Month: May 2019

Building THE baking studio – part 1

28 May, 2019

This first part of the Baking Studio story is made in partnership with my friends at Ballingslöv Falkenberg.

About two months after baking my first sourdough loaf, I decided that this craft was something I’d be doing for the rest of my days. I find such joy and passion on the creation of bread and other goods and even more in sharing it with others. The thought has grown in to something more than a hobby over the last years, and the need to build a career from a passion.

The mission

About 6 months ago now, I announced on my Instagram channel that I’d be transforming my garage and adjacent rooms in to a baking studio. From here I will explore the depths of all things made from dough, using sustainable methods and ingredients.

Looking in to our garage. Winter 2018 – before the wheels started spinning!

I will produce and sell a dynamic theme based and exclusive line of bread products, locally sourced and for pick up at the studio.
From here I will teach my insights of the craft on site to those hungry students willing to learn. The very best bread that’s not only a pleasure to watch, but also healthy for you and our planet. My mission and drive are to inspire people on this planet to change their view on bread consumption and the choices that comes with making it. Now I needed a suitable locale to support this call!

Finding the right partner

From the start it became clear to me that the studio itself needed to be as inspiring and lust bearing as the mission and products. I needed it to become as grand as my ambitions! A conceptual baking showroom mixed with a design kitchen and learning center. Pretty soon I realized that I would need help achieving this from those who can put dreams to paper and paper to reality made of wood, stone and electronics (and I’m sure a lot of other material).

I believe in a sustainable approach when it comes to doing business, and one part of this is finding a way to partner up to the local suppliers with shared values. When teamed up the businesses becomes something greater for the community! I contacted a local supplier of kitchen and storage solutions whose quality in products would match that of my own. Mats and Ingemar at Ballingslöv in Falkenberg, responded to my request and we started planning the Baking Studio together at their shop just a 5 minutes bike ride from our house (could it get more local?).

Mats drew up the plans after taking measurements during a Christmas visit. Just before this we had finished tiling a new floor from Italian stone, and a breathtaking white tiled wall with a French bistro feel to it, by the old garage windows. Also, we put up new inner walls and repainted the ceiling. A lot of hard and rewarding work!

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The first version of the drawings for the studio.

3D-perspective drawing. This actually helped me visualize the Studio at a degree where I wasn’t surprised or chocked when it started forming in real life!

A look in to the Studio after renovation of walls, floor/wall tiling and roof was completed. In the corner the mixer will reside, under the windows a working area with storage underneath (and a wine cooler of course) and to the right a cooler/freezer.

During the coming months, we (my wife Caroline and I) had several meetings at Ballingslöv, and with other partners, to choose the right solutions for the cause and solve problems.

Delivery

I’m very happy to say that in May, the first shipment of carpentry arrived. Mats also wanted to see it through completely, and being a trained carpenter at origin, he led the installments on site. These pictures show you the progress half way and where we’re at as I write. The craftsmanship of this carpentry is just something else. Robust and elegant. Practical with high quality and easy to clean (Which I’ll probably do thoroughly each day)!

Early morning delivery! A lot of carpentry to set up. Mats getting ready on the left!

The first carpentry being lifted inside. Two problem solvers doing their magic work! I’m really glad to have help with this part since during this time I was all up in being a full time dad to two little kids, starting a business and of course baking.

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Mats aligning the embryo of the oven furniture!

This is the water area for the studio. Here I’ll get the water needed for the dough, do the dishes and launder all the linen and aprons! The sink will be in the furniture to the left.

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A lot of renovation work was put in during the spring of 2019 by team Larsson (me and my fantastic and supportive wife Caroline – and the kids of course). This is the water area before new tilings and wall surfaces.

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And here you see the after shot. I’ll be having a work bench here as well, under the window, and full sized freezer and fridge in the corners!

You can really feel the Studio taking its form at this stage. In to far left corner I’ll be having a fridge/freezer with the front surface that of a black chalk board (that you can write on using chalk) , how cool is that?

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Another shot of how the Studio looked before, right after tiling work and new inner walls (and ceiling).

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And after! From those windows I’ll have a long view over the garden, our neighbours horses and a vast farm field. Not a bad motive for early morning mixes. To the top right I’ll be using the same type of fridge/freezer as mentioned earlier, and in the left corner there will eventually be a mixer.

The next big steps are finishing electrical work, installing the storage at the entrance, putting in the ovens, coolers, freezers, slab, and finally the stone work surfaces.

I’ll begin wrapping up this first part of this series with a quick walk through of my choices in machinery. As the plans and pictures might have already spoiled, I’ll be using six high end electrical home ovens in this studio. The aim is to produce a limited line of exclusive goods, and these ovens will absolutely fill that need and more! Also, I’m so looking forward to the genuine and exclusive home environment feeling it brings to the studio, for the upcoming courses and educational videos.
My take is this: If you can bake great bread in a home oven, you can master it in any type of commercial oven. So, these courses will be for the pros as well. Mats even drew this unique furniture to hold the 6 ovens, which will make it look like one sublime unit in the end.
For this very same reason I’m choosing to work with a line of domestic coolers and freezers. For the surfaces I’ve chosen a very versatile and premium feeling composite stone. And finally, when it comes to the mixer… I haven’t quite been able to find the right one. Or afford the one I really wish to acquire – The twin arm mixer. It seems as though I might be able to loan a table mixer of the same type of engineering (Miss Baker) during this summer.

In part 2 of this series I’ll show you these machines installed and talk more about those choices! Also, here’s finally a picture of my partners at Ballingslöv in Falkenberg, holding my bread. Among them they have over 60 years of experience in the business so I’m in safe hands listening to their recommendations and solutions. Without their passion, interest and faith, a studio of this unique kind would not have been possible! They also introduced me to other partnerships significant to build this dream studio, which I’ll tell you more about shortly.

Link to Ballingslöv Falkenberg (swedish)
Link to Ballingslöv central site (Swedish)

Ingemar and Mats striking a pose with my bread. The partnership is sealed!

10 tips in 10 days! 10 – Get your hands dirty to develop the Bakers Sense

27 May, 2019

This is the last tip and insight in this ten-part series revolving consistency in baking results. Mainly it’s been about the Country style sourdough loaf baking, but I’ve also touched the sweet buns (bullar), pizza and hamburger buns. This final, and to me most important, insight is true to all types of baked goods. No matter how many courses you attend or how many books you read, you will always need to connect with the dough physically to gain wisdom and develop.

To get a sense of what’s feeling right and what’s feeling wrong – Get in there deep and battle a possible freight of stickiness. With every dough you handle, and every bake it leads up to, you and your hands have an opportunity to learn.

So, what does this mean practically? I’m talking about letting your mixer have a well-earned vacation, and use your hands to mix all the ingredients. I’m an advocate for small portions of leavening sources to let time do its work – using hands on folding of the dough at regular intervals to feel the evolution. It’s the friction, lightness, stickiness and density of the dough at the shaping phase compared to last week. How the dough responds to the touch of your hand after a second rise, cold or warm.

This “Bakers Sense” comes from experience. Keep on baking and exploring and you’re due to the sense eventually. Until then, if not already there, I’m really glad you’re tagging along with me in my exploration and attempts to describe how I experience baking.

Below you’ll find some videos showing part of the process where this connection is made, if aware!

10 tips in 10 days! 9: Creating the perfect oven inside the oven

24 May, 2019

In an earlier tip, I wrote about the heat factor of getting consistency in the baking result. This one is in the same topic area, only more focused towards the importance of steam during the bake.

Perhaps a lot of you already bake, or have baked, inside a clay pot or cast iron/enameled casserole (or the genius combo cooker). If you’re struggling in getting wanted results, and have deviated from this way of baking bread, you should return to it. Basically you’re eliminating the important steam factor as a source to the irregularities, should your vessel hold it well. The water being released from the dough gets trapped inside, creating a great environment for the dough to rise and the crust to develop. After about 20-25 minutes the lid is removed, steam vented and you put I back in for another 10-20 minutes, or until you’re happy with the crust.

And also, try different styles of these so called “Dutch Ovens” to find the one that gives you the result you’re looking for – and the stick to it, cause it’s likely to keep delivering.

It’s hard to add just the right amount of steam whilst baking on a stone or steel, and that’s why using this method fits the top 10.

Oh, and another tip while at it – if you’re experiencing the bottom getting too thick or burnt (or both), you can safely remove the half baked loaf from the DO using a peel at the lid removal part. And then just place it on the oven rack, removing the DO from the oven.

The videos in this post shows a 50% whole wheat loaf (rather over proofed) being scored inside a combo cooker and then the release of the steam at around 25 minutes.

10 tips in 10 days: 8 – Burger bun softness using pre- gelatinized flour (tangzhong)

24 May, 2019

By adding a paste made from 1 part wheat flour and 5 parts water (or milk) to your standard enriched burger bun dough, you’ll be getting a very fluffy bun, that holds longer before going dry.

Heat the paste to 65 degrees Celsius and add it to the liquid of the dough basically. You could let it cool quite a bit before adding it too, not to tenper too much with the final dough temp. A dough enriched with butter won’t like getting too hot at the start!

I use roughly 25-30% Tang Zhong in relation to total flour weight, seems good enough.
Also, as stated in earlier tips, time (with a risk of getting repetitive) is of most importance to ensure consistency in the final result. Let it rise for a long time using low amounts of sourdough/yeast (I like seeing it doubled at least after shaped as buns) and you will be rewarded.

The video on this post shows you just how tender and light this buns is.

I’ve basically been having a dough rising every day during the last years. Most often in a bowl or a box, and if not; in my thoughts.
Along with the coming week’s posts I will share 10 of the most valuable insights I’ve had that’s lead to more consistent result in baking high quality, beautiful goods from home (in no particular order).
Would love it if you comment or DM with questions, I always do my best to answer!

10 tips in 10 days! 7: Pre-heat deluxe

21 May, 2019

Optimize radiation heat transfer by maxing heat settings a good 2 hours+ before baking. This series is about finding consistency in baking great results at home, and the heat transfer to your dough is a key element to this.

There are three types of heat affecting your dough.

1. Convection (the hot air around the doigh).
2. Conduction (transfer from one medium to another)
3. Radiation.

The first two peaks quite quickly. The last one comes from the oven walls, ceiling and bottom, from the mass of the oven (metal and other parts). The longer you’re heating up this mass, the more it will radiate to the other mass inside the oven (to a point of course).
Higher heat mass equals to greater potential in the rise of the baked goods.
If you’re worried about the climate affects, make sure you’re supplying from a green source if possible. Also I’m quite positive that baking your own bread affects the environment less than buying it as the final product in an industrial process.

The loaf featured from today’s bake shows you a very pleasing oven spring after the double cut score. 33% whole meal wheat at 81% hydration. Baked on a steel with steam added.

And a little reminder – I’m not saying you have to do this to bake good bread, not at all! This is a way to eliminate heat radiation as a factor when it comes to finding what brings your results to an even higher consistency, should you not be happy with it today 😀.

10 tips in 10 days! 6: Enriched sweet buns – Bread taste, texture and norms with a long rise

18 May, 2019

Here in Sweden most recipes for Cinnamon/Cardamom buns that you find in books or baking blogs will tell you to use a rather high amount of commercial yeast, that boosts the fermentation timings. This next tip is a very basic one; Lower the amounts of yeast drastically and let time create consistency for you! Just make sure you keep it a bit cooler so the butter wont go bad/leaky!

It might not sound very revolutionary to increase fermentation, but if you haven’t tried any type of enriched dough (added fat and sugar etc) that’s been siting for an extended period of time, you’ll definitely notice a difference in taste, texture and overall stomach sensation when you do. This is definitely my experience and once I started to lower the yeast and sourdough starter to a fraction of what I used to; the baked buns just kept being the best ones I made so far! A lot of people out there still thinks that long fermentation is for loaves of bread only.

In a dough with about 1000g of flour, I now use 3-4g fresh yeast (that’s 1g dry yeast equivalent) and about 40-50g sourdough starter (or just skip the fresh yeast entirely and increase the starter to 100g – and get a different texture in the finished buns). In a normal room temp environment, the dough will be ready for baking in about 10-12 hours.

In my experience, a dough with a lot of butter (and other enrichment) will either need a lot of mechanical force to come together in to a silky smooth one, or a lot of time. The later alternative can make the most hopeless feeling dough in to a pleasure to work with! I mix the dough in the morning, and shape it into buns after lunch, letting them rise as shaped buns until dinner time. As an alternative (when working) I mix the dough in the evening, let it sit as a bulk at a lower temperature overnight and shape early in the morning (to be baked just a couple of hours later).

The pictures in this post was from today’s cinnamon bake. I just love the look of proofed buns and the promise it makes, as you can see. All the angles are there!

10 tips in 10 days: 5 – Whole meal flour

17 May, 2019

Using finely milled flour to create light and airy whole meal sourdough loaves.

Flour selection is of course a very vital part of getting consistent results. When it comes to the whole meal (whole grain) flour I find a great difference in the end result when it comes to the coarseness. In my opinion you still keep a lot of taste and aromas intact, even when the entire grain (with sprout, bran, kernel) is very finely milled. From what I’ve picked up from several sources (like the brilliant @ceorbread on Instagram), the flours ability to bind water is affected, thus the development of the dough, leaving you a mass with greater potential for a lighter and more open crumb.
I mill most of my whole meal flour myself, with my bench stone mill. I do two runs – first at a coarser setting, then at the finest possible. This is also, in my experience, affecting the dough development qualities in a positive way. I’m still learning the chemistry behind this, if you’re familiar with it I’d be glad if you pitched in!
I know a lot of you mill your own flour (and if you don’t you should) so keep in mind to let the flour cool before mixing. The friction of milling twice will leave it quite hot (and this can mess with the activity of the dough in a negative way).
The best type of whole meal flour I’ve baked with comes from Vortex/Whirl milling (such as from Warbro Kvarn here in Sweden). It’s whirled into a very fine dust-like powder, without increasing friction significantly.
This is in my experience also true for 100% rye bread. The finer the milling the lighter crumb loaf you’ll get.
The loaf with crumbshot featured in this post is a 50% whole meal loaf, using very finely ground whole wheat grain. Packed with taste and nutrition and a very pleasing texture, from a while back.

I’ve basically been having a dough rising every day during the last years. Most often in a bowl or a box, and if not; in my thoughts.
Along with the coming week’s posts I will share 10 of the most valuable insights I’ve had that’s lead to more consistent result in baking high quality, beautiful goods from home (in no particular order).
Would love it if you comment or DM with questions, I always do my best to answer!

10 tips in 10 days: 4 – scoring bread

15 May, 2019

Make distinct patterns possible by storing the shaped dough cold and open to air.

How the dough will bloom when put into a hot steamy oven is a sum of all things that have happened so far in the process. It’s not all about how the blade cuts the surface of what’s to become the crust.

With all thing being equal up to the point of the loaf being shaped and ready for the second rise, there are some details that (to me) makes a huge difference. This is what this tip is all about. Storing the shaped loaf in a way that it can be exposed to a moderate amount of circulating air, for an extended period of time. This gives you a surface that holds a little less water. A sharp blade will have an easier time getting distinct cuts.

I’ve experimented with a lot of different materials and timings here and I find cane baskets a good alternative for letting air come in contact with the dough. Using a cloth of cotton or linen (or a mix) with a light weaving also helps (too tight and thick and the moist will stay at the surface). By storing it cold in the fridge the dough will be exposed longer and the surface will dry more.

Please note that how the dough then rises in the oven after the scoring could be dramatically affected by other variables then the cuts on the surface, such as fermentation, structure, tension, heat, steam and more (on danlarn.com I have an extensive 2-part scoring guide if you want to learn more).

Let’s talk a little bit about the loaf featured in this video too. I would say that the surface could have been a bit drier, and that it would be better to score less if the goal was a higher rise. The jagged fallen leaf still turned out very nice if you ask me! Had this dough been stored in a sealed bag, it might have been too difficult to score cleanly.

I’ve basically been having a dough rising every day during the last years. Most often in a bowl or a box, and if not; in my thoughts.
Along with the coming week’s posts I will share 10 of the most valuable insights I’ve had that’s lead to more consistent result in baking high quality, beautiful goods from home (in no particular order).
Would love it if you comment or DM with questions, I always do my best to answer!

10 tips in 10 days: 3 – Pizza dough easy shaping

14 May, 2019

Get that round shaped pizza with fluffy Cornicione (edges) easily by using an individual container for each dough ball.

By putting the shaped pizza dough ball in a round and very slightly oiled container, with lid, you will make the whole pizza process a delight! In my experience, this method will help you keep shape and gas. Something easily lost when lifting and separating proofed dough balls.

  • Just turn it upside down and let gravity do its thing (shake it lightly to help if you’re impatient). Oh, and in the video I’ve cut ahead to the release to spare you the shaking.
  • Let it land upon a pile of flour and put some more on top.
  • Pat it gently to open it up a little at a time to preserve its original round shape.
  • Lift it away from the pillow of white dust and dust it off lightly to lose some of the most excess flour, then put it on a cleaner surface. I like using a cutting board to reduce the cleaning time.

How you proceed from here Is up to you to make the pizza open up as evenly as possible. I’m currently practicing at the method in the video. Just feels good (once again working with gravity as my tool).

Also, the longer you’ve proofed the ball, and the more water and weaker flour you’re using, the easier will the ball open up into a pizza ball.

Today’s dough was made from 80% Caputo Tip 00 (Blue bag) and 20% strong wheat flour (Kvalitetsvete Berte). It usually turns out very slack, so I tend to put it in the fridge for some time before the shaping phase, to gain a little more control.

No matter what, the trick with the round container will make it easier and that’s what’s at focus here. 0,5-liter containers fit very well for dough balls up to 250g. I prefer around 220g (such as in this video) to make it bake faster.

The pictures shows two pizzas baked in a home electrical oven (on a steel). The first one after a 24-hour rise, the second after another 16 in the fridge.

I’ve basically been having a dough rising every day during the last years. Most often in a bowl or a box, and if not; in my thoughts.
Along with the coming week’s posts I will share 10 of the most valuable insights I’ve had that’s lead to more consistent result in baking high quality, beautiful goods from home (in no particular order).
Would love it if you comment or DM with questions, I always do my best to answer!

10 tips in 10 days: 2 – Consistent result from a consistent starter

14 May, 2019

The Sourdough Starter! Expect consistency in result by treating your starter with consistency

Feed your starter at the same timings each day, with the same type of flour, at the same ratios and keep it at the same temperatures!

Your aim should be to have a starter that doubles in size over the same period of time. Adapting the variables above slightly over time to reach this when you notice the change in timings.

I myself am a living thing. I like food and I like to have regularity in the intake of energy. Breakfast, lunch and dinner at about the same time each day makes me happy. And some snacks in between of course. I enjoy eating food I’m used to and like. I like being moderately warm and I really don’t like being cold! All this is of course very natural to you and me as human beings.
And my greatest tip to keeping an active healthy starter is to give these things also to your millions of living yeast bacteria.
Do not cut corners over a long time. Of course, I could starve for a couple of days too, In a cooler. I’d survive that and function, yet I wouldn’t be very happy or productive. Your starter will probably function to leaven a dough too, with inconsistency in the feeding, yet the full potential wouldn’t be reached!

The 1st picture shows the crumb of yesterday’s sourdough loaf. 25% fresh milled organic Ölands wheat and the rest organic bread flour from my region (Limabacka kvarn). 74% hydration and a long healthy fermentation, starting with an active and happy starter!

The 2nd picture shows my starter in regress on a warm day, after peaking and having a high acidic load.

The 3rd picture shows my starters rise in progress from today (a couple of hours in).

I’ve basically been having a dough rising every day during the last years. Most often in a bowl or a box, and if not; in my thoughts.
Along with the coming week’s posts I will share 10 of the most valuable insights I’ve had that’s lead to more consistent result in baking high quality, beautiful goods from home (in no particular order).
Would love it if you comment or DM with questions, I always do my best to answer!