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For the last few weeks, Winter seemed to be finally giving up it’s hold on the Northern California foothills of the Sierra Nevada, so we planned a picnic to kick off the next 4 months of picnics. Of course it rained all day and kept to mid-forties temperatures, so we migrated indoors, but the conversation, salads, wine and blackberry pie were still enjoyed by all.

26Apr

I wanted to add the nutty flavor of pecans without using chopped or whole nuts in the bread, so I decided to pulse some pecans with my mini-food processor into a meal. It really added some wonderful nutty flavor to this bake.

As a person with food sensitivity I am very considerate to those like me. But I am aware that everyone can differ in which foods he/she can tolerate. In that respect there is not one GF bread working for all. 

Some people cannot tolerate oats, there is a group of people sensitive to rice. Millet, for most being a very beneficial food, can be not very useful for those with thyroid problems. Some cannot tolerate certain starches. The main binding agents: psyllium and xantan gum both can cause reactions. 

I am pretty happy with this formulation. Time to lock in the par-bake timing. Then I will move on to scaling to a larger sized pie. 

Lumpy ( I named the dough) is almost ready for the oven. 

Today's bake:  Cumin Rye -  Chleb Sandomierski (Poland)

Source:  The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg

Notes: Increase hydration from 79.84% to 83.4%
Substitutions: Fresh milled rye @65% extraction for white rye flour.

Discussion: They say you learn more from your failures than from your successes... 

I’ve been working as a bread baker in the USA and our training (at my bakery at least) is a little lax. Im self taught for the most part but this is my attempt at a sourdough boule. How did I do? I wasn’t able to cut it and take a pic unfortunately. I’m hoping to go to Europe eventually to work with more traditional breads 

Well I won’t do it again. It stuck a bit in the pan, I believe that’s due to the lack of moisture as I used the same amount of butter as always. I also like the really square shape with the top in place and the texture and color of the top crust with the lid. 

The crumb might be a tiny bit more open but not enough to make a difference. 

I used the same exact ingredients as the most recent bake before this but I decreased the Arrowhead Mills bread flour to 100g and increased the Spelt to 200g. 

My husband prefers this to my sandwich loaf, so guess I'll be making it more often. Basic recipe is from The Bread Baker's Apprentice, with modifications by Antilope. I like her recipe, but started making Reinhart's, by mistake. When I realized, I switched to hers, so this recipe is a modification of an adaptation. A Peter Antilope. Anyway, it's very good tasting. I have never tried the Dutch crunch, but would like to.