Blog posts

I am super happy with this bake! I fell asleep right after pre-shaping this, thinking all hope was lost, but my dough strength was great and I managed to pull two great loaves out of what looked like disaster! I simply shortened the final proof in the seasonal walk-in cooler included with every Chicago home (that is, the outdoors). Hope to post some shots of the crumb too!

Jan. 28 - 29, 2021.

I think this was my first attempt at an angled score cut. It came out good. I scored the dough after putting it on the pre-heated dutch oven (combo cooker) lid.

I accidentally hit the dough with the edge of the cover as I was putting the cover on. So that made the sloppy mark on top. Otherwise it would have been a nice square "hat." Note to self: next time, do some more scoring on the center top.

This has my usual add-ins, hot-soaked this time: whole chia seeds, ground flaxseed, poppy seeds, whole caraway seeds, quick oats, powdered milk.

Learning how this Mother Yeast Behave.. Hope to bake amazing breads...

I love making bread with durum flour and especially when I can mill it myself.  Here is my most recent bake done for the current Community Bake.

I just ran out of Durum berries recently and was happy to find some at a reasonable price on Amazon.  Usually the shipping charges to New York from other sites are astronomical, but since I was able to use Amazon Prime it was free.

Dough has been overly fermented and had a hard time shaping it but still works at the end..... Recipe and method on the link below

https://youtu.be/4NvhxQzxi74

Making a tradition sourdough sometimes can be painful to our arms, So I made a video to show you how to make a Sourdough using a stand mixer. Link Below

https://youtu.be/nNatD832kPU

Thank you and enjoy!

Hi All, These are a few photos of my first attempt at semolina bread. I used 100% semolina with 20% levain for this bake. 

100% Caputo semolina rimacinata

20% levain

2.2% salt

80% water

Autolyzed flour and water for about 2 hours

A few slap and folds over 2 hours and then coil folds over the next 3 hours. 

total bulk about 5 to 6 hours - varied from 80 to low 70s..overnight final proof in fridge for 14 hours. 

Baked in graniteware for 20 min at 475 and then overcovered at 440 for 17 min or so. 

I decided to just go with a 100% hydration dough  levain, more or less following the recipe but modified a little.  The brand of Semolina rimanciata is Caputo - it is hard to find this flour here so very happy to have some, even if it is expensive.

Bread flour 40%

Durum flour 60%

overall hydration 75%

Salt 2%

Toasted sesame seeds 5%

23/1/21 4 pm refresh starter 10+20+30

11 pm start of levain build 30+30+30

24/1/21 7 am build final levain (enough for 3 loaves) 70+150+150 

 Table of Contents for my BLOG

The following are a compilation of my bakes for the Durum Wheat - Selmolina Rimacinata Community Bake.

Bake #1

A few years ago, I was experimenting with various ways to increase the acidity of sourdough bread and found that I needed a way to produce levains that were similarly mature but at various hydration levels, including some as high as 250%.