Blog posts

I haven't been able to find much in the way of suggestions for baking bread with buckwheat, which is a shame because it is so delicious. I can't say much about Kayser or Leader, but I am grateful to Occidental for his post on this bread. It was delicious.

The large holes are the result of incomplete degassing before shaping, a defect, as Hamelman would say. Otherwise, the crumb was very nice:

I made Tomato, Parmesan and Basil flatbread from Bouke Street Bakery cookbook this weekend with our home-grown peach tomatoes.

The tomato resembles cherry tomato in size, only with yellow colour. It tastes sweet and mild acidic with a beautiful aroma.

I tweaked the recipe a little by using sourdough starter instead of pre-ferment, which I believe give extra flavour.

The recipe is here.

I'm a homebrewer. One of the best smells in the world is a boiling pot of wort, and I've always wanted to somehow "eat" that smell. Well, this is what happened on my fist attempt at a "brewer's bread".

Day 1: 3/4 c KA bread Flour

  3/4 c Whole Wheat flour

          1/16 tsp instant yeast

  enough water to make a very sticky dough

mix well and let sit at RT for 18-24 hrs then refrigerate for a day.

I do believe I am closing in on my goal of a tasty, presentable and above all reliable baguette, folks.  At the very least, the results have been reliably tasty of late, which will do for a start!

Anyway, here was last week's bake.  Still a lot of bursting between cuts despite loading the steam pans a couple minutes before loading the loaves.  Great ears though.

Exterior

Updated: 3/31/2011 

 Aki san no Baguette
I want to introduce one of amazing Japanese home bakers Aki who makes great baguettes that I have been trying get the crumb like hers.  I really thank Aki who let me post her great baguettes here. Here is  her blog and baguette's formulas.   And, Please leave a comment for her if you think that her baguettes are great. She will be happy to hear it from you, guys. :)

I just finshed my blog entry about our trip to the US Virgin Islands. Nothing bread worthy happend during this week, but I still would like to share one picture:

The story behind this sugar plantations is not that great, here the Danish played the exploiters, but to have something like this in my backyard... well on a island like this dreaming is permitted!! BTW they still use this WFO.

Thomas

I made SteveB's croissants today. Here is his formula and method.  http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=117  Thank you, Steve!

A couple of weeks ago i got that feeling in my stomach that I have to bake bread again. I used to bake quite a bit until six months ago and I felt it is the time to start baking again. For this I had to create a new sourdough starter as I sadly found my old one molding in the back of the fridge. I started it with some rye flour and water and converted it gradually to a white flour stater. When it was active and vigorous enogh. I decided to bake with it. I chose to try David's San Joaquin, wich I've been wanting to try for a long time.  

One of my favorite breads from Hamelman's Bread is Pain Rustique (comes right before "Country Bread" and "Rustic Bread").  The bread is unshaped like a ciabatta, although it only has 69% hydration, and is scored before baking.  When I get it right (as opposed to, say, forgetting the salt and yeast following the autolyse, as I did the first time I tried the formula), it produces a toothsome crust and a flavorful, moderately open crumb.

Twelve days ago I posted this topic about my troubles with an all white flour version of my successful whole wheat and rye starter.  Since then I have been nursing that starter with multiple daily feedings, and keeping it quarantined from my other starter to avoid cross-contamination.  Based on research, and excellent direct advice, the issue was diagnosed by David Snyder and Debra Wink (Thanks to both of you!) as thiol degradation and I proceeded to try to "feed through it".