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2025 Panettone thoughts

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2025 Panettone

I learned a lot about panettone baking this year. My bakes became more consistent, and I was able to experiment with different concepts and approaches. (It’s a good idea to nail down a basic recipe and process before embarking on experimentation)

Today's exercise: To create a light, airy flourless/ sugarless cranberry Bundt cake.

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Cake

The changes to the starting point full white flour and cane sugar formula.

  1. The flour was changed out for ground almonds. Half blanched, half natural at a 1:1 ratio of almond for flour.
  2. One of the whole eggs was separated.
  3. To the one egg white, three reconstituted powdered eggs whited were added.
  4. The egg whites were sprayed to stiff peaks 
  5. The egg whites were gently folded in as the last ingredient.

    Mistakes: 

Poticia

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Our family bakes a traditional sweet bread on holidays and special occasions.  The dough uses lots of eggs and yeast and this time was left to rise in the refrigerator overnight.  It tasted great however it didn’t form nice loaves but flattened out.  About 6 loaves were baked on baking metal sheets.  After baking the loaves rose slightly but melted into each other to create a consolidated loaf the size of the baking sheet.  I’d appreciate any advice on why this may have happened and how I could bake it differently to obtain nice small oaves. 

Philippe Gosselin's Pain a l'Ancienne

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Finished product

According to Reinhart's first hand knowledge, dmSnyder's interpretation, and modifications.

The Will Falzon method.

Total formula 

Flour - 500g

Water- 355g

Salt -        9g

IDY -         5g

The Autolysis (Refrigerated overnight 8 hrs.)

300g King Arthur Sir Lancelot ( high gluten 14%)

100g All purpose flour (11.5%)

50g Sprouted Whole wheat 

50g Dark Rye

325g Water (Ice Cold)

The Final Dough

All - The autolysis dough

30g - Water

The Cold Butter Revelation (Why My Scones Finally Got Flaky)

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flaky scones

 Been baking bread for years, but scones gave me trouble for the longest time. Always came out dense and cakey, never that shaggy flaky thing I was after.

My problem? I was letting the butter warm up.

Cold butter straight from the fridge, cut into small cubes. That's what finally worked. When cold butter hits a hot oven it creates steam pockets, and those become your flaky layers. Warm butter just disappears into the flour and you end up with something dense and uniform.

Panettone 2025

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Panettone Preview

I wish there was a way for me to practice making panettone more than the one time a year that I bring it to my parents' house to share with the whole family. I used the Roy recipe again, since it worked so well before and I didn't want to risk ruining my one batch. Luckily, this year they turned out well enough that my wife wants me to make more for her later. At least, that's what she says now; pregnancy makes her tastes change quite quickly.

20251226 Something Little Different

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It’s been an incredibly sad year, with our loved ones leaving us one after another. In those difficult moments, when everything felt bare, I found comfort in the quiet life of flowers. Wanting to share that comfort with others who were mourning, and to pay my last respects in a heartfelt way, I created a wreath for the memorial service.