sparkfan's blog

After a break of 3 weeks, I reactivated my Lievito Madre with 3 warm refreshments (27ºC). As a test, I wanted to bake a bread with Ruchmehl. By mistake, however, I used wholewheat. The packages look very similar. When I noticed it, it was almost too late. Spontaneously I decided to use 80% wholewheat and 20% white flour. During mixing I had the impression, that the dough / gluten structure was (surprisingly) pretty strong and I decided to bump up the hydration. Started with 75% and ended at (almost) 90%. Maybe a bit too optimistic ;) At least when it comes to my bench skills.

Inspired by some recipes from the internet I decided to bake a bread with sautéed onions and bacon, twisted in grated cheese for the final proof.

50% white flour

50% Ruchmehl

2% salt

22% whole wheat preferment

80% final hydration

25% (raw) onions (sautéed before incorporating)

25% (raw) bacon (lightly fried before incorporating)

more than enough grated cheese for the "crust"

The shaping was just a gentle twist in a huge amount of grated cheese.

Bulk and final proof at ca. 25-26ºC, baked for 30-32min at 200ºC with steam.

Continuing with the French tradition and looking for something more ... fancy than a simple boul, etc, I remembered yesterday that I could also bake a "Bordeaux crown". The last time I baked a Couronne Bordelaise (with fresh yeast) it was 3 years ago.

This time I went for a recipe with lievito madre. Actually it was more a freestyle compilation of 2 yeast base recipes (homebaking.at and marcelpaa.com):

10% low extraction rye flour

A few days ago, I wanted to bake a bread with a higher wheat content, but still with a somewhat more intense flavor. Since I had no better inspiration, I choice fell on a French country bread made with Lievito Madre. Or at least my interpretation of a French country bread.

• 20% whole rye flour
• 80% Ruchmehl (or First Clear in the US)
• 2% salt
• 77% overall hydration
• 25% Lievito Madre
• all fermentation at 25°C
• baked at 230°C, not too dark, just until it gets a nice color and a nice thin crispy crust.

It’s been a while since I last made an (moderate) enriched dough. By chance, I came across a brioche recipe on brotokoll.com that I really liked: braided brioche with apricots, coconut water and chocolate: https://brotokoll.com/recipe-archiv/apri-coco-schoko-loco-twisted-pasta-madre-chocolate-apricot-brioche/?lang=en 

After baking only whole rye bread for quite a while, I decided to try something I didn't bake before. Nothing spectacular. I just replaced half of the flour with Ruchmehl (afaik first clear is the closest match in the US) and used a stiff preferment. Half of the whole rye flour is fermented in the preferment. The other half, together with the Ruchmehl, goes into the main dough.
A bit of sourdough for the preferment, 76% hydration, 2% salt, that’s it.
Hand mixed, 2 S&F, fold and roll for the final shaping, baked at 230ºC on a baking steel.

What do you call the time between Easter and Christmas? Exactly! Time to practice making panettone!
I just couldn’t resist without baking another panettone — or in this case, colomba. This time with cranberry and white chocolate.

I wanted to try again a sourdough loaf with 100% "Ruchmehl". I'm not 100% sure, but afaik the closest match for Swiss "Ruchmehl" is the first clear flour. It is the traditional flour for bread in Switzerland. Something in the middle between bread flour and whole wheat. In the recent years some millers in Germany and Austria have begun to produce this flour, but it's not really mainstream.

BTT - this is my second bake with this flour. I wanted a more open crumb with 100% "Ruchmehl" / first clear

100% Ruchmehl / first clear

80% total hydration

2% salt

I’m not sure if "sandwich loaf" and "100% whole grain rye" go well together. However, since I’ve seen so many Pullman loafs here lately, I decided to bake my 100% whole rye recipe (https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/75332/100-whole-rye) in a sandwich bread pan.

This time I used a liquid sourdough instead of lievito madre. Around 3 weeks ago I converted my LM to LiCoLi. It's anyway too warm to bake panettone and LiCoLi seems to be easier to maintain.

A variation of my last flax seed recipe (https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/76368/flaxseed-sourdough-bread). 20% LM instead of whole rye sourdough, increased the amount of flaxseeds by 1%-2% (beaker percentage), increased the overall hydration by 10% (baker percentage).