Blog posts

Preparing to make a traditional panettone can sometimes be daunting, especially when I don't have MANY ingredients!  A panettone recipe from Chef Alphonso Pepe calls for several citrus fruit paste. It is discouraging that I have to pause to prepare these ingredients every time before I can make his panettone.  I like spontaneous baking, and that's why I love CLAS.  Any extended prep work before a bake will most likely deter me from baking.

Hi All,

Earlier this year I traveled to San Francisco and visited Tartine Bakery. I tried a few pastries and their country loaf. I give them a great review on the pastries, but the country loaf was disappointing. I had much better sourdough in Oregon.

Has anyone else had Tartine bread? Did you find it was worth the hype?

To me it was kind of burnt tasting that overwhelmed the sourdough flavor.

Thank you for reading!

My first bake for 2021!

Hi Everyone,

I'd like to share here the video that I uploaded a few months ago on YouTube related to the preparation of the Sourdough Focaccia; I hope that you'll find it helpful :)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acZf9-Znc_8

Chris

After getting comfortable baking yeast breads with at least some amount of home milled flour, I decided to don my proverbial water wings and venture into the deeper end of the bread baking pool with the sourdough people. So far, it feels like I am doing a dog paddle, but my first SD bake came out good enough for us. 

A chocolatey taste with a hint of bitterness for this Chocolate Sourdough, Goes very well with Nutella and definitely “Butter” or on its own.

Recipe for 2 Medium siez loaf:

700g Strong Bread Flour

512g Water

160g Liquid Starter(100% Hydration)

14g Salt

210 Chocolate Paste(70g Cocoa Powder/140g Water)

My first attempt at the Semolina/Durum CB, and I'm humbled by the knowledge and skill in all the bakes so far.  There's still a long way for me to go on the learning curve!  Special thanks to Abe and Benny for answering many newbie questions over the last couple weeks, which has helped me tremendously in getting to this point.  I think I know just enough now to crawl.  :-)

I am super happy with this bake! I fell asleep right after pre-shaping this, thinking all hope was lost, but my dough strength was great and I managed to pull two great loaves out of what looked like disaster! I simply shortened the final proof in the seasonal walk-in cooler included with every Chicago home (that is, the outdoors). Hope to post some shots of the crumb too!

Jan. 28 - 29, 2021.

I think this was my first attempt at an angled score cut. It came out good. I scored the dough after putting it on the pre-heated dutch oven (combo cooker) lid.

I accidentally hit the dough with the edge of the cover as I was putting the cover on. So that made the sloppy mark on top. Otherwise it would have been a nice square "hat." Note to self: next time, do some more scoring on the center top.

This has my usual add-ins, hot-soaked this time: whole chia seeds, ground flaxseed, poppy seeds, whole caraway seeds, quick oats, powdered milk.