Blog posts

Some changes I made for this bake of 3-stage pain au levain

-Levain chef premiere fermented for 3 hours

-Included a 2 hour RT autolyse without levain

-bulk fermentation lasted 45 minutes

-hydration increased to 72%

-used "high extraction" flour blend: 50% whole wheat, 50% all purpose

-Shaped into 1 miche, 1 boule, and 1 batard

some crumb shots

When my son's family visited us in August he brought some "Canadian & very strong white flour" purchased in the UK can anyone please tell me anything about this flour - is it similar to what in the UK is described as "Strong white flour" and here in France TYPE 65?

A further question  Farine de Ble Noir which I think is Buckwheat flour - rye flour or not? - various websites indicate it is but don't answer the question directly!

Right now I certainly have the will to bake, and some interesting new books to bake from, but am so busy with work and travel that I'm not finding time to bake much at all right now.  Above is the one sourdough boule I made last week. It did come out pretty nice, I gotta admit.

This weekend's travel took me past Bread Farm in Bow, Washington, which is always worth a short detour to visit.

I downsized from a 1500sq ft house with a 60s style kitchen best used for 60s style TV dinners. You know, no counter space. I am now in a small apartment with even less counter space and I'm still searching for storage space.

This weekend was a "disaster" in terms of baking waste. I don't even recall what I was trying to bake, but I got distracted and used the wrong quantity of water.  I determined this because the autolyse was very dry and when I weighed my container it was short by a whole lot.  Unfortunately, it was not possible to incorporate the missing water at this point.

After a few days struggling with baking ciabattas with low-protein flowers sold here in Brazil (trying to achieve an open crumb), I took a one-day break from bread baking and tried this olive oil, orange, pound cake. It turned out pretty good. 

I was in a Chad kind of mood this week, so I baked an 80% whole wheat boule ala Tartine.

Tartine 80% Whole Wheat

80% whole wheat flour
20% all purpose flour
5% wheat germ
85% water
2% salt
20% levain

A secret turning in us
makes the universe turn.
Head unaware of feet,
and feet head. Neither cares.
They keep turning.

Rumi - The Secret Turning