Blog posts

A while ago I made my first succesfull 100% rye bread (click to open the post). Since then I kept on baking, different sorts of bread, but never 100% rye again. Afraid of failure? NO. But I'm easily distracted and the list of must-try breads is getting longer and longer everyday and there are too many new formulas that I want to try, so I rarely decide to repeat a recipe. Or at least not very soon after I made it.

It was not the case with today's subject.

So, here goes - I've finally got my very own kitchen ALL MINE ::evil laughter::!

My sister gave my mother Bernard Clayton's "New Complete Book of Breads" and my mother promptly said "I quit." and gave it to me, along with all her loaf pans, bread stones and nice big bowl for rising. I am now the family baker. Cool!

Follow along as I do wierd things to perfectly innocent dough!

Here is my second try at potato sandwich bread:

and here is the third:

I finally have a sourdough starter again and this time I'm going to dehydrate some before I kill it again! LOL. I've tried google and can't seem to find any answers.....Do I dehydrate it after feeding it or when my starter is at it's peak? Any advice would be greatly appreciated :)

I am addicted to everything bread.  I guess there could be worse things to be addicted to.  I am constantly trying to push the limits and explore new avenues of bread baking so it was only a matter of time before I delved into the world of Wild Yeast Water.  My good friend DA Brownman has posted about his exploits using this technique on my favorite bread website, The Fresh Loaf.&n

Ok, I'm officially a lurker these days, reading and soaking in others' bread adventures but mostly too busy to contribute or respond.

But here I grant myself an exception because I've come across a sandwich bread which is worth sharing IMHO.

Boule and crumb.

We are continuing to discover a better method of summer baking in the Cuisinart mini oven.  This time we tried Sylvia’s steaming method by using a 1 cup Pyrex measuring  cup half full of water with a dish rag rolled up inside and microwaving it before putting it onto the preheated 500 F mini oven.

I wanted to try using one of my wife's bundt pans to shape a loaf, and see if I could get some nice intricate patterns.  Unfortunately I did not use enough dough to fill the pan adequately so I ended up with a nice ring loaf and not what I intended.

[b][u]Oakland sourdough:[/b][/u]

This is the basic sourdough that I keep around the house. Nearly every sourdough bread that I do is an edit on this basic recipe, which is sort of a combination of Daniel Leader's Pain de campagne and Chad Robertson's Country Bread.

[u]Ingredients:[/u]

310g Sourdough Starter (130% hydration)
250g Water
440g Good quality unbleached AP/Bread Flour
60g Whole Grain Flour (I use whatever I have, WW/Rye/Spelt, etc)
12g salt (I use course grey sea salt)