Blog posts

 My wife and I like porridge for breakfast.  The porridge always includes oats, nuts, and fruit but otherwise it is not really constrained, and I am always looking for ideas. Recently I picked-up  Bob’s Red Mill 10-grain Breakfast cereal, but it was not really a winner – we did not really like the texture, so I ground it into flour for my Pain de Campania series.

It made a surprisingly good addition to my Pain de Campania.  It was worth thinking deeply about.

I saw this beautiful image of a Pain Fendu from a very inspired baker http://picdeer.com/media/2004093069051294434_3455206222 and this was the over ambitious and a bit impromptu attempt to recreate something similar.

I basically mixed a  80% Champlain and rolled it out in the middle, degassing the dough quite a bit and then with the split at the bottom put it into a banneton. 

This is my attempt as David's lovely formula and I am glad that today a friend who has often been to San Francisco sampled the bread for me and said that indeed it reminds him of San Francisco on a sunny day in the UK! He very gladly took also a loaf home with him too....

I decided a few days ago to bake dmsnyder's SF Sourdough loaf take 4, which was marked "the best version" on his list of recipes.

I followed his recipe exactly.  Except that I had to make a few changes.  And I made a few more changes because they just made sense to me.

Firstly, I mixed by hand.  I don't have a machine.

Second, instead of whole wheat flour, I substituted whole rye flour.  This, I think, at least doubled the sourness factor.

Sourdough Bread: March 30, 2019

David Snyder

This is another hybrid bread. It differs from my last bake in the following ways:

1. I have increased the whole grain flour to a total of 30% of the total flour by adding 10% Kamut.

2. I have increased the final dough hydration to 75%.

I've commented on this in the past, but it's remarkable how much neglect a starter can go through and still be able to rise well after a few feeds. I fed my starter Friday morning, then Friday night and again Saturday morning. Admittedly I used my proofer box after the Saturday morning feed. It hadn't been fed in a few weeks. I used all the starter from the previous feeds to build up volume and had no discard. My first feed was 1:3:3 and went 12 hours, my second was the same and went for about 14 hours, my third was 1:2:3 and went for about 6 hours to a triple in volume.

When I put in my order of grains from Daybreak Mills, I included a bag of Buckwheat. Tartine 3 has a recipe for Toasted Buckwheat Groats with Crème fraîche so I took my inspiration from there. Having a litre of local yogurt in the fridge, I subbed it out for the crème fraîche, used durum wheat and some Buckwheat flour instead of what he called for, and also cut back on hydration.  The formula was also adjusted for 3 loaves.  

 Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Add-ins

150 g Buckwheat Groats, toasted

Ok, I’m going to be honest here. I didn’t really want to make flatbread. However, given that I had no choice but to retard this bake for around 20 hours, I knew for sure it’d turn itself into flatbread anyway. Who cares about the shape when you need bread desperately? (What? You do?)

30% Germinated Red Rice & Purple Rice SD with Smoked Gouda

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

I am so happy that people have posted that they had problems with Tartine. This is my third time making the country bread and it just doesn't feel right, literally. Here is what I got, or better, don't get...

It was Friday again and again time for my 4 loaves for friends...

I saw a Semolina Sesame loaf in Tartine 1 and another sesame seed loaf in Tartine 3.

Then I had a look in the larder and also had some Khorasan/Kamut left and had a golden vision formed  in my head with all those seeds too.....

25% Caputo Semola Rimacinata

25% Doves Farm Kamut/Khorasan

50% Strong Canadian Flour

80% water, 2% salt, 15% roasted sesame seeds and more seeds for outside..