Blog posts

Bread and Roses

Spring 2013

Finally, this post is coming together!   It has been a long time in the making, and in the meantime it’s “all-change” here at TFL.   The re-vamped site looks great Floyd, and I am about to experiment with all the new upload options now made available.   I gather I should be able to embed my own videos; well, let’s just see how I get on shall we?

The other day I was baking a lot of bread, and had excess white starter on my hands.   I knew that I had (or would have) too much bread on hand to make more, but what about later in the week?   Maybe I would run out and wouldn't have time to bake.    So I took my excess starter, added flour, water and salt, mixed it up, put it in a lidded tub and stuck it in the refrigerator.   Two days later, sure enough the bread had run out.   So I removed the tub from the refrigerator.   The dough was totally aerated, but did not have a so

i baked this with a wonderful blogger in mind.. inspired by his colorful personality and his no boundries yet no nonsense bread baking. if you missed out this blog of his, here is the link http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/32553/sd-yw-durum-ricotta-bread-pistachio-nuts-pumpkin-millet-seeds

finally, got a good ear to my loaves :) 

I promised myself the other day, that I’ll try Mark Sinclair’s  (TFL member mcs) Potato rolls. My kids desire soft enriched white breads;  and as i watched in regret my wife’s grocery bags carrying bland/cottonty mass produced rolls, this was my chance to try out Mark’s wonderful rolls featured in his latest video.

Well, here they are..the results of my "bread day". Not perfect, especially the scoring, but hopefully an fun gift for someone who doesn't really bake. They are all based on the basic sourdough recipe in BBA. I replaced 25%-33% of the flour with rye, spelt, or semolina, and increased the hydration by about 1 oz.. I also proofed these a little longer than called for, about an extra hour total, as it is only about 67 degrees here, inside and out.

The finished loaves. The three you can see in this picture are the semolina loaves, which I think turned out the best. 

I was wondering what that burning smell was when I tried to preheat the oven...I couldn't find anything! But then, up in the back corner, I found the basket of bread I had put in there (cold!) to proof. In my defense, I am making 9 loaves so there was a lot to keep track of! Anyway, I have been meaning to start a blog here, and I had a whole long introduction planned out, but I think this says it better: Overachiever messes up in a REALLY dumb way. :)

Willie Mae’Big Mama’ Thornton is a Blues Legend.  She didn’t write but had her biggest hit with Hound Dog which was written for her.Elvis had a big hit with it later.  She was a 6’tall, large in; voice, frame and width being well over 200 pounds.  She drank hard too and never turned down a drink from a listener.  She taught herself to play harmonica and drums as well as anyone could and often played both while on stage as she sang. 

Today for our 3 pm dinner of Pork Kabob's, excuse me, that's Pork Kabab's with a Cucumber, Yogurt Sauce.  Inspired by a Saveur magazine recipe.   I wanted a nice easy Naan/Pita bread on the thickish side to enjoy with the PK's.  This was a first for me making a Naan and, I quickly settled on a recipe I found surfing around.  I changed the whole wheat flour addition to an organic white whole wheat, I had been wanting to use up.  I added quite a bit more AP flour.    

This rye recipe is my Chilean version of my favorite rye ratio recipe using a rye sourdough starter and the addition of chia seeds that increase the dough hydration yet maintain a nice shape.  Use a large Dutch oven for a free form shape. 

I designed this recipe for one narrow tapered loaf pan:   cm: 30 x 11 x 7.5   or   inches: 11 3/4 x 4 1/4 x 3