I played with my favorite sourdough recipe, changing some of the flour to whole wheat and rye. I loaded it with toasted walnuts and raisins.  Can't wait to give it a taste.

We're trying to put to good use the bounty from our garden. My husband took over the kitchen today and made an awesome tomato sauce from the tomatoes, peppers and squash we are still harvesting. We even picked a few figs yesterday.

I think the beautiful weather we've been enjoing in Oregon is coming to an end. Rain is in the forecast. We've been spoiled this summer!

Betty

Hi everyone,

I'm looking for a recipe for an Italian bread that we used to get back home, it was called Bonni Scanatto (not sure about the spelling). It was a very, almost bleached white loaf, very dense but not heavy, it was a light bread with a very tight, fine texture. Has anyone heard of this bread?

Hi all,

To bake a sourdough bread, I usually set the oven temperature to 500F, then lower it to 4XXF (depending on the recipe). Do you use 350F to bake a sourdough bread?

Here's my confusion:

In Reinhart's Whole Grain Bread, there are quite a number of recipes that involve a soaker, biga and final dough. The weight of the biga is usually 398g. On the side note, he said that the biga can be replaced by the wild yeast starter. My question is, if I do use my sourdough starter in this recipe, does this make it a sourdough bread? And that I should bake it in a pre-heated oven of 500F?

I just did the Multigrain straun the other day with my sourdough starter (instead of a biga). The whole process went well and the dough proofed exactly what the book says: 1 1/2 times the original size. When I moved the dough from the proofing basket onto the sheet, the dough collapsed, and it remained flat in the oven, i.e. no oven spring. I wonder if it is something to do with the low temperature? At the same time, I read success story about baking this bread in 350F on this website...?

Thanks,

Michelle

Hello all,

Now that the kids are all in school, I'm turning to stocking the freezer with some staple items.

One of the items I'd like to make is English Muffins.  Not just any old recipe, but one with lots of big nooks and crannies.

I've attempted to sift through the recipes here and have not yet stumbled on any postings that boast the best nooks and crannies, so I'm turning to you all.

If you have an English Muffin recipe that reliably produces big, holey english muffins....I'd love to have it!    If at all possible, I'd like to make one that uses at least a portion whole wheat and also sourdough starter.  

Thanks, in advance, for your advice!

MommaT

I've not used King Arthur flour before.  I made three loaves this last weekend starting with Jim Lahey's no knead formula.  One loaf was made with the standard recipe using KA bread flour.  Second loaf was standard recipe using Pillsbury All Purpose.  Third Loaf was used KA bread flour, reducing water from 300 gms to 290 gms and adding 5 gms of a pretty wet levain, hand mixed with wet hands.  Surprisingly, the best crumb and taste was the loaf with the levain.  Second best flavor and crumb was with the all purpose flour.  The third (standard recipe) was the most dense crumb and nothing special.  In the future, I be using levain in the no knead.   I would attach images if I could figure out how to do it.   Incidently, the narrative by Jim Lahey in his new book, My Bread, discussing how he got into baking and eventually established the  Sullivan Street Bakery is good reading.

" Michigan debates "cottage law" for homemade food sales visit:

http://www.sustainablefarmer.com/bblog/?p=174

Michigan State Representative working to allow  preparation of low risk foods. Tough economic times force governments to reexamine the rules and regulations regarding small home businesses as a way for citizens to earn income.

A recent post (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/13534/kefir-sourdough-starter) inspired me to experiment with Kefir (a fermented milk product) as an ingredient in formulating bread dough.  I was looking for a well defined sourness in the dough that could be easily controlled.  As a start, I used a portion of my "go to" starter, which is a 100% hydration formula, and reduced the hydration level to 70%.  I left that in the refrigerator for 48 hours, then added 142 grams of bread flour, 80 grams of water and 40 grams of Kefir.  That went back into the refrigerator for another 22 hours and was then combined with 9 grams of active dry yeast proofed in 20 grams of warm water, 10 grams of table salt, 337 grams of bread flour and 210 grams of water.  After making certain that the ingredients were thoroughly mixed and that no raw flour chunks remained, this mixture was allowed to rest at room temperature ro 90 minutes. 

Using a bowl scraper, the dough was then folded over onto itself at 90 degree angles until a complete turn of the bowl was completed; making four folds.  This repeated once after an hour had passed and again after a second hour had passed.  The dough was then set aside to proof.

After it had essentially doubled in mass (about an hour), I placed the dutch oven in the oven of the range and preheated to 500 degrees and waited an additional fifteen minutes.  I removed the dutch oven from the range, poured the dough into it, put the cover in place and returned it to the oven for 10 minutes before removing the lid.  I quickly sprayed the top of the loaf with Canola Oil, closed the oven and waited another 10 - - 15 minutes until the internal temperature reached 205 degrees.

Here's the result:

(click on thumbnail for larger view)

This loaf had a thin but crisp crust, velvety texture (almost cakelike) and nice crumb.  The flavor was very good, something that will go nicely with a bowl of hot soup or as the foundation for a sandwich.  Paninis for lunch tomorrow.

What I would do differently:

Next time I will change the ratio of water/kefir in the preferment.  Instead of 80 grams of water and 40 grams of kefir, I'll use 40 grams of water and 80 grams of kefir.

Thanks, janeburton, for the idea.

Note:  The Kefir I used was Nancy's Organic, lowfat, cultured, plain, unsweetened (comes in 1/2 pint container)

092709  Update:

I tried the adjustment (ratio Kefir to water) described above.  There wasn't enough difference in any aspect of the bread.  Still good but the added Kefir didn't offer anything to the end result worth mentioning.

Hope this won't get me banned.

People often recommend to use rice flour as the coating for a banetton - the rice flour is supposed to have a different texture, acting as "ball bearings"

I know this is THE most naive question ever asked, but.... is it a special kind of rice flour? The bags I see at my grocery store say "fine ground" and of course, I cannot touch it through the plastic, but they don't seem any coarser than regular all purpose flour.  Should I look for another product, or is this it?

also, I found brown rice flour - would that work too?

Hi,

do you believe that I can safely cook rye sourdough breads in a foldable silicon pan without risking meltdown, corrosions and intoxications of any kind? I ask because I don't know how such a very sour dough reacts with silicon.

Thanks.

Hi i prepare my baguette with classic recipe and dry yeast,i put in the refrigerator over night after in the morning i can see the has been raise a lot....what i ishould do?....degasin and just pre formin the torpedo and finally shape the baguette and wait for the last rising?or live out and wait more? Today i shot for this option...and the rsult i think is a over proffed baguette with no volume and spring, any  idea?