Blog posts

This weekend, I baked Pain de Campagne from Flour Water Salt Yeast.  I used my own levain, which I have been keeping alive for a few months now and which comes from Chad Robertson's Tartine recipe.  I dont understand why Ken Forkish uses so much flour in his starter, so I figured that I would just stick to my own levain without trying to emulate his recipe.  I only use about 150 grams of flour mix (50/50 AP and whole wheat), 75% levain, and 150 grams of water.

In the last few years I have been researching online and at the library for an authentic Schnecken recipe in the Cincinnati style.  Our local Schnecken, or sweet roll similar to a cinnamon roll or sticky bun (but not), was popularized here by German bakeries in the mid twentieth century and sold by The Virginia Bakery and other local establishments around the holidays.  Most recently I have seen renditions of the confection sold by Buskens Bakery, Frieda's, The Cincinnati Cookie Company and a few others.

There is nothing like authentic German Pretzel Rolls hot from the oven.  I made these to bring to a friend's house for Christmas Eve and everyone was raving about them all night.

Rose formatting.

Loaf shape.

The 100% rye was a completely different animal. Using a combination of white and medium rye flours, the dough was really strange and plastic--more like working with soft modeling clay than bread dough. Being the first time I'd done this, I just trusted the recipe and hoped for the best.

Rises were long, probably owing to the cool temps in the kitchen. The first rise was around 5 hours, the second almost 3. It came out of the brotform still fairly dense and heavy for its size.