The recipes for both the Pretzel Sandwich Buns and Maple Mustard Chicken Salad appear in the August 2013 King Arthur catalog. The easy to make buns are soft and taste like soft pretzels; the chicken salad is delicious. I roasted one chicken breast and two thighs (both boneless) at 325°F for the meat.

David G

I have baked two breads this past weekend, Whole Wheat Pita, and David’s San Joaquin SD. The whole Wheat pitas, however, were the new favorites after I have finally had success with them.

The whole wheat Pita bread from Peter Reinhart’s (Whole grain breads), and pitas in general have had me intimidated for quite some time. Simply put, they never puffed well even on hot stone, rendering my efforts futile. Not anymore, I learned few tricks from youtube on how to bake pitas and have them puff on stove.

I have made my biga with a sourdough starter, and retarded the bulk dough in the refrigerator for 6 hours after adding 1 tsp of instant yeast - 4 grams (Thanks Karin, and Janet). The cold overproofed dough was divided into 8 pieces, rounded and allowed to rest for ½ an hour. The rounds were then flattened into discs and rolled into pita shapes. 15 minutes later, a flat pan was heated on medium range stovetop while a round wire mesh was placed on a larger range. This is a youtube video demonstrating the process.  (Mind the steps, they won’t puff properly if you overly cook either side). Although the video's title is roti/chapati (Indian breads), it works just as well for pita.

90% of the pitas puffed perfectly, something I have not achieved in the past. I was delighted!

Being from the middle east where Pita bread is staple ,my household were happy to have some authentic pitas at last ,after numerous failures. They were nutty, and soft with a hint of sourness from the biga. I will be making these again.

I also baked David's San Joaquin Sourdough. This is one fabulous bread, even without the full 18 hour retardation.

-Khalid

Since my mutant loaf a couple of days ago I have spent great care in both pre-shaping an shaping and the results are much better.  New to sour dough baking on a regular basis I let the first 2 batches proof for an hour and scoring was most difficult.  I suspected over proofing.  On today's bake I proofed the loaf on the right for 50 minutes and it was reasonably easy to score, though I had trouble with the lame and had to use a serrated knife.  The loaf on the left, which proofed longer was nearly impossible to score by any means, so definitely over proofed.

This is a lean hearth loaf at 80% hydration with total flour at 300 grams.  I suspect that even at 50 minutes the dough was over proofed.  Next bake I will proof one mini loaf for 40 minutes and the second for 45.

I am most impressed with the chew and crumb on this bread and LOVE the flavour the SD baking process brings to breads.

I got on the lean bread flavour kick a couple of weeks ago.  I bought some Western Bratwurst from my local Swiss deli then realized I had no long buns and bought one of their baguettes, which looked not bad.  This was my first store bought loaf since finding TheFreshLoaf and BOY was I disappointed. 

Reading some of the complex bakes here used to make me tired, just reading the recipe descriptions!  I have realized now, that very little time is spent building the levain's and dough's and one must let the magic of time do it's work.  I am loving the whole process and REALLY loving the finished results.  GREAT FLAVOUR!!!  I now get it . . .

Best regards, Brian

So as all of us who love to make bread, I too, am on the quest to make a perfect baguette.  I've made oodles of variations that are quite good and even great but not "the baguette".  On the same notion I believe there is more than one "perfect baguette".  In fact after working in a few bakeries I've adapted the notion that a well written bread formula can be approached from so many ways.  And in many instances they are all good ways of handling the said formula.  Its in the eye of the beholder and what they are after.  This thought came at a production bread bakery when mixers, bakers, and shapers, although all trained to do things in a relatively specific way, over time adapt "their way".  This is a major problem for me as I believe at a single bakery everything should be approached as close to the same in order for consistency.  Even if it is true that there are hundreds of different ways to approach the same formula.  

This was not my bakery and the changes although drastic at times were mostly unnoticed by the masses.  I was able to learn a great deal from this.  I saw what the minor/major changes brought to the table.  To share some examples: there was the obvious variation of shapes that over time you knew who shaped which loaf.  Not too much variation here as this was one of the few things all did very similarly.  We all shaped following the same technique.  So some of us shaped a bit tighter, some had a specific taper.  All in all not much other than minor cosmetics affected here.  Next the mixer.  This was where things got interesting.  Some stuck with the trained plan (as I called par, and i suggested all go par to be most consistent)  but 1/2 of the mixers did not.  Over time some would adapt.  Some would change yeast quantities slightly based on the state of the levain in the recipe, some would adjust hydration at the autolyse, and others would adjust at the finishing mix.  This played a huge role in variation.  The best results came from those that followed "par".  Boring as it may be this business had multiple mixers, and so much overturn, it was best to follow the formula and procedure as trained.  Finally there were the bakers.  Some liked lots of steam, some less, some like hotter oven, some cooler.  This was a huge play in the final loaves and the most notable from the outside.  It also played a huge role on finished interior.  Since I was trained with all the variation, I too adapted my own style.   

So I too will play this game with baguettes at home.  Maybe not the prettiest baguettes (that can come later).  I'm not used to scoring such little loaves (these are only 250 g each)  In fact next test will just increase the size to 300 and follow same formula and see results.  I wanted an open crumb but not a very high hydration.  Once you get the dough up to 80% the overall finish is a bit like a ciabatta even if formed as a baguette.  There is something missing when I make baguettes this way.  I chose to lower the hydration (69%) and use cold bulk fermentation.  I wanted to go straight to retarder after the mix so I developed the dough completely in my mixer.  I've heard numberous times of cold ferment and chose to start with the most functional time of 12 hours.  This means you mix before you leave and 12 hours later you pull the dough and proceed.  Once pulled I let the dough rest 30 minutes and then gave 2 s+f's back to back, which the dough took with ease.  I let this rest for another 1 and divided.  Preshaped and rested 30 minutes.  Then I shaped.  The first three I proofed at room temp for 1 hour, the second I put in fridge for 1 1/2 hours.  Room temp 1 hour baguettes opened up better ears (although my scoring was poor and I didn't get much for ears on most).  The colder dough was much easier to score and I believe would have opened better had I let my oven reheat a bit longer. 

Anyhoo after all that nonsense heres some pics.  I'm quite happy thus the only change will be scaled dough. Once I am happy with that I will probably play with bulk retarding times in increments and see the differences and where the sweetest spot is.  

Happy Baking

Josh

nicest of them all from looks.  From first set proofed 1 hour at room temp.

First set all proofed at room temp for 1 hour.

Second set proofed in fridge for 1 1/2 hours.  Baked a touch darker.  Didn't open as nicely. 

Crumb photo is from first set.  I will add a second from second set. 

Happy baking

Josh

Todays bake was filled with requests…….

Roasted Garlic and Herbs de Provence……...

Scalded Cracked Wheat and Honey………...

Chipotle Pepper and Manchego Cheese……….

Crumbs…...

Cracked Wheat and Honey….

Roasted Garlic Herbs de Provence……...

And a great Breakfast Snadwich….

Cheers all,

Wingnut

I keep noting the folks on here that are milling their own flour from whole grains. I have never tried it and would like to get my feet wet. What did you buy ? Do you like it or do you have misgivings and think you would prefer another one ? A general overview and  review would be great and help me make a selection. Any tips and advice would be much appreciated. 

As an additional piece  of info where do you get the grains you mill ?  Online or local ? Thanks in advance. c