I have 4 bins of "wheat" in the pantry. They are all fresh from the vendor, at a moisture content of ~11%. If I take samples of each, mill them, and mix each sample to the same hydration, the result will range from a "brick" (Kamut) to "soup" (spelt).
A basic sourdough, Rye, WW, Bread flour.. then bagelized.
I fed my starter, and, at peak, instead of discarding it, I saved it in a jar to use as a "levain" the next day.
This was the resulting bake.
Let the oven heat up at 500F for about 1 hour before throwing the bread in.
This was my second attempt at making bread. I replaced 20% of the four with whole wheat. I had trouble getting the bread to split naturally during the bake.
This was my first attempt at making bread
After making tortilla pizza a coupe of times we decided to go the other way with this one. Too hot for pizza made indoors, so we decide the gas grill, with a stone, was the way to go for Sicilian Pan Pizza. SPP isn’t like thick crust Chicago style pan pizza but it isn’t thin crust pizza we love so much either – it is more like focaccia with pizza toppings.
For the longest time, provolone equaled provolone dolce to me. I use it as a sharper alternative to mozzarella. Only until recently, it’s aged cousin, provolone piccante was introduced to me. Oh what had I missed! Provolone piccante is true to its name: pungent, salty and just full of flavors. I’d even go as far as to compare it with 24-month Parmigiano Reggiano!
Provolone Piccante Fennel Seed SD with 30% Sprouted Kamut
An old west coast friend emailed me 2 days ago. Her significant other was trying, without a lot of success, to make focaccia. Did I have a recipe? My last focaccia foray was probably in 2003 when I was a rank amateur home baker for a short time and initially experimenting with Mr. Reinhart's BBA but years prior to the existence of TFL.
I make a lot of Hamelman 50%-whole-grain-with-a-soaker breads. They often look quite similar but taste pretty different depending on the grains and soaker ingredients used. This time was a pleasant surprise, as the depth of flavor is more than I hoped for. The 28 hour cold final rise also helped with flavor development.
Grains: 6oz WW berries, 5 oz kamut, and 4 oz Øland landrace red wheat from Capay Mills, "a very rare wheat from Denmark, brought to the US by Claus Meyer, of NOMA fame," according to the owner, David Kaisel.
We keep real milk in the house during the winter, but during the summer, we switch to soy milk. (In the summer we like fruit smoothies, and soy milk makes a better smoothie.)
With soy milk and a little extra (peanut) oil, one can make a decent "American" whole wheat bread. In the old days, I would have used a can of evaporated milk.
