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Abe posted this a few days ago, and I decided to give it a try. This had to be the easiest and best 100% whole wheat I have ever made!! For anyone who enjoys home milling, watch the video and give it a try. This is the first time I haven't had to do something else (add some AP or bread flour, follow Reinhart's "epoxy" biga/soaker method, or something else) to get a decent rise and crumb. Really happy with the simplicity of this!!

My dough info:

As a general rule, my husband and I tend to make do with what we have. It's an approach we adopted after a few too many spontaneous purchases that were never really needed in the first place. But once in a while it's really worth getting what you want or "need". 

Like many bakers here I've been strongly influenced by Full Proof baking. The basic open crumb recipe has worked very well for me in the past, and the detail described in Kristen's method has allowed me to get a feel for where to push the envelope with the breads that I make, although, of course this method is not for a lazy baker!

Well I’m not sure how to start, as this is my first post, so I’ll give a little bit of a backstory...

I work as a chef in the middle of the country close to my home. I don’t don’t do top end fine dining rubbish;  I do good quality local homemade produce which I put a lot of care into. With the soul problem being, that I simply don’t have enough time to create and do new things as much as I want if I don’t have a bit of knowledge on what it is to begin with. Anyone else who works in a kitchen will likely understand where I’m coming from.

A week or so ago, my sister said “Let's make bismarks.”  So today we made bismarks, aka paczki.  Two batches, as a matter of fact.  It was one of our favorite things that Mom made.  Today, there are a number of happy McCool kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids reliving memories of Mom/Grandma/Great-Grandma Joyce and her bismarks.  

We never just make food.  We make a tangible expression of our love with everything that we prepare. And memories; strong, lasting memories. 

Paul

Feb. 9 - 10, 2021.

This is my 3rd bake for the Durum Community Bake. Previous blog entry, bake #2, for this CB is at: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67323/37th-bake-02052021-78-ww-durum

Goals here are:

• Increase the soak,
• more fermentation (inoculation + time),
• use less WW durum as a percentage -- it's just too sticky!
• use some semolina (gritty type, and low bran) to keep the % durum high.

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Incidentally there have been discussions here recently about using "weak" or unfed starter from the fridge, and I just baked some bread like that yesterday.

I have been making a lot of simple loaves, experimenting with new flours but not really trying to work anything into my bread. Then the other day I felt like making a porridge bread. I loosely based it on Tartine 3's rye porridge recipe, but cut down on the toasted walnuts, omitted the walnut oil, upped the hydration and used a 7 grain porridge mix I got from an Amish store a while back. I've lost the label but I think it was rye, hard red wheat, soft white wheat, spelt, oats, triticale, and maybe some buckwheat, I can't really remember.

I'm a new user and I'm very excited to join this community! I'm super impressed with the supportive and positive atmosphere that has been created. I've been a sourdough baker for years but haven't really been consistent in my methods until I recently read a blog post about starter acidity and its effect on gluten which got my brain buzzing. It prompted more reading which brought me to TFL a few weeks ago. Since then I've chosen my practice loaf, actually started taking notes,  and have been happily nerding out on it.