Blog posts

Well, not sure where my head was yesterday, it was perhaps a comedy of errors but I didn't think that as I put the dough in the fridge to proof overnight.  Start at the beginning. Three different bakes, 1 small loaf each. 

Monday 13:30 refresh 60% ish starter 10 g = 20 water + 30 flour

21:30 pm mix three levains and leave overnight on bench.  it was cool overnight - only 18 deg C when I got up next morning/

Tuesday 7 am - put levains in a cooler part of the pantry as I would not need till after lunch.

11:45 am Country Champlain.  Mix together

Another double levain dough. I joined a facebook group that uses only yeast waters for baking. Wow....there is SO much info and amazing pictures of breads etc. Anyway I got my feet wet , so to speak with date water. I took a small amount of my AYW and inoculated it with 6 dried dates. Whoa...stand back !  It was full of bubbles in just a couple hours using the lights in my oven to warm it. I added a piece of orange peel, as I do with my apple yeast water, as I think it keeps it from getting too much  alcohol formation. 

733g unbleached KA

266g Spring WW

BASIC SOURDOUGH BOULE, 70% HYDRATION, 80% TYPE 550 BIODYNAMIC FLOUR FROM SPIELBERGERMUEHLE AND 20% MACINATO INTERO DI FARRO FROM MULINO MARINO. RETARDED 18 HOURS. BAKED IN A COMBI OVEN ON A BAKING STEEL, WITH THE COMBO COOKER COVER FOR THE FIRST 15 MINUTES. 

First a shout out to JustJoel whose post lit a fire under me to get this post finished!

European Peasant Loaf

I am continuing my quest, as one of many others, for getting better oven spring and open crumb. This is my adaptation of Trevor’s European Peasant Bread.

Recipe:

150 g freshly milled spelt

150 g freshly milled rye

150 g Arva Mills whole wheat flour

820 g unbleached flour

50 g freshly ground flax

850 g filtered water

23 g Himalayan pink salt

30 g kefir

280 g 100% hydration levain (procedure for this is in recipe)

One of these kids is not like the others one of these kids is doing his own thing (a little sesame street jingle to introduce today's bake models).

With the Blue Blood Full Moon striking this week for the first time in 130 years, which won’t happen again for another 150 years, it was, if you missed it, you weren’t ever going to see it again……. unless if you are young and future medicine cures death for everyone.

I usually bake on a baking stone in a convection oven with mixed results.. Over the last few months I have managed some consistency and although the bread was good I never quite achieved what I wanted. So the other day I came across an old dutch oven in the back of my Mum's kitchen cupboard and borrowed it for a trial run.... I can safely say this is easily the best loaf I have ever made, the Dutch oven changed my bread in every single way... rise, crust, texture, taste.

Fried up these donuts for a brunch and filled them with a citrus curd made using blood oranges and rose water!

Recipe: 

Levain: 

110g bread flour

35g starter 

15g honey

60g water

Dough: 

500g bread flour

2 eggs

70g sugar

15g salt

130g milk

15g diastatic malt (optional)

all of the levain

130g butter 

1 tbsp vanilla extract

----

Filling: 

1 cup sugar

8 egg yolks

20g corn starch