The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Edo Bread's blog

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Edo Bread

Found this pic I took a couple weeks ago to show the family, and thought someone here might appreciate it too. The rye is getting close, will not be long until this will be lots of tasty bread out of my oven,

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Edo Bread

Here are a couple of the loaves baked for the Valentines weekend.

Bread flour, spelt, rye and levain. Pretty basic formula. The challenge was in the shaping and still getting a good oven spring. Worked out well they were a hit. Hope everyone had a nice day.

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Edo Bread

Made these to give to patients leaving the recovery room at the local hospital.

Bread flour, WW flour,  spelt, oatmeal and topped with chia seeds. 12-14 ferment depending on when they hit the oven. One left I will try tomorrow.

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Edo Bread

Putting together a college care package.  Top request was wild yeast olive bread like back home. These should do the trick and a fun way to pass on a little message too.

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Edo Bread

I really love creating boules and batards. But there are times that a standard loaf shape just makes more sense. Metal loaf pans never did what I wanted, but a few months back I received the Emile Henry Loaf Baker and today I gave it a try.  

Normally in the summer I only bake breads outside, but because I was baking for a party, I turned on the oven and decided to finally give the new baker a try.

I did a standard pain au levain and decided to bake side by side with a boule to get some comparison. I didn't proof the loaf in the baker because I like my cloche to be hot and thought I would use the same approach. The only problem was the warm weather had caused my dough to expand a little too much and needed a little squish to get in. But it recovered from that quite nicely.

Here are the two loaves side by side. I got pretty much the same results as the boule with oven spring and coloring (The loaf hit the top of of the baker so it was just the right size) I had absolutely no sticking or any problems at all. Looks like it will make nice sandwich slices.

twoLoaves

The boule was quite musical today. It sang to me for a very long time. Never get tired of that sound! I have been extremely impressed with the Emile Henry products. Next on the list is the baguette baker.

SingeBoule

 

 

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Edo Bread

When the weather gets warm it means dinners outside and bread from the grill. While the shapes can change based on the rest of the meal - they are mostly a basic pain au levain,

Part wheat and part rye levain - and then flour, water, salt. After so many loaves I still find the highest pleasure in pulling the most flavor out of those ingredients. A nice long ferment and the right mix of levain makes such a perfectly simple treat. The added flavors of the fire and outdoors is just enough to make the bread of summer a special treat.

I am occasionally tempted to throw in some olives, caramelized onions or other goodies. Sure it is tasty, but in the end hides too much of the wheat flavor I have worked so hard to make the star. I do like some seeds in the crust, as they don't seem to mask the flavors to me. I see breads with so many ingredients they seem a bit more like a complete sandwich than a loaf a bread. I am sure they are tasty and I am not judging them, but like so many things when you pull back until you are dealing with just the essence of what you are creating - there is something a bit more satisfying when it is delicious I think.

As I am reading "In Search of the Perfect Loaf" I think the baguette often takes on that role of only basic ingredients taken to an extreme level of taste, feel, and well, everything people use to judge bread.

I am not sure how many loaves like this have already come off the grill this year, they never make it into the house for a picture. This day there was enough baked to leave an end uneaten.

And as I slowly cool off as the sun sets, tomorrows dough has been cooling in the fridge already for hours the flavors building just waiting for tomorrow's bake. 

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Edo Bread

Was not planning a bake yesterday but got a call asking for a couple loaves ready for dinner that night.

I had quite a bit of nice starter available and thought I could work up a formula that would have enough levain to make it work. Decided to make a boule and a more oblong shape for different uses over the weekend.

Ended up getting nice singing loaves with a crust and crumb I had hoped for. There was enough starter to give a full rich fermented flavor and a good rise.

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Edo Bread

Finding myself with starter that needed to be used and not enough hours to create a loaf that I would be happy with, I decided to take a  different route. Using both wheat and rye starters I threw together a fougasse that disappeared almost a little too quickly

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Edo Bread

The idea here was of course to add the flavor of carmelized onion, but I wanted it in a decorative swirl in the bread. This was my basic levain. Inset on the picture shows the result. Just what I wanted.

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Edo Bread

I was planning on a bake free day. But early in the morning I was asked if I could come up with loaf of bread.

I knew I had about 250 grams of whole wheat flour so that was my starting point. I let the whole thing ferment most of the day and just about time to bake and I was called away. So I threw it in the fridge overnight. Next day I wasn't around to pull it out when I had hoped, but pulled it out late turned it into a loaf and baked. It worked.

71% hydration

Rye Starter100
Starter100
Rye100
WW250
bread flour400
water500
salt16

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