Blog posts

50% Cream Of Wheat Loaf

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Loaf - overall view

Following up on our recent speculations about using Cream of Wheat, I made a loaf with 50% COW. It worked out very well, though there was an unplanned extra 4 1/2-day bulk fermentation in the fridge (it was supposed to be only overnight).

I didn't know how well the COW would absorb water, but I suspected that it would take longer than usual. I started with 62% hydration. I would use a little less next time since the dough ended up a little sticky and didn't want to hold its shape quite well enough. Still, a good result.

Panettone Saga Step 5 (Colomba #2)

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Colomba

What do you call the time between Easter and Christmas? Exactly! Time to practice making panettone!
I just couldn’t resist without baking another panettone — or in this case, colomba. This time with cranberry and white chocolate.

Enriched true-sourdough trial #2: 'Kue putu' babka (coconut 3 ways, kaya glaze, homemade dessicated coconut)

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Took me 4 attempts to get this done! The first one was disaster (underbaked, too many components, cloying sweet, and too rich), the second one I scraped the levain away (I went overboard with extremely low hydration and extremely high osmotic pressure starter, became too proteolytic and had so little leavening power), the third one was portioning issue, and here is the fourth one!

Pain de Rémésy 2025 update

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Pain de Rémésy 2025 pullman loaf, cut

I've been tinkering with the Pain de Rémésy recipe off and on and am sharing a modification that seems to work better and more reliably.

Here goes:

83% strong bread flour

2% rye flour

15% whole wheat flour

1% salt

2.5% sourdough starter

Less than a gram of instant baker's yeast (~0.6-0.7 per kilo of flour). I use a bit less than 1/8 a teaspoon for a 600g loaf. This is added in a supporting role, to help ensure a decent rise.

50% kamut yeast bread

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Crumb shot kamut bread
Adapted from the old family recipe and Laurel’s kitchen whole wheat bread. I finally got a 9x4 Pullman pan. 1 c warm water 1.5 tsp ADY 3 c flour (half kamut, half a blend of prairie gold and some leftover from the last bake I think it was spelt) 2 TBSP EVOO 2 TBSP honey 2 tsp gluten 1/2 tsp salt Activate yeast in warm water with a bit of honey. Mix water and 2 c flour, oil, honey, gluten and let sit ~10 min. Knead in remaining cup of flour, knead about 15 min by hand. It is a very stiff dough. Cover and let rise ~40 min.

Ruchbrot / First Clear Flour Loaf

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First Clear Flour Bread

I wanted to try again a sourdough loaf with 100% "Ruchmehl". I'm not 100% sure, but afaik the closest match for Swiss "Ruchmehl" is the first clear flour. It is the traditional flour for bread in Switzerland. Something in the middle between bread flour and whole wheat. In the recent years some millers in Germany and Austria have begun to produce this flour, but it's not really mainstream.

BTT - this is my second bake with this flour. I wanted a more open crumb with 100% "Ruchmehl" / first clear

100% Ruchmehl / first clear

80% total hydration

2% salt

Garlic Pizza Bread with Lievito Madre

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Garlic and cheese Pizza no tomato

Pizza Week 3.

I have been testing new formulations of pizza dough and have settled upon a formula similar to my baguettes but tweaked to make a Neapolitan style pizza dough, meaning elevated salt levels and low-end hydration with medium strength flour. In this case, I used the standard Caputo "Blue" Tipo 00 W270.

The dough handled beautifully and really was exceptional - tender but still with good chew and a pleasure to handle. Hand stretched into a round disc in the usual manner...

Needless to say I was ecstatic with the outcome...