Skibum's blog

Breakfast this morning: raspberry, blueberry poppy seed muffins. Mix the wet and dry ingredients separately then combine. Gently fold in the blueberries. Fill prepared muffin tins half way, then press a whole, large raspberry in the center and fill up the tins. Bake @ 400F for 20 minutes turning at the half. Enjoy!!!

 Super easy:

1 cup flour

6 Tbs sugar

2 Tbs poppy seeds

1 t baking pow

1/2 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

1 egg

1/2 cup raspberry yogurt

2 Tbs canola oil

1 t lemon extract

3/4 - 1 cup blueberries

6 large raspberries.

Home baked goodness!!!

Here is yet another take on Norm's onion buns where Brian uses 2 Tbs dehydrated onion flakes and 1 Tbs garlic flakes to season the water and provide the topping. I love these buns and am still amazed at the volume I am getting from a pound of flour! 

Happy baking folks! Brian

This is another take on Norm's onion buns, one of my favourite recipes on TFL. Previoously I used 2 Tbs dehydrated onion and this time added 1 Tbs granulated dehydrated garlic and re-hydrated both in hot water. The soaking water was of course used in mixing the dough. 

Buy did these ever smell good baking! They also have a great flavour and snap to the crust and a nice open crumb. I got the proofing right this time and the buns rose to a more normal size than my last bake. Thanks Bonni!!!

The garlic adds an extra kick to an already outstanding recipe!

Happy baking folks!

After a long absence from baking due to visitors, travel and so on, I have gotten away from baking my own bread. With the winter months and some insanely cold weather in these parts it seemed like a good time to fire the oven up. I used 2 Tbs of dehydrated onion and enough water to make the dough plus some which will get absorbed. the soaking water was used in the dough -- of course! As I am in a very dry environment I upped the hydration to 70% and used a little more egg than recommended, but this dough made great tasting buns and was a dream to work.

Nice crumb!

Despite pressing these to about 3/4" thick, for the second bake in a row the just exploded up in the oven. This was a yeasted bake as both my YW and sweet levain didn't survive my alst travels. My first try with Debra Wink's pineapple juice solution failed as did my first YW re-try. I have a second YW starter started and am starting another pineapple juice try so please cross your fingers crossed.

I baked some of P. Reinhart's soft pull apart dinner rolls last week. I was going to do the butter flake rolls in a muffin tin but instead placed tightly formed boules into the muffin pan and still got pull apart rolls. this worked well but a squar pan give a better pull apart product.

My interest in baking breads and rolls is now re-kindled. I love the recipe for Norm's onion buns and have it book marked. It is an easy search on this site for the recipe. today I am doing a take off using both dehydrated onion and garlic, fresh rosemary and potato to see where this takes the savory profile. Happy baking Fresh Loaf friends. I baaack. Best regards Ski

Well this loaf is similar in many respects to my lasted posted bake, with two changes: barley malt syrup instead of brown sugar and more of it by weight and one whole egg, beaten. 

Soaker

20g white wheat berries

20g red wheat berries

10g red flax

10g gold flax

10g quinoa

174g hot water

I soaked this 24 hours in a cool dark place, then added:

10g wheat bran

10g steel cut oats and left it to sprout for another day or 2

When the berries are sprouting I finish the mixing.

Milk scald

174g milk scalded

25g malt syrup

25g honey

When the milk scald has cooled to 100F add

300g whole wheat starter at 100% hydration and let get happy for a few minutes

Final dough

245g whole wheat flour

20g buckwheat flour

40g dark rye flour

80g bread flour

8g salt

28g oil

1 egg beaten

Mix well and let rest 10 minutes. Do four sets of stretch and fold with 10 minutes rest in between. On the last set of S&F's add

20g sesame seeds, toasted

30g sunflower seeds, toasted

15g wheat germ, toasted

Let rise until double in bulk, then punch down and shape for a loaf pan. Bake 40 minutes at 350F, turning at the half.

This one will be my daily bread and a weekly bake. I am not sure I can get up to dman's 15 grains and 30 ingredients though. We will see.

Enjoy and Happy baking folks! Brian

I enjoyed the sprouted grains and seeds so much in my last multi grain loaf that I baked another one and a a third on the go. A week later this bread is still making great toast.

Soaker

20g white wheat berries

20g red wheat berries

10g red flax

10g gold flax

10g quinoa

174g hot water

I soaked this 24 hours in a cool dark place, then added:

10g wheat bran

10g steel cut oats and left it to sprout for another day or 2

When the berries are sprouting I finish the mixing.

Milk scald

174g milk scalded

25g brown sugar

25g honey

When the milk scald has cooled to 100F add

300g whole wheat starter at 100% hydration and let get happy for a few minutes

Final dough

245g whole wheat flour

20g buckwheat flour

40g dark rye flour

80g bread flour

8g salt

28g oil

1 egg beaten

Mix well and let rest 10 minutes. Do four sets of stretch and fold with 10 minutes rest in between. On the last set of S&F's add

20g sesame seeds, toasted

30g sunflower seeds, toasted

Let rise until double in bulk, then punch down and shape for a loaf pan. Bake 40 minutes at 350F, turning at the half. Enjoy and Happy baking folks! Brian

Belated Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends on TFL and best wishes for a great Fourth of July for my American friends!

On the left and center pulla, which I have covered in other posts and on the right. A 12 grain and seed bread raised successfully from a YW starter. Thanks dabrownman for sharing your starter build tips!

I began by refreshing my white YW starter two days in a row. On day three I started a whole wheat starter that doubled in 31/2 hours. I then fed the starter again 1:1:1 and once again it doubled in 31/2 hours. I then forgot to put it in the fridge and in the morning awoke to a starter that had peaked and crashed. It looked dead, but a quick stir showed lots of bubbles.

12 grain and seed bread

Soaker 20g corn meal

20 g quinoa

10 g red flax

10 g golden flax

20g red/white wheat berries

174 g water

Soak for 2 hours then add

20 g wheat bran

I let this sprout in the dark for two days

Milk scald

174 g milk, scalded, then add:

15 g brown sugar

25 g honey

Mix well and when cool add to starter.

Final dough

All starter 300 g starter plus milk scald

245 g whole wheat flour

20 g buckwheat flour

40 g dark rye flour

80 g bread flour

8 g salt

28 g oil

Mix well, rest 5 minutes and knead 5 minutes. Rest 10 minutes, then 4 sets of stretch and folds, with 10 minutes rest.

During the 3rd and 4th S&F add in:

20 g sesame seeds, toasted

30 g sunflower seeds, toasted

 After the last fold form a ball and bulk ferment until double in bulk, shape for a loaf pan and let rise until nearly double in bulk, about one hour for each rise. I baked this @ 350F for 44 minutes, turning at the half after brushing with egg wash and sprinkling with rolled oats and cornmeal.

Boy does this every make a nice crunchy, nutty sandwich and toast bread!

No Canada Day breakfast would be complete without my raspberry, lemon, poppy seed muffins. I mash most of the raspberry with the dough, but reserve one berry for each muffin and place it the muffin batter whole and cover with a couple of Tbs batter.

Happy baking folks! Brian

Well after an extremely busy spring, I have found the slack time to begin baking again. 

Several weeks ago our local Sobey's grocery store was bought and re-branded to SaveOn Foods and I was given a coupon for a free loaf of bread. It was my first loaf of grocery store bread in nearly 21/2 years and to my surprise, I quite liked it. My first attempt at a YW multi grain bread resulted in a brick, so I bought another loaf of store bread.

For the bread pictured above I used a yeasted version of a multi-grain recipe from P Reinharts ABED and this time got a really good sandwich and toast loaf.

205 g WW flour

50 g 7 grain flour mix

90 g strong bread flour 50 g initially and 40 g at the end to tighten things up

20 g cornmeal

20 g rolled oats

20 g dark rye flour

7 g mixed flax, ground course in spice grinder

12 g steel cut oats

29 g honey

10 g brown sugar

28 g vegetable oil

25 g egg, beaten

141 g warm milk 95 F

141 g warm water 95 F

7 g instant yeast

Mix all dry ingredients but the yeast and brown sugar. Mix all wet ingredients and add the brown sugar and yeast. I mixed this with the dough hooks on a hand mixer for a total of 5 minutes, resting after 2 and 2, then rest 10 min and did a series of 3 S&F's with 10 minutes rest. This dough developed quickly and easily doubled in an hour, so I shaped it for a loaf pan and baked it at 350 F for about 25 minutes, turning at 10 and 10.

For my next bake, I will add quinoa, millet  sunflower seeds triticale buckwheat, barley and rice to try and match the store bought 12 grain. I will continue working with yeasted formulas until I get something I like, then try it with natural yeast once again.

Happy baking folks! Brian

The skiing has been fantastic and I am down to one bake a week for three weeks running now. This is the third go around of my yeast water pulla/babka dough. Again another take on the ITJB yummies! I actually have a store bought loaf of bread because it was free. We will see. This loaf was filled with a mix of walnuts and hazelnuts on top of a chocolate buttercream. OH MY! 

I doubted I would get this loaf out of the pan, but most of it came out okay. So half the dough batch was used to make the babka and the other half a traditional pulla braid. These pair last me about a week. It is a good thing I have 80 days of skiing under my belt this season. Yummy goods!

Life would not be complete without an orange chiffon layer cake spread with apricot jam and chocolate butter cream and iced with said chocolate heaven!

Happy baking folks, Brian

I again used my YW/ SSD levains to make a pulla dough. Having chocolate butter cream and cinnamon sugar ITJB, sliced almonds and chopped hazelnuts on hand, I rolled the dough out as a babka. The Kranz variation as I Googled, involves cutting the rolled up babka in two and twisting the stands together. Then I folded it into a loaf pan. Oh my!

Happy baking, Brian 

Well I started a pulla dough intent on making a standard braid. Then I realized I had both cinnamon sugar, chocolate butter cream and sliced almonds on hand, so decided to roll it out and fill it Babka style. Another loaf which is hard to stop eating! Not quite the kitchen sink jobs that dab and Lucy produce but OH MY, yummy!!! :-)

Happy baking folks! Brian