Monthly Archives: July 2015

Up on the High Wire

artisan bread, Baking, bread, farmers markets, sourdough, , ,

Preparing for the weekly afternoon farmers market in West Lafayette is anything but routine for me. That’s because I like to come up with new baked items to sell while continuing to provide those products that have proven successful.IMG_4748

With limited production capacity, I have to start baking early (about 32 hours ahead of the market opening) and make good use of time. This usually means working on two or three and sometimes four breads at a time, all in various stages of development, and coordinating them so they don’t all reach oven-readiness at the same time. As I gain experience this becomes a little easier, but it also means I’m capable of doing more in the same amount of time. So instead of baking becoming more routine, it just becomes more action-packed.

Yesterday was a prime example. I have a list of products that I like to prepare on market day so they are as fresh as possible. That list includes pain au levain, sourdough rolls and usually some type of pastry, such as a brioche or laminated dough. Last week I added into the mix French baguettes. As I was not sure how well they would fit into a morning schedule, I omitted making pastries last week.

This week, however, I threw caution to the wind and decided to make all four products on market day. The following is drawn from a list of times I noted in my baking journal, providing a kind of outline of my morning “routine” that pretty much kept me on my feet and moving from 5 a.m. until the market started at 3:30 p.m.

5:52 — Start mixing dough for pain au levain, a type of sourdough bread, 100% naturally leavened. Adjust for humidity and temperature (reduce water, and ice it to 65 F). Finish initial mix at 6:09 and let it sit or “autolyze” until 6:30.

6:30 — Finish mixing and adjusting pain au levain. Place in container to proof.

6:40 — Take first batch of baguette dough out of fridge, divide, weigh and preshape. Set aside on floured board for a 1-hour rest. (This is repeated at approx 15-min intervals for three other batches of baguette dough.

7:24 — Finish dividing, weighing and shaping sourdough rolls, the dough for which was prepared the previous evening and refrigerated; fold pain au levain dough (it’s a very wet dough, so folding it helps it come together.)

7:40 — Shape first three baguettes. Start range oven and convection oven

8:00 — Preshape fourth batch of baguettes. Start second range oven, which is in a separate building.

8:30 —  Divide, weight and shape brioche dough (made Monday, frozen, then thawed in refrigerator overnight. Still a little stiff in the middle but workable). Expect a two-hour proof.

8:37 — The classic music station I’m listening to begins playing Khachaturian’s Gayane: Suite No. 1, a fitting song since I’m running around like a circus acrobat.

8:45 — First baguettes into steamed range oven.

9:00 — Transfer baguettes to convection oven to finish, then put first of two pans of sourdough rolls into second range oven.

9:15 — Fold pain au levain dough again; 9:20. Remove baguettes from convection oven and put sourdough rolls in it to finish browning; put second set of sourdough rolls into range oven.

9:27 — 2nd batch of baguettes shaped and into oven. Pull first pan of sourdough rolls out to cool. Send picture of rolls to my sweetie (first of two times I will sit this morning). So far so good.

First batch of sourdough rolls out of the oven.
First batch of sourdough rolls out of the oven.

9:40 — 2nd set of SD rolls out of second oven. Reduce temp from 450 F to 390 F (for brioche). Divide, weigh and preshape 12 pain au levain loaves; transfer 2nd set of baguettes to convection oven.

10:00 — Shape pain au levain loaves and place onto three boards, one of which is refrigerated; another is placed in cool part of house; 3rd will proof in warm bakery and be baked first.

10:15 —  Last three (of 12) baguettes into oven. Fill 20 brioch pastries with blackberry preserve and pastry creme. Place in 390 F range oven. (damn, forgot the egg wash. But didn’t really have time anyway. Oh well, next week..)

10:50 — Brioch baked and looking delicious.IMG_4749

11:00 — First pain au levain into oven. Continue washing containers and utensils.

12:20 — Last pain au levain into convection oven. Finish cleaning off work bench and starting loading car with cooled rolls, brioch and baguettes.

All the rolls, loaves and pastries came out fine, and when the market was done all but five loaves of bread (out of 57 loaves) plus five bags of rolls and 16 pastries were gone. I was pooped, but it was a worthwhile and remunerative market week.

Seeds of Success

artisan bread, bread, farmers markets, sourdough bread, , , , , , ,
Seeded sourdough, featuring a coating of white and dark sesame seeds outside and toasted sunflower, toasted sesame and flax seed inside.
Seeded sourdough, featuring a coating of white and dark sesame seeds outside and toasted sunflower, toasted sesame and flax seed inside.

We were blessed with great weather at this past week’s farmers market in West Lafayette, Ind., and I was happy to see many returning customers and a few new ones. I also had the opportunity to chat with several acquaintances who came by say hello, which is always fun even if they don’t always buy a loaf of bread. (Hey, I don’t buy bread unless I really need a loaf so why should they?)

My daughter Kaytie helped set up, and as has happened before I had to send her home to get an item I’d forgotten to pack (this time it was a digital scale.) While running that errand she received a call from my youngest son, Adam, who had tried without success to reach me all morning. He broke the news that he and his wife, Laura, had welcomed into the world that morning their first child, a baby son they christened Henry Nicholas. It was exciting news, particularly because it is my first grandchild. (I have a ways to go to catch up with my wife, Kathleen, who has seven and is expecting her eighth!)

This week I reintroduced Seeded Sourdough in place of the rye with walnut and raisins I’d been selling with mixed success the previous two weeks. Although I received several compliments on the rye, they didn’t sell out like the other breads. The Seeded Sourdough loaves sold out, as did most everything else I took to market, so I went home with a good wad of cash and a nice feeling that all those hours in the home bakery were worth it.

IMG_4734This week I debuted a French baguette. Although in a way they are more trouble than they are worth for my size oven, I wanted to give it a try in honor of Bastille Day and because someone last week suggested I bake a few. I also wanted to see how well I could pull it off because in the past my experiences with baguettes have been hit and miss.

To streamline the production process, I chose a baguette recipe that calls for the dough to be refrigerated overnight. I divided the dough into 3-loaf batches the previous evening. That way I could take them out of refrigeration every 30 minutes so as one batch finished baking the next would be ready to go. The technique worked but it was like a three-ring circus with four different batches of baguettes in various stages of production.

There’s something about making a good baguette that is truly satisfying, and judging by the comments we got, customers are equally happy to see real French baguettes instead of those puffy imitations they find in the supermarkets around here. I think I’ll try them again next week.

Man of the world

artisan bread, Baking, bread, farmers markets, sourdough, , , , ,

brioche
Brioche with strawberry and pastry filling.
After selling out my first two weeks at the West Lafayette Farmers Market, I have upped production to the point that I now have a few loaves left at the end of each market day. This is a good thing as I hate to shortchange customers who can’t get to market early or who happen to see us for the first time late in the day. And those loaves left unsold I’ve been able to sell or find uses for afterwards.

Even though market traffic seems to have slowed the past couple of weeks, I’ve been impressed with the number of returning and new customers who make it to the market and plunk down their cash for something as basic as sourdough bread. And the conversations I’ve had with customers who either want to know more about sourdough or who have sourdough experiences to share have been just as gratifying as the sales.

Being a university town (Purdue), West Lafayette sees a steep drop in residents during the summer break between spring and fall semesters, and I have noticed the drop in traffic the past three weeks. In addition, road construction has had a negative impact on market attendance, I think. The nearest major cross street (Cumberland) has been closed to traffic since spring, and construction on two highways outside town has detoured “through” traffic along Salisbury Street where the market is located. Consequently, getting to and from the West Lafayette Farmers Market has been more of a hassle the past few weeks, particularly for older drivers.

This past week, as an added incentive, I introduced a couple of new products. One was a sourdough rye made with walnuts and raisins, a recipe I got from Jeffrey Hamelman’s excellent book “Bread: A Baker’s Books of Techniques and Recipes.”  I also made a couple of brioche pastries, one of which was brioche au sucre (brioche with sugar) and the other a brioche filled with strawberry and pastry cream. I had only two brioche left at the end of the day and just one rye loaf, so they were a hit.

pain au levaine
Pain au levain just out of the oven, loaded in the car and headed to market.
I also had my first visit by health department inspectors. As a home-based baker, I’m not required to work out of a certified or inspected facility, but I still have to observe the health codes as they apply to retail sales. After they observed my booth and asked a few questions, the inspectors gave me a form that said “No violations at this time.” But I was advised to keep my plastic containers of bread from sitting directly on the ground and to make sure my bread labels include content weights.

One interesting side note: I had promised myself that I would make several batches of hot dog buns to sell for July 4, but it wasn’t until I was in the middle of this week’s market that I realized the 4th was already upon us. Oh well, there’s always Labor Day.

Another aspect of being in a university town is the number of residents who have traveled widely and tasted and experienced “old world” breads. I have talked to half a dozen people who after trying my sourdough ask if I’ve ever been to the Cheese Board Cooperative in Berkeley or tell me I should go there (I’ve been). One customer promised to bring me back some Cheese Board starter next time she goes.

I also have several regulars who are of German extraction (or who are from Germany) who feel as though they’ve found a home away from home at Smittybread. I have gotten the same reaction from an Italian who moved to nearby Montgomery County, where he raises vegetables for sale in West Lafayette and at other farmers’ markets. His wife, who makes and sells an excellent lasagne (with bechamel sauce) came by for three brioche pastries.

Finally, I recently received an email from a local charity who heard about Smittybread and wants me to make bread for a fundraiser later this year. I look forward to being a part of that worthy cause after the West Lafayette Farmers Markets closes for the season in October!