Blog posts

    I was so happy with how my last bake came out using a two step levain build I decided to try it again.  I wanted to use some of the Vermont cheese we bought on our vacation last month and I had a bunch of tasty cherries we bought from the store just begging to be put to good use.

I combined some Artisan Bread Flour from KAF with some high extraction fresh milled Ruby Red Whole Wheat from Barton Springs Mill.  The cheese was a mild Vermont Cheddar that was cubed so it wouldn’t completely melt when baked.

I've been on a bit of a whole grain kick lately, and after a brief back and forth with Dave, I decided to give his 97th Bake a try.  Let the fun begin!

Last week Natalya Syanova of Natasha's Baking posted a short video of a babka with a cream cheese filling that I just had to make. The filling she used was made with cream cheese, an egg yolk,  sugar and vanilla, so you can imagine the resulting flavour, and she also use a brioche base for it to ensure a super soft and pillowy texture.

Instead of using her brioche recipe though, I used a Tangzhong one from Bread by Elise.

After several years of thinking about making a loaf of Portuguese Sweet Bread, I finally did so today.  The recipe came from Bread Illustrated (produced by the folks at America's Test Kitchen) and is very simple.

This is based originally on a Buttermilk Rye that David Snyder posted. He got it from a baker on the net. I’ve changed a number of things but want to give credit for the idea . 

This is another mostly hands off formula. The incredible outcome belies the easy process. This once again proves time and fermentation are your friends . 

2150g dough 2 boules 450 /20 min covered graniteware 

   400/30 min uncovered 

levain: 110g freshly ground rye sourced Breadtopia

Heading to some friends for a celebratory lunch, one of whom is retiring. We cannot possibly arrive with only some flowers and a card, so what better to bring than some home baked bread. In this case I wanted to use fresh Canadian grown blueberries and enhance them with lemon.

A place where I order rye chops also has emmer flour, and I decided to get some.  Looking for a recipe, I found one on TFL by leslieruf.  By and large I followed his description, although there were a few fairly minor differences.

Inspired by a recent post by Eric Hanner’s daughter, I decided to have another go at the deli rye recipe that Eric has shared with us.  As you may know he passed away before his time and although I didn’t know him, I know many of you did here on TFL.  Based on my previous bakes of this recipe, I’ve made small changes which are reflected in the spreadsheet and instructions.  If you’re worried that the onion flavour will be too much, you can just used filtered water instead of the water used to rehydrated the onions.

Aug. 16, 2022.  99th bake.

WW, rye, bread flour, red rye crystal malt, starter, IDY.

I used 20 grams of ground red rye crystal malt for 350 g total flour, which gave a good malty taste, but perhaps a tad too much.  Next time I'll back it off to 5%.

Crumb pics . 😊