Blog posts

I sometimes mention my little home based bakery. Since - as my husband always says - inquiring minds want to know - I will open the door to my Bar Harbor kitchen.

Since 5 years I am licensed to sell breads (and cupcakes) from my home. My kitchen was officially inspected, and I'm paying every year 20 bucks for the renewal of my Home Processor's License.

I am therefore legally:

This past weekend, I restocked the freezer (and my tummy) with three of my four ... No, it's five. Or six. No, .... Anyway, some of my favorite breads.

First, Greenstein's Jewish Sour Rye:

Thanks to Kiesger I have got Green Spelt now.

This is the same recipe and process as in my previous post

Götz Brot - Jürgen's Take

just substituting fine Green Spelt (Grünkern) meal for the light spelt.

The formula is here:

I’ve been away from TFL for some time, and that is mostly due to my father death. He passed away two weeks ago, and I had been busy with his funeral arrangements and dealing with the aftermath of his demise. As it happens, he was also my boss at work for 12 years. I will miss his kind heart. May he rest in peace.

It has been a few months since my last post. Have been busy with work and stuff. Still i have skim through the sites and have seen so many awesome breads baked by our TFLers.

Recently I have been mainly working on BREAD - By Jeffery H.

Tried a few recipes on its sourdough bread. They are all very tasty and perfect bread for toast, sandwiches and even just to have it by itself.

After 2 years baking at home, and 7 months in a professional bakery, I have finally figured out how to consistently get an open crumb in a poolish baguette.  The three things, IMHO, that I was doing wrong every time?  Not having a hot enough stone, UNDER mixing, and over proofing. 

The heart is like grain, we are the mill.

How does the mill know why it turns?

The body is the mill stone, the water its thoughts.

The stone says "The water knows its course."

The water says "Ask the miller, he is the one,

Who sends this water cascading down."

The miller says "If there is no turning,

O bread-eater, there will be no dough."

I forgot to take my SD Starter out of the fridge for baking today, so I used Yeast instead.

Mind you, my kids love this Bread and it tastes fantastic if I say so myself.

The taste is malty and nutty at the same time.

Ingredients

500g strong bread flour

300g wholemeal flour

200g rye flour

  30g salt

  30g butter

Used the middle-class brioche recipe for this bake with some changes.

1) I divided the dough into 3 portions - original, 4% matcha powder added, 8% cocoa powder added. I shaped them into rectangles and put one layer on top of the other, then rolled them up into a log shape and placed it into a loaf tin.

2) I did not put in fridge after developing the dough, which I regretted because the dough was very very soft.

3) I added 1 tsp of vanilla extract

The dough was overproofed because my wife was baking her cakes.

I don't get jealous of the usual list of suspects that crank out the "I gotta bake a loaf of that" breads. I get it that their skills weren't given to them and they had to put in their time at the work bench to learn the craft. They all probably baked a brick or two in their time before they got to where they're at these days. I've already baked a couple of bricks so I'm part way there. I keep winning ribbons at the Leavenworth County Fair where the Mennonite families are stiff competition so I know I'm improving.