dmsnyder's blog

We were invited to some friends annual Boxing Day party. It's always fun. It's a pot luck with wonderful food. There is always live music. This year it was a Celtic string band. I get to visit with friends that, since I retired, I seem to see only once a year, at this party.

I was asked explicitly to bring bread. I brought a large loaf last year, and they never served it. Oh, well. This year, my wife made a delicious shrimp dip, and I baked SJSD demi-baguettes to slice for the dip. I also made a couple small miches using the original SFBI formula.

My wife and I have always enjoyed whole wheat bread. For many years, our favorite one has been Peter Reinhart's "100% Whole Wheat Bread" from BBA. Although a lot of my breads have 10 to 30% whole grain flour, I've really been thinking I need to be baking higher percentage whole grain breads, both for health reasons and because that's the way our taste is trending. So, I've been thinking about making Reinhart's WW bread for weeks.

Modena Mountain Bread

Pane Montanaro

from

The Splendid Table: Recipes from Emilia-Romagna, the Heartland of Northern Italian Food

by

Lynn Rossetto Kasper

It's been a busy week. I baked these loaves Monday and took some to my Italian class Tuesday evening where it was appreciated. I have tried this bread untoasted plain and with butter and with goat cheese and toasted with butter and with almond butter. All were very nice. The formula is from Hamelman's Bread.

Yesterday, I baked a couple loaves of my version of the Pain de Campagne from Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast. I increase the whole wheat flour proportion and also substitute some medium rye for AP flour. And then, of course, my timing of the various steps is quite different from Forkish's. Anyway, it's really good bread.

 I also made a couple loaves of San Francisco-style Sourdough with dried sour cherries and toasted hazelnuts. I used Forkish's standard levain for both of these breads.

This past weekend, I attended a conference in Portland, Oregon, so I wasn't home to bake. I want to assure you my suffering was not intolerable. Susan and managed a long-deferred visit to Ken's Artisan Bakery. 

12 September, 2014

 One of the attractions of Ken Forkish's Flour Water Salt Yeast bread baking book is that a concerted study of it will teach you how the important variables of ingredients, time and temperature can be manipulated to produce different flavor profiles and how, keeping most methods constant, you can develop procedures that accommodate to your own schedule and still produce a variety of outstanding breads.

This past weekend, I restocked the freezer (and my tummy) with three of my four ... No, it's five. Or six. No, .... Anyway, some of my favorite breads.

First, Greenstein's Jewish Sour Rye:

Nothing new. Just a couple of our current go to breads.

San Francisco-style Sourdough Bread with increased whole wheat flour

San Joaquin Sourdough: Update

Happy baking!

David

Yesterday, I baked a bread based on Ken Forkish's "Pain de Campagne" from Flour Water Salt Yeast. Forkish's is basically a white bread. Mine is made with 500g AP, 200g WW and 100g Rye in the final dough. (The levain contains 160g AP and 40g WW flours.) I also omit the instant yeast. We really like this bread.

Today, I made a German-style rye bread.