The Weekend Bakery is one of my favorite websites. They recently posted the best video that I have seen on how to make and bake Classic French Style Croissants at home. All of their videos and recipes are extremely well done, especially for "amateurs".
The forming video is here, and their baking log with recipe is here.
After a rather sad attempt at a 75% hydration baguette, I decided to spend a lot more time practicing boules and batards with Susan's Norwich Sourdough loaf. I finally gained enough confidence to try my hand at baguette shaping, but I wanted a lower hydration dough to work with as I still haven't quite gotten the knack of handling high hydration doughs without making a huge mess.
I was lucky to snag a spot in one of Madison Sourdough's bread classes recently and I thought I'd share a video that the co-owner/head baker put together. Unlike a lot of videos I've seen on the internet, his batard shaping technique seems to be a little different and there are also a couple unusual shapes he demonstrates (such as the fendu and the tabatiere).
Enjoy!
My wife has an offer for a tenure-track position in Providence. Anyone from there that can tell me a little about it? We'll probably be moving in June/July...
I bake challah rarely, once every two or three months, usually two loaves. One I pan bake; it gets sliced and frozen for French toast, two or four slices thawed each time; it lasts a good while. The second loaf I braid, only because I like the way the shiny, chocolate-colored, bulging braid looks: eye candy. However, each time I bake challah I have to relearn six-strand braiding--my favorite.
Today's bread was a rustic sourdough using my wild yeast starter:
I was out of aged whole wheat, so used all white flour instead (the recipe usually calls for 13% whole wheat).
that I hope to eventually use to make pizza. It's like a mini wood fired oven. It's built out of huge hominy can and a 40-56 oz can of beans. It's the best BBQ and smoker I have ever owned and it was nearly free! I'm pretty sure I could get a small 12" stone for it and turn it into a pizza oven fairly easily. It works on a small pile of 1/4" twigs and 4 charcoal briquettes. Amazing heat from that beast. Throw some wood chips on top you have a smoker that makes the best meat you have ever had. I can see a Pizza oven too .......
This loaf will melt in your mouth.
I mean it. It is so provocatively sweet, so deliciously soft, that you'll have trouble not eating the whole loaf. It's made with real maple syrup (yeah - that's the expensive kind [and the only kind you should ever buy!!!]), and a good serving of oats that'll make you think you're eating breakfast all over again.
Isand66 (Ian) has been using a much greater percentage of starter/Levain in his recent SD breads. As I was looking around for a place to start with this idea, I ran across Chad Robertson's Country SD that uses this same technique. I also prefer at least 10% rye and WW in the finished loaf and wanted to make sure that was the case in this bread. I also wanted a higher hydration dough and one that had more AP flour and less bread flour. This bread sure looks good on the outside but I can't cut into it yet until my wife gives the OK since
