Orange Boot Bakery

Hand Made Loaves & Sweets from Scratch

You are here: Home / Archives for Tips & Tutorials

by 2 Comments

Learning Loaf #2: What’s the Best Flour to Buy at the Grocery Store?

Flour’s simple, right? It’s ground up wheat, is all. So why is the baking aisle so confusing?

In the last lesson, I told you all about the basic tools you need to bake great bread at home.  Now it’s time to talk about ingredients.

Flour is the most important ingredient in your loaf, so it’s worth thinking about what flour to use. There are a thousand options available on-line or in specialty markets, but for now let’s focus on picking the best flour to buy at the grocery store.  It’s not as easy as it looks!

The Best Flour to Buy at the Grocery Store

While you can bake great bread with just about any wheat flour (and some non-wheat flours), there is good flour and there is great flour!

The flour that is closest to what we use at Orange Boot Bakery is Unbleached, Untreated All Purpose Flour.

Let’s dig into the bag a little and figure out what that means.

Unbleached Flour Preserves Colour and Flavour

Two unbleached flours from the local Safeway: Rogers and Robin Hood

First off, strive to purchase unbleached flour. Bleached flour is a throwback to our ancestor’s obsession with whiteness and the needs of bread factories. Bleaching flour destroys the creamy colour of wheat and kills off some of the flavour.

Bleaching oxidizes the flour, which means it can be used in the factory right after milling. That’s important if you’re buying flour by the tanker truck. But for us, the time it took to get the flour from the mill to the store (and to your kitchen) is good enough.

Avoid Added Dough Conditioners

Second, turn the bag sideways and look closely at the “ingredients” part of the label. We want wheat flour and nothing but wheat flour.

For good reason, the government forces millers to replace vitamins and minerals that were removed from the flour during milling (the bran is removed when milling white flour and the bran contains most of the minerals.) So you’ll see a few other items on the label and that’s OK.

The following are vitamins and mineral that you’ll see on the label: thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, folic acid and iron. Sometimes calcium gets added too.

You want to avoid dough conditioners, like L-Cysteine and azodicarbonamide(ADA.) These are added to make bread dough easier to put through the big machines in bread factories. Completely unnecessary for our purposes.

There is a growing concern about the health affects of ADA, so I avoid it in my flour. But other additions – you may see wheat starch and fungal amlayse – aren’t as big a concern for me. If that’s all I can find, I use it.

(At the bakery, my miller said they added wheat starch into flour to increase shelf life. He could mill larger batches and have it sit in his warehouse for a few extra weeks that way. And fungal amlayse is an enzyme which boosts enzymes already in the flour to do more of what they’re already doing: break down starch and gluten, and develop flavour.)

Protein is Important, But You Can Get Too Much

Finally, a word about protein. Robin Hood especially makes the case that high protein flours make better bread.

That’s true, to a point. Robin Hood makes a very high protein “Best for Bread” flour that has between 13% and 14% protein. Awesome for high speed mixers, lightning fast production and fluffy white bread.

But that’s not what we’re doing here.

A slightly softer flour, around 11% – 12% protein will give you a softer loaf. Also, it will handle the long fermentation times that we use at Orange Boot.

In North America and for sure within Canada, that means All Purpose Flour is preferred over the ‘Best for Bread’ type of flours.

Organic or Industrial: it’s up to you

There is more and more organic flour available, especially in Saskatchewan, and that’s a good thing. We use local organic flour in our bread at Orange Boot Bakery and it’s readily available in smaller bags at specialty markets.

However, using organic flour was a personal choice, not a “baking quality” choice. Either will give you good results, so use what you have access to.

Also, organic white flour still needs to be enriched with vitamins and minerals. It’s a “white flour” requirement, not an “industrial” requirement.

But if you’re shopping at the grocery store, your organic flour choices are extremely limited.  We’ll cover specialty and mail order sources in future lessons.

Flour Recap

So to recap, the three things you’re looking for when selecting a white flour:

1. Unbleached
2. Untreated (avoid L-Cysteine and ADA)
3. All Purpose (or 11% – 12% protein)
4. Organic or not, it’s your choice

Next up:  More ingredients.  Water, even!

by 8 Comments

Learning Loaf #1: The Basic Home Bread Baker’s Toolkit. No Mixer Required.

Many people avoid home bread baking because they don’t think they have the right tools in their kitchen.  But it’s really easy to pull together a basic home bread baker’s toolkit.  You likely have everything you need already.

With any of my passions, I can be a bit of a tool freak. I spend hours browsing store shelves and websites looking for the best of the best. Reading the back of food magazines and checking out the best blogs to make sure I know what the good stuff is. Evenings dreaming about getting that special pan or the world’s most accurate scale.

But you know what? All that time spend dreaming about tools is time better spent baking!

You can bake an awesome loaf of bread with tools you probably already have in your kitchen. So get hunting around your cupboards and pull together your own Bread Baker’s Basic Toolkit.

The following list is all you need to make our “Learning Loaf”, which is a basic pan bread that you can easily pull off 3-4 times per week.

One note: You will notice quite quickly that I haven’t listed an expensive Stand Mixer in the list. Honestly, it’s not necessary for making 1-2 loaves at home. And if you start getting into baking “artisan” bread with sourdough cultures, you won’t be doing much mixing at all. So if you have a mixer, you can use it, but don’t let the absence of a mixer delay your bread journey!

The Basic Home Bread Baker’s Toolkit

Here’s a summary of the Basic Bread Baker’s Toolkit:

  • Mixing bowl
  • Digital scale
  • Scaling (measuring) bowl
  • Water jug
  • Pan spray
  • Plastic wrap
  • Kitchen towel
  • Loaf pan(s)

Mixing Bowl

The smaller bowl will work fine, but if you have one larger, go for it!

A big mixing bowl will help you incorporate all your ingredients without spilling flour all over. Later, it will hold the dough as it rises during the ‘bulk fermentation’ stage. So the first item is a multi-tasker. Yay!

Your mixing bowl doesn’t have to be anything fancy, so long as it’s big enough. 3 litre – 4 litre capacity will do. I find a sturdy plastic bowl works just fine, but if you have a nice bit of Martha Stewart crockery, go for it.

I have a Tupperware 8 Litre bowl, so I use that. Other times I use a 3 litre melamine bowl Cindy and I got when we were married. But I’ve also used a Dollar Store Halloween candy bowl and it worked just as well.

 Digital Scale

If I had my way, a food scale would be as common in home kitchens as a frying pan. There are cheap scales available all over and will help your baking immensely.

If I took 10 people who claim to be unable to bake bread and had them measure ingredients with cups and spoons, I would get 10 different piles of ingredients. People just plain scoop flour differently! It’s so hard to get a consistent loaf of bread when you start with wildly different amounts of flour, water, salt and yeast.

So go buy a home food scale and it will pay itself back for again and again.

Here’s what to look for in a scale:

  • Capacity: What’s the maximum weight it can handle? 5kg is plenty for at home;
    Accuracy: What’s the smallest unit it can weigh? 1g increments will work fine. 0.5g is even better but not as common;
    Cleaning: Does it look easy to clean? Smooth lines makes it easier to wipe down the top;
    Batteries: If it uses AA or AAA batteries you’ve really hit the jackpot, since you can use rechargable batteries in it. On the other hand, those silver watch batteries last for ever.

At home I have a small Pampered Chef scale that was a gift.  5kg x 1g increments. Similar scales are $30  or so at the store. I also have a MyWeigh KD-8000 (8kg x 1g) scale that we used at the bakery. Overkill, perhaps, but I love it.

OK, back to the easier bits.

Scaling Bowl & Water Jug

I’m a bit of a klutz when it comes to measuring salt and yeast. So for safety I measure small ingredients into a separate bowl before adding it to my flour.

Again, whatever you have handy. A coffee cup will work well too in a pinch.

As for a water jug, if you have a container that will hold up to a litre of water you’re set. I tend to use a 500ml pyrex container and fill it twice, which works fine but I wish I had something one size bigger.

Pan Spray, Plastic Wrap and a Kitchen Towel

All you need here is a way to oil your bowl when your dough ferments, and grease your loaf pans. Spray, oil, butter all work fine but I sure like the convenience of a can of spray oil.

Plastic wrap will help keep your dough from forming a skin while it rises. Whatever you have at home is fine and you can get by without it too.

A tea towel over your dough will help keep your dough slightly warmer, which is usually a good thing. And it looks nice and traditional too.

Loaf Pan(s)

My mom’s old loaf pan

There’s no harm in making pan bread, especially when you’re first starting out. It’s easier to judge the final rise and it’s easier to transfer the bread to and from the oven. Plus if you have a daughter who wants ‘normal bread’ for toast in the morning (as I do), your bread will get eaten faster too. Which gives you another reason to bake more. Win-win!

I have some old pans that used to belong to my mom. If you’re out shopping, look for pans that are 9 x 5 1/2 x 3 inches (23 x 13 x 7 cm). If you have pans at home that are a slightly different size, use them!

Dough Scraper

Two useful dough scrapers

This is the second thing you may not have on hand, but is well worth purchasing. A plastic dough scraper will help you get dough out of your mixing bowl and keep your counter clean when kneading. They are cheap and immensely useful.

They come in many shapes and sizes, so get what feels good in your hand. I use two: A curved scraper for use with my mixing bowl and a flat scraper for counters. I could just turn my curved scraper around to use the flat edge, but what can I say? I’m a tool geek.

 

That’s it!  Everything you need to bake that amazing loaf in your home oven.  But there are four more items that may come in handy.  If you have them, great, but they certainly aren’t necessary.

  • Apron: It’s always good to work clean, in case someone comes to the door or you get an unexpected call that the Queen’s popping over for tea. So an apron is a good idea.
  • Mixing Spoon: It doesn’t hurt to have a spoon handy for when you are first incorporating ingredients. I tend to use my hands because I hate doing dishes.
  • Probe Thermometer: This is a good investment, but not necessary when you’re just starting. Bread rises more consistently if the dough is held within a certain temperature range (73F-76F for yeasted doughs 77F – 80F for sourdough). The yeast likes a warm environment. A probe thermometer will let you know the temperature of your dough, so you can adjust where you let the dough sit to rise.
  • Timer: A simple “countdown” timer will encourage you to keep kneading at the start. It will also remind you that you have bread rising on the counter while you’re off enjoying your day and the yeast is doing all the work for you!

Oh yeah!  I almost forgot!

What’s the deal with the pear?

That’s a Reference Pear.  So you know how big everything is.   Hat tip to Paul and Quinns for that idea.

by Leave a Comment

Eat Like A Rock Star

Growing up in Regina means you have to manage expectations, but things are changing. I never thought I’d see a Grey Cup game in the Queen City and we’re hosting for the third time this year.  And I never, ever thought Regina would host the Juno Awards but here they are, this week, at the Agridome.  Wow. What a time we live in.

I don’t have tickets to the big show, but I’m holding out hope that Gordon Downie or Bruce Cockburn or Kathleen Edwards or Leonard Cohen will be craving a good baguette this week and someone will mention Orange Boot and they’ll call us and I’ll bring them baguettes and they’ll love it and Leonard will say they’re better than in Paris and Bruce will tell about the time he made flatbreads in a rocket oven while in the Ecuador rainforest and Kathleen will be all awesome and Gord will say something I don’t really understand but I’ll think it’s really deep and then they’ll sign my apron and, and…oh man, I gotta sit down.

Whether or not you are going to the Big Shue, you are an Orange Boot Bootnik, so right there you deserve The Good Stuff.  Here’s an easy way to make some eats that rival the best Back Stage Buffet.

Open Face B-B-BLT’s

(Inspired by Leslie Mackie of Macrina Bakery in Seattle)

You will need:

  • a wicked good baguette
  • your favourite thick sliced bacon, like from Butcher Boy meats or your uncle’s smokehouse
  • some organic baby greens
  • 2-3 roma tomatoes, sliced
  • 6-10 fresh basil leaves
  • garlic aioli (see below)

Here’s what you do:

1. Make the aioli by whisking together 2 egg yolks, 1 tsp chopped garlic, 1 tbsp dijon mustard.  Then slowly add 1 cup olive oil, whisking all the while, until you have a creamy, spreadable mayo-like sauce.

2. Fry the bacon and drain.  Keep it warm.

3.  Cut the baguette on the bias into 1cm slices.  If you like, put the slices on a pan and bake at 375F for 10 minutes or until toasty.

4.  Build your BLT’s thusly:

  • spread the aioli on the bread
  • add a slice of bacon
  • add a slice of tomato
  • add some salt and pepper, then a basil leaf
  • hide the basil with salad greens
  • finish with a nice piece of lettuce to act as the ‘top’ of your open face sandwich.

Eat ’em up!  Marvel at what that hint of garlic and hidden basil leaf does to the overall flavour.  And enjoy the show!

Photo by cdrummbks

by Leave a Comment

Hold The Salt

Allison and her young son Logan love coming to the bakery. We’re always glad to see them because Logan is a really cute little fella and Allison loves to talk bread.

Allison is deeply interested in ingredients because Logan’s having some issues and can only have a tiny bit of sodium in his diet. Logan loves our Orange Boot Birdseed Loaf so Allison asked for a reduced salt or zero salt bread that he could eat without worry.

Can We Make Salt Free Bread?

I did some research and learned that in Italy, specifically in Tuscany, bakers often make their bread without any salt. We’ve also been making a low salt white bread for the Greek church. So we were hopeful we that we could help Logan out.

Teisha and I worked on a salt free Birdseed Loaf over the winter months. It’s a real challenge because of the important role salt plays in bread baking. The deeper we dug, the more interesting the role of salt became:

  • Salt adds flavour and colour. This was easy to see. If you are used to having salt in your diet, a salt free loaf can taste very bland. And the final colour of the loaf can very from a pale cream colour to a dull brown — certainly not the deep, rich colour of our normal bread.
  • Salt gives the dough strength. When you are used to mixing your bread a certain amount, it’s a big shock to shift to salt free bread. Our salt free loaf develops very, very quickly in the mixer. So quickly that we don’t dare take our eyes off the mixer lest we over mix the dough.
  • Salt helps gluten develop. At the microscopic level, salt helps the gluten proteins develop longer chains. It’s those long protein chains that give the dough strength over time.

So we started testing. Mix very quickly. Ferment, Shape and Bake very quickly.

And the result? Bread! Maybe not the tastiest loaf in the world, but it was definitely a light loaf with good crust and crumb, with no added salt.

Can We Make Salt Free Bread Taste Good?

But boy oh boy, that taste sticks in your mind. How could we make this loaf taste a little more, well, better?

The bran in whole flour always has some interesting flavour notes, so we added whole wheat and whole rye flour to the mix.

And we’ve found that adding a variety of seeds and whole grains adds flavour, so sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, rolled oats and flax seeds found their way into the mixer.

Finally, we added our sourdough starter to the bread, to raise the acidity and add a complex flavour to the final loaf.

The resulting loaf is just like our Orange Boot Birdseed Bread but without any salt. Ok, it doesn’t taste exactly the same, but Logan loves it and that makes Allison happy. Makes us happy too.

Salt Free Birdseed Bread Available Via Special Order

Allison asked, we responded, now you can get some too. “Pane Toscana di Logan”, or you can call it “Salt Free Birdseed”, is available at the bakery via special order only

We can make this bread with the seed mix or without the seed mix, as you like. Give us a call at (306) 584-2668 and we’ll hook you up.

Please note that we can only make this bread on Tuesday thru Thursday. Minimum order is 6 loaves. We can slice it for you and have it ready for the freezer if you like.

This is Why We Get Up In The Morning

Allison and Logan’s story is exactly why Cindy and I opened Orange Boot Bakery.

We wanted to build a place for you to get great baking and be able to talk to your bakers and learn about what you eat.

We wanted a place where you could trust us to bake simple, real food using real, natural ingredients.

We’re not food scientists. We can’t accomodate every diet restriction that’s out there — we can’t make a gluten free & egg free & dairy free & soy free & fat free & nut free & sugar free muffin, for example — but we will certainly try to help where we can. I’m glad this one worked out.

 

Photo by ansik

Connect