Bread Baking Babes heard it through the grapevine….

Now that we did it, I wonder why none of us had thought of adding wine to dough before…. Tanna showed us the way in her capacity as Kitchen of the Month. A travelling kitchen I might add with a “nomad bread baking library” (what are you packing dear? Oh just the essentials; my bread baking library…”) Grand I tell you!
Now this bread… really it got it all, it has the shape, it has the booze, it has spunk. Of course this time I saw fit to change the h** out of it. Not because I don’t like my wine, not because I am not a fan of spunk but the baking of this bread happened to collide with an order to bake bread for a “deluxe” BBQ. (Don’t ask me what the luxurious part was of this BBQ, I wasn’t invited, just asked to provide bread).
So yes, I added wine but mixed it with water and orange juice, and no I didn’t add any salami. I was tempted but I feared that salami didn’t appeal to the luxury part of the bbq party… so I left it out. I did however add bulghur, linseed and thyme


Beaujolais Bread
Recipe By: A Passion for Bread: Lessons from a Master Baker
Yield: 16 rolls or a grape cluster
Ingredients:454 grams white bread flour, unbleached, unbromated, 16 oz; 3.5 cups
7 grams fine sea salt, .24 oz; 1 1/8 teaspoons
5 grams instant dry yeast, .18 oz; 1.5 teaspoons
21  grams honey, .75 oz; 1 tablespoon
320 grams Beaujolais wine, 11.2 oz; 1 1/4 + 2 tablespoons
113 grams salami cut into 1/4 inch cube; room temp, 4 oz; 1 cup 
1. Scale all dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Add the honey to the dry ingredients and using your hands bring loosely together then form a well in the center.
3. The wine should be between 82° F and 84°.
4. Add the wine to the well in a slow steady stream as you rotate the bowl with one hand while simultaneously mixing the wine into the dry ingredients with your other hand.
Frequently scrape your fingers and the bowl to gather all ingredients into the dough ball. The bowl should be quite clean.
The dough will be soft, slightly wet and extremely sticky.
The dough should be just coming together. (taste to be sure salt was added)
Turn the dough out onto the counter.
The dough will be very sticky; do not give into the temptation to add more flour.
Kneading wet dough:
Hold hands, palms facing up, at opposite sides of the dough mass. Slide your fingers under the dough and lift the dough an inch or so from the surface. Squeeze your thumbs and index fingers together to form a tight OK sign through the dough.

While holding the OK sign, continue to curl thumbs and index fingers tightly together to pinch off a portion of dough. Working as quickly and smoothly as possible, moving the dough mass in approximately 1 to 1.5 inch increments, until the entire dough mass has been worked through. You should begin to feel the dough coming together.
“Remember, your hands are your memory-pay attention to the feel of the dough as it comes together.”
Turn dough a quarter turn and continue lifting, pinching and turning until it begins to take on an identifiable shape and becomes less and less sticky; taking anywhere from 5 to 15 minutes.  Resist the urge to add flour. A scraper is useful in collecting all the dough off the work area. Consider the dough kneaded when it forms into a ball. The dough should be soft, pliable and hold it’s shape; it should not be stiff and dry.
Form dough into ball: using both hands, lift front and fold over, quickly dropping it down to the counter. Repeat 4-5 times until a ball is formed. Use the scraper to ensure all the dough is gathered. Using the palms of your hands, flatten the dough ball into a rectangle. Scatter the salami evenly down the middle. Wrap the sides up and over salami, pinch dough together, turn and repeat until the salami is incorporated. Form into a ball.
Fermentation will take about one hour in a warm 75 to 80 degrees Fahrenheit draft free place.
Dust the counter lightly with flour. Place the dough onto floured counter. Pat into a thick square. Lift the two right corners and fold into the center patting the seam lightly. Lift the left two corners and fold into the center lightly patting the seam down. Repeat with the top two corners and the bottom two corners meeting in the middle patting down the seams.
Return the dough to the bowl seam side down, cover and return to a warm draft free place for about an hour. Repeat this process one more time. Total Time: three hours.

Cut the dough into 16 equal pieces with the bench scraper. (More or less… my dough liked to be in 18 equal pieces )
Use parchment paper or a silicone liner in a baking sheet.
Roll 15 pieces into a small ball shape for rolls, the last piece will become the grapevine. Create a triangle by setting four balls together in a line followed by a line of three balls then two balls and finally one ball. Angle the remaining four balls to one side of the triangle so that the entire piece resembles a large cluster of grapes with the smaller one to the side.
With the last piece of dough roll it into a rope about 10 inches long and shape it into a curved grape vine shape that you attach to the top of the grape cluster. Dust with flour.

8. Final fermentation
Final fermentation may take from 60 to 90 minutes. If it over proofs but dough will be unusable. Set the timer so that you can record the time it takes for the final fermentation. Place the baking sheet in a warm 75 to 80°F draft free place. Final fermentation will take from 60 to 90 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 450°  with a baking stone about 30 minutes before you are ready to bake. An effective and cheap way to achieve a crisp crust is to cover the bread with a stainless steel bowl when it is first placed in the oven on the lowest oven rack.
Slide the baking sheet into the oven onto the pre-heated baking stone.
Here the directions call for using a stainless steel mixing bowl to cover the grape cluster in the oven. I don't have a bowl that big. I believe it's more likely you may have a  rectanglular
pan that would fit over the grape cluster. What ever you find to fit over it take for 10 minutes with the dough covered and then remove the bowl. Continue to bake until the bread is golden brown has a thick crust, total additional time 15 to 20 minutes. The total time then would be 25 to 30 minutes. The bread will be fully baked if it registers 185 two 210° F.
When fully baked transfer to cooling rack for at least one hour to cool.
My notes:
- there were quite a few Babes that commented on the rising (as in almost none) but that didn’t trouble me probably because I used far less wine in the dough
- the rolls looked great, smelled wonderful… the taste? Not a clue. The dear caterer is not one of great communication skills. Never got word on how the bread was received. I thought it looked grand! Really!!
Check out how the other Babes handled the dough:
The Bread Baking Babes (current dozen) are:

• Bake My Day - Karen
• blog from OUR kitchen - Elizabeth
• Bread Experience - Cathy
• Feeding my Enthusiasms - Pat/Elle
• girlichef - Heather
• Life's a Feast - Jamie
• Living in the Kitchen with Puppies - Natashya
• Lucullian Delights - Ilva
• My Diverse Kitchen - Aparna
• My Kitchen In Half Cups - Tanna
• Notitie Van Lien - Lien
• Thyme for Cooking - Katie (Bitchin’ Bread Baking Babe Bibliothécaire)

Would you like to be a Bread Baking Buddy? Just make the Beaujolais Breadand then send Tanna your link  (refer to the info in her announcement post). Submissions are due by June 29th.  Once you've posted, you'll receive a Buddy badge for baking along.
I hope you will join us!