Blog posts

Inspired by Shiao-Ping's Miche, Pointe-à-Callière from mid-January, and by the excellent efforts of other bakers here, I decided to try my own hand at this loaf.  My wife requested some loaves for her sister's birthday coming up soon, and it seemed a good opportunity to try this.  I have never had Hamelman's book in hand, and have not baked this loaf before, so I followed Shiao-Ping's excellent instructions for this bake.

When I first baked bread back in the late '70's, one of my favorites was the “Pane all'Olio” or “Mantovana Bread” from Marcella Hazan's “More Classic Italian Cooking.” Even then, Hazan referred to this bread as one that “used to be common” in Northern Italy. I have no idea how common it is today. Perhaps Giovanni (JoeV on TFL) can tell us.

After reading this site (and many others) for some time, I have read and learned many tricks and tips from fantastic bakers on how to make a better loaf.  My goal is to just keep improving and making my loaves a little better each time.  I don't really make them for anyone in particular.  My wife will have a piece once in a while but I usually make bread for myself.  I think I've achieved a pretty consistent recipe that yields a fairly consistent loaf, and I would like to use this blog spot to discuss the different cooking vessels for baking the bread.  Although the

I was so happy when my 1 starter white bread came out nice. Tomorrow I will share with everyone at work. My husband had some and said it was very good. I can't get my pictures to work or I would show you. I love the pictures everyone send in by the way.

Here's a Rustic Italian Round I baked today using straight dough method with 15% levain added.

Bakers share recipes on knead-to-know basis.

I'm fighting a nasty cold. I don't have the snowstorm excuse to stay shut in and bake bread, so ... whatever. 

I baked the San Francisco Sourdough from Michel Suas' "Advanced Bread & Pastry" again. Delicious, and not at all aggressively sour.

I've been reading this website for a while, but this is my first post.  Yesterday I baked the Miche Pointe-a-Calliere from Hamelman's Bread.  I made this for the first time last week, and loved it, so I was excited to try it again.  I halved the recipe, because I'm the only one who eats bread in my house and don't know what I'd do with an almost 4lb loaf!  I used a whole wheat as opposed to white flour culture because that's what I have.  And I extended the primary fermentation and proofing time a bit because it's about 70F in my apartment (not 76F which the recipe

I have been working with Mary and Nigel for about 18 months now, providing Consultancy services to help them get their cherished bakery project off the ground.