Blog posts

Check this out for slicing round loaves!

https://etsy.me/3xzO4tZ

Hi everybody,

Made two loaves using the method of spacing out bowl kneading and slowly developing gluten.  For one loaf, did the 3rd and 4th sets of kneading at 15% and 30% on the aliquot.  For the other, did them at 25% and 50%.  Wanted to see how far I could push fermentation with this method (starting with a low inoculation).

I had never heard this origin story for baguettes: that they came about as an attempt to cut down on knife fights in Paris by creating a loaf that met weight requirements but didn't require a knife to cut like boules and miches do.

Wikipedia lists a few other possible origins. Regardless, it makes a good story!

This is my submission to the Community Bake - The No Comfort Zone Bake.

The write up is here: 

Community Bake - The No Comfort Zone Bake | The Fresh Loaf

Cheers,

Gavin

In my quest to make a perfect, consistent, large miche (~2kg), I have made a slow transition from partially yeasted to my current formula, which is sourdough only, 80% hydration. I'm learning that different flours behave very differently, and many of my experiments have resulted in mud, pancake-flat loaves, giant air chambers, flying saucers etc. 

•  To learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS), please see here and here. 

Ingredients (pre-warmed and maintained at 30-32C/86-89.6F throughout the process):

50% freshly ground, unsifted whole wheat (All the whole rye/wheat flours I bought are rancid.)

42% freshly ground, unsifted whole rye

8% whole rye CLAS

30% + 9% water

Here we report an experiment designed to increase a levain's natural yeast titre.  Possible* novel aspects are (1) an "Overnight" version of Raisin Yeast Water (ORYW) and (2) growing SD levain in undiluted RYW.  (*nihil sub sōle novum when it comes to bread baking but I don't recall seeing exactly this described before)

Materials & Methods

First loaf-bread bake with Patel's house brand 100% WW stone ground durum. For a picture of the bag, see here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/comment/469299#comment-469299

It was $7.99 for a 20-pound bag, $.40/pound.  Ingredient list is just "durum whole wheat."  No enrichments.

I've done tortillas, pizza crust (didn't let it autolyse/soak enough), and noodles, but this was the first loaf bread with this flour.