Blog posts

Some bread made with high extraction flour and lievito madre.

Notes:
Intensely aromatic with malt scents and that sanfranciscensis sweet cheese aroma. Good oven spring (doubling of height).

whole wheat

Genovese

Advice needed for how to make Knodelbrot from the Alto Adige

SusanMcKennaGrant on 14 Sep 2025 at 06:34

I made a similar version of this last month that came out pretty well, so I wanted to try another version of it.

Last time I didn’t make enough dough to fill both of the new, smaller size square bannetons, so I increased the total dough weight by about 25% which ended up working pretty well.

I love the way the scald helps promote a soft, fluffy crumb. I used some fresh milled Danko Rye and King Arthur Baking 6 Grain Blend, which contains barley flakes, rolled oats, rye chops, malted wheat flakes, millet, and quinoa flakes for the scald.

Today's bake:   Sourdough Bread-Prebiotic Leaven ~100%Whole Wheat

Source:   CalBeachBaker

Notes: 3 loaves 

2 @1250g, Pan Size: 7.88x4x4 In / 20x10.16x10.16 CM

1@ 2500g, Pan Size: 15.75x4x4 In / 40.01x10.16x10.16 CM)

Substitutions: None

I used the King Arthur recipe here. The Daisy flour I used tends to be wet and needs hydration cut back. I didn't do that and ended up adding more flour, which made the rolls drier than they should have been. Will correct that next time. All-in-all, they are pretty good. Had one with homemade corned beef the next day and my jaw got the workout I expected.

I started baking bread at home circa 2020.  I watched a few John Kirkwood videos which made the whole process seem reasonably simple. Much to my surprise my first attempt yielded a bread superior in taste to anything I could buy from my local in-store supermarket bakery.  I was instantly hooked.  My main pursuit since has been the elusive “perfect baguette”.

In last baguette post before this, I told you I have specific started problem, Djinn Carne (was Cariah Marey) and Whoreass Silver don't take rice well, dough ends up sticky and melty usually.

Say hi to Whoreass Silver!

Whoreass says: *making some random jazz noise* "doo ba da ba doo ba da bee doo LAY LAY LAY LAY LAY LAY LAY LAY low low low low low low🎷🎺🎼"

Lol. I named him after my all time favorite jazz musical artist Horace Silver. It's the second and last installment of my starters showcase series. (see part one)

(edit September 10th: I found Djinn Carne behaves differently toward lactose and powdered milk; she ferments powdered milk much longer than lactose at the same lactose saturation. I will adjust the feeding to favor powdered milk, to aim for substrate specificity. I will edit the post once she settles with powdered milk)

So, weeks ago I kinda promise to make starters showcase posts. God knows I've been beating myself a lot lately and couldn't conserve extra energy to make dedicated posts about my starters.