Blog posts

I would like to make a big shout out to dabrownman for pm'ing his detailed for producing and maintaining a YW starter. I have tried and failed twice and this time I was anal: boiled the glass jar, boiled the Brita filtered tap water and sat in the sun in a glass jar for the day to fully eliminate the chlorine. Next as per dman, 1/2 un-washed organic apple cored and minced and half crushed, ditto 20 organic raisins ditto. I am going to follow the dman's instructions to the tee and post daily photos. Another new fun project.

Thanks again dab, you are DMAN!

Regards, Brian

Yep, thats right!  ....Don Corleone...

I love Don Corleone...Not Micheal so much but I digress...

What does the Godfather have to do with bread?

Sicily...

Pane di oggi e' dalla Sicilia.

Stupendo, Bellissimo, Sfarzoso.....

amo questo il pane.

Che e' giusto, amo, amo, amo il pane dalla Sicilia.

Urgh my Italian is very very RUSTY!!

Another trip is needeD soon!!

I just posted the Sicilian Lemon Orange Sweet Bread that I made for dessert for my husband's birthday.....the main course was pizza (with salad made from lettuce and vegetables from the farmer's market.

When I was in the UK lfor a wedding around Easter time, I made this Paul Hollywood traditional Sicilian lemon orange sweet bread for my husband's family at Easter.  I didn't do the best job as I never made it before, but it tasted great and everyone liked it.  My husband requested it for his birthday yesterday, so I made it.  It turned out well.

When I made it earlier, it didn't rise very much and was more like cake.  This time, it got huge!  Live and learn.  I've attached a link to the recipe below:

This weekend will see me take the first tentative steps in to the world of Sourdough and naturally leavened breads.  My barm (pictured above) that I fondly refer to as ‘Susie’ is strong and ready to go.  It’s scary but also very exciting to be taking the first steps away from my comfort zone of using fresh yeast – I feel I get better results both is action and taste with fresh -  and the yeasted loaf which in comparison is quite predictable and going in to this new frontier of Sourdough. 

This is my first bread. I made it following the instructions of the instant Lesaffre yeast plus some stuff I saw in a BBC video with some french cook who loves too much the bread and cheers artisan ones. The portion is small as it's just for me ^_^

Decided to play around with the percentage of the red fife flour to get a better sense of its flavour vs normal whole wheat flour. Made an approximately 40% red fife loaf with the other 60% using Robin hood AP flour. Here's the recipe in cups:

1 spoon of starter

1/8 cup water

1/4 cup flour

Combine and ferment overnight. Mine took 10 hours and was all bubbly and ready to go.

Combine the above with:

1.5 cups water

1 cup Red Fife flour

2 cups AP flour

Well after 2 disastrous bakes in a row, it was nice to get a good result. I have borrowed tips and techniques from Ken Forkish, Chad Robertson and Peter Reinhart. I prefer a sweet rather than sour loaf so use the levain when is quite your, like CR.

What could be more simple, or more difficult than a baguette?   It's safe to say that in the few months since I decided it was time to learn to make baguettes, I have tried around 20 different approaches.   Many of these failed, and many were pretty good.   Many followed along with strategies outlined by TFLers.    And yet a tweak here, a chainsaw there, and pretty soon I was off on my own.  

So many decisions when it comes to the humble baguette:

I adjusted the wheat to 125g and the AP 675g to have more wheat And to make up for not having rye flour. They proofed for 5 hours on the counter and in the fridge for 9 hours.  I got a nice rise.  I was afraud I had over proofed my dough.  I will never throw out dough just in case it surprises me, and it usually does.

Warm regards,

Casey