Blog posts

Wanted to post this because I got schooled by this today. The recipe was the basic sourdough from The Bread Baker's Apprentice. I added a significant amount of additional floor because what I was using was new to me and the dough didn't feel right. After 4 hours of bulk rise (also and fold every 30 minutes) I tried to shape it into batards and they would not hold. I couldn't get what I thought was the right surface tension, and they rose flat. I almost have up but figured at the worst is have good crutons. Glad I didn't give up though... The oven spring totally saved the day.

I haven’t done this bread since the spring so it was time to give it a shot with the slap and fold method that I have been using for the last little bit. I increased the amount of whole grain a bit to get a bigger and healthier loaf. Hoping that this isn’t too much for the 3 quart Dutch ovens I have. 

Recipe:

 Makes 3 loaves

200 g spelt berries

200 g rye berries

200 g Kamut berries

820 g unbleached flour

50 g freshly ground flax

950 g filtered water

26 g Himalayan pink salt

40 g local yogurt

In my previous toasted popcorn SD post, dabrownman offered the suggestion of sprouting popcorn to soften the grain. What a brilliant idea: sprouted grains always have superior flavour!

Spinach Feta SD with 30% Sprouted Popcorn

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

Haven't baked in a while as dealing with family health issues.  Finally ran out of bread so had to bake and I wanted something different.  I liked the bread I baked for 123 community bake so that was my starting point. Pictured loaf is based on 123 but flour mix is:

bread flour 65.5%, Kamut 14.5%, Spelt flour 10% Durum 10% and hydration ended up at 84% approx with 1.8% salt.  Usual 200 slap and folds followed by coil folds 4* 30 minutes apart. preshaped, rested 30 minutes, shaped and left on bench for an hour before retarding over night.  

I was thinking about grass a few days ago while finishing the last lawn mowing of the season and while not really appreciating my lawn grass as such, was struck by the fact that wild grasses are the archetype for the many grains we use to make our bread.  Many species/strains of wheat and other grains can trace their origins as wild grasses that have been cultivated, modified and preserved over many years as food crops.  So, with that in mind, I baked what I decided to call "Grass Bread", as inspired by the grass roots of our modern grains. 

I just had probably my last bake with a class of students at the college before it closes for good at the end of this year.

This was a dough that they had down in their work books as a basic bread dough but i would have it down as an enriched dough as it had 8% butter and 8% milk powder, for me it would qualify as a vienna dough.

 It was a fresh yeasted dough  and made a nice selection of dinner rolls and a few loaves like this one i bought home.

My DH was asking for a plain sourdough. But it's a little too boring for me. So I made a high hydration loaf and coated it with sesame seeds. 

500g Organic AP flour

262g water (over poured a bit)

150g Levin built from NMNF rye starter and whole wheat flour over 2 days

13g salt

 This morning's PdC made in a hurry; but good.

About 6am I ground 25 g rye and 175 g of red winter wheat as fine as possible, then added 400 ml of water, a tsp of instant yeast, and 100 g of very good starter, stirring well. I put a shower cap on it and let it sit at 85F for a couple of hours.

Then, I used a wooden spoon to stir in 400 grams of GM bread flour making a rough dough, put the  shower cap back  on it, and put it back its proof box for half an hour. 

I came home to see that my levain was doing quite well in my Doraemon bowl! The CO2 got trapped by the cling wrap. Interesting.