A few weeks ago I made a Sourdough with Candied Orange that was a huge hit around here. The arrival of a pullman pan coincided with my wife's demands to make something like that again. This is based on PR's BBA Panettone with the following changes:

• 33% of the flour was home-milled hard red and white wheat in a 50/50 mix
• I used more dried fruit -- 2 oz each of dried golden raisins, cranberries and cherries soaked overnight in Kraken rum with Mandarin Orange and Vanilla extracts.
• I used more nuts -- 2 oz each of pecans, walnuts and almond slivers that I toasted beforehand.
• Even after extended rising time, the loaf wasn't filling the large (13" x 4.5" x 4.5") pullman pan, so I put it into an unheated oven, turned to 325, and left for 1 hour 45 mins. I will go longer next time, but I was worried about burning it. As you can see, it rose perfectly.
• For the candied fruit, I used 1.5 cups of candied tangerine peel. I was happier with the orange peel, I'll use it next time. The tangerine peel was thinner and a little more bitter.

We'll be eating breakfast (and probably dessert) off of this for awhile. I may try making french toast with the last bits.

Mini-loaf madness continues! This is Reinhart's basic sourdough, made from sourdo.com San Francisco culture that's been fed only with KA bread flour. With the addition of 5 oz of chopped dried figs and 4 oz of walnuts, the bread is excellent, but has no real sour. I'm not sure I'm continuing with this particular starter...

This is the BBA basic sourdough to which was added 2 diced granny smith apples, 4 oz of toasted walnuts and 3 oz of small-dice parmesan and asiago cheese. The starter was KA New England that had been fed 50/50 with KA bread flour and home-ground hard red wheat. The final flour addition was 15% WW, 5% Rye and 80% KA. It got a stretch-and-fold at 15, 45, 90 and 120 minutes, then proofed for another 3 hours. The final shaped loaves proofed a little over two hours before being glazed with egg yolk and baked. Baking time was a total of 45 minutes to get the internal temp up -- I'm sure there was a lot of moisture from the apples. It's yummy. Yes, it really is slightly purple (from the walnuts I believe).

One of my favorite sourdough variations is inspired by a combination of the classic blue cheese and walnut sourdough (which I've never made because I don't like blue cheese) and a twisted sourdough with chunks of dark chocolate that I got from a bakery in Chelsea Market in Manhatten on a family vacation some years back. The combination: sourdough with dark chocolate and walnuts.

It's best as a breakfast bread: a little too sweet for dinner, but too bread-y for dessert. The dark chocolate is overpowering when melted, so the trick is to bake it the night before you want to eat it, and let it cool overnight so the chocolate hardens. The taste is delectable: the sour of the bread and the chewiness of the crust combines with the crunchy nuts, and the bitter-sour flavors of the dark chocolate, all infused with the walnut oil.

I've made it with several different sourdough formulas, but last night I baked up a batch based on David Snyder's famous San Joaquin Sourdough, to good effect.

Formula: (All credit goes to dmsnyder's post here)

• 450g King Arthur AP flour (90%)
• 25g WW Flour (5%)
• 25g Whole Rye Flour (5%)
• 150g Active Starter at 100% hydration (30%)
• 360g Water (72%)
• 10g Salt (2%)
• 125g Coursely chopped walnuts (or broken by hand) (25%)
• 100g Ghirardelli 60% Cacao Bittersweet Chips (20%) (ideal for their shape, and for being excellent chocolate a a bargain price)

Hi everyone. I'm planning to bake the bba Cranberry walnut celebration bread (minus the walnuts), and I'm looking to modify the procedure a bit. The original recipe has the dried cranberries mixed in with the dough, which I've found results in a bumpy, rough looking loaf. I'm looking to make a 5-strand braided loaf that looks like challah - nice and smooth, without any "stretch marks" or dried fruit sticking out on the surface.This has nothing to do with flavor, but I'm a stickler for presentation.

I'm thinking that to get this result, I should roll out the 5 balls of dough into rectangles, sprinkle the berries inside, and roll them up like jelly rolls to make the strands. Has anybody tried something similar? Does this result in a lumpy loaf, or one that is cavernous?

i appreciate any input.

Hello All,

I'm a Korean home baker with 4years baking experience.

In most of Korean bakeries, they make some cakes and pies and sweet breads. Hard rolls are not popular here.

You can find some baguette. However, the baguette is not pure sometimes. They add milk, cheese, butter, sugar, etc.

When I traveled European countries, I tasted some really nice breads and I decided to make something like it by myself.

I studied from this website and some books.

This is the latest version of my study - my daily bread.

<Sponge>

• Whole wheat flour 400g
• Water 850g
• Pressed oat 100g
• Molt 1g (1tea spoon)
• Instant dry yeast 15g
• Sea salt 17g

Hello all--I am hoping to benefit from some TFL's patented expert advice and experience!

My father is having a 60th birthday party in July, and I offered to make the bread for the event. It's going to be a big open house, so lots of nibbles--bread and cheese being of course the world's best nibble option (IMO). I want to make 3 different types of breads, all of which I've been getting reliably good results with when baked as a single batch: sourdough baguette, walnut levain, and herb foccacia. I am thinking of making a triple batch of the baguettes (6 loaves), double batch of the levain (4 smallish boules), and a double focaccia (2 pans).

Here's my dilemma: my oven is TINY. It can really only fit one pan at a time (so, two loaves, or a single focaccia). And my fridge isn't so big either. So, I'm thinking of (trying to) mix/let rise all the dough the day before, having it proof overnight in loaf form in the fridge, and then baking everything sequentially in the morning. Does that seem feasible? And, some questions...

Should I make large batches of dough, or stick to the quantities I know I can handle? (I'm mixing by hand.) Is there a better time to put dough in the fridge for a "holding pattern"? Can I bake the loaves cold from the fridge? What about the focaccia? Any other tactical suggestions from the experts out there? (Is there anything else in particular to be careful of?)

Hey All,

Haven't posted in a bit and wanted to share with you something I baked for the Yelp 2nd Annual Bake-Off on Saturday, 5/15/10 in NYC.  I was up against some stiff competion with a dizzying array of sweets and savory baked goods...  I figured that I wouldn't win against those, but I took comfort that everybody went back for 2nd and 3rd helpings of my bread...

Here's what was left the Cranberry Apple Cider Bread with Walnuts that I baked:

Sorry I don't have a shot of the whole loaf...  It had this cool leaf pattern slashing...  Anyways, here's the formula below:

90% AP

10% WW

37% Water

37% Hard Apple Cider (alcoholic)

2% Kosher Salt

30% Stiff levain (60% hydration)

15% Dried Granny Smith Apples

15% Dried Cranberries

15% Toasted Walnuts

1/4 tsp instant or active dry yeast per 500g of flour

Directions:

12:00pm - Peel and cut apples into 3/8" cubes, mix with a little lemon juice to prevent browning, place on parchment lined pan, dry in 250F oven for 1 hour.

3:45pm - Mix all ingredients in large mixing bowl with wooden spoon, hands, cover let rest for 30 minutes.

4:30pm - Knead in fruits and nuts (no more than 1 minute), cover let rest.

5:00pm - Turn dough, cover, let rest.

5:30pm - Turn dough, cover, let rest.

6:00pm - Turn dough, cover, let rest.

6:30pm - Turn dough, cover, let rest.

7:00pm - Turn dough, cover, let rest.

8:00pm - Divide, shape, proof.  Arrange stones in oven along with steam pan.  Preheat to 500F.

9:00pm - Turn loaves out onto lightly floured peel, slash as desired, place directly onto stone, add 1 cup water to steam pan, bake for 15 minutes at 450F, rotate and bake for 50 minutes at 420F, or until internal temp reaches 205F.  Cool completely before cutting.

**Notes:  I used 1270g flour for this recipe which gave me a dough yield of about 3250g.  I divided this into 2 equal pieces and formed boules.  Your baking time may be different if you make a smaller quantity.

Tim

A week ago,  I bought my first rye and whole wheat flour, they were imported from Germany.  I could not understand a word on the description,  but I was determined to try my hand on these flour.  Here I am trying my first rye and whole wheat bread.  Honestly,  I have no idea what it is suppose to look like or taste like,  as I'm not a fan of rye bread usually,  I'm a white loaf freak.  Surprisingly,  this recipe is easy, and the taste is really good.  I still need to work on my shaping and proofing timing though.  

It;s a wet dough to work with,  I'm now aching all over from the kneading,  3 different types of kneading just to get dough ready.  Wish I have a machine to help me with.  I'm still waiting for my birthday present...

The taste is pretty good though,  seems like the poolish had helped with this outcome.  Is it suppose to look like that?  Unfortunately,  Barry's artisan did have any pictures of the dough he made, and I found many rye and whole wheat that are more dense.  Am I getting this right?

Jenny

Recipe Here:

Jenny's Blog on Poolish Rye and Whole Wheat Bread

Three large walnuts were just given to me.  They come from a tree just up the street.  My friend's dog had broken into one of the nuts so we opened it completely to reveal a most beautiful sight...  Taste is excellent!  The other two have been planted.   I photographed the remaining half nut meat and thought I'd share it will you all too.

I have never before seen one. 

An Internet search makes references to a California Plantation.  No mention in Wiki.  They must come from somewhere.....   Remember... I'm in Austria.   Would bread from this walnut be purple... or some other color?

Mini

A feast for the eyes!