Blog posts

After the two bakes of milling farro, whole wheat and spelt for whole grain breads that had sprouts, scalds and seeds in and on them where the milled flour was so beautiful to look at and great to work with at 90-100% hydration, we thought we would do something we rarely do…… make a white bread that had nothing in or on it!

a second photo for my first blog entry.

I found the basic recipe for this bread in Dan Lepard's "The Art of Handmade Bread".....and took a few liberties.

My white flour starter was 16 oz and I added a 1/4 cup of buttermilk, 2 tablespoons of honey and 2/3 cup of shelled pumpkin seeds.   The result was two large loaves of tasty, chewy rustic bread.    Lots of flavors with the rye and barley flour plus the pumpkin seeds inside and outside seem to be a nice addition.

The following worked up to be ~4.5 lbs of dough:

16 oz active white flour starter

1.75 cups water with 1/4 cup buttermilk

I had made this bread some time back but thought of sharing with you guys today. It's one of the first shaped breads that I tried. I forgot to take a shot of the crumb, will remember next time I bake it.  Recipe and method is from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice

Sorry Folks I have been super busy and I let my starter die by mistake. I am still trying to get caught up on all the posts, sorry if I didn't comment.

Anyway, I have a new starter now and this was the first bake from it, one a classic Sourdough, one brushed with Arugala-Basil Pesto, and a Boule.

The Culinary Center of Kansas City was rocking in the rye this past Friday, when I had the privilege of teaching another full-day class on rye breads.  It was a lot of fun to work with a group of students who were eager to learn and had lots of great questions about everything from flour to techniques.  We made three different breads: the Rustic Pumpernickel from ITJB, Eric’s Fave Rye, and a Vort Limpa that I customized from various on-line sources. 

However, before the class, there was preparation.  And before preparation, there was shopping.

Errötende Jungfrau - Blushing Maiden

During these hot and humid days - very unusual for Maine - I didn't bake much, only the breads I sell to A&B Naturals, our local organic market. But, instead of talking about breads, I'd like to share some fruity, tangy summer desserts I made.

You'll find the recipes on my blog "Brot & Bread".

My family has two favorite summer desserts, both very light and refreshing.

I created a new starter last week from just cornmeal and water (150% hydration) as a bit of an experiment. It has a really nice sour smell to it and I've been so excited to bake with it. This is my first loaf using the new starter. It was really tasty, slightly sour. My husband really loved it!

At the end of last week, I have been too tired and lazy to prepare any sourdough preferment, although I had an active starter ready. Next morning, I had no bread in the freezer, and the only bread I could make was that from straight dough. I browsed through my bread books, and found none other than Laurel’s book that offers plenty recipes for wholegrain breads, mostly straight doughs; hence the appeal :)

In our quest for the ever better pizza dough, this time we went with cherry yeast water and a pinch of ADYfor the levain using durum semolina and AP for the flour.  It was built over two 4 hour stages and then mixed with the dough flour, that had been autolysed for 1 hour water, salt and water.