Blog posts

 Hello, bread club members and guests. Today (New Years' Eve 2022) I will endeavor a two-part project.

First, I shall bake a semolina Italian bread, typical of what can be found on the Island of Sicily. The inspiration for this bake comes from Inumeridieri's recent bake of Mafalda bread.

Hi TFLers! I hope you are all doing fine. Work has multiplied exponentially that is why I have posted and even baked and cooked less and less. I baked this quite some time ago but only managed to post it now. This is inspired by another baked sushi flavor that I make for the family.

Dec. 29-30, 2021.

Goals:

• About 1200 g of mostly whole grain dough to fill an 8" inner diameter banneton which matches well with the pot of the 3.2 quart Lodge Combo-cooker.  This is also the maximum size that fits in a 1-gallon zipper seal plastic bag. After the loaf cools (2 hrs), I like to keep it in a plastic bag to soften the crust.
• 25% Malsena brand (Lithuanian) whole rye, 55% BRM stone-ground whole wheat, 5% whole grain durum (roller milled, Sher Brar Fiber Wala), 15% white flour (AP + bread).

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Dec. 29, 2021. Wednesday.

No bread today (sorry, Benny, didn't get to the Hokkaido bread today), but still had some fun with flour......  I feel like I've got my pasta dough down pretty pat at this point......

400g Caputo Antimo 00

3 large eggs

Tomato paste (to make the liquid equal 230g)

I received a 2 kg bag of Anita’s Organic Mill sprouted whole spelt last week and was excited to try working with more spelt than I have in the past. I haven’t had the best of results with spelt. As you know The gliadin/glutenin ratio is significantly higher in spelt at 3.5, than in wheat at 2. As a result spelt’s gluten is more extensible and less elastic. This typically results in spelt loaves spreading and not achieving good oven spring. That has been my experience with whole spelt.

I'll preface this blog post with a big THANK YOU for the input, insights, and recommendations from my prior thread about needing to find my way back to the right timing for my regular loaves.  I think I've got it (pending a look at the crumb, but I'm pretty confident from the exterior and the heft (or lack thereof)) of my most recent bake.

430g AP

430g Bread

116g WW

116g Durum

58g Rye

240g levain

794g water

26g salt

The breakdown on the process this time was.......

I had some leftover chocolate babka slices in the freezer that needed to be used up. When deciding what to do with it, I found this recipe:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7177/bread-pudding-ii/

I decided to make my own version and used that as the base. 😉

Take 1 - Following(?) the recipe

This did not end up being the greatest example of following a recipe as written, but that was the guiding intent.

Changes to formula:

- Reduce sugar to 15.%
- Increase salt from 1.0% to 1.5%

- Use non-osmotolerant yeast (SAF instant red) and reduce to 1.0%

- Replace 5.0% instant potato flakes with 4.0% potato starch
- Substitute 50.% milk for 5.0% dry milk, omitting water
- Replace citrus extracts with citrus zest
- Replace vanilla extract with vanilla sugar