Blog posts

  It's nice to be home after a two week business trip to Asia.  I'm always happy to bake some fresh bread after eating pretty crappy bread most of my trip.

I used some Buckwheat flour I had recently purchased from KAF and combined it with some freshly milled hard red whole wheat along with some French style flour and potato flour.  Barley flakes were added for some additional flavor.

Not very successful because I didn't proof the dough enough after the folding....so it didn't double...but still...it tastes good!

I like the flavor with Rye flour and banana..

I'll just add a couple of photos with a little explanation. Recipes are not being followed anymore. Just a bit of this and that and experimenting.

I know, I know. Not a good way to start, presenting a cheating loaf in my first post. But this is an interesting little number and well worth trying, for when you can't be bothered to feed your starters, or just for a change.

The starter is made with a little rye flour plus white bread flour and more for the main dough, but I've tried adding a mix of white and wholemeal in the past and it works fine. The nice thing is you can throw in seeds and whole grains, flavour it with herbs - it will take it all without protesting.

I was a busy week around the homestead.  We hit 100 F for the first time and it was 86 F in the kitchen.  It was Cinco de Mayo and we were continuing our quest to make better pastrami than Katz’s in NYC at home in the smoker. 

Thought I'd share some pictures of my first bake with the Sperry Organic Bread Flour I recently purchased. I bought a 50 lb. bag (for $37) so I was really hoping it made some good bread. I am really happy with how these loaves came out!

Happy today - I baked my biggest single batch for the pre-order customers, and everything actually worked out! It was 13 loaves of Rye Sourdough using Peter Reinhart's recipe from Crust and Crumb (with a few minor modifications). Over 10 kg of sticky rye dough and Max (the 30 quart Univex mixer) handled it without a whimper or a wobble, even at almost speed 2 for six minutes. The dough was strong and elastic and I was SO glad I didn't have to mix all that by hand. I hate dealing with dough that has a high rye flour content; it's so sticky!

 Hey, Stu, here you go...

  I love spring, the flowers are blooming in the garden... 

I had fun making these. Could not get hold of Grape Molasses to dip the rings in, so I used Pomegranate Molasses. It is a bit tangy and worked very well. Only the slightest hint of flavour and sweetness was detectable, making it both a good brekky snack with coffee or a midday snack with brie cheese.

I am on a roll with oriental pastries lately but I gonna move to breads next week. I made hopia again because of my dad's request. If you've been reading my blogs, you probably know it already. Well if you still haven't, hopia is a pastry of Fujianese origin made with flaky pastry filled with various fillings from bean paste to sweet pork. I always want to improve it because it is one of my dad's favorite.