Blog posts

Quick update on my Cadco oven.  It took an electrician doubling as an oven mover helper, an amateur plumber, and a fan, but it's now up and running, and I am starting to learn to use it.    No surprise but it requires lower temperature AND shorter baking time.   This fig anise bread took 30 minutes total, at first 400F, then 350F, then 300F as I kept lowering it to keep the crust from getting too dark before the inside could bake.   It looks a bit lonely in there doesn't it, but no way am I going to bake a big load of bread before I get to know its wa

Here is a pic I took this past Sunday.

On the left are failed attempts at Dave Snyder's SFSD and SJSD. I suspect it has to do with inadequate gluten development. Starter could be off but I've been able to work it up to the point where it will double in 3 to 4 hours ... we'll see.

Made some 1.2 kg boules using a liquid white and stiff wheat levain this weekend.  I used about 48% wheat and 2 % rye (in the form of rye sour used in the liquid levain) I would have used my white starter but I didn't have quite enough for both levains so instead of adding a touch of rye flour i built off of my rye sour.  I wanted a full flavored bread with volume and keeping qualities in a relatively small amount of time.  So 30% of the flour was prefermented which boosted both bulk and final ferments.  2 hours and 1 hour.

Thanks to Isand66 inspiration on savory english muffins, who saved me from my plain or sweet boring english muffins. 

I mixed the cooked onion, tomato and dried basil into the dough, with a few S&F, divided and proof for 45 mins.

Heres the crumb n front shot.

After eating it, im still craving for his bacon and cheese *Huff huff" :( , I will definitely grab some bacon for my next english muffins bake.

when I was happy with my croissants.  It really hasn't happened ("Give it to Mikey, he hates everything") but this week they were nice enough that I wanted to pinch their chubby little cheeks.

I'm still sheeterless, so these are hand lamination.  Not bad.  Not happy making, but not bad.

The pictures:

It seems the only time we ever make a plain white bread is for the Thanksgiving croutons we use for the stuffing.  We have all kinds of whole grain SD breads in the freezer; some have nuts, some with seeds, some fruits, some with at least 2 of the 3 and many flush with the works.

So, after promising a few times, here finally is my Wasabi bread. I added 2 spoons of Wasabi and some fried onion pieces to the 1500 g of sourdough.The result is tasty, fluffy, light and got a wonderful crust. A very successful attempt I have to say. I bought myself some cheese and some cooked ham for this occasion. With a slice of tomato and some fresh spinach leave, what a tasty evening snack :). 

Officially done with 20 markets out of maybe 24 that have ensued since I started this fiasco.  Next week would be the last week and maybe worth celebration but for the first time ever they've decided to add a Winter Market.  So there is no end to this everlasting spoof.  I'll probably take a short hiatus with the holiday's and miss some markets and get back on the weekly market come the new year.  

This bread is so tasty that I couldn't wait to share the recipe. I'm listing the ingredients in the order that I used them, and am including the exact brands that I used.

Ingredients:

1 c. warm water   (from tap)

2 Tbs. honey   (Don Victor with comb)

2 1/2 tsp. dry yeast   (Fleischmann's Active Dry)

1 tsp. salt   (Morton's Iodized)

1 cup unsalted nuts and seeds   (Salad Pizazz No Salt Raisin Nut 'N Sunflower)

2 Tbs. Walnut Oil   (Hammon's Roasted Black Walnut Oil)