In our last class, we talked about baker’s percentages. Here is an excellent video explaining the concept.
Another Life Well Remembered
The other day I taught a bread baking class. As is my custom, I asked who, in the class, had ever baked bread before. One of the students, Virgil (Gil) Shelton, answered that he had done some baking in the past, but that his father, Virgil Sr., had a rich career as a baker. Gil’s remembers his father as follows:
“Virgil Ninvia Shelton’s favorite saying was that he was born in Duncan but he wasn’t born in Oklahoma. Then he would explain he was born in Oklahoma Territory in 1904, three years before Oklahoma statehood.
Virgil, the son of a blacksmith, received some very sage advice from his father. Knowing the smithing trade was fast disappearing, he advised him to find a trade where people would always need the product produced.
Virgil found employment in a commercial bread bakery in Fort Worth, Texas. From there he moved on to California. After leaving California, He and his wife, sister in law and brother in law spent a season in Colorado cooking for gold miners. This didn’t work out so well because the miners were not accustomed to the type of cooking served them by the outsiders.
So, back to Oklahoma to work for Rainbow Bread. His pastry skills were honed when he and a fellow baker went into their own shop. Liking that more than commercial bread baking, he was then hired to bake for the University of Tulsa and Wofferman’s, Tulsa’s most premier grocery/bakery store. His skill as a cake decorator was well known and appreciated. After not being in the industry for many years, he decorated his and Eleanor’s 50th anniversary cake. It was a work of art!
Virgil and Eleanor had one child, Virgil (Gil) Shelton, now living in Boquete. It was Gil that shared his dad’s pocket spiral with Mort. These recipes were gathered over his fifty years of working in a trade that would always be needed. During the depression when most men worked at hard labor for $1.00 a day, Virgil made sixteen dollars a week. Many professional men did not do as well but Virgil with a fourth grade education had found his niche.
His son, Gil, worked with him during high school and, while he did not professionally follow the trade, he did serve in the U.S. Army as a pastry baker.
The time came in Virgil’s life when on advice from his doctor he reluctantly left the bakery. After WWII, he applied and was hired by Douglas Aircraft. Because of his natural ability and some leftover experience learned from his father, he moved well within the aircraft industry. When a part was defective and the choice was to try to fix it or scrap it, they came to Virgil. If he could not fix it, it could not be fixed.
All during this time however he continued to always have a great dessert on his countertop. He loved sharing his bounty with friends and neighbors. Even after retirement and into his 90′s he maintained a pretty professional bakery facility in his laundry room. Always to the delight of his neighbors.
Virgil also built furniture in his workshop on the back of his property. At his Memorial Service, his grandchildren each spoke of his kindness, and talents. One pointed out how creative he was. His shop being limited in space, if he needed to saw a board that was too long for the space he would open the side window and stick the board outside until it was cut to size.
Virgil passed away in 2000 at ninety six. A life well remembered.”
Here are some of Gil’s father’s recipes as recorded during his lifetime.
Remembering Herb Paper
Today I just learned of the death of an old friend from Cincinnati, Herb Paper. Whenever I am asked how I got started baking bread, I tell the story of a wonderful evening spent with Herb and his wife, Bess, in Cincinnati about 25 years ago. We were all having dinner at the home of our host, Shalom Norman. The highlight of the dinner was a chocolate “Babka” that Shalom had baked. Having been raised believing that bread was something that came from the supermarket in a plastic bag, I couldn’t believe that this kind of bread could be baked by a mortal in a home oven.
It was that night that I learned that Herb, a distinguished professor at Hebrew Union College, was also a bread baker. For the rest of the evening, Herb entertained us with stories of his childhood, working in his father’s jewish bakery as a youngster. I was so blown away by this experience that I stayed up all that night making my first loaf of bread. Since that night, I have never stopped. Over the years Herb gave me lots of advice on bread baking. It was he who taught me how to make my first “four braid challa.” So here I am, 25 years later, making bread in Boquete, Panama, fondly remembering that it all started with Herb.
Thanks Herb for many pleasant memories and my best wishes and condolences to his beloved family.
Boquete Baguettes
The traditional baguette, when prepared properly, is a delight to behold and taste. The secret to producing these classic beauties is fermentation. Peter Reinhart, in his book “Artisan Breads Every Day” introduces us to the technique of refrigeration as a form of pre-fermentation. In order to achieve the flavors of artisan breads, commercial bakers use of combination of pre-ferments such as sourdough starter, biga, and poolish. Each of these is used as a part of a two part process of creating the dough. The pre-ferments are prepared the day before baking and are either refrigerated or left out at room temperature to ferment overnight. They are then mixed the next day with the rest of the ingredients to prepare the final dough mixture.
The home baker has the unique opportunity to simplify the process by preparing all the dough mixture at once and allowing it to ferment overnight in the refrigerator. This technique is not generally available to the commercial baker who does not have sufficient refrigeration space available.
Consequently the home baker can now use available refrigeration to obtain the necessary pre-fermentation without having to maintain starters and other forms of preferments.
The preferred method of making baguettes used by celebrated bakeries such as the Tartine bakery in San Francisco, is to use natural leavening agents in place of commercial yeast. For the occasional home baker who wants a simple approach to making baguettes, Reihnart’s method represents a major innovation.
Classic Baguettes (based on Reinhart Recipe)
Ingredients
| Baker’s % | Measured | Grams | |
| Total Flour | 680 | ||
| Cold Water (55 degrees) | 67% | 2 cups | 454 |
| Instant yeast | 1% | 2 1/4 tsp | 7 |
| Bread Flour | 100% | 5 1/3 cups | 680 |
| Salt | 2% | 2 tsp | 14 |
| Total Weight | 1155 | ||
| Weight per baguette | 283 | ||
| Number of Baguettes | 4 |
Instructions
Day before
Add the water and yeast to a large mixing bowl. Combine with a whisk or spoon until thoroughly mixed. Then add the flour and salt and stir with a large spoon until thoroughly mixed (about a minute or two). The dough should now be in the form of a shaggy ball. Let is rest, uncovered, for about 5 minutes. Knead the dough in the bowl for 2 minutes and then transfer to a lightly floured work surface. Knead for another two minutes and then transfer to an oiled bowl. If the dough is too sticky, stretch and fold the dough 1 or more times at 10 minute intervals. Then cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight, or for up to 4 days. If you plan to bake multiple batches, separate the dough into separate bowls.
Baking Day
Gently transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into 10 oz. (283 g) pieces. Form the dough into baguettes and place in proofing molds or cloche. Allow to rise for about 1 1/2 hours or until 1 1/2 time original size. Then transfer to baking sheet or peel 15 minutes prior to baking. Slash the loaves with a sharp knife or razor. Then place in 500 degree oven. Steam the loaves three times at 2 minute intervals. Then lower the temperature to 450 degrees and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate breads for even baking and then bake until the loaves develop a rich golden color, the loaves sound hollow when thumped, and the internal temperature reaches 200 degrees. Turn off the oven and leave the bread inside for another 5 minutes with the door open.
Transfer to a cooling rack and allow to cool for another 45 minutes before cutting.
Tips from the experts
Shaping Baguettes is a tricky process especially when using wet dough. Here is one master bread baker’s approach.
The next step is to transfer the dough from the cloche to the peel or baking sheet.
If you haven’t already had enough information about baguettes, here is another expert’s approach.
Tartine – The Best Discovery of the Year
About a month ago, my friend, Lloyd Cripe, told me about this wonderful artisan bread baking method developed by Chad Robertson of the Tartine bakery in San Francisco. After I saw the first pictures of the bread that Lloyd baked, I had to give it a try. The Tartine method differs from other methods in that there is no yeast used in the recipes. Chad uses a starter that takes about 20 days to develop. A small amount of starter is used to make a leaven. The leaven is left out overnight and is used the next day to make the bread.
The bread is mixed entirely by hand. Instead of kneading the dough, it is allowed to rise for three hours, during which time the baker completes a series of stretches and folds every 30 minutes. Eventually the loaves are formed into boules or batards and left to rise for another 3 or so hours.
In order to develop the right amount of heat and moisture, the loaves are baked in a Dutch oven placed in the normal oven. What results is one of the most delicious breads I have ever tasted.
Here are some pictures of my latest attempt to master this method.
Delicious crumb with lots of holes
I plan to add a whole wheat and rye version of this bread to my product line. Stay tuned for further announcements.
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