Blog posts

I've been thinking about learning to make ciabatta buns for pulled pork sandwiches this summer.  I've never made ciabatta or buns, so decided to try it for the No Comfort Zone Community Bake.  In addition to the new bread and shaping, it's the first time I've used a white flour at higher than 70% hydration, which was a whole new set of challenges too!

This weekend’s round of bagels (Reinhart, BBA) and sourdough (Hamelman, Vermont sourdough) turned out pretty good. Bottom of rounds took a bit too much heat... didn’t have my baking stone or anything below the dutch ovens, whoops. Still working on basics... 

I have a stash of seeds in the fridge that need using up so I thought that Hamelman’s 5 grain levain would be perfect for this, plus it is so incredibly good! I kept the weight the same but went to town with the selection of seeds. I also changed the selection and quantity of flours. Because of all these changes, I’m not calling it 5 grain levain. ?

Thanks to yozzaause’s wonderful post, I made a dozen of these knotty buns for a little weekend trip with hubby. They’re an adaption from KAB and gozney. Glazed with warm orange syrup instead of a sprinkle of powdered sugar. 

Long week at work and wanted to do a simple bake to start the weekend before trying my Go Out of Your Comfort Zone CB tomorrow.  I got this recipe from Abe, and it works really well.  Has room for flexibility on the flour selection.  I just got a bag of barley flour in, so I added some of that into the mix this time.  First time using barley flour with an AP/Bread flour base (have only used it with WW before this), and the aroma of the barley definitely comes through more on the finished bread.

Still trying to improve my 100% whole grain baking.  In this iteration I changed two things I believe needed to be addressed.  I’ve lowered the hydration and reduced the final proof.  I believe those changes have helped but still not quite where I want this to be, particularly the oven spring.  Despite the dough coming out of the banneton and standing tall, there was still more spread during baking than I want to see.  So it is still overproofed.

Followed Helen Rennie’s focaccia recipe on YouTube but mine lost its rectangle shape during the final proof. 

Any tips on how to prevent this? Many thanks in advance. 

- Christi

Somehow or other I landed on an Italian web page with a recipe for Colomba di Pasqua. Being nearly Easter, it did seem like a good time to make an Easter dove. Besides, I wanted to send my sister a birthday present, having not seen her for a long, long time - like so many people.

This is the recipe, found on the giallozafferano website. I figured that this must be a well tested recipe, since it has well over a thousand comments! It's a yeasted recipe (I used SAF Gold), but nevertheless, fairly complex.

This was an easy one and wonderful with chowder earlier today. 1 hour’s proof after mixing, divide and shape then, baked at 230°C/450°F for 10-12 minutes.
Recipe appears in the books Dough and Crumb by Richard Bertinet

• 500g strong bread flour (I used Canadian AP)
• 350g water
• 3g instant yeast (10g fresh yeast)
• 10g salt
• Olive oil for brushing 
• Optional add-ins: olives, roasted peppers, garlic powder,  rosemary, thyme 
  

 I recently had another birthday tick over,  this one  3 Score and 10 which i enjoyed with a friend who also celebrated his 78th birthday 2 days after mine . We were away fishing on the south coast of Western Australia and did very well catching the daily bag limit of Black Bream each day!