Blog posts

In this third installment of my weekly attempts to bake a passable baguette, conflict, drama, and a rather too hot oven arise.

Where we last left our heroes:

My weekly goal is to master (sort of) Hamelman's Baguettes with Poolish. Last week's baguette possessed only a so-so flavor and texture, a crumb that was somewhat too tight, crust that was a tad chewy, and irregular scoring.  This week I added a few modifications:

Hello, To celebrate the Hazelnut Harvest which happens this time of year, I wanted to make some sweet rolls, using hazelnuts.

These are rolls made with Basic Sweet Dough. with Nut Filling, from Baking Artisan Pastries and Breads by Ciril Hitz.
This is a nice sweet dough recipe and includes some lemon zest for an added dimension of flavor.

Hazelnut flour was used in the filling, and the rolls were glazed (icing sugar + a decent measure of Frangelico liqueur
+ a bit of cream + a bit of pure vanilla extract + a teeny-tiny pinch of salt).

Here's the latest bake...  70% Whole Wheat Pain Au Levain...  I'm trying to make a WW bread that also tastes good.  I think this is one of my more successful results...  I'm also working on a new boule shaping method that I'll call the "snail" method...  I think this is the best method as of late for shaping...  I'll post the recipe and method if anyone is interested... For now, here's another 360 degree view along with crumbshot.  Enjoy!

Tim

A few weeks ago, I made an accidental very sour rye bread, which had an addictive quality to it, but unfortunately failed in every other regard.   So armed with advice from some very helpful people on the forum, I have been trying to make a successful loaf with that same tart and delicious taste.   This I have not yet succeeded in doing.   Yesterday I decided to try to follow the Hamelman pain au levain approach with some notable deviations to see where that would get me.   So I started with the basic pain au levain formula, but upped the ra

And that is how I celebrated it :)

It's my first time baking 100% whole wheat bread. The recipe comes from Peter Reinhart's Whole Grain Bread book.

Well, my last post was all about my new WFO, and I said I would keep everyone posted on how things go as I complete the oven and learn to bake in it.  Some of the lessons have been hard to learn.  Having finally recovered (mostly) from the internet connectivity disaster my ISP wrought a couple of weeks ago, I'm now able to post some progress. 

Inspired by one of Shiao-ping's early bakes...  I'll post a description shortly...  For now, here's a 360 degree view of the loaf...  It's cooling now, so I'll have to post crumbshot pics tomorrow...

Enjoy!

Tim

I baked Greek Bread (Psomi) today, using Brother David's Sourdough version with some Durum flour (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/15470/greek-bread-improved).  The first time David baked Psomi was at our house last December, with the assistance of his Greek daughter-in-law (one of our very favorite nieces).