Blog posts

I have baked two breads this past weekend, Whole Wheat Pita, and David’s San Joaquin SD. The whole Wheat pitas, however, were the new favorites after I have finally had success with them.

The whole wheat Pita bread from Peter Reinhart’s (Whole grain breads), and pitas in general have had me intimidated for quite some time. Simply put, they never puffed well even on hot stone, rendering my efforts futile. Not anymore, I learned few tricks from youtube on how to bake pitas and have them puff on stove.

Since my mutant loaf a couple of days ago I have spent great care in both pre-shaping an shaping and the results are much better.  New to sour dough baking on a regular basis I let the first 2 batches proof for an hour and scoring was most difficult.  I suspected over proofing.  On today's bake I proofed the loaf on the right for 50 minutes and it was reasonably easy to score, though I had trouble with the lame and had to use a serrated knife.  The loaf on the left, which proofed longer was nearly impossible to score by any means, so definitely over proofed.

So as all of us who love to make bread, I too, am on the quest to make a perfect baguette.  I've made oodles of variations that are quite good and even great but not "the baguette".  On the same notion I believe there is more than one "perfect baguette".  In fact after working in a few bakeries I've adapted the notion that a well written bread formula can be approached from so many ways.  And in many instances they are all good ways of handling the said formula.  Its in the eye of the beholder and what they are after.

Todays bake was filled with requests…….

Roasted Garlic and Herbs de Provence……...

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Scalded Cracked Wheat and Honey………...

I keep noting the folks on here that are milling their own flour from whole grains. I have never tried it and would like to get my feet wet. What did you buy ? Do you like it or do you have misgivings and think you would prefer another one ? A general overview and  review would be great and help me make a selection. Any tips and advice would be much appreciated. 

As an additional piece  of info where do you get the grains you mill ?  Online or local ? Thanks in advance. c

It is a long weekend here in B.C.  Tomorrow marks our much anticipated summer statutory holiday, British Columbia Day.  This gives me some nice rest from work, perfect for me to produce some bakes worth posting. 

I got an air hole across the top of the whole loaf.  It looks like a cave.  Does any one have a comment?

The Sweet Stuff

I am not much a proper pastry baker but I had a request from my Wifes workmates for some sweet morning breads so I decided to give it a go.

Cracking on with the dough….

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So my love for spelt continues to grow.  I loved the poppy baguettes and thought cranberries with be a nice addition. Continued with the intentionally low profile elongated batard which yields more slightly smaller and more crusty slices.  I tried the staggered retard to get through this bake and was mostly successful but saw the dough acting less vigorously towards the last. bake.  Had they all been baked in the first round all would have been quite well with the world.  

CranPoppy Spelt

Makes 1 - 943 g loaf

Build 1 (12 hours)

2 Starter

  It's been a few weeks since my last post.  I've been very busy, traveling to Costa Rica on vacation which was amazing and upon my return we added another family member to our pack.  I am happy to introduce Max who is our new 9 month mixed breed puppy.