Blog posts

David Snyder’s Pizza Post this week was the impetus Lucy needed to use up the last of the Panettone SD /YW levain.  The girls were begging for their favorite poolish Focaccia Romana crust but not throwing away levain came first.

My daughter’s U of A, Chain Gang little, #6, was coming through Gilbert on here way back from CA to the U of A but got caught up in traffic and had to settle for left over pizza instead of right out of the oven.

Pumpernickel rye recipe from Bread Baker's Apprentice. 

Pumpernickel rye recipe from Bread Baker's Apprentice. 

First try with the Poilane-Style Miche recipe. 

In the interest of increasing the odds of my following said resolutions, here's this year's short & sweet list:

I have been busy baking. Not all bread. Been working on my pastry and cakes. Wanted to share some pics for your amusement and inspiration.

First up is my experimentation with the Tzang method, focaccia.

And here it is out of the oven.

Hello everyone and Happy New Year!

A week before Christmas, Chad Robertson's new book, Tartine Book Nº3 arrived – earlier than I was expecting!,
and most welcome :^)

Artisan bread is probably the easiest bread recipe ever. It literally takes no kneading, but it yields an airy, fragrant bread with a nice, crunchy crust and a soft, flavorful inside. Plus, it is very versatile as well because you can add all sort of additional ingredients to it, such as walnuts, chopped olives, fresh or dried herbs, sesame seeds or poppy seeds and even salami or some vegetables.

Prep time: 15 hours
Cook time: 50 minutes
Yields: 2 loaves

To start out the New Year on a different foot, we decided to do a near white bread since the girls love them the most and we were out of them.  The other added benefit is that we got to use up the last of the panettone YW SD levain left over at the same time.  Lucy hate throwing away left overs.

I followed Reinhart's recipe for "Basic Sourdough" and made 2 loaves (1 to give away to a friend).

I finally got some KAF bread flour which seems to have made a major difference and improvement (got good fermentation rises at all phases, and got a very nice oven spring).

1/8th of the flour is WW, and 1/8th is medium rye flour.

I'm watching my carbohydrate intake (am managing my weight ... have lost 20 lbs in the last year) ... so I had a very thin slice with butter - delicious! (although not sour, which is fine)