Blog posts

A fabulous and incredibly informative set of email exchanges on Mariana’s part a few weeks ago had me:

The Persians make an enriched flatbread that could be challah’s twin only flat instead of braided.  Sweetener, oil or butter, milk, eggs and saffron.  It is called Shirmall.  The Iranians make all kinds of different breads with most of them the flat variety and they eat a lot of bread too…..if you have ever been there.  Iran is also known for the best saffron in the world as well and..... I just love saffron. 

how often can a person make and eat pizza before they get tired of it ?  Apparently a LOT !!  I wanted to see how this dough would do after X days in a plastic bag in the fridge. The answer is wonderfully. Very  much improved flavor profile and great holes !!  I used some of my chef son's sweet Italian sausage and it really added to the flavor. Same mode of operation as far as the rest of it. Layered sliced provolone on the bottom crust after it had risen for a while on the stove top. I made sure a put plenty of EVOO in the skillet before I laid the dough in.

Love this bread but I have a few questions for anyone out there who regularly bakes this delicacy. Nigella seeds in with flour at the beginning or sprinkled on during shaping? Butter, margarine or olive oil to enrich the dough during shaping? Saffron to colour the dough yellow or not? Bake hot & fast or cooler and more slowly with a lid? Enrich the dough with egg & butter or not? Egg wash to finish with a shine or not?

Oh my....that's about all I can say. The blue granite roaster is definitely the way to go , at least I will not be using my cast iron anymore. Look at that ear :) and caramelization.  I had extra ripe bananas and I remembered posts from Shiao - ping and txfarmer using bananas and SD. I read and read and came up with a formula.

My first bake of 2018. I'm glad I squeezed in a bake despite my busy schedule. I find it more therapeutic than ever! :) Last time, I baked bagels and I really loved them because they were so satisfying to eat. Due to the boiling process it gets before being baked, they really have a unique texture. I thought it will be similar to laugenbrot with a thick chewy crust but I was wrong. Its thin and crispy crust is also our favorite to date but my parents find the crumb too chewy for them so I thought of why not soften the crumb a little bit and maintain that unique crust.

Here is the link to my recipe, as requested by bread1965

https://www.dropbox.com/s/418xctpf74nxnrh/Multigrain%20loaf.xlsx?dl=0

Starter was refreshed for the Experimentation - the next step bake (posted on 17th January)  so I had allowed sufficient for this bake as well. 

Levain was built the night before and left at room temperature until 13:25 pm

I was intrigued with this recipe from foolishpoolish

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/7433/brioche-au-levain-recipe

Just before Xmas, a friend’s husband had a heart attack and needed a bypass. I remembered Lazy Loafer’s Heart Bread and decided to base my weekend bake on her recipe. Of course, my friend ended up with a couple of loaves.

Recipe

Ingredients:

250 g Spelt flour

200 g Selkirk Wheat (circa 1950 variety of wheat)

75 g oat bran

550 g unbleached flour

100 g multigrain flour

50 g ground flax

700 g water

21 g  pink Himalayan salt

40 g kefir

90 g rolled oats