Blog posts

I have been pretty terrible at getting a regular dose of my TFL (as you can tell by the 8 month gap between entries), but this has been an incredible transition in my life. About 6 months ago, back in Georgia, life was not going our way, what with unemployment and money issues closing in on us with no relief in sight. So we called up a priest that my husband had the good fortune of meeting and staying on his ranch some time ago. Why? We're not sure how we came to that conclusion.

Hello all, my name is Jonathan, and i recently (less than 2 months ago) started baking the bread at the restraunt i work at.  I am extremely excited to have this opportunity presented to me.  I started the first couple of weeks making somewhat dense dough using http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/rusticbread <-- that recipe.  the more i made the more open my crumb became, and now ive tweaked the recipe (shown below) to my liking.

We are only half way through spring and already the temperatures feel like summer. Hot windy days with no rain have left our lawn and garden golden brown and crunchy. Over a railing in the back yard, well hidden from the scorching afternoon sun a star jasmine has been thriving and filling the kitchen with its scent. We now wake to the morning call of stormbirds.

[url=http://www.flickr.com/photos/67856223@N06/8110781806/][/url]

Following up on the success I had with the 36 hour Durum Semolina SD bread I made last week I wanted to try a Pain au Levain version and see if I could get similar results.

Usually, when I bake, I bake. A lot. The more bulk in my fermentation, the better. This weekend, however, I only did two small bakes; some demi baguettes and a couple sandwich loaves. I feel incomplete...

I know I've been slacking on the posting lately, so here's my pictures post of some recent breads I've done.

I've been lurking around for a very long while now, not really posting at all, just enjoying everyone else's content. But recently, my eldest son, 6, has been found to be sensitive to wheat and dairy, which throws a rather large spanner into my wonderful world of bread baking. However, onwards and upwards. His favourite bread is (was) marbled rye, from BBA, I believe I have posted quite some time ago some pictures of it.

So I created a gluten / dairy free version of it:

I have not made any rolls in a while and since my wife insisted on some "simple" rolls for our lunch sandwiches this weekend I decided to whip something up using instant yeast instead of my sourdough starter or yeast water starter.

So the past few attempts at my sourdough boule were a flop. A conglomeration of under-proofing, crappy shaping, sticking to the brotform were to blame. So I took a look at the recipe again I decided to make some big changes from the original.

Changes:

1. Basco AP flour (awesome stuff) instead of King Arthur Bread flour
2. Hydration from 60% to 70%
3. 2 day cold autolyse (bc of my schedule)
4. 12 hr instead of 24 hr cold ferment

Outcome....

OK, so I came up with a general recipe last night that would scare the socks off even the meanst ghoul. I need some input though.

It's going to be a zombie bread. I want to make a sourdough with a mix of AP and Whole Wheat and, the best part, I want to use squid ink as part of the hydration percent to color the loaf black and add pistachios and cranberries for color and flavor. The thing with squid ink is that it is salty so I'm trying to figure that part out. 

Any comments?