Blog posts

The blog title is actually short for "Middlings Levain Bread", but it's a bit of a mouthful - read on....

I'm always on the lookout for ways to add more wholegrain to my loaves without reducing loaf volume and crumb tenderness too much. I have tried sift and scald but never been too happy with the result - the scald seems to make the bran tougher to me. I've also tried sifting and reducing the particle size of the bran fraction the bran fraction in a spice grinder to reduce particle size. This is quite effective, but rather messy.

So about a week ago, I was determined to finalise my lean starter formula for baguette practicing as salted bran starter (24:12:1 bran:water:salt), and put it into test. And since my baguette making skill is beyond awful (lol), I thought let's make something extra difficult for the sake of practicing.

I have starter specific problem. My bran starters (both lean one and buttered one) always acting out whenever making contact with glutinous rice. Dough always turn out sticky and melty. But I like it difficult, hoping it will be much easier later on when I handle easier flours.

Continuing with the French tradition and looking for something more ... fancy than a simple boul, etc, I remembered yesterday that I could also bake a "Bordeaux crown". The last time I baked a Couronne Bordelaise (with fresh yeast) it was 3 years ago.

This time I went for a recipe with lievito madre. Actually it was more a freestyle compilation of 2 yeast base recipes (homebaking.at and marcelpaa.com):

10% low extraction rye flour

A few days ago, I wanted to bake a bread with a higher wheat content, but still with a somewhat more intense flavor. Since I had no better inspiration, I choice fell on a French country bread made with Lievito Madre. Or at least my interpretation of a French country bread.

• 20% whole rye flour
• 80% Ruchmehl (or First Clear in the US)
• 2% salt
• 77% overall hydration
• 25% Lievito Madre
• all fermentation at 25°C
• baked at 230°C, not too dark, just until it gets a nice color and a nice thin crispy crust.

Next step in the Atta Flour Adventure was adding a little soy flour in the quest for fluffy. And I think I finally got it!

First out of the oven is this batch of pull apart rolls. (The loaf made with the other half of the dough is out of the oven, but still too hot to slice. I will add photos later. Fingers are crossed the crumb is just like this...) 

It’s been a while since I last made an (moderate) enriched dough. By chance, I came across a brioche recipe on brotokoll.com that I really liked: braided brioche with apricots, coconut water and chocolate: https://brotokoll.com/recipe-archiv/apri-coco-schoko-loco-twisted-pasta-madre-chocolate-apricot-brioche/?lang=en 

Made with fresh milled whole wheat, rye, and spelt. A few roasted potatoes whipped in my mini-food processor were added along with black and white sesame seeds.

I normally don't add sesame seeds inside the dough so this was something different for me. I gave half the loaf to a work colleague, and he said it was his favorite to date :).

Nice, moist, and tasty crumb. 87% fresh milled flour.

Made with fresh milled durum and Marquis WW flour and a little bread flour in the starter.

I added grated Parmesan in the starter and the main dough. My wife had recently made confit garlic so I mashed some up and added it as well.

The sweet garlic and copious amounts of cheese created a fragrant bread that had a soft crumb and tasted delicious. I’ve been grilling some slices after brushing on some good quality EVO and it is amazing.

Two beautifully par baked Brooklyn Sicilian pizza bases. Using the Bellucci method. These will be cooled, then frozen for use at a later date.

This recipe is from Mandy Jackson here. It includes starter and yogurt in an overnight sponge. They came out light and tasty. To make my old waffles light, I used to beat egg whites and fold them in. This is less work.