Blog posts

Yeast Water is alive and it's time to play.  A big thanks to dabrownman for his simple instructions to get this culture going and maintenance.  I highly suggest a post on this as was explained to me for those who might be interested in making their own culture.  Then it will be an archived easy approach to a natural levain.  My YW is being fed with currants/apples and has a lovely sweet hard cider smell to it.  Since it was so young I decided to do a hybrid with some White Starter as backup and to add a bit of the twang.  So I pre fermented 20% of the flour.

Great recipe, I didn't have the 5 or 7 grain meal he mentioned so I substituted a mixture of rye, oat and wheat flakes. Nice sour flavor. I also substituted bread starter in place of the yeast for the preferment.

The dough was really wet, thick. After two hours i had to use extra flour to get the outside dry enough to become workable. I left the dough in the refrigerator for a slow rise and worked great!

Here's the link to the recipe

http://ketex.de/blog/brotrezepte/steinhorster-schrotbrot

Yesterday I made a 95% hydration loaf in my pot using Jason's Coccodrillo chiabatta recipe, but using a sourdough starter boosted with yeast. 

I was a stunning loaf when it came out the oven with amazing oven spring but as it cooled it dropped. I understand that the escaping steam will drop the bread but this seemed a bit much. Why did the gluten not hold it's shape? Should it have cooked longer? The crumb is soft and spongy and totally delicious, so at the end of the day the taste is what counts and personally I don't mind that it dropped - I just want to know why........

t's hard to find a GOOD ciabatta.

Sure, there are lots around BUT are they good?

Mainly no.

The texture and the taste needs to be right and in honesty, it's not the easiest bread to make:)

BUT WELL WORTH IT!!

Since baking my first loaf of 100% sprouted wheat flour loaf and other recipes using this flour I have loved everything about this bread and the use of this flour.  It's health benefits and versatility is no less than amazing.

No wonder my first choice and first bake from RM new book 'From the Wood-Fired Oven' is his beautiful loaf of 100% sprouted wheat flour.

Cash and Carry sells this flour in 50# bags for about 33 cents a pound. I want to use it but 50# is too much for me to store. I live in Portland OR. Looking for people to share  it. Thanks!

Well, it’s fall and the hearty breads are calling.  This turned out to be a fun one with some elements new to my multigrain loaves. 

We wanted to use Josh’s 4 day, 4 feedings, 2 retard levain method and compare it to our normal 3 day, 3 feeding 1 retard method for flavor and sour.  The levain rose well using Josh’s method.

This bake was done almost exactly as the last boule bake with a couple of exceptions. I upped the hydration to 77 from 75% and compensated by autolysing for 40 minutes and proofed for 50 instead of 45 minutes.  I also increased the bake time in the covered cast iron DO from 10 to 11 minutes and finished with 10, convection, turning often.

I just returned from my trip back East.  It was a great trip, we saw all kinds of wonderful things, and the fall colors were amazing.

Definitely one of the highlights of the trip was getting to try real Montréal bagels.