

12" Shallow Dutch Oven
12-14 coals below
26-28 coals above

3 cups whole wheat flour
3 cups warm water

1/2 Tbsp yeast
1/2 cup warm water
1/4 c. liquid honey
6 tbsp. butter, melted fresh, or mixed from powder
1 egg, fresh, or mixed from powder
2 tsp. salt
2-3 cups whole wheat flour, more for kneading

I started this whole experiment out by grinding up some wheat (I use an electric grinder, but you can do an hand-cranker if you really want to). I took about 3 cups of the flour and an equal amount of water (almost hot works very well to be absorbed). I let that sit for a long time, about an hour or two. The intent is not to have this raise, since we haven't added any yeast yet. We just want to coax the gluten strands into forming.

When I came back, it was gooey, stringy, stretchy, and sticky.  Yuk.  But no matter. I mixed the yeast with the additional hot water (just hot to the touch, no hotter), and let it sit to get foamy and active.

I added the yeast mix and all of the other ingredients into the mixing bowl (add only 1 or 2 of the final cups of whole wheat flour.) It was kinda hard to stir, because the gluten had had a lot of time to develop with the liquid. Once all of the ingredients were well-incorporated, I turned it out of the bowl, and onto my kitchen counter (well-floured, with whole wheat flour). I began to knead it, sprinkling on more whole-wheat flour as I went. Just enough to keep it not so sticky on my hands. I was really pleased to feel the gluten tugging on it. It was coming together much more so than any other whole wheat loaf I'd done before. Finally, it passed the stretchy windowpane translucence test!

I shaped it into a boule and set it aside in an oiled bowl to rise. I sprayed on a light coating of oil, to help it to not dry out, then covered it and let it rise for a couple of hours.

Since the gluten had developed so well, it rose quit fully and quickly. After the first rise, I quickly reshaped into a boule, pinched a seam at the "bottom", and set it, seam side up, into my proofing baskets for the final rise. As I was doing this, it was good to see a nice, tight surface. That showed that there was, in fact, good, stretchy gluten!

I lit up the coals and let them get white edges. Once there were many that were ready, I oiled the inside of the Dutch oven and set the coals below it and on the lid, so that the Dutch oven could preheat.

Once the coals had been on the empty, closed Dutch oven, preheating, it was time to bake. I lifted the lid, then quickly upturned the proofing basket into the middle of the Dutch oven. Now, the seam side, the "bottom", was back on the bottom, and the stretchy clean surface was on top. This I sliced a couple of times with a sharp knife, to help it vent and "bloom" in the initial spring. I quickly covered it back up with the heated lid and marked the time.

After about 15 minutes, I turned the lid about 1/4 of the way, and then lifted the Dutch oven and turned it a quarter turn as well. After about 30 minutes, I checked it, and it was looking nice and brown, but not done yet.  I poked it with the thermometer and dropped the lid. After another 10 minutes or so, I looked again, and saw that the bread had reached it's done-ness temperature, about 180-190 (being a darker bread).

Then, I lifted it out and set it onto a cooling rack. It really tasted great, and I was surprised by the lightness of the texture with a traditionally heavy bread like %100 whole wheat.  It was very fluffy. Not like a french bread, to be sure, but still, very palatable. So, I will always do a pre-soak with the non-glutenous flours. It worked wonders!



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Baking Bread for Church

Spoiler alert:  I’m going to get very personal in this post. I’m going to talk about my church and my faith.

But - I hope it won’t be in a preachy way.  I hope it relates to the core of why we make food and how we make some of the food and ingredient choices we make for one circumstance or another.  It really goes to the heart of the art of cooking.  I hope I’ll be speaking to expression and meaning in the food and in the result. It’s really the first chance I’ve had to take an emotion and express it through ingredients, through process, and, finally, to result.

If you don’t want to be bothered with all that, I won’t be offended.  You can skip down below and read what I hope will be a good, solid, yummy bread recipe. On the other hand, I hope you’ll also take a moment and, in the comments section below, tell me about a time when you’ve cooked something expressive.

OK, here we go--

Last Sunday, I had the opportunity to provide the bread for our ward’s Sacrament Service. For those not of my faith, let me just take a moment to explain that. In a Mormon chapel, every Sunday, one of the meetings (the most important one, theologically) is the Sacrament meeting. We listen to “talks” (what we call sermons), and sing, of course, but it’s the actual ordinance of the Sacrament that’s the key portion of the meeting. In it, baptized members of the church eat a tiny piece of bread and drink a tiny cup of water in symbolic remembrance of the Savior’s suffering and the offering of the Atonement to us. It’s a big deal to us (or at least it should be). It’s a part of our weekly renewal and repentance.

So, I got the chance to provide the bread for that service last week.  Now, normally, the bread is just store-bought sliced bread. It doesn’t matter, theologically or doctrinally, what bread you use.  In the Last Supper, Jesus himself probably used some variant on a Pita or some unleavened flatbread.

Since I love to bake bread in the Dutch oven, I got up early in the morning to do that, to bake the loaves that would be used in our Sacrament service.

Part of the reason why I bring all this up is to share my thought process as I decided what I was going to do.  My first thought was to pull out all the stops and make an amazing herb loaf, or the cocoa bread, or maybe even a rye. Practical reasons stopped the rye, it would take too long to rise. And the others didn’t seem right. I wanted to give it my best.  I mean, this is for Church, right? In some ways, I’m baking for God, here!

Then I thought about the service itself, and I realized that if I did one of those wonderful breads, then lots of people would be tasting that wonderful bread and they might start thinking, “Wow, that bread is really great!”.  And suddenly, they’re pulled out of the ordinance.  They’re thinking about the bread, not the Atonement.

The bread would have to be simple and plain.  It would have to be the best simple and plain bread I’ve ever baked. In that sense, it might even be a bit zen-like or like a Shaker hymn...

Anyway, so I set about my recipes and identified a pure and simple bread recipe.  I did add a little olive oil and maybe an egg for a touch of richness, and the dough turned out to be a very damp, rustic dough, which, I think, added to the fluffy lightness in the end. I also doubled what’s below and baked two loaves, one for my family.  As I gathered up the ingredients, I said a quick prayer inside, and started in!


Church Bread

12” Dutch Oven
14-15 coals below
18-22 coals above

1 Tbsp Yeast
2 Cup water (110 degrees)
2 Tbsp sugar

~4 Cups fresh bread flour, adding as much as 1 more during kneading
1 tsp salt
~2 Tbsp olive oil
1 egg (optional)

The process was very much like every other bread loaf I’ve done.  I started by getting some warm tap water (to touch, it feels like a nice hot shower, even just a little too hot).  I added the yeast, the sugar, and stirred it up. I set that aside to activate.

Meanwhile, I sifted the flour into a large mixing bowl, and added the salt.  Once the yeast was nice and frothy, and added that and the oil into the mix and stirred it all up.

I scooped it out onto a well-floured countertop and started kneading, shaking on more flour as it was needed. As I mentioned, when it got to a good windowpane test http://www.squidoo.com/dutchovenbread , it was still a very damp, loose dough, but, obviously, not as sticky as when I started. I shaped it into a large ball and set it in the oiled bowl to rise, covered with a tea towel.

There’s quite a bit of yeast in the recipe, so it rose fairly quickly. when it was more than doubled, I punched it down and reshaped it, and set it in a cloth-lined basket for the second raise. As I reshaped it, I pinched a seam along “the bottom”, but I put that side upwards in the basket.  That way, when I would dump it out into the hot Dutch oven, the seam would truly be “the bottom” of the loaf.

I lit up some coals, and when they were getting white, I set up the proper coals over and under a 12” Dutch oven.  I had lightly oiled the interior of the oven, and I let it preheat, empty, with the lid on, for about 15-20 minutes.

Finally, it was all ready to bake. I opened up the Dutch oven, and turned the dough ball in from the basket.  I sliced the top and put the cover back on. After about 15 minutes, I opened up the lid and put in a short-stemmed thermometer, and rotated the lid and the Dutch oven. It was a pretty breezy day, so I added 2-3 coals to the bottom and 3-4 to the top.  After another 20 minutes, it was done (to an internal temperature of 190-200°F). I brought it in and turned it out onto a cooling rack.

After it cooled, right before we left to take it to church, I sliced it up, and it was probably the lightest, fluffiest loaf I've ever baked. I tasted a corner, and it was just what I wanted: pure, simple, and perfectly cooked.

At church, my oldest son got to participate in the service, as he often does. It was very special to me to hear him say the prayer to bless the bread, then to watch it be passed to the congregation. As it came to me, I felt a peace and happiness that I think comes from being able to give something, an offering, and know that it was accepted.


Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

WBEV Radio Interview: Dutch Oven Breads

Back in October, I had a couple of great opportunities to do some phone interviews for radio stations all over the country.

I really love being interviewed.  It's so much fun to converse with people about topics I love.  It really is a thrill.  This interviewer was very good, too, and had done her homework before the interview.

Unfortunately, the first minute or so of the interview wasn't recorded, so it cuts in as we were talking about the nature of bread.





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Soft Dinner Rolls

When I first was making this dinner, and Jodi mentioned that she wanted dinner rolls, my mind immediately jumped to a certain buffet restaurant we go to. Their rolls are light and fluffy, amost to the point of having no substance. Generally, I like my bread to have a little body (sometimes a lot), but then I also like learning how to get the results I want. So, I thought I'd take on the challenge. The results today were good, and lighter than normal, but it's still not quite there.

Or, in this case, still not quite not there...

Dutch Oven Soft Dinner Rolls

10" Dutch Oven
10 Coals below
20-22 coals above

2 tsp yeast (or 1pkg}
I/4 cup warm water (105°F-110°F)
1/2 Tbsp sugar

1 cup milk, just to scalding hot (do not simmer or boil)
¼ cup melted butter

4 cup bread flour
1 tsp salt
1 egg, lightly beaten

2 T butter, melted, for brushing

The process for these rolls was very similar to my standard process for bread, with a few changes. I started out by activating the yeast in a bowl with the warm water and the sugar. I set that aside to get frothy for about 10 minutes or so.

Then, I heated up the milk and the butter. If I'd been out in the wild, I could've done this in a dutch oven, like my 8", over about 12 coals, but since I was in a bit of a hurry, I did it in the microwave. May the Gods of Iron forgive me.

I sifted the bread flour into a mixing bowl, and added the salt and the egg. I stirred in the yeast mix and the milk mix. It was pretty sticky still. When I turned it out on the table and started kneading, I didn't add much flour on the table. I wanted it to be a pretty wet dough, to make it lighter. Not quite so wet as the no-knead or a ciabatta/focacia dough, but definitely more loose than a regular sandwich bread as well. I kneaded it to a good windowpane. Then I oiled the bowl, and set the dough aside, covered, to rise.

I let it rise a bit higher than normal, in both the first and second fermentations.

After the first rise, I cut it into eighths and rolled each piece into a small ball. I set these into the base of my oiled 10" Dutch oven. I set these aside to rise, while I lit up some coals. Once the coals were ready, I put about 20-25 of them on the lid of the Dutch oven, to preheat. After about 15-20 minutes of heating, the rolls had risen well. I took them out and set up the coals as listed above, and started the baking.

After about 15 minutes, I turned the lid and the oven, and set the thermometer in the dough. They had sprung up nicely, and were just starting to brown. About 10 minutes later, the thermometer read about 190, and they were ready to come off the coals.

I brought them in, turned them out of the Dutch oven, and set them on a cooling rack. While they were still hot, I coated the top with some butter, which immediately melted onto the crust. Then they cooled while I cooked the rest of the dinner.

As I said before, they were lighter than most loaves I'd done, but not quite the airiness I was shooting for. I think that making the dough wetter helped, as well as the extra rise time. I also think baking to 190 instead of 200 was a part of that as well.

Book 4: Dutch Oven Breads is about to fly!

It's getting exciting!  Only a little over a week until the official release of my fourth book, "Dutch Oven Breads"!  This last weekend, Brendon and I shot and edited this video:




And here's the link where you can place your Amazon.com order!



Thanks so much for all your support over the years.  Even if you can't buy the book right now, jump to YouTube, and "thumbsup" the video, or share it on your facebook.  If you have gotten the book, please post a review on Amazon!

Thanks so much!


Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Creating Original Dutch Oven Breads

This Dutch oven recipe is included in my Dutch oven cookbook, "Dutch Oven Breads"

Last week, I was working on my final book, “Dutch Oven Breads”, and I got to the chapter on “Getting Creative”.  After all of my instructing and pontificating on bread making, I finally offered some suggestions on making your own bread recipes.

It turns out that almost all bread is the same at it’s core, and that you take the same basic ingredients, you can simply add a variety of enrichments to create an entirely new loaf!  Then you can name it and call it your own.

So, to test that theory, I took a core recipe and made two completely different variations.  From the same base, each finished loaf was a unique texture and taste.

First, the core recipe:

Core Bread Recipe

1 Tbsp Yeast
2 Cup water (110 degrees)
2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
~5 Cups fresh bread flour

To read about all of my ideas and suggestions for enrichments, you’ll have to get the book!



Tomato Bread


12” Dutch Oven
14-15 coals below
18-22 coals above

2 Tbsp olive oil
2 tsp basil
2 tsp oregano

1 Tbsp Yeast
2 Cup water (110 degrees)
2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt
~5 Cups fresh bread flour
1 6 oz can tomato paste
1 egg

More oil, basil, and oregano for the topping.


The first thing I did, about an hour before making this recipe, was to mix the oil and the herbs in a small bowl.  Actually, I used a ramekin.  It was the right size, and it was handy.  I let it sit so that it would release the flavors of the herbs into the oil.

Then, a while later, I mixed the yeast, water, and sugar, and let that set for a while to get all frothy and yeasty. While that was proofing, I prepared the other ingredients.  I sifted in the flour, added the salt.  Finaly, I added all of the ingredients together, the oil/herb mixture, the yeast mixture, the dry ingredients, the tomato paste and the egg, and stirred it up.

I turned it out onto the floured board and started kneading.  Right away, I could tell that the texture would be different.  It was much more moist than I thought it would be.  I didn't anticipage the extra liquid from the tomato paste.  But, as I kneaded and added more flour, it turned into a nice dough ball.  After a while, it gave me a good windowpane, and I set it aside to rise.

It actually rose up very nicely, and I let it go a bit bigger than I usually do.  When I decidd it was done, it had a rich smell, just like a great tomato sauce.  Finally, I punched it down and re-rolled it into a boule.  I sprinkled about a teaspoon of additional basic and oregano onto a plate and spread it around.  Then, I brushed the top of my new boule with olive oil.  Finally, I turned it over onto the herbs and pressed the dough onto the plate.  When I rolled it off, there was a nice coating of shredded herbs stuck to the ball.  I put it, bottom-down, into a well-oiled bowl, and let it sit to proof.

Right away after that, I went outside and lit up some coals.  When those were nicely white, I placed an oiled 12" Dutch oven on and under the coals as enumerated above.  I let that sit to pre-heat for about another 15 minutes.

When the bread had fully proofed, and the Dutch oven was hot, I took the bowl with the boule out to the oven.  I lifted up the lid, and then, with my hands, carefully lifted the doughball out of the bowl and into the oven, herb-side-up.  I sliced it with an "X", and closed up the lid.

About 15 to 20 minutes later, I turned the Dutch oven, and lifted the lid just quick enough to insert the thermometer.  I was hit with this wafted wave of delicious tomato smell.  It was amazing!  I knew this one was going to be good.

After another 20 minutes or so, I checked and it was done.  The thermometer read about 200. I brought it in, and turned it out onto a cooling rack.  The smell was wonderful.  Later that evening, as we tasted it with marinara pasta and meatballs, the meal was complete!

Garlic and Black Pepper Bread

Here's another bread I did, actually, on the same day, and at the same time as the Tomato Bread.  This was inspired by my good friend Omar Alvarez.  He's an amazing Dutch oven chef in his own right, having won the World Championship Cookoff a few years ago.

He emailed me his recipe after posting pictures on his facebook page, and I really wanted to try it.  I saw that it was really close to my core recipe!  So, I just adapted it!


12” Dutch Oven
14-15 coals below
18-22 coals above

2 Tbsp olive oil
3-4 cloves freshly minced garlic
2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

1 Tbsp Yeast
2 Cup water (110 degrees)
2 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt
~5 Cups fresh bread flour

More oil and black pepper for the topping

The process is essentially the same as the recipe above.  I baked them that day side-by-side!  Start by letting the oil steep the garlic and the black pepper (what an aroma THAT is!).  Then, proof the yeast, and mix in the other ingredients all together.  Knead it until it stretches into the windowpane, then let it rise.

In this case, I also coated the top of the loaf with more ground black pepper, just like I did the herbs in the tomato bread.

The coals were heated as the bread proofed, and the loaves baked side-by-side.

I actually liked the subtleties of the garlic even more than the tomato.  But they were both delicious and so unique and different.  The whole experience just showed how easy it is to make a loaf of bread that's brand new!

Here's another great, but strange, example of Dutch Oven Cooking, with Dandelions, and more about what to cook in a dutch oven.

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.  

Dutch Oven Broth Bread

This bread started out as a query, as me wondering, “What if...?”  I had been planning and baking for my breads party/photoshoot for several days, and my mind was locked in bread mode.  I was thinking, living, breathing nothing but breads.

I wondered, “What would happen if I used some chicken broth instead of water in a bread?”  I started to ponder that thought for a while, then I went to that font of all knowledge and wisdom, the Internet.  Sadly, what I had originally believed was a fresh and unique idea was, in fact, pretty common.  I found a number of descriptions and recipes.

In the end, I went back through my own recipes and decided just to try to substitute it part for part.  But then, I thought about it, and realized that there would be salt in the broth, and some oil as well, so I lessened or eliminated those ingredients.   I wasn’t sure if the broth would be too heavy or too damp.  But I thought I’d give it a try!

I wasn’t sure what to call it.  I thought about “Chicken Bread”, but that sounded too corny.  My wife came to my rescue, and dubbed it “Broth Bread”!  Here it is:

Dutch Oven Broth Bread


12” Dutch Ovens
12-14 coals below
18-22 coals above


2 Cups poultry broth (110 degrees)
1 1/2 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp Yeast
1 tsp salt
4-5 Cups fresh bread flour

The broth was from our Christmas turkey, and was frozen in 2-cup baggies.  I put one in a measuring cup and turned on the tap, running hot water over it.  It took a while to melt, and then to come up to a nice warm 110° or so.  I wasn’t in a hurry.  Microwaving it might have gotten it there sooner, but...

Once it was ready, I mixed in the sugar and the yeast.  I set that aside for another ten minutes or so, and let it foam up.  I was a bit concerned about any salt in the broth reacting with the yeast, but it turned out OK.

Then I sifted in the flour and added the table salt.  Remember that I usually start with a little less flour. I stirred it all up, then dumped it out onto the liberally floured countertop.  From here on out, I treated it pretty much like any other bread.  I kneaded until it developed a good gluten windowpane, then stretched the surface into a tight ball, and set it aside to rise.

It rose for an hour or two, getting doubled, and then I lit up some coals.  While those were turning white, I kneaded just a little more (two or three pushes, at the most) and restretched and reshaped it into a boule (ball) again.  I put this into the proofing basket.

Soon, the coals were all lit, and so I oiled the inside of the dutch oven, and set it out on the proper amount of coals, both below and above.  I let that preheat for an additional 15 minutes, then I brought out the bread.  I tipped it into the Dutch oven, then sliced the top.  Unfortunately, my knife wasn’t very sharp (always use razor blades) so it ended up tearing more than slashing.  Quickly, I put the lid on and marked the time.

After 15-20 minutes, I knocked the ash off the coals, rotated the Dutch oven and the lid, and lifted the lid to check on the progress, and to insert the thermometer.

After another 10-15 minutes, I checked, and it was past 200°, ready to come in.  After cooling on a rack, I was able to cut into it and taste it.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The chicken flavor was there,  but not prominent.  Very subtle.  It tasted great as a sandwich bread, and then, later, at the bread party, in the cheese fondue dip!



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Focaccia in the Oval Roaster Dutch Oven

This Dutch oven recipe is included in my Dutch oven cookbook, "Dutch Oven Breads"

It was quite a fight to bring this bread to pass.  First of all, it’s an “indirect” bread, meaning that it requires a preferment rise before the regular rise.  That means it’s at least a two-day project to do it right.

Then, the next day, it takes another four hours of mixing, kneading, rising, and baking.  It’s a long process.

On Saturday night, I made the “poolish”, which is a very wet gloppy goo, and let it raise overnight in the fridge.  On Sunday, when I went to work on it, I mixed the full dough (which is still quite wet), and while it was rising, my dogs got to it and made off with over half the dough.  I was NOT happy.

It wasn’t until the following Friday and Saturday that I would have the proper time available for the whole process.  Fortunately, this time it worked.

Focaccia is a flat rustic bread.  That means it comes from a very wet dough.  Ciabatta is another one like it.  It turns out flat, and often carries toppings.  I wondered, as I was making it, if it was a fore-runner of pizza, or maybe a descendant...


Focaccia in the Oval Roaster

25 coals below
35 coals above


The Poolish


2 1/2 Cups Unbleached Bread Flour
1 1/2 Cups Water, warm
1/2 tsp yeast


The Bread

2 1/2 Cups Unbleached Bread Flour, with more for the tabletop and working
2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 tsp yeast
6 Tbsp olive oil
3/4 Cup water, ~110°
3 Cups Poolish


The Herb Oil

2 Cups olive oil, warmed
1/2 Cup various dried herbs, mixed
parsley
oregano
sage
rosemary, others
1 Tbsp salt
1/2 Tbsp black pepper, ground


The Toppings

Anything you want!  I used:
1/2 medium onion, diced
1 roma tomato, diced
2-3 cloves garlic, diced
4-6 oz of a blend of italian cheeses: mozarella, asiago, parmesan


I started the night before baking, mixing the poolish.  Of all the processes, it was probably the easiest.  I simply mixed the three ingredients thoroughly, overmixed it, really, then covered it in plastic and set it aside for an hour or two.

It raised up nicely.  I put it in the fridge to continue the fermentation overnight.  Longer ferment times really make for more rich flavors!

The next day, I took it out of the fridge pretty early.  It was a bit bigger, but not by much.  I let it sit for an hour or so, to warm up a bit.  After a while, I measured out the water and sprinkled in the yeast, to activate it.

Then, I got a large ceramic mixing bowl, and sifted in the flour, and added the salt.  I added in all of the wet ingredients (the yeast/water mix, the oil, and the poolish).  The poolish was very gluteny, even though it was runny, so it was difficult to measure.  I ended up spooning it into a measuring cup.  I got a good, basic mix going on with a heavy wooden spoon.

...But then it got ugly.

I stuck my hand in the goo and started squeezing it through my fingers, turning the bowl as I went.  I would squeeze, turn, release, then grab another glob and squeeze again.  It felt sooo gross.  This was taking the place of a normal knead.  As I was doing this, I could feel it getting more smooth and gluten-y.  I did that for almost 8 minutes.  It was very tiring on the fingers.  Finally, I rubbed what I could off my fingers then rinsed my hands.  It really was a mess.

Then, I sprinkled a small handfull of flour out onto the tabletop, in about the size and shape of a dinner plate.  I dumped the goo dough onto it (scraping the sides with a spatch), and sprinkled more flour on top.  I floured my hands and grabbed each side and pulled, stretching the dough outward.  I folded the right side over the middle, then the left side, to form a small square, which I gently flattened a bit.  I turned it 90°, and did the stretch and folds again.  Then I covered it with a tea towel and let it sit for a half hour.

I mixed the herbal oil next.  I simply put the oil in a jar, the set the jar in some really hot water for a time.  I added in all of the herbs and seasonings and stirred it up.  The heat makes the oil absorb the flavors a bit more.

After that rest, I did the stretch and fold again, and after that, another 30 minute rise/rest.  Finally, after one more stretch and fold, it was ready for shaping.

I got the coals lit.  I could tell it was a lot of coals.  I was shooting for a final temperature of 450°.

I got out the oval roaster and poured a pretty liberal amount of the herbal oil in the bottom, enough to cover.  I put in the dough and, using my fingertips, stretched it out to the edges, or at least close to it.  I pressed my fingertips into the dough, all the way to the pot, to make the traditional dimples.  I poured on more herbal oil, then sprinkled on the onions, garlic, and tomatoes.  Then I let that rise some more.  I also put in the short-stemmed thermometer.

Actually, I think now that I really went overboard on the toppings.  The amounts shown above should be more effective.  In the end, having lots of toppings kept it from getting a nice, crisp top crust.  In fact, all of the cheese browned, then singed instead.

In a pizza, the crust is there to give a delicious carriage for the toppings.  In focaccia, the bread is the attention, and the toppings should simply enhance it.

When the coals were white-edged, I took the lid out and put as many coals on it as I could.  As I said, I wanted it heck-hot!  Another fifteen minutes, and the bread was ready, the lid was ready, and it was time to bake.

I put the lid on, and set the roaster on the stand, to lift it up above the coals.  I adjusted the proper above and below coals, and let it bake.

After about 15 minutes, I lifted the lid and saw that it was nicely cooking.  I added the cheese at that point.  I actually put on a lot of cheese.  In retrospect, I would put on less than half what I did, and I might even wait another five minutes.  At this point, It would have probably also been a good idea to remove 6-8 coals from the middle of the top, too.

After another ten minutes, the thermometer registered 200 degrees, so I shook off the coals and brought it in.  Using a pancake turner, I tipped the roaster and lifted the focaccia out, laying it nicely onto a cooling rack.  It sat there, teasing me, for about an hour.

In spite of the darkened top, the whole bread tasted amazing.  The herb oil and the oil in the dough gave it a richness, and the toppings were delicious. It didn’t have the big holes in the crumb that I had hoped for, but the crumb was deliciously light and flavorful.

Do you like cooking with a Dutch oven?  Here are more recipes for Dutch ovens.

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

French Bread Batarde in a Cast Iron Oval Roaster

This Dutch oven recipe is included in my Dutch oven cookbook, "Dutch Oven Breads"

One of the things I got for Christmas this year was a cast iron oval roaster.  I don’t know if it’s TECHNICALLY a dutch oven, but it IS cast iron, you CAN put coals on top and below (with a stand), and you CAN (currently) use them in sanctioned Dutch oven cookoffs.  So, I’m going to call it a Dutch oven.  You can see, basically, what it looks like in the affiliate ad, there, on the right.

Now, there’s all kinds of cool things you can do with an oval roaster, as a Dutch oven chef, that you can’t do as well with a regular Dutch oven.  One is to cook a full rack of ribs.  Another is to lay out a big, long fish, like a salmon, on a bed of potatoes or rice.  I’d love to steam some rice under a few big long king crab’s legs!

But what has had me wanting one of these for the whole last year was the opportunity to do French bread the way it’s supposed to be done, as a batarde shape. See, there are basically three shapes for french bread.  The baguette is a long, thin shape, with a lot of crust, and not as much crumb.  It’s great for dipping and for having alongside soups.  The boule (or ball) is a round-shaped hearth loaf.  That’s easy to do with a traditional Dutch oven, since it’s round, too.  Then there’s the batarde.  It’s somewhere in between the two.  It’s shorter than the baguette, and fatter, but not fully round, like the boule.  It has more crust area than the boule, but not as much as the baguette. It’s also what you find labeled as “French bread” in most American supermarkets.

The problem with the Dutch oven is that you can’t do a baguette or a batarde shape.  It’s just not long enough.  But, the oval roaster IS!

So, last week, I made a batarde of French bread, and it turned out GREAT!  I basically did the same recipe and procedure as I did when I made the boule before, but did it in the different shape and oven.  It’s a two-day process, with a preferment dough that rises overnight.  This helps develop more flavor!

French Bread Batarde

Day 1: no Dutch oven needed

Day 2: Oval Roaster

18-20 coals below
24-26 coals above

You’ll also need a Dutch oven trivet, or stand, to raise the roaster up above the coals.


The first step, the night before, is to make a “Pâte Fermentée”, or a preferment.  This is basically a bread dough, that you let rise overnight, then use as a basis for more bread dough the next day.

1/2 tsp Yeast
1 Cup water

2 1/4 Cups Bread Flour
3/4 tsp Salt

I started by mixing the yeast and the water. It doesn’t matter as much if the water’s hot, here, but I’m used to activating the yeast in 110° water.  Just stir the yeast into the water and let it sit for 10-15 minutes.

While waiting, I sifted the flour and the salt together.  Once the yeast was a little frothy, I poured the yeast/water mix onto the flour and stirred it up.  I shook a little flour onto my tabletop and kneaded it a bit.  I went for a while, but I didn’t worry about a windowpane, because I knew that I’d be kneading it for reals the next day.

I sprayed the bowl with oil, set the dough ball in, and sprayed it with oil.  I covered the bowl with plastic and let it rise for about an hour.

Then, it went into the fridge, for the long, overnight ferment.


The Dough


1 tsp Yeast
1 Cup water (about 110° F)

The Pâte Fermentée from the night before
2 Cups Bread Flour, with more for kneading
3/4 tsp Salt



The next day, I pulled it out pretty early and set it aside to come up in temperature and rise a little more.  I let it sit most of the morning.

When I was ready to work it, I got another cup of 110° water (or close to it), and activated a little more yeast.  I sifted 2 cups of the flour, as before, and added the salt.  Then, I cut the Pâte Fermentée into a dozen or so small chunks.  Finally, I combined the Pâte Fermentée, the flour mix, and the yeast mix and stirred it up.

Then, I turned the dough out onto my floured tabletop and started kneading and flouring in earnest.  This time, I really worked it, and kept at it until I got a good stretchy windowpane (see my breadmaking lens for a good explanation of the windowpane test http://www.squidoo.com/dutchovenbread).

Once it was well-kneaded, I formed it into a boule, stretching and tucking the surface tight, and set it back into the oiled bowl.  I oiled the surface of the bread, too, and covered it all to rise.

It rose up very nicely, over the course of a couple of hours.  When it had doubled in bulk, I went out and lit up a lot of coals.  Once the coals were starting, I put just a little flour out on the tabletop, and dumped out the dough.  I squashed and stretched it into a long, narrow shape, about a foot and a half long by about 3-4 inches wide.  I stretched a nice, tight surface, and pinched the bottom tight together all along the length.  I put that whole dough loaf onto a single piece of parchment paper (to make it easier to move).  I set that aside to rise some more.

Then, I went back out to my cooking area with my oval roaster.  I spritzed some oil all over the inside, and set it up on my lid stand trivet.  I put 18-20 coals below it, right under the edge, and 24-26 coals above on the lid.  There was a limited space on the lid, and it didn’t have a high lip to keep the ash in, so I could tell it would be tricky to manipulate.  But, I had to work with it.

After about 15-20 minutes, the roaster was nicely pre-heated, and the dough had risen back up some.  I took my razor, my dough, some hot pads, a short-stemmed thermometer, and my son to start the baking.  While I carefully lifted the lid, he lowered the dough in on the parchment.  Then, he sprinkled on some sesame seeds, slashed the top with the razor, in three long slashes, and stuck in the thermometer.  I set the lid back on and marked the time.  I also put a handful of fresh coals into the chimney to start.

After about 15 minutes, I turned the oven around, and the lid as well, just to change the relative positions of the coals to the bread dough.  That helps promote more even cooking.  It was very tricky to turn the lid without shaking ash into the oven.  I think next time, I’ll knock the ash off the coals and sweep it clean first.  I put a few fresh coals at even distances above and below, mainly because they had burned down and it was very, very cold out.  In the summer, or in lighter breeze, that might not be necessary.

After another 15-20 minutes, it was done.  I lifted up the lid, and the thermometer read at 190°.  It can go as high as 200°, but the lighter white breads can be done at 190°.  I shook the ashes off the lid and brought the roaster in.  I lifted the bread out by the parchment paper and set it onto my cooling rack.  It really looked nice!  The crust wasn’t too hard, and the bottom was nicely browned as well.

My wife said that it was the best bread I’d ever baked.  I had some friends come over and share.  It was great by itself, and I also loved it with butter and honey!




How to cook in a Dutch oven! And here are chicken Dutch oven recipes!

Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Dutch Oven Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

I’ve been cooking a lot of fancy things lately, trying to get more fodder for my third book, which will be all about international dishes and things that are more complex and tricky.  That’s been fun and challenging, but it has left me kind of creatively drained.

A little while ago, I decided to revisit a traditional Dutch oven basic: barbecued chicken.  In its simplest form, all you have to do is put some chicken parts in a dutch oven and pour in some barbecue sauce on top of them.  Then ya roast it up, and serve it!  No fuss, and a delicious meal.  If you have some hamburger buns, you can pull the chicken apart and stir it all back into the sauce, then have it as sandwiches.

If you wanted, you could do all that from scratch.  Well, I wanted, and this is how I did it:

Dutch Oven Pulled Chicken Sandwiches

The Buns

12” Shallow Dutch oven
12-14 coals below
24-26 coals above

½ Cup of 110° water
2 tablespoon active dry yeast
¾ Cup of 110° milk
¼ cup sugar
3 Tbsp butter
2 tsp salt
4-5 cups fresh bread flour (if the flour is old, add 1 Tbsp vital wheat gluten)
1 egg

Topping:
1 egg
Sesame seeds
poppy seeds


Mark’s Meat Rub

1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp crushed coriander
1 Tbsp garlic powder
1 Tbsp coarse ground black pepper
1 Tbsp thyme
2 Tbsp paprika
2 Tbsp salt
1 tsp oregano


The Chicken

12” Shallow Dutch oven
10-12 coals below
12-14 coals above

1-2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken
2 medium onions, quartered
3-4 medium potatoes in ¾” cubes


The Sauce

1 6 oz can of tomato paste
1 8 oz can of tomato sauce
Brown sugar
Mustard
Salt
Pepper
Some kind of hot spice (Cayenne Pepper or Chili powder)


I’m going to describe the steps for the buns and the chicken and sauce separately.

I started out by activating the yeast in the water.  I set that aside to get all foamy, while I gathered the rest of the ingredients.  I always use bread yeast when making yeast breads, but if it gets more than a couple of months old, I always add a little bit of vital wheat gluten powder.  Otherwise, it will never get decent gluten development, and won’t rise well.

I added all of the dry ingredients together (using just 4 cups of flour), then poured in the wet, and mixed it all to a dough ball.  I turned that out onto my floured tabletop and began kneading.  I kept adding more flour as I needed (kneaded?) to make it the right texture and not so sticky.  Finally, after about 10 minutes or so, it passed the windowpane test (http://www.squidoo.com/dutchovenbread).  I oiled a bowl and set it aside to raise.

After raising, I lit up some coals.  I punched punched down the dough and cut it into 8 equal parts.  These I shaped into dough balls.  I flattened them under my palm on the table top.  All of these went into the oiled Dutch oven.  I took the Dutch oven lid out and poured a lot of burning coals on top of it, to preheat.

After about 20-25 minutes, the dough balls were rising again, and the lid was hot.  I whipped up an egg and coated the top of each bun using a basting brush, then sprinkled on the other toppings.  Then I put on the lid and adjusted the coals above and below.  I baked them for about 30-35 minutes, or until the internal temperature hit about 180-200.

When they were done, I pulled them out and put them on a cooling rack.

Then, on to the Chicken!

First, I made sure that the chicken was thawed, rinsed off, and patted dry.  Then, I coated all of the pieces with the meat rub.  I actually had quite a bit left over in a spice jar, from another time I used it.  It’s one of my own spice blends, and I actually use it quite a bit.

I cubed up the potatoes and quartered the onions and laid them in the bottom of another 12” Dutch oven.  I laid the chicken parts above those, and set it on the coals to roast.

I decided to add the sauce after the fact, and let the spice rub flavor the chicken first.  I mixed the sauce while the meat was cooking.  I did it pretty much in the order listed above.  I didn’t put in amounts, because when I make BBQ sauce, I make it more by taste.  I started with the two cans of tomato paste and sauce, and from there just added each ingredient, tasting along the way.  I wanted to get a good balance of all of the ingredients.

When the chicken was cooked to 170 degrees, internally, I pulled it off the coals.  I put the chicken in a bowl and let them cool a bit, but not too much.  Just to the point of being cool enough to handle without intense burning pain.  Using a couple of forks, I shredded the chicken.

I also pulled the potatoes and onions out of the dutch oven, and separated out the onions as much as I could.  I chopped the onions using the mincing knife technique, but still leaving pretty big chunks, and added those back into the chicken.  Then, I poured in the sauce and stirred it all together.  I didn’t use up all of the sauce, just enough to give the chicken a good coating.

The potatoes, you could serve up as you please.  They would be tasty as they were, but I actually made a potato salad out of them.

The whole meal was delicious and very “homey”!



Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Chicago-Style Pizza in the Dutch Oven

On our recent trip back to Indiana, we stopped over for a night with our friend in Chicago, and she treated us to a Chicago-style pizza dinner.  It’s bigger and heftier than most pizzas, with a sauced-up crust on top as well as on the bottom.  Oh, it was sooooo good and so filling.  I loved it, and I knew instantly that I had to try doing it in the Dutch oven.  It took me awhile to get around to it, but here it is.

I got a book while there called “The Great Chicago-Style Pizza Cookbook.  I followed the crust recipe very closely, but the toppings and things I experimented with a bit, based on some of the ideas in the book.  I doubled the crust recipe and made two different pies, each with unique fillings.  I liked both of the ones I did.

It was drizzly and rainy, so I had to rig a little shelter for my ovens.  I was also concerned with the cooking time, because the pizza was so much thicker than pizzas I’d cooked before.  Between all of that, I ended up cooking it too long  The bottom crust was singed, and the top was overly brown as well.  It had a bit of a burned taste.  It wasn’t charred black, but it was overdone. When I do it again, I’ll cook it less, and that will be reflected in the instructions below.

Chicago-Style Pizza in the Dutch Oven

12” Dutch oven

10-12 coals below
18-22 coals above

The Crust

3 tsp Sugar
2 Tbsp active dry Yeast
1 ¼ Cups warm Water
3-4 Cups bread Flour
3 tsp Salt
(Optional) ½ Tbsp vital wheat Gluten or 3 Tbsp Dough Enhancer
4 Tbsp Olive Oil


The Fillings

4 oz shredded mozarella
(The remaining fillings are optional, but the more, the merrier)
½ lb mild or medium italian sausage
cubed Ham
Pepperoni slices
Onions, diced
Green Peppers, diced
Roma Tomatoes, diced
Baby Spinach leaves, julienned
Black Olives, chopped
Fresh Mushrooms
Whatever else you like


The Sauce

1 can Tomato Paste
1 can Tomato Sauce
2 fresh Roma Tomatoes, diced
3-4 cloves Garlic, minced
Liberal Shakes of
Oregano
Basil
Rosemary
Salt
Pepper
4 oz shredded mozarella


The adventure began that morning, early, before church when I made the bread dough.  I did the process essentially like every other bread dough I’ve done.  I mixed the sugar, the yeast, and the water.  I did that a little more carefully this time, however, because I wanted to keep it at about 110-115 degrees F.  So, I poured in the hot/warm water a bit at a time and monitored the temperature as the sugar dissolved, adding hotter water to keep it “in the zone”.  It rewarded me by foaming up quite nicely.

I sifted the dry ingredients together, starting with just the three cups of flour.  The rest I would add during kneading.  The bread flour I’ve got is getting a bit old, so I added the vital gluten powder.  It helped it in the kneading.

Then, I mixed in the wet ingredients and kneaded it on the table top adding flour onto it as needed to make it not so sticky (yet still soft).

The last cookoff I judged, I got to visit with one of the other judges (who I had actually met at the World Championship). He’s a baker by trade, and he had some good advice.  He said when doing a windowpane (http://www.squidoo.com/dutchovenbread), don’t stretch it out paper thin, but just enough to let light through.  If you knead until it doesn’t break, paper thin, he said, it’s overkneaded and it won’t poof up.  Reinhart says it’s tough to overknead when you’re doing it by hand.  I tried it anyway, and kneaded only until it would stretch out translucent.

I set it aside to rise, but since I was going to be doing church stuff for a long time, I set it in the fridge.

When I came home, I pulled the dough out of the fridge first.  It had risen up very nicely.  I guess he was right!  I punched it down and cut it into halves, which I formed into small boules.  I set these aside to both proof and to come up to room temperature.

Then, I started up the coals and as soon as they were ready, I put the dutch ovens (remember, I did two), on about 20+ coals each.  I put the sausage in and browned it, separating it into small chunks as I went.  While I was doing that, I was also chopping up the onions, peppers, and other fillings.

I also got some more coals started, and put about 20 or so hot coals on each lid to begin pre-heating.

Once the sausage was browned, I scooped it out.  I added a little bit of garlic powder, salt, and olive oil to the Dutch oven and spread that around the bottom.  That and the sausage flavoring would give the crust a great taste!  I stretched out the dough, pretty evenly, and spread it over the bottom of the Dutch oven.  I tried to press it up the sides as much as possible, but it didn’t really respond.  I took a fork and poked holes in the crust about every inch or so.  I’m still not sure why the instructions said to do that.

The instructions said to “Parbake” the crust, or, in other words, to bake it a bit before you add the fillings and bake it for real.  At the time I wasn’t sure why you would do that, but later I realized that there is going to be a lot of food on the crust.  It will be thick and heavy.  In order for that bottom crust to stand up, it needs to have some poof and structure first.

So, after the crust was spread, I put the heated lid on and put about 8 coals below and 18 coals above.  I let that bake for only a few minutes.  I would recommend checking it after about 10-12.  The crust should be a bit firm, but not browned.  While that was baking, I made the sauce.  The sauce was easy, I just mixed everything (except the Mozarella) and blended it to taste in a bowl.

Then, I brought the Dutch ovens back in and put the fillings of choice in each one.  I started with a layer of the mozarella and then just added everything else.  In each one, I did cubed ham, pepperoni, and the sausage I’d cooked.  I actually quartered the pepperoni slices, too, to make them more like chunks.  In one, then, I added onions and peppers, and in the other I put the spinach and the tomatoes.  I kept the fillings away from the edge of the crust.

Then, I stretched out the remaining dough balls and laid them on top.  I reached under and pinched the two crusts together, all around the circle.  I pressed on the top to kind of spread it back out to the edge of the Dutch oven, and spread the sauce on the top.  Finally, I layered on more mozarella.

Once these Dutch ovens were ready, I put them on and under the coals and let them bake, turning them from time to time.  This is where I went wrong.  I wasn’t sure, because of the thickness of the whole pie, how to tell when it was done.  I stuck in a thermometer, but the interior fillings heat at a different rate.  The side crust baked readily, but the top still looked soft when I poked it through the sauce.  I just wasn’t sure, so I left it on, probably for about a total of almost an hour.

It was too much.  Next time, I’ll do it this way:  I’ll bake it for about 15 minutes, without the sauce on.  Then, I’ll check it.  If it’s getting done and progressing nicely, I’ll add the sauce and the cheese, and bake it for another 15-20 minutes.  At that point, I’ll bet it’ll be done and ready.

In the end, it tasted great.  It was a bit overdone, and that affected the flavor, but it was still good.  I think that once I get the baking timing down, It will be amazing!




Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Decorative Dutch Oven Breads

When I was a little kid, one of our erstwhile Christmas traditions was to do bread sculptures.  Mom would make up a basic variant on a french bread dough, and after it had risen, we would shape it into Santa faces, or Christmas trees, or lots of other options.  Sometimes, mom would make up a big batch of dough and we’d make 6 or 7 fairly big Santas, and then we’d deliver them to some special friends.

I mentioned that memory to my mom in a phone call a few weeks ago.  We laughed and reminisced about it, and then I asked her for the recipe, which she rattled off from memory.  I jotted it down.

I really wanted to try something like that in my Dutch ovens this year.  I started to think about how to make it work in the circular shape of the oven.  I decided on some other designs, a sun and a moon shape.

Here’s how it happened:

Decorative Dutch Oven Bread

2x 12” Dutch Ovens
14-15 coals below (each)
18-22 coals above (each)

• 2 Tbsp Yeast
• 3 Cup water (110 degrees)
• 3 Tbsp sugar

• ½ Tbsp salt
• 8 Cups fresh bread flour
• 1 1/2 Tbsp oil

• Egg to glaze

I started out by increasing the amounts in the original recipe by half.  I figured that doubling the recipe would be too much, and that the basic recipe wouldn’t be enough.  I wanted to do two Dutch ovens’ worth, so I adjusted it by 150%.  That gets the measurements listed above.

I mixed the water, the yeast and the sugar first, and let that sit for about 10 minutes, while I gathered the other ingredients.  As always, I reduced the amount of flour (only 8 cups) in the starting mix, and added more in the kneading.  I also sifted the flour.  Sometimes I do that, and other times, not, by my whim.  I sometimes think that it aerates the flour and makes it a little fluffier.  I heard a TV chef say that one day.  I dunno for sure.

I mixed the liquid and the powders, and stirred it all up.  I turned it out onto the floured tabletop, and kneaded, sprinkling on more flour.  Once it made a nice windowpane, I tucked it into a ball, oiled the bowl and put it in.  I also sprayed oil on the dough ball, and then covered it with a towel, to rise.

Once it had risen, I turned the big dough ball out onto my floured tabletop, with two Dutch ovens, sprayed with oil, next to it.  Mise en Plase...  Now, at this point, I should have gone out and lit up the coals.  If you try this, that’s how you should do it, I think.  I did it later in the process, and I think the dough over-rose.  It didn’t spring quite like I had thought it would.

I cut the dough into  quarters.  My plan was to spread a layer of dough all around the bottom, almost like a pizza crust (but without the rim).  That would be my “canvas”.  Then I would build the image on top of that.  I started with the sun.  I made a round circle in the middle for the face, then rolled the flares like clay snakes in between my hands.  Another few snakes made the eyebrows, the nose, and the smile.  A couple of balls, with a deep poke in the center with a finger, made the eyes.

Then, the moon.  I shaped a crescent, and then did an eyebrow, nose, lips and an eye the same way.  I also added a couple of stars to the left of the crescent.

At this point, I would have gone out and poured a lot of coals out on the two lids, to preheat.  While that’s preheating, I’d leave the art in the Dutch ovens to rise.  Also, set more fresh coals in the fire to start.

Once they’d risen a little bit more, and the lids got good and hot, I beat up a couple of eggs and spread them all over the sculptures.  I was pretty liberal, so it would help the thinner bits stay on.  Then, I put the Dutch ovens on and under the coals.  I marked the time, and went inside to rest.

It wasn’t freezing today, but it wasn’t exactly warm, either.  So, after about 15 minutes, I rotated the Dutch ovens, and added some coals.  I only added a couple on the bottom, and much more on top.  I lifted the ovens and tapped the ash off the coals.  I did the same with those on top.  I also inserted a short-stemmed thermometer.

Another 15-20 minutes and it was done!  I pulled them off and put them on cooling racks.

I was really excited with the results!  The sun turned out better than the moon (which I’m eating as I type this).





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Making Gread Dutch Oven Sourdough, Part II

In the last posting, I covered the first two steps, the start, and the barm.  Now, we’re ready to move ahead to the sponge, and, finally, the dough!

Step 3: The Sponge (AKA: The Firm Starter)

At this point, I doubled the recipe, so I could make two loaves.  That way, I would have some to enjoy, and some to give away, if I wanted.  I’m going to post it straight, here, and you can double it if you want to.

⅔ cup barm
1 cup bread flour
about ¼ cup warm water, maybe more, enough to make a basic dough texture.

I mixed these ingredients together, stirring until all of the flour was combined in, and it was forming a ball.  I didn’t knead it, but I did end up mixing it with my hands a bit to add some more moisture and make sure it was incorporated.  I covered it in plastic wrap and put it aside, letting it ferment for a few more hours, until bedtime.  At that point, I put it in the fridge for a long, slow, cool, overnight rise.

Step 4: The Dough

On Sunday, I took the sponge out of the fridge pretty early in the day, and set it aside to come up to closer to room temperature.  I dumped it out onto my floured countertop and, using my bread cutter/scraper, cut it into about 10-12 pretty equally-sized chunks.  While those were still warming up, I got these other ingredients together into the bowl (remember that I was still doubling everything for two loaves, but this recipe is undoubled):

• 4 cups bread flour
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 ¾ cups water (warm/hot to the touch, like a good shower temperature)
• The chunks of the sponge

I mixed all of these things together and dumped it all out onto the tabletop and began kneading.  As always, I added flour as I went, to make it the right consistency (not too sticky, not too stiff and dry).  After only about 15 minutes, it passed the windowpane test, and I kneaded a few more minutes just to be sure.  I oil-sprayed the bowl and set the ball to rise.

A few hours later, it had doubled in bulk (or so), and I pulled it out and shaped it into two boules (remember I had doubled it).

Now, this is where I did things a bit differently than I did before.  I had some cloth from an old shirt, which I sprayed with oil and dusted with flour.  I draped that cloth over a bowl and set the dough boule into the middle of the cloth.  I folded the cloth over the top of the dough and set it aside to proof.  I did this with my other boule, too.  You’ll see why in a bit.

After that had been rising for a few hours, I began preparing the Dutch ovens.  I lit up a lot of coals, and let them get nice and white on the edges.  I oiled the Dutch ovens and set them up with about 14-16 coals underneath them each, and 26-30 coals on top.  That’s right, I wanted these things to be HOT.

About a half hour later, when I could see that the ovens were good and hot, and the bread was nicely proofed in the bowls, it was all ready.  I brought the bread out to the ovens, set the Dutch oven lid aside, and upended the bowl, dropping the bread into the Dutch oven.  Quickly, I pulled off the cloth, and made some fast slices in the top (which was the bottom a few minutes ago), and closed up the lid.  Then I did the same thing for the other boule.

See, the whole “cloth in the bowl” thing made for easy transfer of the proofed bread to the fully pre-heated dutch oven.  I didn’t have to mess with parchment, and there was no lag time heating up the base of the Dutch oven or the air inside.

After about 15 minutes, I rotated the lid and the dutch oven, and replenished some of the coals, top and bottom.  I was very careful on the bottom coals.  I added some, but I’m always cautious in how many I add.  In this case, I put on four, one on each “side”.  Too many bottom coals can make for a heavy bottom crust.  I also lifted the lid and set the thermometer.  I have these short-stemmed meat thermometers that I really like.  It was hard to find them, but I’m glad I did.

In about another 15 to 20 minutes, I checked again, and they were done, to 200 degrees.  The top crusts didn’t brown very much, so I wasn’t sure if they were done, but the thermometers said so, so I brought them in.  I dropped them out of the Dutch ovens and onto cooling racks.  The thermometers came out pretty clean, so that was a good sign.  I just let them cool for a couple of hours while I cooked the split pea soup with the ham bone from Thanksgiving.

The bread, when I finally cut into it, was soft and delicious.  The crusts were soft, the bread was chewy and tasty, and done all the way through, it was perfect.  Like I said before, it was easily the best sourdough bread I’ve ever made.

So, here are the things that I learned:

First of all, a long, drawn-out process of multiple steps of fermentation helps all of the rich, complex flavors develop.  It really is worth it to take your time and not rush this process.  Look at the ingredients!   There’s nothin’ there!  No egg, no sugar, no oils, no herbs!  It’s just you, the wheat, and the germs!  Yet, if you let nature take its sweet time, you’ll get some seriously delicious bread.

Second, preheating the entire dutch oven made a big difference in the baking.  The cloth-covered bowl made this easy and practical.

This was definitely a major breakthrough in my bread-baking learning!







Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Great Dutch Oven Sourdough

...And What I Learned Making It.


Up until last weekend, I thought I had a pretty good handle on breadmaking.  I thought, in particular, I understood sourdough breads.  Sadly, I was fooling myself.

Happily, I discovered this not by the tearful results of a colossal failure, which is usually my learning style, but by the delicious tangy taste of success.  A pair, in fact, of successful sourdough loaves that continue to tantalize me, even days later.

I can calmly say that these were the best sourdough loaves I have baked.

Ever.

See, I’ve done sourdough breads before, but none of them had that strong tang I was looking for.  There were some wonderful loaves, and some who said, “I don’t really like sourdough, but I love this bread!”  Of course, that wasn’t really what I wanted to hear.  I wanted to be able to taste it and have it zing! in my mouth.

This one gave me the zing!

The success was not at all in the recipe, either, but in the process, and that is what I learned.

I began by, once again, studying “The Bread Baker’s Apprentice”, by Peter Reinhart.  This is truly an amazing book.  I would strongly recommend it for anyone who is wanting to learn how to bake bread, even if you’re going to bake it in a Dutch Oven, instead of a conventional, or even a commercial oven, as the book describes.

There were a lot of stages, and even though a lot of time was spent in each stage (about a week and a half, total), and even though I didn’t really fully understand the need for each stage, I did each one faithfully, from start to barm to sponge to dough.  I learned that it was the long ferment times in each stage that gave the bacteria time to develop the flavor.  The flavor, I’ve learned comes from both the natural yeast (which develops the bready flavors), and the other bacteria that grow and live in the bread (creating the acidy tang).  Long fermentation times (raises) allow both flavors to deepen to their fullest.

OK, so here we go:

Step 1: The Start - The Seed Culture

First, we catch the wild yeast.  I began by putting an amount (about a cup) of flour in a bowl (that’s not a reactive metal, plastic worked fine), along with an equal amount of relatively warm water.  I stirred it up, and adjusted the mix until it was pretty goopy, almost runny.  I set that aside, uncovered.  I set it in a very prominent and visible place in the kitchen, and alerted all in the house that it was NOT to be thrown away, no matter how gross it looked.

For the rest of the days until I caught the germs, every time I walked past it, I grabbed a fork and stirred it up.  This helped keep the crust that formed across the top mixed in.

Once a day, I fed the start.  By that, I mean that I scooped out about half the gunk that was the start and rinsed it down the drain.  Then I added another amount of flour and water, just like before, and stirred the whole thing up.  I did this for several days.  I kept seeing a few bubbles form, and I would think that it was getting germy, but it wasn’t very much.  I assumed that it was just the rising air bubbles that were formed when I stirred it up.

Finally, day after day, the perseverance paid off.  One morning, it was bubbly.  Not just a few bubbles, but frothy.  Just to give it extra time, I fed it the same as I had done each day before and gave it one more overnight.  I had caught my seed culture, and made my start.  That was on Friday.

Step 2: The Barm

The Barm is another step of fermentation.  I’m honestly not sure what the difference is or why this step exists, but I did it anyway.  I’m sure that the long fermentation times have a lot to do with it.

1 ½ cups bread flour
About 1 cup starter
About 1 cup warm water (enough to make it goopy and gooey)

I mixed these up in the morning on Saturday, and covered it with plastic wrap.  By afternoon it was expanded and bubbly.  I let it go a bit longer, into the evening, and I stirred it up again.  Finally, it was ready for the sponge stage.  If I’d had more days, I would have put it into the fridge, overnight, and made the sponge the next day.  But the next day was Sunday, and that was the day I’d planned to bake it.  So, after much internal debate, I had to shorten it.

Stay tuned, the next step is coming right up!







Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.

Marks Own Dutch Oven Calzone

I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to cook today, until yesterday.  I was running some errands for Jodi, and was at a grocery store.  I saw some pre-made, bake-them-yourself calzones, and they looked really appetizing, even in their uncooked state.

For a long time, I’ve wanted to try a pizza with a crust on the bottom and on the top, and so, for today, I thought I’d do it with the calzones.  It ended up being a pretty involved two-day affair, because I decided I wanted to try an overnight rise on the crust.

I also did the preheating of the dutch oven on the sauce.  I found it did wonders for the patina (which was getting a bit thin on that oven), even just in one use.  I’m becoming more and more convinced.  Of course, when I baked the calzones, I had to assemble them in the 12”, so I couldn’t pre-heat it.  But with breads, you’re baking drier ingredients, so it’s going to strengthen your patina, anyway.

The Crust

• 1 ½ c. warm water
• 1 Tbsp yeast
• 1 Tbsp sugar
• ¼ tsp salt
• 3 Tbsp oil
• 4 c.  bread Flour

The Filling/Sauce

10” Dutch oven
15-18 coals below

• ½ lb mild italian sausage
• ¼ lb bacon, cut into short strips
• 1 link of pepperoni, quartered and chopped
• 1 full Tablespoon flour

• ½ medium onion, diced
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 green pepper, chopped
• ½ jalapeno, seeded, cored, chopped

• 6-7 roma tomatoes, diced
• ½ cup or so water

The Calzones

12” Dutch oven
10-12 coals below
16-18 coals above

• A beaten egg
• About 2 cups shredded mozarella

• Freshly grated parmesan and/or myzithra chesses
• Fresh chopped italian parsley

Like I said, it all started last night.  I have read a lot about how the longer overnight rises are better for pizza, and I thought I’d try it that way.  Spoiler alert: I’m definitely sold on that, now.

I proofed the yeast in water that was hot, but not scalding, to the touch.  I say it’s “shower” hot.  That’s right around 110-115 degrees, and it’s great for waking up yeast.  While that’s getting foamy and frothy, I added the other ingredients to a bowl.  The last bit was to add the yeast/water mix.

I stirred it all up, and found that it was just the right hydration, this time.  I started kneading it on the countertop, and I found I didn’t need to add any more flour in the process.  I say, “this time”, because different flours and different humidities can mean that the flour will absorb more or less water.  You just never know.

I set it in a greased bowl, covered with cellophane, in the fridge.   I knew I wasn’t going to use it until today, and I wanted it to have a long, slow, flavor-developing rise overnight in the fridge.

Then I went and played cards with some friends.

Today, after church, I pulled the bread dough out of the fridge and set it aside in the kitchen, to come up to room temperature.  I also lit up some coals, and put the lightly oiled 10” dutch oven on some coals to season and heat up.  Once it was smoking a little bit, I put in the sausage, the bacon, and the pepperoni pieces.  I used link pepperoni and cut it into small chunks, but you could use sliced pepperoni. I’d still probably cut the slices in half or into wedges.  The sausage cooked, the bacon crisped, and the pepperoni browned.

Once the meat is all done, pull it out, but leave the drippings.  Sprinkle in the flour and stir while it cooks into a roux.  Pull it out as best you can, and then toss in the first set of veggies to sweat and sautee.  Keep the oven hot all along the way with fresh coals, if you need to.

Finally, add the tomatoes and the water, then bring the meat and the roux back in as well.  Let it boil, at first, then simmer, covered.  Give the tomatoes time to dissolve as much as possible.  Maybe as much as an hour.  It should be nice and “sauce” thick.  If it’s still to runny at that point, let it cook a bit longer with the lid off.

Taste it all along the way.  I’ll bet that with all of the sausages and bacon, it won’t need much salt, if any, and probably not many other seasonings.  Some lemon juice might have been great, in retrospect.

Once the sauce was done simmering, I poured it out of the Dutch oven, into a bowl right away, so that the tomatoes wouldn’t eat away at the patina.

I dumped the bread out onto my floured countertop, and cut it into halves.  In retrospect, I’d suggest quartering it.  Each piece should be stretched out wide and thin.  I put a generous amount of sauce over one half of the dough circle.  I piled it on, but left at least a half inch or so to the edge of the dough.  I put a generous amount of shredded mozarella on top of the mound of filling. I brushed some freshly beaten egg onto that edge of the dough, as a sealer.  I folded the dough over, and began pinching and curling the dough halves together.  Finally, I gently lifted the finished calzone into the oiled 12” Dutch oven.

I did that for the other calzone (or the other three, if you take my earlier advice).  Hopefully, there should be a good amount of sauce left over.  Then, I brushed all the calzones with the beaten egg, giving a good coating.  I let that dutch oven sit, to let the dough continue rising a bit.

In the meantime, I’d been starting up some additional coals, and I put those on the 12” lid to heat it up.  After the lid was really good and hot, and the dough had proofed just a little bit, I set a ring of coals below the Dutch oven, and set the lid with the coals on top.

I watched, and maintained the heat with fresh coals, as needed.  I took the bread temperature by sticking the thermometer down in between the calzones, where the crusts grew together.  Taking the temperature of the filling was kinda pointless, as it was all completely cooked already.  I let it get overly done, because I wasn’t sure how it would react to the filling.  That turned out to be a good thing.  It was done perfectly.

Serving was easy.  I cut the two calzones apart, and cut each one in half (that’s why I thought it would be better to make four of them instead of two larger ones).  I served one half, with more sauce drizzled over the top, and with a garnish of chopped parsley, and the grated cheeses.

It was big, filling, and an incredible taste!





Mark has discovered a love of Dutch Oven Cooking. Mark also has other sites and blogs, including MarkHansenMusic.com and his MoBoy blog.