Blog posts

Two herb-y nutty SD this week. One with cheese and one without. Make your choice… Or let’s have both :)

Tarragon Walnut SD with 40% Sprouted Durum

Inspired by Benny and others, I tried my hand at decorative scoring - nothing elaborate, just a wheat stalk. Here are the loaf details:

Heres attempt 2 at the croissant/ canele that, should it eventually work out - well you saw it here first ;)

Ouch ! 

These came out quite well and were perfect for sandwiches and burgers or just as a dinner roll with some butter.  The maple syrup gave it just enough sweetness and the butter and egg yolks provided some softness.

Third in my series of Einkorn bakes.  This time I increased the Einkorn to 20% and reduced the Red Fife to 9% all of which was in the preferment.  Other changes I used the aliquot jar and ended bulk fermentation at 40%.  I did a preshape, bench rested for 15-20 mins then final shaped and into the banneton.  I left it out on the counter until the aliquot jar showed just over 50% total rise (not 50% additional rise) then put it into a 2ºC fridge for cold retard.

After taking too long a break from baking sourdough bread, I made a new starter and got right back into it. Here’s a loaf that’s 50% whole wheat and 50% bread flour. 85% hydration.

I've followed The Fresh Loaf for years but this is my first time to post. 

I wonder if anyone else has made bread or rolls from dough that was placed in a bowl of water to rise? The recipe I've used is from Beatrice Ojakangas, I believe in her cookbook of Finnish recipes. The dough is placed in a tea towel then submerged in cold water to rise. It does work, and makes lovely rolls.

My question today is how did this method originate? I can make up stories that seem plausible, but I'd like to know how it really started.

Any ideas?

In my experience, Fresh-Milled flour has 7 "things" I need to allow for:

This is based on using a sourdough starter/levain. Commercial yeast (dry or fresh) will be slightly different.

1. Fresh-milled flour is usually thirstier, takes more water, than store-bought WW. This is a general rule. You will eventually find exceptions, i.e., some grain will already be high in moisture, and therefore need less water.

2. Fresh-milled flour takes more time to soften, so use 30-90 minutes of soak/autolyse (without starter/levain, depending on granularity (particle size).