Blog posts

My parents are visiting this week, and my mom likes rye bread.  I made this once before with good success using a LAS.  I've been able to keep my "sour" raisin yeast water going and refreshed so I decided to make this loaf using that instead of the LAS.  The concept being the sour yeast water provides the leavening and acidity that a rye needs without using a traditional sourdough starter.  Similar concept to a LAS without having to take 2-3 days to make one.  The method uses a 2 stage levain build with the rye followed by a final proof after the spelt and soaker is

We frequently get questions around here about how to take care of your starter.  I thought I’d share what I do which is simple and waste free so long as you plan your bakes a bit ahead of time.

It has been a while since I had my initial thoughts dealing with Bakers Percent and all that goes with it. Knowing that spreadsheets & baking are made for each other was one thing, however, figuring out the slightly complicated initial & overall Baker’s Percent did seem discouraging at first. Getting it onto a spreadsheet, even more so.

Finally starting to get the hang of my Ooni Koda 16 pizza oven.  The dough had mostly Caputo 00 flour with a little fresh whole wheat and rye.  I used two types of sausages with one being chicken stuffed with cheddar and the other a pork variety with no nitrates or artificial anything.

The dough was fermented after being balled up and refrigerated for 36 hours.  I was very happy overall how this came out.  

I was so impressed by the original Semolina Sourdough I made from Tartine Bread that I decided I had to try the variation listed in the book. The variation should be a sweet take on an amazing savory bread. 

My usual sourdough routine has been streamlined and I generally don't have discard. In fact if I want to make pancakes I have to build extra levain when I'm prepping bread so I can make pancakes later. So when Hendrik at The Bread Code  posted a video of this bread, and said it was one of his favorites, I knew I had another bread to try. I slowly built up some discard but the process was very slow and actually took a few months to build up enough to make a tiny loaf of bread.

June 11, 2022.  92nd blogged bake.

This is Liezl Jayne's gluten-free Oats, Nuts, and Seeds bread.  It's also in the "Josey Baker Bread" book, with slightly different proportions, under the name Adventure Bread.

Recipe:
https://liezljayne.com/overnight-oat-nut-seed-bread-gluten-free/

I made a half batch for a mini loaf pan.

I was lucky to get some winter red wheat (RGT Accroc) directly from the farm. I cleaned and stone milled enough berries to bake Debra Wink’s 100% whole-wheat sandwich bread. I had made this before with white wheat and wanted to get a better taste. I made two adjustments for this bake; use the red wheat and replace cold pressed walnut oil with toasted walnut oil. The difference is remarkable, a richer whole-wheat crumb, texture, aroma, and flavour. The crumb is soft for use in sandwiches. The loaf was baked in a 330mm Pulman pan sans lid.

There has been some interest in using pH to help guide fermentation of our dough.  Before purchasing a pH meter I used percent rise to guide fermentation and make decisions, however, there are times when it doesn’t seem to be very accurate.  If you’re interested in learning how to use an Aliquot jar then have a look at this post I made a while ago.  By posting this I am not claiming to be a master at using pH, I am simply sharing what I do now based on trial and error.

A recent blog post about grain mash is awesome if you haven’t read it yet. Reading it motivated me to apply saccharification to the polenta porridge thinking it might enhance the flavour of the polenta. As you know saccharification of the polenta brings out its sweetness that is hidden in the starches in the polenta.