Blog posts

I decided to go back to the 5 Grain Levain from Week 26 found here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/37954/farmers-market-26-five-grain-levain.  

I made two major changes.

First, I increased the hydration by a total of 13% in the dough portion.  

Second, I  decreased the PF in half from 25% to 12%.  I kept it split 7% liquid levain and 5% rye sour.  

I've been baking mostly boules at home since the cast iron combo cooker has been my method for generating steam. Sometimes I just feel like having a loaf pan-shaped bread, but I still want to have all those hearth bread qualities.

We've moved to Orcas Island, Washington and while our house is being built we are living in a 16 ft diameter yurt.  it is cozy to say the least.  Here is my bread kneading station set up in the yurt on top of our clothes dresser.

I have been wanting to try this recipe since I saw the post about it on the A Breaducation site here.

The crumb on his bake was nothing short of fantastic and looked like it would melt in your mouth.

Hello all, this is my first post over here :)

Iv'e been learning from this site for a long while now, and thought it's time to start posting the results.

This is my third or so attempt at baking a sabbatical with the goal of creating a nice, open, crumb - and I think I've finally nailed it.

The recipe is based at the recipe from "Baking Artisan Bread" by Ciril Hitz.

Made a 1:1 poolish and left it to ferment 16 hours overnight.

Final dough:

Yesterday I was struck with the urge to make a poolish, and mixed up 50% KAF AP with 50% high extraction spelt, water, and a little instant yeast. It burbled away for a good 13, 14 hours, and then became fodder for two different doughs.

I followed Hamelman's Ciabatta with Wheat Germ and Olive Oil pretty exactly, and turned it into a small ciabatta and a little foccacia. Since I hadn't yet gotten the chance to try focaccia with grapes and fennel, I took this chance to do so. The crumb came out well enough, and the flavor combination was nice, but not a new favorite.

I'm making baguettes for the first time in quite a while, and pacing through the kitchen, fretting while I wait for the stone to heat up and hoping for good steam from a method I haven't used before. I'm eyeing my newly contrived lame, born of a visit to my boyfriend's shaving shelf and look through the kitchen drawers.

I was inspired by Syd's bake to try my first Pain de Campagne.  I wasn't happy with the first bake, although my husband really enjoyed the taste and texture of the bread.  It was extremely light and made great sandwiches. As I often do, I froze the other half of the dough to make at a later date, and I baked it today.  As usual, my second bake from the frozen loaf turned out better than the first bake from fresh.  The first loaf didn't get much height, but had good crumb. The second loaf had much better oven spring and more height. Both had excellent, tangy taste.

Lucy has been gathering up ancient grains like farro and einkorn and Kamut and other allowed newer organic heirloom grains that are being replanted in small quantities in Arizona like Desert Durum, Pima Club and Sonoran White.

I've been avidly baking and reading this site for 6 months now, so I thought it was finally time to join. This week I baked a 50/50 levain using my new liquid levain culture as well as a test batch of baguettes to propare me for an upcoming production for a winery (My town has like 5,000 people and none of them can bake- well none except one:) . Anyways, my levains have usually been going flat inexplicably out of the refrigerator; any tips on how to make a wet dough hold up after removing from a basket?