Blog posts

Happy 2026 to The Fresh Loaf community! May your starters thrive and your loaves delight you and yours!

David

1Jan

The world renowned, iconic, Maltese Pastisti.

For my final bake of 2025 I decided to try something I’ve wanted to for some time.  I love chestnuts, when we were kids, my parents would buy them and we’d roast them.  We had to shell them which wasn’t fun but really isn’t that difficult, but it was so worth it since chestnuts are just yummy.  So for this Hokkaido Milk Bread I’ve added chestnuts two ways.  Some are added as inclusions, chopped.  The majority of them were cooked in milk and then blended.  I used this “chestnut milk” as the hydration for the tangzhong.

Hi TFLers! It's that time of the year again for my mandatory year-end post. I don't wanna end my streak. :)

This was the pizza that I made earlier this year. I finally got my hands on some real 00 flour used for making Neapolitan Pizza so I was excited to try it. I don't have a wood-fired oven for La Vera Pizza Napoletana so  obviously, the next best thing to make is the "other" Neapolitan Pizza which is Pizza Montara. This was very similar to the first one I made here.
 

I learned a lot about panettone baking this year. My bakes became more consistent, and I was able to experiment with different concepts and approaches. (It’s a good idea to nail down a basic recipe and process before embarking on experimentation)

The changes to the starting point full white flour and cane sugar formula.

1. The flour was changed out for ground almonds. Half blanched, half natural at a 1:1 ratio of almond for flour.
2. One of the whole eggs was separated.
3. To the one egg white, three reconstituted powdered eggs whited were added.
4. The egg whites were sprayed to stiff peaks 

5. The egg whites were gently folded in as the last ingredient.

   Mistakes: 

For today's exercise, I submit...

Gigante, Filone Rustico con Semolina. il metodo di Will Falzon.

Our family bakes a traditional sweet bread on holidays and special occasions.  The dough uses lots of eggs and yeast and this time was left to rise in the refrigerator overnight.  It tasted great however it didn’t form nice loaves but flattened out.  About 6 loaves were baked on baking metal sheets.  After baking the loaves rose slightly but melted into each other to create a consolidated loaf the size of the baking sheet.  I’d appreciate any advice on why this may have happened and how I could bake it differently to obtain nice small oaves. 

This is the second time I've made these. They remind me of Duncan Donuts cake Munchkin, except really lemony and not as sweet. This is the recipe - I cut the sugar by 25% and doubled the lemon zest. 

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3aSP9UHLyw