Blog posts

Purple Straw is a soft white wheat that is not normally used for bread. It is called a Colonial Era honeyed wheat and hasn’t been around for over 50 years. I combined the fresh-milled Purple Straw with KAF high-gluten flour, and it worked perfectly. The Purple Straw is not easy to find right now. I bought mine at Barton Springs Mill a while ago. If you can find any, make sure to give it a try.

Batch 3 : And then I cut one..and then another and I couldn’t believe the crumb. These next ones are so ugly outside but wowser. Very pleased with flavor, incredibly tender and the YW really makes them flavorful , no sour in sight. Crisp crisp even after sitting at room temperature. Will be several weeks till all are eaten by just 2 of us. Will pass some along to son and his family as well. 

The tail of the tape
75% semolina 
25% sprouted whole wheat 
100% hydration 
1.3% IDY
2% Salt
1.25% Honey 
8% olive oil
8% Butter
Par-baked 12 minutes at 450° F
Build to follow.

Edited to add one more important parameter, the mix.

Hand mixed, two stretch and folds. Cold retard/bulk fermented 48 hrs. 2.5 hours warm to room temperature/ proof. 

Considering I somehow managed not to hit the start button on my stove and baked these at 540°F instead of 450°F, they came out pretty good .

Made with fresh milled whole wheat, spelt, and blue corn flour. Freshly milled corn flour smells amazing and is unlike anything you can buy in the store.

Very pleased. YW levain 80g . T 65 flour requires a lower hydration . First batch was 62.5 % I lowered to 60% and it’s perfect. 

More YW refreshing and will do another batch Sunday. I use my steel and my largest 100 yr old Granite Roaster lid to create a cloche for the first 15 min at 460°. Remove finish for 10 min. 

Butter tarts are famous in Canada (as are Nanaimo bars). Don't know why they never caught on in the US.

A quick post to celebrate the arrival of Autumn and the passing of yet another summer. This one is a variation of my November 2019 post, bread baked then to welcome the arrival of  that year's CSA organic grain harvest share. Now, as then, feeling very blessed and appreciative, especially in these turbulent times, for yet another harvest. 

The can of pumpkin purée that I bought was huge, the grocery stores here only seem to carry a very large size can of it.  So having a ton left I decided I’d see what it does to bread.  I treated it similarly to how I’d treat adding mashed potatoes.  Given how mild pumpkin flavour is, I cooked the purée down a bit to bring out the flavour.  Because I wanted a savory bread and not something that would be sweet, I didn’t add spices to this.  I’m quite pleased with how it baked up.

I invented this cookie dough formula myself! 

Pumpkin, cottage cheese,  Almond flour cookies 

Ingredients:

Dough

3/4 stick unsweetened butter(softened)

1 cup Monk fruit sugar 

1 cup whole milk cottage cheese ( blended until smooth)

1/2 cup (122 g) pure pumpkin puree 

2 TBs pumpkin spice 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

3 LG. Eggs

1 1/4 cup extra fancy semolina (150 g)

1 1/4 cup Almond flour ( 159 g)

1 tsp baking powder 

Pinch salt

Icing

Awhile back I was given some starter and made, among other things, a couple pan loaves. They were fine. Yippee posted a link to Susan's easy sourdough loaf recipes here, (recipe here), and I thought I'd try the 63% hydration. First attempt turned out pretty well. I didn't have a razor blade and couldn't drag a knife across the dough because it was inside a bowl, so the slashes aren't deep enough. The dough came out quite wet for 63%.