Blog posts

The No Muss Mo Fuss rye starter is getting up there in age.  This week it was stored 14 weeks and smelled very sour.  Lucy decided to try out some new things just for fun and because she is just that way.  There is nothing she hates more than doing the same thing over and over.  Once is enough for her most always and she has no fear.  She does seem to do a lot more different things than most that way.

I've lurked on this website for quite a while and decided it was probably time to get an account.

I had recently gotten ahold of something called matsoon, a culture similar to yogurt or kefir, but from Armenia. Being the sort of person I am, I was determined to bake something with it.

  I was in the mood for a nice pastrami on rye with melted cheese and a good sour pickle.  I was going to just make my Jewish deli rye formula, but I remembered I had not made a rye porridge bread bread yet, so why not combine the two and hope for the best!

I have to say the taste on this one is fantastic and it's one of those breads you can eat with nothing on it.  The high hydration and  porridge component made this breads crumb super moist.  I love the onion bits dispersed with the rolled oats, rye chops and cracked wheat.

Weekend brekky on the beach with a frothy coffee.

Notes and the recipe.

I found the recipe here - http://treatntrick.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/spiral-apple-bread.html

The things I have changed:
1.  I did not roll out the dough, it did not really work for me, so I kneaded the dough again and proceeded as follows:
Just rolled by hand into a short, fat sausage and cut of pieces that I rolled into smaller sausages. It was easier and quicker to make the roses like this.

A break in the action.  I'd been so busy lately with my batard thing that I neglected the simple pleasures of rolling out a few baguettes.  So I took a time-out and decided to go back to the first (and easiest) of my baguettes formulae, the one that kicked off the whole thing for my attempts at achieving a good result - Bouabsa style baguettes.

Hi everyone, have not been posting much lately due to the busy schedule I was having. Though, that does not mean I have not been baking. I have been wondering on why my bakes are still lacking on the optimum oven spring like most of the gorgeous loaves on TFL. Then one day, I tried out a recipe given by one of the active member in here, Abe. It was a Tartine Bread recipe from My Weekend Bakery. Stuck to the recipe anyway (except that I had to cut short on stretch and fold time due to the hot weather in here).

I simply have not been able to make overnight work! The last time I tried, I finished the final bulk stretch at 5:30 pm and refrigerated it until 11:30 to slow things down. Here is what I had at 7:30 the next morning:

Decided to bake a loaf of bread for a colleague, and decided I ought to make two different versions, just in case one didn't turn out properly.

I am sure many seasoned bread bakers have made very similar loaves to this one, its super easy to make, I just love the style aspect to loaves formed in this way.  By splitting the dough into balls and then placing into a loaf tin, you can produce a beautifully even loaf every time.  This spelt sultana is also nice and sweet without being rich, there is no butter in the recipe!  If you are interested in more pictures and details please stop by http://mybreadandbrot.com/spelt-sultana-toast-bread/

What happens when your must have bread fails repeatedly?   Other than tears and recriminations, a lot of head scratching and experimentation.  This generally leads to upping your game at all levels as you optimize each step of the process, but unfortunately the main problem can remain hidden.