pmccool's blog

Every time I make this, I am amazed at how much it expands in the oven.

Two are for a bake sale that benefits our library and one will go to our grandson in Hawaii. 
Paul

I occasionally teach bread classes at our local library.  This weekend's class featured chocolate babka.  Lots of fun and some really good bread.

Paul

My B&T proofer gave up the ghost a couple of months ago.  It was one of their original models, and I think that it was purchased in 2012.  The new B&T proofers have been, um, upgraded and can now function as slow cookers, too.  The price point is around $250 US.  

It seemed like a good time to make a multigrain sourdough bread, so I reached back to the Infinity Bread template from the Community Bake of the same name.

The flour components for this bake included bread flour (34%), whole wheat flour (33%), whole barley flour (20%), and whole rye flour (13%) totaling 1000g.  

My wife was going through the cabinets last week and hauled out two packets of dried starter.  One was a survivor from our move from South Africa to the US, dating back to October 2011.  So, just a couple of months away from being 14 years old.  Mind you, this has received no special treatment, having been tucked away in one cabinet or another at room temperature.  It has also survived a second move in 2020 when I retired and we moved from Kansas back to Michigan.

When you are fortunate enough to find something like this out in the wild (and they are legally accessible):

you do this:

which can lead to this:

I had been informed that a crusty, French-style bread was required for today's brunch with my cousins.  So, like any good husband possessed of a healthy measure of spousal love and self-preservation,  I set to work.

We returned home a couple of weeks ago from a trip to Myrtle Beach and needed some bread.  After a bit of consideration, I opened The Rye Baker and began thumbing through it.  Several breads looked appealing and I eventually selected the Milk Rye.  It’s one that I haven’t made previously.  The bread is about 60:40 rye:wheat (medium rye flour and bread flour).  My deviations were to substitute whole rye flour that I milled in place of the medium rye flour, 2% milk for the whole milk, and ADY for the IDY.

A Chai Blackberry pie.  A bit rough around the edges but better than I usually do.  Tasting still to come.

For the flatbreads Community Bake, I made Swedish Tunnbrod.  The recipe is from King Arthur's Big Book of Breads, giving me another opportunity to bake something from that book.  

Tunnbrod is fairly straightforward.  This recipe called for AP flour, rye flour (I used whole rye flour), sugar, yeast, salt, ground fennel seeds, milk, and melted butter.  I combined the dry ingredients and then mixed in the wet ingredients by hand.  The resulting dough was kneaded by hand for a few minutes, then allowed to ferment for an hour.