So I’ve discovered that most people prefer white bread to wholegrain, at least it seems that my friends do. So in planning for a dinner party I decided I’d do my milk bun recipe but using only bread flour and no wholegrain other than the rye in the starter. They turned out really really well especially when finished with some melted butter and some Maldon flaked salt.
I find that if I don’t make baguettes often enough I get very rusty. I haven’t made baguettes in about 4 months so was really very overdue. I’ve always thought that epis look really nice and never tried making one, so here is my first effort at an epi. I also hadn’t done a seeded crust in quite some time so that was also overdue.
I’ve just uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel about dough development. Novice bakers might find it useful. In the video I demonstrate some of the techniques I use to develop dough strength. Hopefully someone finds it useful to them.
These are the perfect buns to have with your Thanksgiving dinner which we just had this year in Canada. At 30% whole wheat they have that extra flavour without being too whole wheat for those in your family who don’t like 100% whole wheat breads. The tenderness achieved by the tangzhong, butter and milk make these so soft and fluffy and delicious, everyone will love them.
Two of our close friends have birthdays this month. We decided to host a brunch for them, in part to give me an excuse to bake a challah loaf again. I thought I’d make a couple of changes to Maggie Glezer’s SD challah. Mostly I thought it needed more egg, so I increased the egg from 3 to four and reduced the water to compensate for the 72% of the egg which is water. I needed the challah to make a peach and blueberry strata. Basically this is a type of French toast that you bake in a pan using cubes of the challah.
That’s a mouthful to say and a delicious mouthful to eat. I have just retired from my full time practice of medicine at the end of last week. My colleagues long complained that I didn’t bring enough baking into the office. As you know, it can be challenging to bake during the work week so you can bring it something that is freshly baked. Well since I’m now retired (I’ll return to work part time next year doing locums) I have time to bake during the week.
I have a small quantity of whole einkorn that I need to use up before it goes bad. I decided I’d incorporate it into a milk bread with most of it being used in the tangzhong. I decided to do it this way because einkorn doesn’t have the best gluten so won’t add much to the structure of the dough. The rest of the einkorn goes into the stiff sweet levain along with all of the whole wheat. The rest of the flour is bread flour comprising 73% of the total flour.
I unfortunately am sick, but running out of bread, so I decided I needed to bake a loaf of bread that wouldn’t require excessive hands on time and allow for some inattention. This type of bread does require great gluten development since it is fully wholegrain, so I use the KA mixer to do that which takes some load off of me. I don’t need to measure pH or rise really with this since I know what the dough should look like in the pullman pan when it is done final proof. I think it turned out well considering my lack of attention to it yesterday during fermentation.
I baked another Sour Cherry Rhubarb Streusel Pie for dessert last night but this time not vegan and used my usual all butter pastry and butter in the streusel topping. This has quickly become my favorite pie this summer. I love the tart sweetness of the cherries and the distinctive rhubarb flavour. The almond extract brings out the cherry flavour while the lemon brightens everything up.
