Blog posts

So I've been hooked to "The Ogre" adaptation of Steve Scott's Grain de Lin from Breadlines   Recently it was brought to my attention indirectly that the hydration is actually supposed to be 109% while I've been thrilled with the loaves I made @ 102%.  I've made a couple small batches of this and decided I should share with my farmer friends as it is so good.  My adaptation replaced the "Lin" with "Oger" or flax with barley along with the decrease of hydration by 7%.  I'm calling it The Ogre Loaf.  

These sort of cinnamon rolls are similar to the one’s here:

 http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/32275/yeast-water-cinnamon-rolls

 With some differences  The 72%  Ghirardelli Dark chocolate that replaced the original chocolate chips.  We used a 70% whole grain wheat spelt and rye flour mix and the dough weight is about 400 g grams less making there ‘mini’ rolls.

If you have thought about getting a sourdough culture going but don't feel up for a lot of watching and waiting, I highly recommend the method outlined by Ian on his now rather empty Ars Pistorica blog. I nearly posted yesterday, because it sure looked like sourdough starter and tasted like it, and had lots of little bubbles. But, I feel, the proof is in the pudding, or my old friend, sourdough bread. So, here I am Sunday morning with two little loaves that managed to surprise me with some solid oven spring 10 hours after bulk fermentation start.

Here is the crumb shot from the Hamelman Five Grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough. 

This weekend I baked Jeffrey Hamelman's Five Grain Sourdough with Rye Sourdough.  I followed the instruction carefully.  It is a very slack dough but handles very nicely. It has a very pleasing taste, but not as pronounced as I would have liked.  Next time I make it I will investigate how to make the starter more tangy.

When I first made this bread (recipe currently on the top right of FL), I froze two loaves.  I baked the first of the frozen loaves today, and it really came out well. I defrosted the dough in the fridge during the day yesterday, and did a stretch and fold and shaping before putting it into the covered baker to retard in the fridge overnight.

I just bought and started experimenting with Tartine Book No. 3. I don't have the others, but I did some reading online (especially tartine-bread.blogspot.com, now girlmeetsrye.blogspot.com). Based on her recommendation, I'm working with a 100% rye, 100% hydration starter that I started at the end of May. So far I've made 3 recipes from Book No. 3, and decided to sign up here in order to start a record of my loaves where I can relate photos to recipes.

Yesterday, I baked a bread based on Ken Forkish's "Pain de Campagne" from Flour Water Salt Yeast. Forkish's is basically a white bread. Mine is made with 500g AP, 200g WW and 100g Rye in the final dough. (The levain contains 160g AP and 40g WW flours.) I also omit the instant yeast. We really like this bread.

Today, I made a German-style rye bread. 

David's (dmsnyder's) San Joaquin sourdough is my new go-to bread. I've made it on four separate occasions over the past 2 weeks. I love the convenience of the method that David developed based on Anis Bouabsa's baguettes. My only change is to use more rye. I use about 15% whole rye in the final dough and in my levain. My hydration is usually around 76-77%.