Blog posts

Ha, Ha....this time I created a 100% leaven from my 60% stiff starter and used it after 5 hours...didn't float and not rise that much and expected a flop but rise it did!!!

So...next experiment will be to up the hydration a bit more and to see whether my flour and my handling can cope!

Finally! The white wheat berries are back in stock! I bought a bag of it and decided to put it into use immediately by sprouting and milling it into flour. Not sure how it would affect the dough, I started out at a low percentage of 20% sprouted flour. 

For high hydration levains, I've exclusivly used a 125% hydration rye levain for more than a year now, but wanted to return to from whence it came.  This is another Vermont SD, retuning to Mr. Hamelman's 125% hydration AP flour levain formula.  It is just a lovely Pain au Levain bread.  Thin crisp crust and open sweet and "sparkling" crumb.

Beth Hensperger's Sweet Vanilla Challah, to be precise.  These will be appreciation gifts. 

Paul

Okay, the grain bill was different than Hamelman's but the rest of the bread was per the formula.  Good stuff!

Paul

made whole dinner in wood fired oven, it’s a little chilly here in New Jersey but I’m tired of waiting for nice weather.

Wish my neighbors would take advantage of the oven..

At the one of the local bulk stores, I came across some barley flakes. I had been wanting to try barley based on Ian’s porridge breads so barley flakes came home with me. I love cranberries (as if you didn’t know by now) so cranberries were something that needed to be added. Searching TFL for a fruit/barley recipe, I came across a recipe from 2014 by Emkay: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39217/so-many-apricots-and-barley-porridge-apricot-bread.

I've found the more I bake the more I realise what I don't know - like with everything in life...

After a number of bakes where I lacked oven spring and experimented with different flours...I've been given some brilliant advice to  go back to lower hydration and see what happens....So I tried Trevor's 65% hydration loaf but WITHOUT THE OVERNIGHT premix as I know that this totally degrades my weak UK flour from the Champlain bakes.

My sister recently bought a house in Portugal. That got me interested in Portuguese breads and I discovered their treasure trove of breads. For the next few weeks I will be baking breads from that little sunny land and aided by Miguel Forte's blog on Portuguese breads.  Bolo do Caco is from the Islands of Madeira. They are made with a sourdough starter and contains sweet potato. Traditionally baked on a slab over an open fire, mine was cooked in a dry skillet on the stove over a very low heat.