Blog posts

As Dan said, "bad babka" is a misnomer, and I also happen to think a "bad blueberry" bread is a misnomer. But I'm biased in liking fruit in my breads, and this particular combination of fresh blueberries and lemon zest in the bread is lovely.

Has anyone tried baking sourdough in a wood pellet grill?  Been looking at a Traeger..

Thanks!

Candy

Seeded Rye Sourdough Loaf.. Been a while since I post from here so much to catch up...

Ingredients

Day 1 – Pre-ferment

-50g active rye starter 100% hydration

-100g Whole Rye flour

-120g cold water 5-7c deg

Seeds

-100g Pepitas,Sunflower and sesame seeds +

- Boiling water

Day 2

-Pre-ferment as above

-25g Whole Rye flour

-50g Whole Wheat Flour

-175g Bread Flour

-7g fine sea salt

-30g molasses (black treacle)

-150g Warm Water

Method:

This was a partially successful experiment using pandan extract and coconut milk.  The final bake leaves something to be desired, but my first attempt was a major fermentation fail.  In the first attempt, I failed to account for the reduction in hydration caused by replacing all the skim milk with full fat coconut milk.  The increased enrichment and decreased hydration caused fermentation and rise of the dough to go extremely slowly.  At first I thought that something must have gone wrong with my levain but in the end I don’t think that was the primary problem.

I have been working on a new starter, and you can find details on that in my forum post.  Yesterday's bake was the second bake using it, and so far so good!

Vermont Sourdough with a Cracked Rye Soaker

This was an interesting bake as I don’t remember the last time I just used plain white flour to make a loaf of bread. Reason for making this is that my dad is in dialysis and his diet is extremely restricted. Plain white sourdough bread is allowed. So the only bit of whole grain comes from the starter and comes out to only 25g per loaf. The dough felt very different than what I’m used to dealing with. I added an undetermined amount of water when it was in the mixer because it was too stiff so water amount is a guess. 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Porridge 

150 g rolled oats

300 g water

Dough

700 g Strong Bakers Unbleached flour

200 g freshly milled whole grain Spelt flour (200 g Spelt berries)

100 g freshly milled whole grain Kamut flour (100 g Kamut berries)

50 g freshly ground flax seeds

25 g black sesame seeds

700 g water + 25 g

22 g salt

30 g yogurt

I was reading how UK bakers, especially in Scotland and Ireland, used to bake their batch loaves in wooden frames. That's right - the wooden frame goes INTO the oven! Originally, the bakers didn't even use a frame - it was just lengths of heavy timber inserted into the oven defining a rectangle with the dough pieces inside the rectangle. Interestingly, these lengths of wood were called "upsets".