Blog posts

I’ve been playing with freshly ground heritage varieties lately, this is my latest foray into freshly ground wheat.

I bought 2 pounds of locally grown Frassinetto wheat berries at the farmers market last week. Since my wife has given up on trying to be gluten free, I’m now allowed to use our old Nutrimill. Yay!

 I built my levain from DABrownman’s NMNF starter, many thanks for that scheme! I used last week’s leftover RedFife flour and bran for the feedings.

PdC as a modern commercial product is based on modern commercial flours. It has more flavor than white bread, but mostly it does not interfere with the rest of the menu. For Thanksgiving, I took PdC of that school. I knew the first course would be herring – so it had to be a bread that would stand up, to the strong flavors of hearing, but would not overwhelm things like roast turkey and green bean casserole. There was also some white bread.

I have been fiddling with flour types and quantities for my regular weekly bake using 123 as the base formula with an overnight proof in the fridge (~4C).  I enjoy a mix of white and whole wheat, and recently added some rimacintata.  I am really pleased with the results I am getting with 61% white, 21% whole wheat and 18% De Cecco semola rimacinata - quite a delicate, tasty and moist, but not gummy, crumb.  The main pic was (slightly over-) baked this morning, the one inserted below is from mid-October.

I got 48 loaves done for my Xmas orders, and these are 12 extra loaves for those who missed out on the original ordering. I have a dear friend that owns a Fresh Fruit Bouquet place and she gave me space in her commercial freezer to store the loaves. These orders are being picked up there so she offered to do a mini Open House where a few of us will be selling pottery and a few other crafts. We have done a wee bit of advertising and so hopefully we will all sell some of our wares and make a few more people happy. I think I am crazy for having baked 60 loaves over a couple of weeks. 

I first baked proper, PROPER panettone last year, with sweet starter (lievito madre) fed every 4 hours - even getting up at 4am for it - and I have to say it's a serious project. Patience, hard work, at least some bread-making skills, standing mixer (can't really imagine without it), lots of leftover egg whites, a warm place for proving, a warmer place for growing the lievito, hanging apparatus - it's a mission.

Lucy has been crafting bread for my wife of late.  I’m still not eating carbs but she is which is good if you like to make bread and can’t make any for yourself.  We have been trying to stick to her what she likes as best we can and, this week, we didn’t add in a yeast kicker.   The 5 grains were red and white wheat, rye, oat and spelt in equal proportions.

Something about the holiday season and the general prettiness of them gave me a hankering to try my hand at challah bread. Mind you, I don't think I've had it since childhood, but I remember a golden, shreddable crumb under a toothsome crust.

TFL is loaded with all kinds of challah recipes and I finally decided upon zolablue's sourdough spin on Maggie Glezer's recipe, which seemed accessible enough for a relatively new baker and an absolute beginner when it comes to challah.

Cilantro Goat Cheese & Spicy Salami SD

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

150g      50%       Whole red fife wheat flour

90g        30%       Sprouted durum flour

60g        20%       Sprouted kamut flour

figured a few tricks - these are browning evenly every time now with zero muffin top / bottom.  Will follow up with some more pics of the process for those interested ...