I did not have any plans to post this but as a record of by baking journey, I decided to post it today.
There are many reasons why people bake bread...for many it is a basic necessity of daily life to feed themselves and their families; for some it is a business while for others it is simply an enjoyable pastime, a hobby. That's why I started baking bread a few years ago, just a hobby. But after many loaves baked over the past few years I have come to appreciate there is much more to this hobby than I first thought; the reason I bake bread is because of the meditative and calming nature of the process, the honest and universally understood gesture of sharing fresh b
I have another experiment using minimal amount of starter. This time I have not built any levain, and mixed 1 g starter with other ingredients. I tried to adjust the process to my schedule, which is mix in the morning, bulk ferment during the day, shape in the evening, retard overnight and bake in the following morning.
I just recently received a shipment of T65 Moulin D'Auguste which is my go to flour for baguettes. I'll usually breeze thought 30lbs in a couple of months and then restock. with each shipment there's usually a slight difference in the way the flour performs. This shipment however has thrown me for a bit of a loop. First thing I noticed was the usual 72% hydration was incredibly sticky - felt like 80+% and was near impossible to score. A few bakes later and I've found that 65-66% feels about 'normal'.
Today I baked a big (10 loaves) batch of Forkish's Harvest Bread from FWSY. This is a poolish bread with a high percentage of pre-fermented flour, a good proportion of whole wheat flour (stone ground from a local farm) and added wheat germ and bran. It's a lovely dough to handle and bake. I made the poolish in the morning, then mixed the dough in the evening, putting it in the fridge for an overnight retard after about 1.5 hours fermenting at room temperature.
So, you know when your choices are 1) wake up super early to get your loaves in the oven and have fresh bread or 2) don’t bother baking because your day is really busy and go without the bread… Clearly, the right answer is to wake up and bake. Am I right? Well anyway, that’s what happened to me this weekend and here is the consequence of my choice.
One (mostly) white SD
...and one seeded SD loaf
I haven’t baked for the last couple of weekends because I was in Antigua for my niece’s wedding. It was my first time in the Caribbean and it was fabulous. Great resort, great food and fantastic weather. It sure beats what we have been having here.
I am continuing baking breads inspired by CedarMountains recipes from a couple of years ago. This one is very similar but not exactly like his.
Recipe
Last night I made a little Spelt loaf.......... it was SO good that I repeated it again this morning.
I used the Patrick Ryan method.......... but altered the handling times a little :)
This is simply the lightest and tastiest Wholemeal Spelt loaf I have ever made!
Here are my notes if you fancy a go:
(Sorry for the text layout, I uploaded this from my iPhone
Baby Spelt loaf
Just some pictures from my first venture into pita.
I grew up having papo secos (pops), Portuguese buns, on a regular basis. Everything went in these things or just eaten as is or with soft butter. So, when I began baking bread I had to attempt these and have since made them a few times. When memorial day came around a while back I of course had burgers and I used my papo secos recipe to do so and the result was slamming! A few had sesame seeds and egg wash with honey and others were naked as a Jay Bird..... And not to disrespect the original I made the pops too.
