Yeast Water & Other Wee Beastie Bubbles (No Math)
There is a Chinese proverb, of which, I am very fond:
The beginning of wisdom is to call things by their right names.
a Highly Active Culture of Apple Yeast Water
After having delicious lobster rolls with New England style buns at RM seafood in Las Vegas, I became obsessed with soft, toasty rolls with just the right amount of crunch. I decided to buy a New England hot dog bun pan (of course, the buns can be made with an ordinary sheet pan, but I just felt like purchasing a unique piece of equipment).
The formula is from Wild Yeast's blog, there really isn't that much rye in the dough, but has quite a lot of ww flour, as well as cracked wheat and flax seeds - two of my favoriate bread add-ins. The addition of molasses adds a subtle sweetness, makes a very flavorful and satisfying whole grain bread.
After being intrigued for a while about it, decided to give it a shot this evening.
Two questions:
Baking with All-British Flour
I still had some leftover home-grown apples (not from our home, unfortunately). These apples were delicious, juicy and slightly tart. I wasn’t exactly sure what kind of apples they were. My guess would be ‘Golden Delicious’ because of its golden colour and sweet yet tart flavour.
My wife and I took a few days this past week to visit an area of South Africa that we had not seen before: the Drakensberg (Dragon Mountains) in the KwaZulu Natal province. While there, we arranged for a trip over the Sani Pass into Lesotho, a small, mountainous kingdom entirely surrounded by South Africa. And why would I be mentioning this in a bread-dedicated site, you might ask? Well, because of something that we did not realize was part of the tour: a visit to a small village just a few miles past the border.
I recently "discovered" an absolutely marvelous eatery fairly near me here in Sacramento called Ravenous Cafe. We first tried it a couple weeks ago and had a delightful meal, but as a bread freak I was astounded at the really great bread they served, unlike nothing else I remembered. I called them a few days later to learn more about that surprising bread and had the chance to talk to the chef, Mark Helms, who described it as basically a "Country Bread" inspired by Chad Robertson's book
In baking, like in life, when you think you have a pretty good handle on things something comes along that reminds you that you have a lot to learn. Today's lesson was that I don't yet have the skills for excessive handling of generously hydrated loaves.
The bake today was Hamelman's Semolina Sourdough with sesame seeds inside and out. I thought I could lay my loaf in a tray of seeds without something bad happening, but it left me with a wiggle in my batard.
