Breaking Bread with Michael Ruhlman's Ratio iPhone App

As a follow up to the piece I wrote on Michael Ruhlman's Buttermilk Dinner Rolls, I wanted to write about my second attempt at bread making. I made a garlic rosemary boule, once again inspired by Ruhlman, but this time I used Ruhlman's Ratio application for the iPhone. This app is a compliment to Michael Ruhlman's book Ratio, which if you aren't familiar with is a must have for any serious cook. It provides simple ratios for 28 key recipes for things like breads, pastas, cakes & cookies, sausages, brines, soups, sauces, custards, and more.

Michael Ruhlman's Ratio Application for the iPhone

Ruhlman's Ratio app made it very easy to make the bread. Not only does the app provide you with the ratios for many common recipes but it allows you to easily adjust the amount of a given ingredient and then it automatically calculates and converts the other ingredients in the ratio. The Ratio app includes instructions on how to make the dish and also offers ideas to modify the dish (like adding rosemary & garlic to to the bread ratio like I did below).

I followed Ruhlman's bread ratio (5 parts flour to 3 parts water) and used 567 grams of flour, 340 grams of water, 11 grams of salt, and 3 grams of yeast. Yes, those measurements are in grams, Ruhlman suggests using a digital kitchen scale for everything you cook, especially when baking.

I wanted to make a flavored loaf so I also threw in some chopped rosemary and roasted garlic cloves . I combined all the ingredients in my Kitchen Aid and mixed them until a dough formed that could be stretched to translucency.

I left the dough in the mixer, covered it, and let it rise for a couple hours until it more than doubled in size. After the dough rose, I kneaded it by hand for a few minutes, formed it into the shape I wanted and put it into a dutch oven (another tip from Ruhlman). I baked it covered for 30 minutes and then removed the lid and cooked it until it looked like this:

Garlic Rosemary Boule

The bread was pretty good but I am not sure how much I liked the crust from the dutch oven. The top crust was nice but I didn't really like the bottom of the bread. I'd be interested in trying some other pans to see the difference.

Michael Ruhlman's Ratio application is definitely one of the best apps I have for my iPhone. Have you tried it? I'd love to hear some of your success stories!