Blog posts

It was a cold blustery day, and I felt like some comfort food.  

Daniel Leader's book "Simply Great Breads" has a formula for yeast-raised fry bread.  

Years ago, I learned a simple way to make fry bread, without any leavening agent, just plain AP flour, salt, water, and powdered milk.  As the moisture steams/boils off, it sufficiently aerates the dough.  But I had forgotten the exact recipe.  Lightly dust with sugar while the oil is still wet on the fried bun.

 Cold temperature means the LAB are producing acetic acid (tang) and warm means the LAB are producing Lactic acid; Bran acts like a buffer, besides providing all the great minerals and vitamins, in the dough. Bran allows the LAB to continue to produce acid at pH levels that would normally shut down the LAB from producing acid at all. 84 F is the best temp for yeast to reproduce and 92 F is the best temperature for LAB reproduction. At 93 F yeast are reproducing at a restricted rate like it was 44F.

In trying to understand the mechanics of how to achieve certain types of crumbs, I pushed my bulk rise a bit in hopes of achieving the characteristic lacy crumb. I think I got it!

getting home to Seattle from his one on one, exclusive, Holiday SD Bread Making Lesson in Arizona with Lucy!  He gets it now!

A Thing of Beauty it is!

I have been looking at bread and pastry recipes since the days when Louis Diat was still chef at the Ritz -  call it 60+ years. I see progressively more detailed and pedantic recipes.  I think some of that is an effort to sell the newest edition of the latest cookbook.

Jan 2, 2020.

Close to #14.  625 g total flour,  87.8 % total hydration.  Mostly HWSW, a little Kamut, a little quinoa flour, a tablespoon of BRM GF flour. A little molasses in the soaker.  Used 1/4 vit C tablet, 125 mg ,  and 2 tsp vital wheat gluten in soaker too.  Added 2 tsp dried malt extract when added levain.   Got good oven spring.  Nice light springy crumb, but not too open.

For a very long time, I have been fascinated by “pain de campagne”. In the cookbooks, it is made with mostly white bread flour, to which some (20%) whole wheat flour is added. Sometimes it is made with yeast, and sometimes sourdough and sometimes something in between. I have tried a bunch of these recipes and variations on them.  Then, there are stories and rumors about great breads made of fresh ground high extraction flours (e.g., https://breadtopia.com/whole-grain-sourdough/ ).

Or something like that...

To be honest, I'm just starting out as a baker. I've made a few loaves of bread, some cookies, and some dinner rolls.

I originally tried out baking as a way to relax on my days off. Something about the mindfulness associated with the whole process - mixing, kneading, waiting, working, baking, enjoying - really appeals to me. I don't have a lot of time or money, and so my baking is done "by appointment". I block out time, find some recipes or plan my day in advance, and do most everything by hand. No mixers, no scales. 

• Prepped 130g of levain (100% hydration, 70F in the microwave with the light on). At the same time, autolysed roughly 650g of flour (255g Central Milling ABC+, 70g hard white, 70g semolina) with 520g room-temp water.

• 5 hours later, added all the levain (rose about 2.3x) to the autolysed dough and mixed

• 45 mins later, added 16g Maldon salt

• 1 hour later, divided dough (at this point, 650g each)

• 1.5 hour later, coil fold

• 1 hour later, coil fold