Blog posts

I finally got up the nerve to try this recipe and to my surprise, was not that difficult.  I had this batch of dough on the go when Floyd posted his raspberry version.  As raspberries and blueberries are my favourite field berries and are (almost) always in my fridge, I used a half and half mix of berries.  This is a seriously tasty coffee or dessert bread and one of the best things I have ever taken out of my oven.  As Floyd says, "HEAVEN!" Amen to that.

Fed the starter dark rye flour Sunday evening.  Monday morning combined:

1000g bread flour

680g warm water

Left that as an autolyse for half an hour, then added:

20g salt

180g ripe starter

Mixed it briefly.  Stretched and folded every hour over the next three hours, then put it in the fridge.

I made my 2nd loaf today. I modified the recipe in lesson 2 a bit by adding whole wheat flour, AP (unfortunately bleached - all I had on hand), and KAF bread flour. I used one of my tissue blades for the scoring, and I'm very impressed how well it worked. It was like slicing through air, absolutely no drag at all. Granted, tissue blades were originally used in order to take very thin slices of tissues for sampling, so I shouldn't be surprised. They're also used in some crafts (like beading) which is why I had some on hand.

Today, I made another run at David Snyder's San Francisco Sourdough.  Gosh, I love that bread  and it just gets tastier the longer it sits (although it doesn't sit too long).  I made two loaves today in order to bring one to share with my quilt group.  The ladies have commented on the bread I've been having with my lunch, so I thought that might be a broad hint to share a loaf or two.  We'll see how it goes over - if they enjoy it as much as we do at home there won't be much left.  Two large boules -

This past Friday, I taught a class on rye breads at the Culinary Center of Kansas City.  The class was scheduled to run from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.  Three different breads were featured: the rustic pumpernickel from ITJB, Eric's fav rye (compliments of the late Eric Hanner), and a vort limpa.  That gave a nice sampling of the diversity of rye breads.  We were able to bake both the pumpernickel and the vort limpa during class; students then took the dough for Eric's fav rye with them to bake at home.

Since I had some leftover Durum YW starter from my last bake I decided to make English Muffins again.  I followed the same recipe I used the last time but this time the starter was 100% Durum flour and I used my European style flour from KAF for the main dough.  Similar to last time I used Greek Yogurt (2%) and I added some Cheddar cheese as well.

First attempt 

 A couple of days ago I told you about my first white sourdough baked this year.

Today I am going to tell you about the second one. Still not perfect, but definitely improved. Baked all the way through, with a good oven spring due to preheating the oven and stone for much longer (1hr and 20 minutes to be exact) and a better crumb (potentially from the increased hydration – I went for a 67% hydration level for this one, compared to almost 65% for the first one).

 When I encounter really tasty bread from a bakery or at a restaurant, my usual reaction is ‘God, I want to make this myself!,’ and start going back and forth on my palate-memory lane, playing with formula in the attempt to re-create the flavour, aroma and texture I enjoyed.  Many of my bread recipes are born like that rather than following/adjusting the recipes I found in books or on internet.

Hello everyone,

January’s Bread Baking Day theme is “A Bread Fashion Show”, with a call for decorated crusts.
What a lovely idea!