Blog posts

It all started so innocently --- I read Lazy Loafer's rye bake blog http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/51615/another-allrye-bake, and started craving some 100% rye bread.  I wandered down to the freezer and discovered that I was down to my last wee chunk of my last bake (I freeze in 200g chunks - 5 delicious slices), and that I had apparently also frozen the last chunk of my very first 100% rye bake (it was a 100% version of Stanley Ginsberg's "Black Rye Bread"

Every week I bake a loaf to take to work for lunch each day. The last couple of weeks I've used a recipe from TFL's own Trevor Wilson, for a great loaf with a 65% hydration see here...

http://www.breadwerx.com/how-to-get-open-crumb-from-stiff-dough-video/

Well I finally gave in, the temptation was just too much.  Today I had other tasks in the kitchen so thought I could work this in around them.  The recipe I followed was txfarmers baguette, just a simple yeasted dough.  I started with much trepidation, followed her recipe as closely as I could.  Here are my first baguettes ready to proof

It's always worth posting a photo when a loaf (finally) turns out to look like the picture in the book. :)

Italian bread with currents, fennel and pine nuts

May 6, 2017

David M. Snyder

When I started baking sourdough breads, Susan Tenny's “Wild Yeast Blog” was, along with The Fresh Loaf, a major source of inspiration. Susan was also very active on The Fresh Loaf as “susanfnp.” Well, sadly, Susan has not kept up her blog, but it does remain accessible and worth a visit.

This was a busy baking week (for me). I baked for two potluck dinners and for my wife and me.

Thursday, I had a committee meeting in the evening. I brought a San Joaquin Sourdough.

I bake a SJSD for home as well, but also a 90% rye bread, my currently preferred base for cream cheese and lox.

Weekends I mix 1200 grams of flour at 69-74% hydration, 2% salt.

Its fermented, all my bread is made without commercial yeast. The first dough goes in on sunday afternoon and the other part of the dough stays in the fridge till thursday when we make pizza or saturday when I make a loaf that ends up looking like this. Getting on in age it tastes so good. 

No flour is thrown away in my process, I use the same bowl the dough rises in to get the new starter going. Just add flour and water and keep the ball rolling.

On May 1st BreadBabies posted her SJSD batard twins.  And they were lovely.  But her post started off with a lament on her rye levain.  After being built and "ready" her resultant bake yielded the comment "Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough was more like a Vermont pancake". 

After about a year of my last post, I thought I share this one. I have been baking lots of bread past year. Average of 25 loaves a week. Trying to start up my own business from home.

This is the last of the series end up at with 100% sprouted grain bread.  We started at 30% then 40% than 50% and last week was 75%.  What we learned last week was that the dough was getting very fast and it over proofed in the fridge during a retarded final proof.  So we cut the pre-fermented flour in the bran levain to 10% hoping to slow the dough down but did retard the levian for 24 hours after it doubled after the 3rd stage.