Blog posts

Have made an important decision about baking...

It rained...

Wow, this is the biggest rise and oven spring I have EVER had! Now the working part of my peel measures 8"x14" and this loaf filled most of it using 460 grams of flour! Best pulla ever, with a soft almost shreddalble crumb.

Normally, I will do a sponge of liquid levain, sugar, egg, flour and scalded milk infused with cardamom. After this got happy, I would put it in the fridge at bedtime, remove it in the morning and mix  after about an hour of warm up.

I began getting ruthless with my deep freeze a while ago and these are the only things I have baked in three weeks. I found an abundance of breads I baked then froze and have been eating my way through.

I bookmarked this recipe some time ago and finally got around to baking a half batch. this batch I rolled out, shaped a rectangle and cut the biscuits into squares using a butter knife, then baked on a parchment covered pan. Quick, easy and tasty!

My batch:

1 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 TBS sugar

1 C grated sharp cheddar

When you want your comeback to be remembered, you have to come back with a bang! Here it is! Last week I promised to go back to bread baking after an addiction to pastries. Well these are viennoiseries, still a hybrid between pastries and bread but there's yeast in it so I consider it closer to breads. I made croissants and pains au chocolat for this week; it's an ambitious bake for an ambitious baker.

My recent fruit and nut bake garnered the suggestion from a few TFL folks that I should soak the dried Calmyrna figs prior to folding them into the dough.  And so I did.  I wonder if I soaked them too long because they expanded and became a force all of their own with relation to the final product.

I am a retired scientist and love good food, good cooking and find the science behind them quite fascinating.  Long story short, I was having "stomach" issues a few years ago, and working with a doctor and dietician I did an elimination diet and when i added bread back in bingo all my issues came back.  Seems I may have developed some sensitivity to something in bread, gluten, wheat, or whatever.  After reading Michael Pollan's "Cooked" I began to really understand why many people are having "issues" with today's bread.

This is a modification of the Overnight Country Brown that Ken Forkish describes. In fact, I changed it so much that one might argue that it is not the same bread, but here it goes for one loaf:

Levain, active rye sourdough, 100% hydration, 110g

white bread flour, 250g

whole wheat flour 130g

12 grain flour 100g

water 340g at approx. 35 degrees Celsius

salt 11g.

I was visiting the King Arthur Flour web site last week and, as I usually do, wandered into the "Professional" section of the site to see what might be new. There, I found a new formula for "Harpoon Miche." You know, with a name like that, I had to check it out. It sounded like a bread that would stick in your ribs ... if you weren't careful.

I’d like to share my basic sweet dough recipe which I’ve found really reliable and versatile. I bake a lot of buns and tea breads as that’s the preferred breakfast fodder in my house... And before you say they are best from the oven – of course, but I freeze them as soon as they cool down and – though not warm – they are as good as defrosted. Show them the oven if necessary.

I have already posted todays attempts here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/45745/my-accidental-bread-haha

So I guess I can make a note of it as it's 'my' blog ..... hehe :)