Blog posts

I've been keeping a low profile recently doing the same old, same old things.  Mostly minding my own business and occasionally commenting on baguettes and not much more.  Needed a break.  But my wife recently piped up and asked if I would make a potato bread.  There's a first time for everything, I suppose.  

Steady improvement with my Pain Complet, 70% true, total grain, home milled flour, 30% white flour. Not quite as much rise or as pronounced ears as one previous loaf, but best crumb yet, and actually a far better crust in terms of brittle and shattering texture and a range of dark toasty flavors. I'm handling these less and less, aiming for about 30 seconds of touching the dough over the whole process.

Lucy and I were trying to remember the last time we made an all wheat bread and came up with the thought that it had been a really long, long time.  This week was a good one for several reasons so we decided to celebrate it with something we rarely do – make an all wheat bread.

Been experimenting with scaling up a bit lately. Not quite as successful as when making one or two loaves, but we're getting there. These are "Complet" sourdough loaves. 70% true, total-grain flour, 30% white.

As usual, one thing leads to another in the kitchen. I was not entirely comfortable publishing a Kouign Amann recipe because I live a sugar-free life and those delicious pastries contain a fair bit of the white stuff. I even tried laminating the dough with honey to see if it might make a good sugar substitute (it almost always does). But working with soft butter and runny honey made the lamination process very messy. The honey-filled pastry also didn’t turn out as flaky as it should.

Yeast water experiment #2. supposedly a repeat of my first yeast water bake.  so on 30th Jan during the morning mixed up 67 g yw & 67 g flour to make a poolish for a 575 g loaf.

Hi everyone

I followed very carefully a recipe to make chocolate croissants. I was very proud to see how they looked when they came out off the oven, but I sliced them in half and you can see why I need your help

Here is what I did:

1. I mixed some water and the yeast and some of the flour, let it rest for 1/2 hour to make a "polish" 

and make something you are proud of.

Basic pain au levain, just posting to share in my triumphs as well as my failed attempts.
78% hydration
90% AP
10% White Whole Wheat

12 hour overnight retard

Followed the Tartine WW formula verbatim, used King Arthur's White Whole Wheat because it's what I had on hand. Final retard in the fridge for approx. 10 hours. These passed the poke test, but my instincts were still telling me they were underproofed? Above was the last loaf baked, and I let it proof on the counter for 30-40 minutes prior to going in the oven.
It was definitely the best loaf with the most spring. Any advice for me here? Is less noticeable oven spring indicative of an underproofed loaf?