Blog posts

Today, I baked Hamelman's "5-grain Levain" from "Bread."

Various TFL blogs have featured this bread. They can be found by searching the site. The recipe was posted by fleur-de-liz here: Eric: Hamelman's Five-Grain Levain. She was a very active contributor to TFL at the time I joined and an inspiration to me. She encouraged me to bake this bread for the first time way back when. It is, indeed, among the most delicious breads I've ever made or tasted.

It seems to me that if you are trying to gain proficiency in baking bread that it helps to pick a formula and make it over and over again until it starts to seem natural and easy.   I'm not there yet with Hamelman's pain au levain but it ain't for lack of trying.  My biggest difficulty with it so far has been something that should be simple - following the instructions.   When I first started making it I viewed the rise times as something like suggestions.   2 hours seemed like a ridiculously long time to do the final rise, and I would do 1 hour and t

Hello everyone,

These buns are from CIA Artisan Breads at Home by Eric W. Kastel.
I replaced some bread flour with whole wheat and topped with sesame seeds.
The egg glaze gave them a nice shine! ...mmm...burgers...can't wait!

Regards, breadsong

Smothered with spices and baked to perfection this is an all American apple pie. Baked with red, ripe juicy apples straight from a New England farm.

http://turosdolci.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/the-passion-of-a-new-england-farm-homemade-apple-pie/?preview=true&preview_id=660

It was time to clear out some of the flotsam and jetsam of flour remnants.  It was  also time to unwind after several weeks of "disciplined" baking. 

This experiment was inspired by Farine's post on her blog about the Meteorite...  http://www.farine-mc.com/2010/07/meteorite.html

No process pics or anything as I probably screwed this thing up totally along the way...  This dough is "impossibly" wet...  I even decreased the hyration to 95%...  It's like trying to bake poolish...

So here's the question...

Is it a meteorite or a cow pattie?  You be the judge...

Just got back from my 2 week vacation in Kenya/Tanzania last weekend. It was our first time visiting Africa (one more continent off the list, Antarctica is the only one left to tackle now), so much too see! We did 10 days of safari trips, 4 parks in Kenya and 2 in Tanzania.

I think I fed my sourdough starter once this summer.  I thought for sure it was a goner, but I fed it last Saturday night and, lo and behold, Sunday morning it had nearly tripled in size.  It baked a great looking loaf.

As I mentioned the last time I posted, after a visit there I decided I needed to figure out how approximate the scones at Murchie's in Victoria, BC.  I tried two recipes last weekend that were very similar except one was yeasted and the other was unyeasted.  The unyeasted one came out very good and, while light and creamy, had the crumbly consistency I typically experience with scones.

This is a 2nd shot at Hamelman's Whole wheat levain (sourdough 50% wholewheat), after improving my steaming technique.