Blog posts

Fantastic oven spring. Followed my 1-2-3 tripled it so 300-600-900. Added some extra water along the way to enhance the feel of the dough. There is 100g of apple yeast water as part of the liquid. I had some barley grains so I used 50g of those and 100g of fresh  milled rye with 150g Red Fife and the rest Arrowhead Mills Unbleached. Dough was laminated 3x and I only let it room temp proof till it was about 50%. Same as last time I shortened the bulk proof due to the YW.

The looming deadline of a blog event, hosted by my blogging buddy Anna Antonia, gave me the much needed kick in the  energy to overcome my dog days' laziness and write a new post.

What to do with stale bread? For me a no-brainer: baguette or brioche leftovers usually end up as bread pudding. But for sourdough or other hearty breads there's only one option: grind, toast, and re-bake!

If I hadn't just read about Tangzhong, what would I have thought about the bulgur that I cooked and pureed? I had to keep adding more and more water, until I had 4x the weight of the bulgur in there, and the consistency of wallpaper paste. I kept adding more because I hadn't realized what I had been making. You probably already know this, but bulgur is already cooked, a.k.a. already gelatinized. I'm not sure why anyone would want an overly complicated way of creating a tangzhong with a wheaty taste.

rye @ 63% hydration salty rye rolls.

The Roadside Pie King

Before attempting “true” baguettes, I made these sophisticated looking yet in fact easy to make Epi de Blé baguettes. 

Epi de Blé Baguettes with a Japanese Twist ( makes 6 baguettes)

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

210g      70%     Whole white wheat flour

 My running debate with myself over whether to buy a mill or do without came to an abrupt end the week before last when I saw a post about a KoMo Fidibus Classic for sale at an attractive price.  The new-to-me mill arrived early last week but I wasn’t able to play with it until I purchased some wheat this weekend.  

I've decided I don't really like the taste of wheat bran in a loaf that much. It's fine up to about 30% wholewheat in a loaf, but after that, I find the strong, bitter flavour of the bran is not really that nice.

One way round it is to sieve out the bran and put it in your muesli, so really you are baking with high extraction flour, but for this bake, I decided to try something a little different.

Had some fun making small pizzas (less than 10 inches). 65% hydration dough with tomato sauce, home grown basil, fresh mozzarella (+ anchovies for first one below), and a drizzle of EVOO.

YUM!

I bought some "Organic Madagascar Pink-Red Rice" at Whole Foods a few weeks ago and wanted to use some of the leftover cooked rice in a bread.  I overcooked the rice a little bit when making it for dinner but it worked out perfectly in the bread.  You can see the grains in the crumb and it added a nice subtle but rich flavor to the final bread.

I haven't used any Kamut lately and figured spelt would be a nice compliment and add some extra nutty flavor.  The lemon honey and Parmesan with sun-dried tomatoes olive oil added another layer of flavor.

I haven’t done a bread with olives for quite a while and while searching TFL, I came across this one from Dab. The loaf looked amazing and the crumb is to die for. Dab was super helpful and answered all of my questions. So I owe him a big thank you for that!