I’m going to bake the bread tomorrow. Mixed the poolish. It’s developing a bit too fast because the house is very warm. I hope it doesn’t over-ferment. Since I didn’t have water for most of last week, I’ve been catching up on laundry. The dryer is really heated up the house.
Since you don’t have a mixer, I’m going to use a couple of mixing techniques designed for mixing sticky doughs by hand. And to be frank, a dough with this level of hydration, made more sticky with sugar, eggs, and butter, shouldn’t be mixed in a home mixer anyway.
It will probably take you a couple of tries to become comfortable with the hand mixing techniques. But they are not that complicated. I think a large part of it is getting comfortable with getting your hands really sticky.
Fraisage: can be used for a lot of doughs, even pie crust. So this is a good technique to know.
Slap and fold. Very annoying, but affective.
If you find the slap and fold method too annoying, then you could try the Rubaud method. I prefer it, but it is more taxing.
Here’s the ingredient measurements. I calculated the amounts based on your grandmothers list of ingredients.
The amount of salt and the size of the raisin boxes are unknowns. Not an issue for either since there’s a standard amount of salt that goes into a bread dough. And raisins are an ingredient in which you can add to preference.
Equipment
Food scale OR dry and liquid measuring cups
Measuring spoons
Plastic bench scraper
Bowls
6” x 2” round cake pan
24” x 10” parchment baking paper
6” round parchment baking paper
Plastic cling wrap
1 loaf
Poolish: mix the night before. Use within 24 hrs of mixing
- 125g (1 cup) bread flour (King Arthur)
- 80ml (1/3 cup) water, 95° – 110°
- 45 ml (3 1/2 Tablespoons) evaporated milk, 95° – 110°
- 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast (not instant or rapid rise)
Mix water and evaporated milk.
Sprinkle yeast over water mixture. Let sit 10 minutes to dissolve.
Pour water mixture over flour.
Mix to just combine, and no white flour is visible.
Loosely cover with plastic wrap.
Place in warm, draft free place. A turned off oven is a good place.
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Main dough
- 375g bread flour (King Arthur)
- 160 ml (2/3 cup) milk, scald 180°; and cool to 110°
- 80 ml (1/3 cup) water, 95° – 110°
- 55g (1 large egg), room temperature
- 6 g (2 tsp) active dry yeast
- 90g (scant 1/2 cup) granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 20g (1 1/2 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, 72°
- 3/4 cup - 1 cup Golden raisins, soaked in hot water, drained, and pat dry on paper towels.
I’ll post the rest of the instructions after I bake the bread tomorrow. I have a pretty good idea of the process I’m going to use, but depending on how the dough comes together as I mix, I may change a few things. So I’m not sure yet what the total process is actually going to be.
