Blog posts

After taking a go at an olive polenta loaf a few weeks ago, I wanted to try the saccharification process highlighted by Benny in his loaf that's currently featured on the homepage.  I didn't have diastatic malt powder on hand, so I used honey as it's supposed to also have amylase.  The polenta definitely seemed a little sweeter after the process, but then again, I added honey to it, so it's a little hard to attribute the source of the change.  Pretty straightforward approach otherwise.

   I’ve made breads in the past using Guinness but I have to say this version by far was the best one yet.  I combined fresh milled rye, spelt and whole wheat which were all sifted to a high extraction.  I added some mashed potatoes with a little bit of honey and some olive oil for good measure.

A double build was used for the levain but you could easily just do one build if you desire.

Psyllium husk is usually used in gluten-free or keto style breads where the gel that it forms can act as a binder and helps the loaf to retain its structure without slumping.

For a long time now, I've tried using psyllium husk together with my lower protein flours (around 11.5%) to see if I could make a better bread with these weaker flours and the results have been usually somewhat unclear.

So this post is my attempt to describe in one place some things that I've learnt, both good and bad, about the use of psyllium husk in baking in a non-gluten-free context.

I’ve just uploaded a new video to my YouTube channel about dough development.  Novice bakers might find it useful.  In the video I demonstrate some of the techniques I use to develop dough strength.  Hopefully someone finds it useful to them.

My index of bakes.

Fermentation is everything.Photo is of dough right out of fridge after 48 hrs. Amazing movement still after that length of time. Formula has 40g of levain in 400g of flour. TDW 700g. Fed old rye starter from cold storage 2 feedings of T80. Let ferment 24 hrs. Stirred up usual formula with 1 hr fermentolyse and 3 folds in 90 min. Bulk ferment went over but will be a habit from now on! They just get better and better. Amazing crumb and crisp crust with beautiful crumb color due to the bit of rye and wow the flavor. Dough handles so beautifully. Can’t get over this flour.

Roosterkoek (or roosterbrood) are a traditional bread or bread rolls cooked over the braai (BBQ). The name is Afrikaans for rooster ("grilled")  plus either koek ("cake") or brood ("bread"). They are usually eaten piping hot together with the meat.

Inspiration for this loaf came this fall while canning up some of the many cucumbers we grew this year.  Garlic dill pickles are something I really enjoy and felt that combination had potential as a bread as well.  Happy to say that it turned out quite well.  A friend tried it this morning as buttered toast for breakfast and then again as avocado toast for lunch.  He's tried many of my breads and said he thought that this was one of my best.  I'll run with that for now...  :-)

These are the perfect buns to have with your Thanksgiving dinner which we just had this year in Canada.  At 30% whole wheat they have that extra flavour without being too whole wheat for those in your family who don’t like 100% whole wheat breads.  The tenderness achieved by the tangzhong, butter and milk make these so soft and fluffy and delicious, everyone will love them.

So pleased!!! 36 hr cold fermentation and boy did the dough respond. Flavor is terrific as well. Really enjoying this flour… good thing since I have 22 kg! 

Two of our close friends have birthdays this month. We decided to host a brunch for them, in part to give me an excuse to bake a challah loaf again. I thought I’d make a couple of changes to Maggie Glezer’s SD challah. Mostly I thought it needed more egg, so I increased the egg from 3 to four and reduced the water to compensate for the 72% of the egg which is water. I needed the challah to make a peach and blueberry strata. Basically this is a type of French toast that you bake in a pan using cubes of the challah.