It's pretty crazy but while preparing for the migration to the new system I noticed it was almost TFL's birthday. Today the site turns 20 years old. That is older that the iPhone. Or Twitter. My kids were babies/toddlers when I started the site; now they are almost out of university.
Made a 50% khorasan/bread flour with the khorasan in a biga. Whole khorasan flour was hydrated at 45% with 10% sourdough starter and left at 15 degrees for 14 hours. I then mixed the biga with bread flour this afternoon to make a loaf at 75% hydration. Bulk fermented at 18 degrees for 4 hours, proofed for 1.5 hours and baked at 220 degrees for 40 mins.
I was expecting the mixing by hand to be very difficult, but it was really just like any other loaf. I enjoyed making the "apple crumble" texture biga!
I haven't baked in quite some time. Largely that is because we have a nice local bakery within walking distance of our apartment now. But the updated site launch seemed like a good time to celebrate by baking a loaf
This is made with Anita's Organic 60/40 Bakers Blend. I had some in the house because I like it for muffins.
This a test post to try the new image machinery, and to try editing the post. Here's a crumb shot:
This was one of my efforts at making a Altamura-style loaf. Not bad, not great.
After saving the post, I used the "Edit" link to add this sentence. So far, everything has gone smoothly.
[Added later] Here is my original post about this bake:
I'm going through the discovery process on how to do things on the new site. Sadly I deleted my profile photo (it needed replacing) before figuring out how to do things. Looks like most photos upload much more easily. I just can't seem to reduce the file size enough for the profile pic.
Also, when I click on "preview", it shows me what things will look like before saving the blog entry, but I can't actually change anything on that screen. Using the back button gives fair warning that everything will be deleted.
Meanwhile....
In a few weeks it's time to celebrate chinese new year and this means getting pineapple tarts baked well in advance, since there's way too much cooking to be done leading up to the day itself. In Singapore these are consumed in the weeks leading up to the new year and as kids they had to be hidden from us to ensure that there were some left for visiting guests during CNY itself! I've continued baking these tarts ever since I left, and my kids and family here have grown to like them.
This is a simple thing to make (depending on how you get your puff pastry) and such a fun tradition. I used an almond as the fève, trying to keep it kind of rustic. Recipe from David Lebovitz, but with extra vanilla, of course!
Tony’s recent beautiful rye loaf reminded me that I still had some whole rye flour in my cabinet. So for this bake I used whole rye for the tangzhong which is 20% of the total flour and hydrated at 200% of the rye. This creates a cement like consistency to the tangzhong that bakers who work with rye would be very familiar with so you have to get your pot soaking in water or else it can be challenging to clean. I hadn’t baked a 100% Wholegrain bread in quite some time so I was overdue.
I really like the effect that using a Tangzhong has on the bread. It helps the bread stay fresher longer and I find the crumb to be a little more moist.
I usually use water to make the Tangzhong which is typically 5 parts water to one part flour. I decided to try something new and used a nice Merlot wine in place of the water. It worked out great and gave the final dough a subtle wine flavor but not overpowering.
This was a very high hydration dough I probably could have cut the water down 20% and still had an excellent overall bake.
These are our "I want a sweet treat but I'm really not supposed to be eating sweet treats so what can I do to have a sweet treat without having too much sweet" go to cookies. Around here we tend to call them our "hippy cookies"
Sugar free and no butter.
Ingredients
