Grateful for local flour and eggs
Hello,
I’ve really been enjoying baking over the last few weeks, with local flour and eggs.
Here are a few things; I'll try to keep it short :^)
Today's bake was based on Whole Wheat Pitas, from Mr. Reinhart's book Whole Grain Breads.
Recalling the delicious barley flour pita sampled at Kneading Conference West (thanks to Andrew Ross and Leslie Mackie), I substituted 50% Red Fife wheat flour (75% sifted) [1] and 50% Fairhaven whole grain barley flour [2], to try to replicate.
I was delighted! to receive the Fairhaven whole grain barley flour as a gift and to have the chance to try it out in these pitas (with many, many thanks to the one that kindly gifted this barley flour to me!).
The flavor and texture of these pitas are just what I hoped for.
I got my firebrick baking stone up to 550F to bake these!
Yesterday's bake was German-Style Many Seed Bread, also from Mr. Reinhart's book Whole Grain Breads. After Khalid posted about his beautiful version of this bread [3], I was inspired to make some. We all loved it here, and I was happy to make more this weekend. Both bakes were made with 100% whole wheat flour grown by my local wheat farmer (there's a bit of whole rye in there too).
I caught Andy's post yesterday and wanted to try shaping my pan loaves like his lovely sunflower-coated loaf [4]!
Yesterday's bake, and crumb shot:
This bake was inspired by MC's posts, Winthrop Whole Wheat Loaf [5] and Meet the Baker: Scott Mangold [6].
I was so happy to see these posts, having the pleasure of meeting Mr. Mangold and visiting BreadFarm bakery last September. What a lovely bakery - incredibly beautiful loaves and cookies.
For this wheat loaf, I substituted 75% sifted Red Fife for the soaker and final dough, and my local farmer's farm-milled 100% whole wheat in the levain.
I loved the acidity and flavor from the whole wheat levain in the wheat loaf, and the bloom this loaf got in the oven!
... crumb
My local wheat farmer raises the most beautiful chickens, and has been giving me lots of perfect eggs…I used some to make chiffon cake and a flourless, butterless (almost unheard of in my kitchen!) cake of Nigella Lawson's.
The chiffon cake, a 'chai chiffon', is based on this recipe from Fine Cooking magazine [7].
Substitutions:
¾ cup brewed chai tea for the water, lemon juice, lemon zest
1 tsp baking powder for 1.5 tsp baking powder
2 tsp vanilla extract for ½ tsp vanilla extract
about 20% of the cake flour with local soft whole wheat flour
Additions:
Chai spices to equal 4 tsp: 2 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp ginger, ¼ tsp each allspice, clove, nutmeg, cardamom
Chai tea leaves (one teabag), ground in mortar and pestle, added to dry ingredients
Lastly! Nigella Lawson's Clementine Cake [8] (using some organic Satsuma mandarins)
I whipped the eggs and sugar in the mixer until it was good and thick, then folded in the pureed mandarin, almond meal and baking powder (and a bit of salt, ¼ tsp). I baked the batter in three pans (two small tube pans and a small round cake pan). I thought the tube pans were better choices for a good thorough bake for this batter. This cake wasn't one of my husband's favorites, but I liked it and enjoyed chance to try something different (a cake with no flour and no butter!).
Happy baking everyone!
:^) from breadsong
Submitted to Susan's weekly event, Yeastspotting [9] :^)