Blog posts

For a few weeks now I have been maintaining my typical Italian style sourdough, experimenting, trying to increase the pH level at it's maturity. I've managed to go from 4.1 - 4.6.
Depending on which schooling of Italian sourdough you follow, methods and guidelines vary slightly. But according to one source optimum pH at maturity is 4.5 but can vary between 4.3-4.8.

Lately I have taken to the method of keeping this sourdough in cold water over the tied in cloth method. But I still use both to keep the acidity under control.

What is scoring?

“Scoring” is the word used to describe the cuts made in a loaf of bread before it is baked. Some breads are not scored. For example many loaves baked in pans are not. However, almost all free-formed “hearth breads” are scored.

When is scoring done?

Pound, pound, pound 'til the wheat berries were ground. Bounded by a creed to heed to the flavours of the grain, I pained and maimed my fingers, arms, and shoulders.

After nearly an hour of mortar-ing and pestle-ing, the seeds bled a fine sand of flour, blotched with bits and grits of bran and germ. And what did my efforts amount to? Just twenty-eight grams (or one ounce) of freshly ground flour.

And that's why grain mills exist.

In keeping with my practice and hopeful improvement, I baked some more of David Snyder's SF Sourdough(using the 4th iteration of the formula).  Today, I got some great oven spring on the batard even with my awful scoring -

Here's the bread after its bake with steam in the oven -

Hi Everybody,

It's about eight weeks since I posted my easy white bread recipe - thanks for all your help and suggestions with that!!!  I put your link on Squidoo saying how great you are and people have been clicking out so I hope you got some new members?!

I've now, after holding off for about twenty years!!! (and eight weeks) had a couple of goes at croissants and been delighted with the result.  I got the confidence after making so much ordinary bread - and when I paid an extortionate amount for a croissant at 4am at an airport when I missed my flight!!

I tried my hand at the 25% whole wheat recipe

Bread Flour: 375g, WW Flour: 125g, 370g water, 7g salt, 2.5g instant yeast.

The poolish was just bread flour and water and a little yeast.

I did 3 folds@ 20 minute intervals and left it to  bulk ferment in the fridge for 12 hours, then let it proof for 75 minutes in my new bread form.

I preheated the oven to 475, then turned it down to 425 once the loaf was in. 20 min in the DO, and 20 more on the stone. internal temp was 207F when I took it out.

I've been working on the requested update of the Scoring Tutorial. I was expressely asked to use "real" bread, instead of the dishtowels I used to demonstrate the use of a transfer peel. I made a batch of my San Frandisco-style Sourdough for this purpose. So, after finishing the third video for the new tutorial (one more to go), I had to dispose of my instructional materials. 

No expressions of sympathy are called for I assure you.

If you are like me and LOVE fruit breads, you will love love love love and LOVE this bread!!

Plus it’s not an all day or week bread and it’s not time-consuming……..

And there are so many variations you could do with this recipe which i WILL rattle on about at the end of the post.

I must say, thinking about what we could do with this lovely base recipe is divine..

Of course we would need to rename the bread though…

TFL'ers,

I have been baking mostly the same bread since I started making bread with yeast this month. 

300 g AP flour

1 tsp yeast

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup water

I tried a couple of new things today - and what is really cool is that they all worked!

1.  autolyse for 30 min.

2. did a french fold. 

3. used a brotform