Blog posts

Borodinsky bread was being baked long before the Battle of Borodino that supposedly led to its name and way before the Commies in Russia decided to standardize the recipe to make sourcing the ingredients for the bread much easier.  When the Soviet government says this is the way this bread is to be made then that is it – no variants or options allowed.  Free people don’t live like that of course.

Sprouted rye

In the spirit of my latest experiments with yeast water/SD combo and because I had some wholegrain kamut flour leftover this was my last bake before a 10 days trip to San Francisco for Oracle Open World event.

today's bake consisted of one of my favorite breads, which i call stirato out of habit but is more like ciabatta in its current form. it started as an Italian stiratto bread from the village baker, after i took the full scale professional recipe and toned it down for the home baker, as the home recipes are aimed at more amateur bakers and are over simplified. since then i have made many changes to it, until i got a bread that i find to be more my own than the original formula.

The story is going to be told in pictures today. ;-)

The only changes were that I added 50 g of liquid and subbed out 100 of water for buttermilk.

hello fresh loafers,

this is my first blog post, so first let me introduce myself. i am a serious home baker and foodie from Israel, and have been baking breads for the last five or so years.

i hope to share with you in the future a few the recipes i have developed over time, and share photos of recent bakes, while discussing some of the obstacles of baking in Israel and how to overcome them.

happy baking,

etamar

We like hummus and generally buy it "homemade" at a neighborhood Armenian deli. We also buy the pita bread they sell, which is made locally but not in the deli. It's sold in plastic bags, six to a bag. It's not terrible. 

I recently checked an Israeli cookbook out of the library. It had a recipe for pita, not the first I had seen, but the book made a big deal about the superiority of fresh-baked pita over the kind I had been buying. So I made a batch.

My wife is heading north to visit with her parents.  And they really like the bread I make for them.  Baguettes more so than batards, a little more plain than fancy.  In preparation I made a batch of SJSD and a batch of Hamelman Pain au Levain w/WW to freeze and take with her.  

Really. I started a few months ago with the New York Times "no-knead" bread recipe that uses commercial yeast and sits in the fridge all night. I started experimenting with my own starters, and now I ferment a new batch everywhere I travel. The one I started in Spain is ridiculously active, while the one from Maine is decidedly less so. It's fascinating.

Anyway, I can make a mean plain-jane-white sourdough and a pretty decent cherry chocolate sourdough. Looking forward to learning more about the science and more interesting recipes!

Well, we're here safe and sound in Huntingdon, Cambs in the UK. It's hot and sticky in our daughter's little flat, and of course the kitchen is a bit challenged for space, especially the tiny British fridge! But I still had to make bread (not about to eat store-bought!). I did bring some of my starter, which seems to have survived the trip over. I fed it with Strong white bread flour (Allinsons I think, without going to look) and it bubbled up nicely overnight.

I was in the mood for a nice sandwich bread and this one with plenty of potatoes and cream cheese really fit the bill.

I added some rolled oats, malted wheat flakes and fresh milled whole wheat flour to give it some extra flavor.

The end result was a nice soft and flavorful bread perfect for sandwiches as well as grilled with some olive oil.

I like to keep the skins on the potatoes so you get some extra flavor and health benefits from using the entire potato.

The crumb was moderately open and was nice and moist.