Blog posts

I’d like to share my basic sweet dough recipe which I’ve found really reliable and versatile. I bake a lot of buns and tea breads as that’s the preferred breakfast fodder in my house... And before you say they are best from the oven – of course, but I freeze them as soon as they cool down and – though not warm – they are as good as defrosted. Show them the oven if necessary.

I have already posted todays attempts here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/45745/my-accidental-bread-haha

So I guess I can make a note of it as it's 'my' blog ..... hehe :)

The last whole grain yeast water bread I made was possibly under fermented realized from the very good post that Yippee made. This time I wanted to take it to the other extreme. All the flours used were high extraction with just the biggest bits sifted, an extraction rate of 90-95% depending on the grain. This bread was a throw together bread where nothing is actually measured. The flours were Spelt, Kamut, Turkey Red, and some sprouted multigrain that was left over and I don't remember exactly what was in it.

  It's nice to be home after a two week business trip to Asia.  I'm always happy to bake some fresh bread after eating pretty crappy bread most of my trip.

I used some Buckwheat flour I had recently purchased from KAF and combined it with some freshly milled hard red whole wheat along with some French style flour and potato flour.  Barley flakes were added for some additional flavor.

Not very successful because I didn't proof the dough enough after the folding....so it didn't double...but still...it tastes good!

I like the flavor with Rye flour and banana..

I'll just add a couple of photos with a little explanation. Recipes are not being followed anymore. Just a bit of this and that and experimenting.

I know, I know. Not a good way to start, presenting a cheating loaf in my first post. But this is an interesting little number and well worth trying, for when you can't be bothered to feed your starters, or just for a change.

The starter is made with a little rye flour plus white bread flour and more for the main dough, but I've tried adding a mix of white and wholemeal in the past and it works fine. The nice thing is you can throw in seeds and whole grains, flavour it with herbs - it will take it all without protesting.

I was a busy week around the homestead.  We hit 100 F for the first time and it was 86 F in the kitchen.  It was Cinco de Mayo and we were continuing our quest to make better pastrami than Katz’s in NYC at home in the smoker. 

Thought I'd share some pictures of my first bake with the Sperry Organic Bread Flour I recently purchased. I bought a 50 lb. bag (for $37) so I was really hoping it made some good bread. I am really happy with how these loaves came out!

Happy today - I baked my biggest single batch for the pre-order customers, and everything actually worked out! It was 13 loaves of Rye Sourdough using Peter Reinhart's recipe from Crust and Crumb (with a few minor modifications). Over 10 kg of sticky rye dough and Max (the 30 quart Univex mixer) handled it without a whimper or a wobble, even at almost speed 2 for six minutes. The dough was strong and elastic and I was SO glad I didn't have to mix all that by hand. I hate dealing with dough that has a high rye flour content; it's so sticky!