The Bread Baking Babes has a cloudy past.  You have your choice as to where and who all the histrionics originated with.

Out of those clouds I bring you the B-12s (they’re over there on the side bar at the top).  We're Beautiful, Boisterous, Brilliant, Bold, Buxom, Busy, Bewitching, Brash, Bourbon basted, Bread Baking Babes, that's 12 B's. And, as you know, B-12 is one of the essential nutrients that's found in....bread!  (I believe Lynn put those altogether for us.)  We've rallied at the opportunity to be called Babes.  I mean, when you get to be my age, you never pass up an opportunity to be called Babe!

We have been baking, oh Babe have we been baking!

This month’s recipe was chosen by Karen from BakeMyDay, that makes her Kitchen of the Month.

The dough starts with a simple water flour yeast pre-ferment the night before you start baking.  As I’ve been baking bread over years, I’ve found most recipes use way, way more yeast than is needed or good.  I used all the yeast this recipe called for - 1/4 teaspoon yeast.  Doesn’t sound like much does it?  Actually, a 1/4 teaspoon is a lot, at least for this recipe, because that 1/4 teaspoon yeast gets dissolved into a cup of water and you pour off 2/3 of that cup and only use 1/3 cup in the pre-ferment.  There is no other yeast in this recipe.

Baking Day: Flour and water are mixed and allowed to rest for 30 minutes.  I believe this is called auto lyse; it’s purpose is to hydrate the flour.  Then the pre-ferment, a little potato, salt and honey is mixed in.

Sticky, glue: the above should give you some appreciation.

Royal Crown’s Tortano

Maggie Glezer’s Artisan Baking

Makes one 2 3/4-pound (I ,200-gram) tortano

Time: About 19 hours, with about 20 minutes of active work

RECIPE SYNOPSIS

THE EVENING BEFORE BAKING: Make the starter and, if you like. the mashed potato.

THE NEXT MORNING: Mix the dough and let it ferment for about 4 hours. Shape it, proof it for about 1 to 1  1/2 hours, and then bake the bread for about 45 minutes.

THE EVENING BEFORE BAKING

Pre-ferment             volume                 metric

Instant yeast             1/4 teaspoon

Water, 105° to 115°F

                                    1 cup                     240 ml

Unbleached bread flour

                                     2/3 cup                100 grams

Mixing Pre-Ferment

Stir the yeast into the water in a glass measure and let it stand for 5 to 10 minutes. Add 1/3 cup of this yeasted water (discard the rest) to the flour and beat this very sticky starter until it is well combined. Cover with plastic wrap and let it ferment until it is full of huge bubbles and sharp tasting, about 12 hours. If your kitchen is very warm and the pre-ferment is fermenting very quickly, place it in the refrigerator after 3 hours of fermenting. In the morning, remove it and allow it to come to room temperature 30 minutes to an hour before beginning the final dough.

Potato     1 small          3 ounces             85 grams

                                            I increased potato to 100 & 120 grams

PREPARING THE POTATO

For efficiency, prepare the potato the night before. Cook the potato in water to cover (420 ml is needed the next morning, so I used almost 500 ml for the cooking) until it can be easily pierced with a knife tip, about 20 minutes. Reserve the water for the dough. Press the potato through a ricer or sieve to puree it and remove the skin. Store it in a covered container in the refrigerator.  Need only 1/4 cup puree, I used 120 grams for the second baking and 100 grams the third.

BAKING DAY

Dough                     volume                     metric             Baker’s   %

Unbleached bread flour

                                    3 3/4 cups                575 grams        100%

I used 100 grams twice and 120 grams whole wheat to replace an equal amount of the bread flour.

Flax seeds                    2 tablespoons  (my additon)

Water, including the potato water

                                1 3/4 cups plus             420 grams        73%

                                        3 tablespoons

Pre-ferment

Honey                      2 teaspoons                14 grams            2%

Potato Puree            1/4 c                          100 + grams used    10%+

Salt                            1 tablespoon            15 grams        2.4%  

THE DOUGH by hand: Use your hands to mix the flour and water into a rough, very wet dough in a large bowl. Cover the dough and let rest (autolyse) for 10 to 20 minutes.

Add the pre-ferment, honey, potato, and salt, and knead the dough until it is smooth,S to 10 minutes. It will start off feeling rubbery, then break down into goo; if you persist, eventually it will come together into a smooth, shiny dough. If you do not have the skill or time to knead it to smoothness, the bread will not suffer. This is a tremendously wet and sticky dough, so use a dough scraper to help you, but do not add more flour, for it will ruin the texture of the bread.

by stand mixer: With your hands or a wooden spoon, mix the flour and water into a rough, very wet dough in the work bowl of your mixer. Cover the dough and let it rest (autolyse) for 10 to 20 minutes.

Fit the mixer with the dough hook. Add the pre-ferment, honey, potato, and salt and mix the dough on medium-high speed for 15 to 20 minutes, or until it is very silky and wraps around the hook and cleans the bowl before splattering,back around the bowl. This dough is almost pour-ably wet.

FERMENTING AND TURNING THE DOUGH

Shape the dough into a ball and roll it in flour. Place it in a container at least 3 times its size and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Let it ferment until doubled in bulk and filled with large air bubbles, about 4 hours. Using plenty of dusting flour, turn the dough (page 16) 4 times in 20-minute intervals, that is, after 20,40,60, and 80 minutes of fermenting, then leave the dough undisturbed for the remaining time. Do not allow this dough to over-ferment or ferment to the point of collapse, for the flavor and structure of your bread will suffer.

SHAPING AND PROOFING THE DOUGH

Turn the fermented dough out onto a well-floured work surface, round it, and let it rest for 20 minutes. Sprinkle a couche or wooden board generously with flour. Slip a baking sheet under the couche, if you are using one, for support.

Sprinkle a generous amount of flour over the center of the ball. Push your fingers into the center to make a hole, then rotate your hand around the hole to widen it, making a large 4-inch opening. The bread should have about a 12-inch diameter.

PREHEATING THE OVEN

BAKING THE BREAD

Place the dough smooth side down on the floured couche or board and dust the surface with more flour. Drape it with plastic wrap and let it proof until it is light and slowly springs back when lightly pressed, about 1 1/2 hours.

Immediately after shaping the bread, arrange a rack on the oven's second-to-top shelf and place a baking stone on it. Clear away all racks above the one being used. Preheat the oven to 450°F (230°C).

Unwrap the bread and flip it onto a floured peel or a sheet of parchment paper. Do not worry about damaging the bread as you handle it; it will recover in the oven as long as it is not oven proofed. Slash it with 4 radial cuts in the shape of a cross. Slide the loaf onto the hot baking stone and bake until it is very dark brown, 40 to 50 minutes, rotating it halfway into the bake. Let the bread cool on a rack.

following tradition.

If you would like to become a bread baking buddy with us, here’s how it works:

1. you have one week from today to bake the bread

2. 2.email The Kitchen of the month, Karen at BakeMyDay or leave her a comment that you have baked the bread
   

3. 3.post your baking the bread experience on your blog
   

4. 4.Karen will then put up a list of our Bread Baking Buddies at her site and send you a neat BBB award for this bread that you can then post on your blog.
   

We’d be delighted to have you baking bread. 

And I sure hope you check out the other Babes who baked with me for the Royal Crown Tortano.  It’s truly exceptionally grand bread. 

Enjoy and Happy Baking to all.