Blog posts

Last month was SFBI's Artisan 2 class, and I was there! I have no idea if there were any other TFL people in attendance, but there was one group who decided to name themselves, "the loafers" so I did wonder. Then again, nobody mentioned anything about an internet forum, so who knows.

At any rate, I came out of the class and made this,

 72% hydration, 25% pre-fermented flour, and 0.08% yeast, with a retarded final proof.

Last weekend, as I was trying to decide what I wanted to bake next, two things occurred to me.  First, I had only baked one bread from Inside the Jewish Bakery so far.  Second, a rye bread sounded like a good thing.  

This is a Tartine-style loaf I made using 100% Central Milling Old Country Type 85 (high extraction) flour.  I was very happy with the result since I got an extremely tender crumb with the my ideal crumb structure.  I can finally enjoy my favorite Tartine loaf with some added nutrition from this type of flour.  

Here is the final dough recipe which should yield a 3-lb loaf. 

100% CM Old Country Type 85 flour - 725 gr

85% Water - 616 gr

A few months ago I made Tom Cat's Semolina Filone from Glezer's "Artisan Baking."  It was a really tasty bread, but I wanted to try something different.  This week, I made it again, but substituted sourdough starter for the poolish to get another dimension to the flavors.  The results were pretty good.  After cooling, the crumb had a smooth mouth-feel, while there was some chewiness to the crust.  I probably could have baked the loaves a few minutes longer to get a crispier

Visiting my family and friends in Germany I took some photos I want to share.

My friend Michaela likes shopping at an organic farm store at Gut Wulfsdorf. I never sah Laugenbaguettes (pretzel baguettes) or Laugencroissants (pretzel croissants) before. The baguettes tasted quite nice, the crumb was airy but a bit chewier than regular one.

The breads are baked in a wood fired oven at the farm bakery. (This is a batch of Easter Bunny Cookies.)

I think we all agree Phil's breads are awesome. When I saw his latest post, I instantly decided that I want to make the desem bread... but I didn't have a desem starter, and with 2 active starters in my house, I didn't really wanted to make another starter from scratch. But a couple of days later I saw David's post on the same topic and I followed his example.

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

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This is inspired by the brandy roll formula from the book "A Handmade Loaf". I have made 80%+ of the recipes from that book, with variations, all have been great.

Just heard this wonderful news.   The IACP award, which is discretionary, is given to "a book that exemplifies Jane Grigson’s extraordinary ability to put food in a wider cultural context, using diligent but not pedantic scholarship. Jane Grigson, a cookbook author from the United Kingdom, was a prose stylist of high degree. The book should exhibit distinguished scholarship in the quality of its research and presentation."

 Hearty congratulations to you, Stan and Norm, for this well-deserved honor!   

Joy