Blog posts

I just ran across http://www.localgrain.org/csa, and have signed up for a share. I'm excited to try out some of the heirloom wheats. More info in December when I pick it up.

Whenever I make bread my main goal is volume. Admittedly this isn't the most rewarding feature of bread but I am a technical junkie and love taking things to the limit. Not to mention, I love super-light bread.

This loaf is somewhat akin to the improved loaf I made a few months ago but uses acidity from sourdough to boost volume. Milk and diastatic malt are used to soften the crumb.

These photos were e-mailed to me and Glenn. My younger son, Joel - father of Naomi and Sasha, made Montreal bagels from the formula in ITJB this weekend. He must have had excellent shaping instruction from his daughters. They look better than most of mine.

David

Never give up!

It has been a while since we last made a white bread that didn’t have some outlandish concoction of ingredients to make it healthier than your average slimy white slice.  So we toned this one down as it is meant for the wife’s daily bag lunch.

I’ve always wanted to try Laurel’s Whole wheat buns, and last weekend I had the chance to try one. I’ve chosen the feather Puff recipe, which is an enriched 100% whole wheat bread from the book: (Laurel's Kitchen bread book: a guide to whole grain breadmaking). The recipe calls for  eggs, honey, butter, cottage cheese, and good deal of kneading (15 minutes kneading at least), and makes for wonderfully light buns (for whole wheat, that is!).I had no cottage cheese, and decided to do without it altogether.

This spring, in the preparation for the most recent issue of my online magazine, Bread, I sowed a handful of wheat seeds in a small metal tub on my balcony. As a fun experiment for the whole family (dad, mostly) to see if it’s possible to grow wheat on your balcony. It was. The wheat grew well, and throughout the summer, I watched the grass grow, make grains, and finally turn golden. 

Last week, it was finally harvest time!

I had a hand at making spice rolls using the recipe in Peter Reinhart's book "Crust and Crumb"

Ingredients (per Reinhart)

454 grams un-bleached all purpose flour

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1 Tablespoon instant yeast (see below)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 cup butter

8 ounces (227g) buttermilk at room temperature (see below)

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

2 cups raisins

Procedure

I recently returned from my 3rd trip to China for work this year and the first bread I attempted to make was this one.  I think I must have been suffering from a bad case of jet lag since I ended up with a puddle of cherry cheese which resembled a flat bread.  I like to work with wet dough but I went overboard on this attempt and didn't take the extra cherry juice from the cut up cherr

Holy crap! What a year so far!

So did I go to Madison to be a pastry chef? Or did I stay in Michigan and start bread baking at one the nations best bakeries?

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