Isand66's blog

  One of my favorite breads is my Sourdough Date Bread which was inspired by my good friend Khalid.  Since I recently picked up some fresh dates from the supermarket the other day I figured it was time to try it again but with some slight modifications.

   For those of you old enough to remember Mel's Diner, this bread pays homage to Flo who was happy to tell you to "Kiss My Grits" as she deemed necessary.

   This past weekend my wife and I visited one of our favorite supermarkets, Fairway Market which has a great selection of cheeses, fresh sour pickles, grains, meats etc.  I picked up some pearled barley and this great tasting cheddar like cheese called Double Gloucester which they were doing a free sampling.  I had some left-over mashed potatoes and caramelized onions, so naturally these needed to be incorporated into a bread.  Who doesn't like potatoes, cheese and onions?

   I wanted to make a Semolina bread for my Father-in-law to take back home with him to North Carolina so I figured he would enjoy a porridge version.  I've been making some version of porridge bread a lot lately since I love the creamy and moist crumb you get from using this technique.

I created a starter using AP flour and Semolina flour and in the main dough I also added some Kamut flour.

 I love challenge bakes and thanks to Karin from Brot and Bread and TFL we had plenty of fun with this one.  I won't repeat the background of this famous German Knight, but I will tell you that my apprentices Max and Lexi as well as Mookie were more inclined to bake a bread fit for the Black Knight who tried preventing King Arthur from continuing his quest for the Holy Grail.  I had to explain to them that unfortunately the Black Knigh

 These are by far the best hot dog rolls I have made yet.  I wanted to make a nice soft and fluffy hot dog bun without resorting to intensive kneading so I used my last version of these buns and added cream cheese to soften it up.  I also increased the % of Semolina and reduced the Caputo 00 flour.

To compensate for the 55% water content in the cream cheese I decreased the water in the overall dough but the water content for the cream cheese is not taken into consideration for the overall hydration of the dough.

   I'm really loving the whole porridge in bread thing.  Last week I adapted the original version to my own technique and it came out great, so now I figured it was time to get some more whole grain goodness into this formula.

  I love these rolls which were inspired by a recipe adapted from Karin Hanseata's blog.  The first time I made them I changed a few things but mostly stuck to the original formula per this post.

  This is a big one...and a tasty one, great with some barbeque.  If you are on a diet the butter and yogurt in this one is not going to do you any favors, but both added to the overall moistness in the final dough.

I love the way the roasted red peppers compliment the corn and the combination of Semolina flour along with the other flours really gives this bread a unique flavor worth trying.

        I really loved the way the last Oat Porridge Bread came out so I wanted to try a variation adding some potatoes an also introduce some kamut into the flour mix.  I decided at the last moment to throw in some shaved Parmesan just because I love cheese.