trailrunner's blog

My grandmother's iron skillets make the best pizza. They are from the 1800's. They are 12" across. We have family getting in later tonight so I made these up so they will have something yum when they get here. Crust is somewhat of a guess and by golly as my Mom used to say. I had a couple levains left in containers and decided to clear them out. They were full of bubbles...one durum and one ww. I added them , about 1/2 c to a regular yeast dough formula. Didn't knead at all just left it on the counter for a few hours while I went to play with my 6 yr old grandson. When I came back I used olive oil and stretched and folded in the bowl a bit. Left it alone while my husband finished baking Biscotti Regina. There is 15 oz dough in each skillet. Let it rise in the well oiled skillets while I cooked onions and peppers and mushrooms. Preheated the oven to 425. Put slices of provolone on the bottom added the saute veg then fresh mozz and crumbled feta  and placed them in the oven for 20 min. Turned it up to 450 and topped each pizza with scant drizzles of spiced up tomato sauce and parmesan. Let it finish for about 10 min. Perfect !! The best pizza to date. The crust is so light and full of flavor and the bottom is nice and crunch from the hot oil and skillet. Of course can't be duplicated as I have no idea what the starters were statistically...but that is all the fun...adventure in the kitchen on a rainy night in Virginia.

sorry pics are mixed up somewhat...still trying to get the hang of the new way of uploading. Suffice to say it is all delicious.  

Boy I thought I was really doing something great. Took several large pieces of fresh pineapple peeling with the meat on it and dropped them into my AYW . It sure did get it to bubble and ferment and smell loverly....but oh boy. I never even thought about the enzymes and protease breakdown. Turned my bread to GLUE....I mean it was almost impossible to get it out of the bucket and into the garbage , never mind trying to get it off of my hands and the counter and the floor....you get the picture. I tossed almost all of my YW and added apples and more water....will do this again and then put some of it in plain flour and wait and see what it does. If I have to toss 8 yr old AYW I will be really bummed. So be warned. Pineapple juice from a can is fine as it has been heat treated but DON'T use fresh. Lesson learned.

Thanks to Danni's  post I got out my starter , fed 'er up and started mixing. I followed most of her formula but used some Winter Wheat from Breadtopia and added 60g brown sugar to the fruit soaker with the 60g of butter. I didnt put any cinnamon due to her experience and I didn't want to do a swirl in the center of the bread. Maybe next time. 

I did my bake in a 425degree preheated cast iron pot lid on 15 min and reduce heat to 375 bake additional 25 min. Perfect finish at 210 internal temp. Got great rise and lovely color and fragrance. Just took out of the oven so crumb pics later on .... if we can wait! This bread smells fabulous! 

What's not to love ? I had to clean out the freezer since we are going away for a year. I found 2 boxes of roasted pumpkin that I had put up last Fall. Enter this bread. What an amazing dough to work with. The key is to drain the heck out of the pumpkin. The rest of the procedure was like working with silk. The rapidity of the rise is accounted for by the AYW. More and more it is giving me results that are really impressive as far as texture and rise time. 

240 gm levain ( 100% hydration mixed rye/white)

600g water and AYW - 300g each

700g bread flour

75g rye

75g kamut

150g Red Fife

300g well-drained roasted pumpkin puree

25g salt

roasted pepitas as desired

mix all but salt and set aside 1 hr. do stretch and folds q 30 min. x 3 . Fold in pepitas on last S/F.  Let dough rest in warm place 45min-1 hr. Will be very puffy and light and easy to work with. Shape in 3 -boules. Place in floured banneton. Set in warm place and let rise 45 min. Retard till next day. Bake in 500 degree pre-heated iron pots 15 min lid on and reduce heat to 460 and bake 20 min. 

We love Ian's take on this bread. So much so that I had to make it again this week as we were out and I had roasted a turkey breast and we needed something yummy for sandwiches. This bread is a delight to work with. I changed a couple things . My starter is always 100% hydration so I use less water in the final dough. I also " autolyse" using the levain with the flours and water since my levain is s major source of the water in the dough and without it there isn't any way to autolyse the flours. I subbed in 200g of AYW for part of the water. Makes a wonderful crumb and long lasting freshness. I shaped and let rise for 45 min. in a warm place. Great rise so bagged and placed in fridge approx. 16 hrs. Baked in preheated  cast iron pots at 500 degrees covered for 15 min and 460 degrees for another 20 min. Fabulous caramelized crust. Open crumb...simply a perfect bread. 

then you make your crust and top it and bake and eat...pretty simple...when you have all the right "stuff". I am so lucky that I have my Mom and Grandmom's iron skillets...nothing cooks like old iron. This one is 12" across the top and 3" deep. It is paper thin in the middle...Momma called it her chicken fryer. Her Mom used to put bread to soak on a back burner with warm milk and butter and sugar. This was during the depression . That was supper when Momma got home from working at the telephone company as an operator in Toledo OH. 

Ian's post on Durum Rye SD got me going and I had a great time with my version. I used whey for all of the liquid. We make yogurt and had a batch not set  up so I had a qt of whey frozen. My starter is a rye so went with that. I followed all the other particulars except timing. I always retard shaped loaves and let them rise for 1 -2 hrs before I place them in the fridge and then bake directly from the fridge in 500 degree pots. Worked like a charm. These loaves are SO fragrant and the crumb is delightfully tender. Definitely a loaf I will bake again and use just water as I likely won't have a whey to do it this whey again :) Thank you Ian. 

 I have been making this "recipe" since the mid 70's. I say recipe as that is what it was when I first saw it in Better Homes and Gardens Magazine. I have changed very little in all these many decades..why mess with perfection !  But the last few times I have made it, which is less often than in years past since we love our sourdoughs and I don't care for SD Challah, I have used some of my yeast water to lengthen the shelf life of the Challah. I have posted this revolutionary step here before. It is amazing what it does to the crumb and texture and fragrance. If you are familiar with Challah then you know that along with making it you either have a selection of recipes for using it after it is stale, which is at most 48 hrs , or you eat it all immediately :)

I added several large strips of fresh Minneola orange peel to my apple yeast water yesterday as I refreshed it. Wow....the fragrance was amazing. Today I decided to make my old standby Challah and added 1c of the newly refreshed and fragrant orange/apple yeast water in place of plain water.  Oh my....the house smells of brioche/pogne de Romans ( which I make at holiday time). The taste is so rich  without all the butter needed to make those other breads. If you would like the recipe...let me know. c

( not sure why the other pic keeps posting. I have tried 5 times to get it to post correctly. I am so tired of the inability to easily post pics as I used to be able to do. Will stop posting pics after today due to frustration ) 

I started to make this from Bread but then looked at my  notes and saw an old post from another TFLer who  cited Shiao Ping's version. Since her adaptation fits with my usual procedures I decided to carry on with her ideas. Everyone comments on how wet this formula is. I always have my levain at approx 80-100% hydration. Again I carried on. I used equal parts Red Fife and Kamut and finished with organic bread flour. I doubled the formula to get 4 1 kg miche...mini miche :) I followed her folding schedule and the dough became very easy to handle and the gluten development was amazing.It is definitely a wet formula and my high hydration levain increased it. I shaped and placed in floured  cloth-lined baskets and retarded immediately for 12 hours. I baked cold from the fridge in iron pots as my usual routine. 500 degrees for 15 min. with lids on and 25 min. at 460 with lids off. This is a great bread !  Hamelman says it develops more and more flavor as the days go by. I look forward to that. I got an open tender crumb with a bit of sour right off the bat. Crust is very crisp initially and beautifully  caramelized  .

What a great bread. I am a big fan of fruit and nut breads. I made a couple changes and am pleased with the result. I doubled the formula so have two huge boules. I added 2 scant tsp. diastatic malt powder to the mix. I used 250 g diced Turkish figs and local pecans. I subbed in 200 g of my very active AYW for part of the liquid. I have a white starter at present that was converted the day before from rye so used that. This is a great dough to work with. I got massive oven spring. Baked in preheated 500 degree cast iron pots 15 min with lids on and 25 min at 460 with lids off.Internal temp 209. Love the bold crust.  Will post pic of crumb later when it cools. Posted the crumb...wonderfully tender ! 

...c