Blog posts

I was a busy week around the homestead.  We hit 100 F for the first time and it was 86 F in the kitchen.  It was Cinco de Mayo and we were continuing our quest to make better pastrami than Katz’s in NYC at home in the smoker. 

Thought I'd share some pictures of my first bake with the Sperry Organic Bread Flour I recently purchased. I bought a 50 lb. bag (for $37) so I was really hoping it made some good bread. I am really happy with how these loaves came out!

Happy today - I baked my biggest single batch for the pre-order customers, and everything actually worked out! It was 13 loaves of Rye Sourdough using Peter Reinhart's recipe from Crust and Crumb (with a few minor modifications). Over 10 kg of sticky rye dough and Max (the 30 quart Univex mixer) handled it without a whimper or a wobble, even at almost speed 2 for six minutes. The dough was strong and elastic and I was SO glad I didn't have to mix all that by hand. I hate dealing with dough that has a high rye flour content; it's so sticky!

 Hey, Stu, here you go...

  I love spring, the flowers are blooming in the garden... 

I had fun making these. Could not get hold of Grape Molasses to dip the rings in, so I used Pomegranate Molasses. It is a bit tangy and worked very well. Only the slightest hint of flavour and sweetness was detectable, making it both a good brekky snack with coffee or a midday snack with brie cheese.

I am on a roll with oriental pastries lately but I gonna move to breads next week. I made hopia again because of my dad's request. If you've been reading my blogs, you probably know it already. Well if you still haven't, hopia is a pastry of Fujianese origin made with flaky pastry filled with various fillings from bean paste to sweet pork. I always want to improve it because it is one of my dad's favorite.

It has been a very long time since I baked a loaf without sourdough.  In addition, this was a same day bake.  I thought it was delicious.  11% whole rye, 11% whole wheat.  The funny thing is, my wife said right off the bat, "this bread is different than usual"  I asked what she meant, and she said that my other breads have a sweeter flavor that she liked more.  To be honest, I thought this bread was so good that I'd be happy to make it again.

When I started making sourdough bread three weeks ago, I did not have much of the equipment. I'm currently not living apartment, but in a house with four students, so I had to make do with what I found. There are no clay pans in the house, so that was not an option. I read a lot about baking vessels and wanted to replicate a dutch oven, which many seem to prefer when making sourdough bread. I got a pizza stone in my apartment, but not here.

What a great bread. I am a big fan of fruit and nut breads. I made a couple changes and am pleased with the result. I doubled the formula so have two huge boules. I added 2 scant tsp. diastatic malt powder to the mix. I used 250 g diced Turkish figs and local pecans. I subbed in 200 g of my very active AYW for part of the liquid. I have a white starter at present that was converted the day before from rye so used that. This is a great dough to work with. I got massive oven spring.

This is the first time I’ve tried adding anything to my basic SD loaf. The formula is based on Alan’s Fig and Pecan loaf (I couldn’t get pecans so I made do with what I had!). 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/45670/double-scoring-figpecan-ww-levain

I really don't like figs, or at least i remember hating them when i tried them. But when i tried nibbling on one, the taste really wasn't as objectionable as i remember, so i decided to give it a go. 

 Here’s my formula: