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Visiting my hometown Hamburg in May, I didn't really expect to bake anything. But our little Airbnb apartment in Schanzenviertel, Hamburg's youngest and dirtiest most colorful quarter, had a fully equipped kitchen, and I had some time on hand.

Occupied house in Schanzenviertel

My last week end’s bake was from a book I haven’t baked much from, “Crust” by Richrd Bertinet. So far, I have only baked the baguettes with a preferment and it was quite delicious. My second take on the book was: Dark Rye bread with raisins.

I had my suspicions for a high a percentage Rye leavened with commercial yeast, as all my early rye bakes flopped when baked only with commercial yeast. However, I was relatively reassured  that the overnight white biga should bring the necessary acidity to help Rye perform well.

Peering over my computer monitor I can see it is still raining. My computer lurks in the smallest room in our house with a single window that allows a narrow view through to another room and then another window before a tiny glimpse of the outside world finally emerges. My computer cave seems so removed from the country roads under expansive skies that I was travelling on the week before.

After an extremely challenging work week, I needed to get my mind back to home.  Nothing does it more for me than a few country style whole grain loaves.  I tried this formula for the first time, and was pretty happy with the results.  Will make some nice veggie sandwiches for today's picnic in the park.

This is the bread I have been practicing on in the last few weeks, it came out really good, huge success with everyone who tested it. and I consider it to be my first success with 100% Whole Wheat.

Formula: 

250g of whole wheat flour 

150g of water

4g of yeast 

0.25 TBS of salt

25g Canola Oil (Corn Oil will work the same)

1.5 TBS Dark Brown Sugar

30g Whole Rye Grains

30g Flax Seeds

Technique:

So I have been mostly creating fomulas for this project with the exception of last weeks Cherry Almond which was just a slight tweak to a common formula for fruit and nut breads.  I scrolled past this formula on Yeastspotting and it looks just like a loaf I always crave titled "Peasant Bread" at a nice Artisan Bakery on the East Coast.  Unfortunately there are so many plays on the theme of Peasant Bread I couldn't just google it.  I've been meaning to contact that bakery and see if they'd be willing to share but just never got around to it.

We bought some chicken Buffalo style sliders the other day so I wanted to make some tasty buns to go with them.  The buns needed to be hearty enough to hold the burgers and the fixings as well as soft enough like a hamburger bun needs to be.

I adapted a recipe from KAF and made several changes including the flour types and changes and additions in several ingredients.  I added some dried onions and some Parmesan powder to give it a little extra flavor and just enough honey to round out the flavor profile.

After seeing Ian’s post using buttermilk and Greek yogurt I just couldn’t resist taking one of our normal multigrain breads and having a go at it to see what the taste difference would result.  Plus Lucy is always one to try new and interesting things in bread so that she can DaPumperize them later.

Recently I decided it was time to try to learn to make baguettes.    My strategy has been to make baguettes every day, both to get practice and to try different approaches.    Since I am making them so frequently and often tucked in the middle of other bakes, I don't always have good records.  That hasn't been much of an issue, as these are practice baguettes and haven't been that terrific.    The other day, though, amidst baking other bread, I made the tastiest baguettes ever.    Unfortunately my records were incomplete, and