I've been baking a bit the past few weeks. Above is a 20% whole wheat sourdough I baked a week or so ago. The crumb:
For our Christmas dinner I whipped up something like the Buttermilk Cluster:
I can't believe it has been nearly a month since I've posted. This time of year things get so busy, don't they? Our youngest also has a birthday between Thanksgiving in the States and Christmas, so it seems like we have about a month solid of travels, dinners and parties to attend, as well as all the school and community activities. It certainly keeps you on your toes.
I have been baking though. Mostly just standards like the white sourdough loaves above or the Struan bread below.
I picked up the little mill attachment for my new mixer and have been experimenting with it my last couple bakes.
My first batch used 40% fresh milled flour (hard red wheat), my second about 25%. The flavour seems really nice, though I've got a bit of the cold and thus don't have the most nuanced sense of taste right now.
I spotted a news story yesterday reporting that Dave of Dave's Killer Bread is in a bit of trouble again.
If you are unfamiliar with Dave's Killer Bread, you can check out the profile I did on him a couple of years back. Since then the company has continued to grow, with distribution all up and down the West Coast. It is good stuff.
So yesterday around 11am we decided on a meal that a loaf of fresh bread would be good with. I didn't have a refreshed starter or preferment going, but I quickly mixed up a cup of AP flour, a cup of luke warm water, and about a third of a teaspoon of yeast and let it sit while I figured out what I wanted to do with it.
I started a dough last night that was somewhere between Ken Forkish's Poolish Pizza Dough and Peter Reinhart's Neo-Neopolitian Dough.
