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Like so many of you, I hate to throw away my sourdough starter, so I made pretzels for the first time.  They really turned out very well; a much better first time bake than some of my other first-time experiments!   My husband is a bit picky, and he really enjoyed them.  We ate one fresh out of the oven.  I tried a few things that were different than the recipe, and I think I will do the same the next time I make them.  I really wanted a recipe where the pretzels were boiled, so I found one that was fairly simple.  The shaping will take some practice, but

Just a couple loaves so I don't have to by store bought. Plain 20% Whole Wheat and a Calamata Loaf.

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The plain is for me really, with a spot of Jam fits my coffee just right.

Broadtrip:

So it started with Miller's Bakehouse, Chico Farmers's market found us another bakery, Bouchon Bakery is always worth a visit.  Then we swung over to Wild Flour bread for more loaves. 

So the two rows on the left are all Wild Flour Bread

top left (2 loaves) Dragon:  jalapeno, garlic, and cornmeal

down one:  Olive:  kalamata olives, zaatar, nigella seed

front:  100 % Rye:  caraway, sunflower seed

Second Row from left:

Latest update to the blog index.

2013 The Fresh Loaf Dabrownman’s Blog

1/4/2013 - Panettone - The Last Bake of 2012

1/4/2013 - New Year's Day Pizza and Banana Bread Cupcakes

1/5/2012 - Hanseata’s Sausage Filled Puff Pastry with Cheese

Alnwick Farmers’ Market

Friday 30th August 2013

I have really enjoyed reading other TFL regulars posting about their baking adventures in relation to their local farmers’ markets.   I attended my own local market on Friday of last week and thought I’d do a short blog post with some photographs of the products I offer for sale.   I’ve posted formulae for most of these more than once before, but it may be instructive for me to give more description for each of them here, as they are currently made.

I haven't made this bread in a long time but it is a real treat, and gets devoured as treats tend to do.  The precise formula doesn’t really matter so much with this bread – any light sourdough will do - it is the addition of polenta and pepitas (aka, pumpkin seeds, “polenta pepita” is just more fun to say) that makes the magic.  The combination is featured in Tartine Bread with the addition of rosemary and corn oil but I’ve never tried it that way.  I like the versatility of this herbless version.  A little cranberry sauce on a toasted slice really sings.

As stressful as the last few weeks were for me in the business, I was fortunate to find 3 days to get away to my favourite B.C.

We had a crowd over on Firday night for a pizza party.  Of the dozen balls of dough I prepared, we made 10 pizzas in my wfo with various toppings.  I was the pizziaolo and with all of the activity there were no photos taken of any of the final products :(

This is a favorite here, but i decided to tweak the formula abit as i was short on whole wheat flour. To compensate for the shortage of ww flour, i increased the soaker by 20%. The dough was also fermented in the fridge during the initial fermentation for 7 hours, so i decided to add 1.5 tsp of diastatic wheat malt flour.

Having almost twice the levain on hand, i decided to increase the total dough yield and bake 2.3 kg dough into 4 batards.

A week ago i started my own starter, the wild yeast starter i found here. After a week, my starter looked a bit like an ADHD-starter. Very active, bubbles, smelled nice so even though i planned on baking after 14 days, i already baked something.

And... wauw. Amazing! The taste, the texture... i am in love. I made a Norwich Sourdough, an easy first-time sourdough but one that i will continue to bake.

Some pictures; before final rise overnight in the fridge: