Isand66's blog

My fellow baker and good friend A.K.A. "Yippee" from The Fresh Loaf site has been gracious enough to mail me several loaves of her awesome bread as well as some other goodies.  It was high time I shared some of my bread with her.  It's taken me longer than it should have, but I needed to figure out how to get the bread to the post office since I leave my house to go into the city every day very early.

I baked this one several weeks ago but have not had a chance to post.  This is a 70% Whole Wheat bread made with freshly ground whole wheat with no sifting.  I watched a video on how to adjust the stones in my MockMill II and ended up with a super-fine flour, no sifting necessary.  I think for the next bake I will sift courser and still sift once and then re-grind at the fine level.

This one turned out a little denser than I would have liked, but it had a nice tang to it and made great toast.

Since I started my new job in the big city I have not had a lot of time to bake.  Last weekend I found enough time to whip this one together.  I used mostly freshed milled and sifted flours for this bake and added a little KAF Bread flour for some extra strength.  I have grown to love adding cooked rice to the bread.  You don't taste the actual rice but it adds a great texture to the crumb and helps promote softness as well.  The ricotta cheese also helps create a soft and moist crumb which this one certainly had.

I have been meaning to sprout some flour again and finally got around to doing it.  Boy am I glad I did!  The unique flavor from using freshly ground sprouted flour is amazing.

I made 1 big loaf and about 5 rolls which I ended up eating in 2 days ?.  I do have to say the rolls were probably some of the best ones I have made to date.  The combo of rice, potatoes and sprouted flour made them nice and soft and full of so much flavor.  I am going to make another batch of just rolls next time and freeze them for later use so I don't eat all of them right away!

I've been wanting to try baking these for quite some time now and finally managed to do it.  Unlike NY style bagels these are not boiled, but rather baked and dipped in a sweet pomegranate molasses and sesame seed mixture which gives these bagels a very unique flavor.  I converted a recipe using instant yeast to sourdough I found in The Palestinian Table by Reem Kassis. My mother starter is kept at 66% hydration so if yours is different you can adjust accordingly.

     It's about to get real chilly here on Long Island tomorrow.  They're predicting the temperature to go down into the low teens, so what better bread to eat with a bowl of hot soup than a nice hearty 50+ percent rye bread.

This one has beer in the main dough which always adds a great flavor to rye bread.  The sour cream in the porridge adds extra moisture and really made this bake perfect.  The rye flavor really does come through so if you are not a fan of rye this is not the bread for you.

I've made bread with cider before and always like the sweet flavor it imparts.  I decided to add some roasted white sweet potato to this one and it really helped create a super moist crumb.  I was actually pleasantly surprised at how moist this crumb turned out.  The flavor was fantastic and this bread is the perfect sandwich bread for some pastrami or any deli meat.

Please note, white sweet potato is not as sweet as the orange type and the water content is less so if you use them instead, you need to adjust your hydration accordingly.

My wife complains that I never make her simple white bread so to be nice a few weeks ago I made my version of a "simple" white sandwich bread.  I had to sneak in some whole wheat of course and added Ricotta Cheese to help make it nice and soft like she prefers.

I used 1085 grams of the dough for the loaf pan and make a couple of rolls with the left-over dough.  Probably could have used all of it in the pan and it would have worked out fine.

  I usually only put seeds on the outside of my breads but I decided to try adding it to the porridge and see what happened.

Well, I was pleasantly surprises at how tasty this one came out and the seeds add a nice extra burst of flavor as well.

The crumb was nice and open and moist as well.  This one is worth trying for sure.

  I baked this one before I left for my annual pilgrimage to North Carolina for Turkey Day but didn't have a chance to post it until now.

I have to say, this one is like a Challah on steroids.  It is packed full of flavor and super moist which you expect from the porridge addition.  It would actually make a great bread for leftover turkey.

The addition of the ricotta really pushed this one over the edge and you would never know it is 45% whole wheat.