Blog posts

Hello! How about a bit of french pastry?

This is for the stray canele junkies who appear here on occasion.  We know that getting the tops to cook is a serious challenge. There is a lot of debate about how to mix batter, how to pour etc. I find the tops cook well only in a very thin heat range and require good timing on you temp drop.  For my setup its 440F on convection with the mounds directly on stone.  Then after 20 minutes a drop to 385 for another 35 minutes and Bob's yer uncle ;) 

Since Jeff Bozos took my malt off the shelves at whole foods I decided to resort to misting my loaves with the Maltiest think I could think of.  Yeah that's right, sticky goodness of Mickeys big mouth.  For the record my own little quirk when baking is to dissolve some barley malt in my spray bottle and lightly mist just prior shutting the door.  Makes for a nice glossy crust.  

Wanting to recover from my last two disasters of babka bakes and applying what I learned from them.  We do truly learn more from our disasters than our successes (thanks Dan).  I decided to try to use some Matcha powder I recently purchased and make a babka with a much drier filling that would avoid the pitfalls of soggy crumb.  I am adapting the same recipe for sourdough babka by Maurizio of theperfectloaf.com.  

The importance of Dough temperature in Baking, DDT, FDT and more(learned from @maurizio theperfectloaf.com) Thank you! ? There’s a lot more to learn! 

DDT - 26°c Deg x 4 = 104-(24+19+26(25.5))= water temperature 

Flour - 24°c

Room temp - 19°c 

Starter - 25.5°c

Water - 35°c

Friction Factor - 0(if mixing by hand) 

24+19+26+35 = 104

After 5.5 hours of Bulk Fermentation - 26°c(25.9)deg Final Dough Temperature

Jan. 16, 2021. This turned out to be a mini-miche.

The goals for this bake are to tweak the previous bake, #30, by increasing the percent of whole wheat, pre-soak the add-ins, and weigh some things so others can better replicate it if they want.  The poppy seeds and maybe the corn meal in the previous bake were not quite soft enough for my liking.

First mix. All mixing and folding-in was done with a silicone spatula/scraper.

I love adding Guinness to bread dough. It really adds a distinct flavor that is worth experiencing. It doesn't taste like beer so don't worry about that part.

I used some fresh ground whole wheat Ruby Red from Barton Springs Mill, freshly ground rye and freshly ground red corn flour. The cottage cheese doesn't add any flavor but does make the crumb softer.

Jan. 14, 2021.

This started out as a bake of Steve Gamelin's 50% WW loaf, as shown here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcmS7uahscI

His formula is volumetric:

A continuation of JMonkey's Desem with a whole wheat soaker (the epoxy method outlined in Whole Grain Breads) and an aliquot jar for proofing.  Bulk fermentation ended at <= 25% and final proof ended at around 75%.

Notes: