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Just finished baking a couple of loaves of Tartine sourdough.  Handling of this wet dough has become much easier after watching some You Tube videos showing how to shape. I have found that doing an overnight proofing in the refrigerator makes the Scoring much easier.  It also gives better time flexibility in baking as you do not have to let the dough warm up after the overnight proofing. All of this is outlined in the book Tartine bread.  This is a fun bread to make.   Tastes great too.

Okay this loaf definitely blew a tire and I am not sure why. Overproofed? Underproofed?  Poorly shaped?  Poorly scored?

This was a simple lean hearth loaf using my new SD starter and following dabrownman's excellent instructions:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/34282/modifying-peter-reinharts-recipes-sour-dough-starter

to the tee.  HELP, any suggestions would be welcome. Other than the sidewall blowout the crumb looks pretty good and the flavour is great!

TIA, Brian

• My first sourdough. Made with 3 day poolish and only regular flour. The scores went too deep. It resembles a bicycle helmet. Thats funny. The taste is great. Knead by hand. Crumb not too open. Try this bread with jam, ham and cheese. With cheese is absolutely wonderful.

This is a straight dough. Old recipe..regular cup/tsp measures. Sometimes the tried and true is the best. I did wet the shaped dough and pressed the top into the oatmeal,read about it here on TFL ..worked like a charm !  The bread is for a customer so no pic of crumb. 

Here is the dough just before going in the oven. c

This is the result of my second try with viennoserie. The croissants are small, because I used a larger amount of dough for the pain au chocolat. The crumb wasnt what I expected. I knead it by hand. The result was a heavier dough and heavier bread. The pain au chocolat weight around 110 grs. The croissants, 44 grs. The taste was very good but I will use a knead machine next time.

A classic German party bread makes for an attractive center piece. Guests can help themselves by pulling apart these pretty little rolls. I wanted to decorate it with sesame and poppy seeds but since poppy seeds aren't available here, I used nigella seeds instead.

Adapted from Eric Treuille and Ursula Ferrigno's book Bread

Currently on vacation for two weeks and not travelling anywhere too far from home, I have the luxury to bake and post the results sooner than I've managed to over the last 6 months. The Czech type Rye bread that was shown in my last post was the most recent loaf made and it disappeared, ahem, rather quickly. It was such a nice bread I almost made a second loaf of it but decided to conserve the remaining bit of the Czech rye flour for other projects. It's been an interesting, and very satisfying experience over the last two bread bakes using the Gilchester's flour from the UK that Andy shared with me and the Czech rye I found in Prague, but now it was time to use some of the flours from my own country. 

The formula I put together uses organic whole grain Red Fife milled at True Grain Bakery here on Vancouver Island, along with One Degree Organics Sprouted Spelt Flour and Anita's Organic AP flour. The whole grain RF and the spelt account for just slightly over 51% of total flour in the formula giving the finished loaf a wonderfully robust and complex flavour profile highlighted by the slightly spicy character of the Red Fife and the toasty, nut-like contribution of the spelt, all complimented by the tang of a 16 hour sour leaven. The crust has a good crunch to it, offering notes of caramel to the overall flavour of the bread as well. The flours were given a three hour autolyse before the final mix which resulted in a remarkably soft, moist, and open crumb compared to similar type mixes I've made in the past. Somehow I don't think this loaf will have the opportunity to go stale and more likely it will disappear as quickly as the previous loaf did.

 Formula and procedure below.

Cheers,

Franko

• Mix leaven ingredients and ripen for 15 to 18 hours at 76-78F

• Add all of the water indicated in the final mix to all of the flours and autolyse for 3 hours. Add more water if needed to ensure there are no dry parts in the dough.

• Final Mix: Add the barley syrup and leaven to the dough and mix till thoroughly combined then add the salt and continue mixing until the dough is smooth and cohesive. Five minutes on 2nd or 3rd speed depending on your mixer, or by hand for 8-9 minutes. Using the slap and fold technique is recommended. Test for a windowpane to ensure sufficient development before putting the dough into bulk ferment.

• Bulk ferment for 90- 120 minutes at 78F giving the dough two stretch and folds at 30 and 60 minutes. Give the dough a third S&F if needed at 90 minutes.

• When bulk ferment is complete, round the dough lightly and rest it for 15 minutes before final shaping.

• Shape as desired and put the dough for a final rise of 60 -90 minutes. The spelt content makes this dough a fast riser and it should be monitored closely after 45 minutes.

• Preheat oven and stone to 485F for 45-60 minutes.

• Proof the dough to 10% less than double the original size. Have your steam system in place in the oven. Slash as desired and slide the dough on to the baking stone.

• Reduce the oven temperature to 465F and bake for 10 minutes, then remove the steam system and allow the oven to vent. Continue baking for 25-30 minutes, rotating the loaf for even colouring and reducing the oven temperature if necessary for a well coloured loaf. Bake to an internal temperature of 210 F.

• Remove the loaf to a rack to cool for an hour before wrapping it in cloth. Allow to cool completely before slicing, 5 hours or more.

Now that my new starter is up and running and my wife work mates are requesting more bread I baked again.

20% Whole Wheat Sourdough with Pumpkin Seeds

20% Whole Wheat Sourdough (for me)….

and 20% Whole Wheat Sourdough with Sundried Tomatoes and Pecorino Cheese

Crumb Shot coming soon…….

Here it is…..

Cheers,

Wingnut

Breakfast.  Hmm.  What to do?  Cold cereal?  Not appealing.  Omelette?  Appealing, but too fussy.  Blueberry pancakes?  Ah, that has possibilities.  Wait, wait, wasn't there a Cherry-Studded Scone recipe in Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads?  Could that be bent just a bit to feature blueberries instead of cherries?  Why yes, yes it could!  

And so it was:

And so it went:

And it was very good.

If you don't have that particular recipe to work with, you can kludge your favorite scone recipe thusly: Clayton's recipe calls for about 2 cups of flour, 1/3 of which is whole wheat.  I'm sure that oat or barley flour would also work in lieu of the whole wheat.  Half the dough is patted out in a 9-inch round on a floured or parchment lined baking sheet.  The top is covered with (in this case) blueberries.  I'm not sure how much because I didn't measure; maybe a cup?  The second half of the dough is patted out into another 9-inch round on the countertop, then lifted and deposited carefully on top of the berries.  Clayton recommends scoring the top surface for 12-16 slices; I didn't bother, figuring that I was going to cut a wedge the size I wanted afterwards, anyway.  It is then washed with an egg that has been beaten (you'll use perhaps half).  The whole thing is popped into a 400F oven for 20 minutes, or until it is a golden brown.  Cool on a wire rack.  Slice.  Serve.  Enjoy.

Paul