Blog posts

Another success story . Even more laissez faire than the last ones. I have been gone 6 weeks . I kneaded enough flour into my stored starter to make a very stiff ball. Put it in a glass jar in the fridge and waved bye bye. 

I took it out yesterday and covered with filtered water til it softened. Beat it with a table knife blade til blended. Placed for a few hours in the electric heating pad fermenter beside  the 2 qts of yogurt I was making. Removed it took out 80g and added 80g flour. Mixed and placed back in the high tech fermenter 😊. 

12Apr

Who doesn’t like cheddar cheese and cherries? Make it smoked cheddar and add egg yolks and 80% fresh milled flour, and I’m in heaven.

I used one of my favorite grains from Barton Spring Mills called Butlers Gold which is a hard red winter wheat, and mixed it with some fresh milled spelt. The whole wheat was milled and sifted with a #30 drum sieve and remilled and sifted with a #40. The spelt was only sifted with a #30 and milled twice.

My starter John Dough has been revived from the dried frozen starter I had.  For those who haven’t yet dried some backup starter, I would highly recommend doing so.

crust like it emerged from a caveman's campfire, taste/aroma that makes you feel like you're picking fresh produce, and look at that glowing solar-flare-crumb:

Staring at this boule for too long can give you a sunburn! Better to eat it.

from Sarah Owens' book Sourdough.

I've been wanting to take Cariah Marey on a test for enriched loaf. I mean what's even the point of making sweet starter if not making true sourdough enriched dough at all?

Her current state is 8:4:2:1 fine bran:water:skim milk powder:sugar. This is 75% hydration no-water-added sweet potato milk loaf. Basically my usual potato loaf, but less hydration (which means less potato puree), to 'test the water' (both metaphorically and literally) before going all in.

I baked the first batch of Colomba this year, to try out my new 1 kg size paper pans, and to think about new flavor combinations. Also, the tweaks I’ve made to my lievito madre, mixing and fermentation techniques as they pertain to Colomba. 

I’m also using a different flour this year - Mille Bolle from Molino Pasini; this is easily the best panettone flour I have tried, and it really worked well for this batch.

Oh boy. Who knew it would take 4 disastrous batches just to put a layer of chocolate dough! lol. The chocolate layer kept tearing during oven spring.

I needed to practice this because I need something gimmicky for pain au chocolat. I want everything to look inviting once I'm ready for career pivot.

Today's bake: Sweet Sour Rye Bread -  Saldskaba Maize (Latvia)

Source: The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg

Notes: None
Substitutions: None

We had some matcha in the cupboard that we never had much success with so I decided to try baking with it. I use a recipe from the King Arthur site.

So my wife is starting to get the 'Pizza again? Really?' look in her eye, so I may wait a few days for the next experiment :)

This is still a grocery store dough ball rolled out to 2-3mm, but I replaced the store jar with homemade no-cook sauce. The salami is homemade, as is the shredded gruyere. Mozz balls from the store, basil from the garden. The wild mushrooms were a mix of Blue Oyster, Lion's Mane and Chestnut mushrooms, cooked way down in olive oil until they gave up most of their moisture, but hadn't started to get crispy.