Blog posts

So at first I intended to use some local rye to make a Ryeguette.  A few years back in San Fran I believe at the main La Boulangerie I had a light rye baguette with pistachios that I just loved.  I've been meaning to create a rye baguette since and its been a long time coming.  Well I ran out of Central Millings Baker's Craft which I was going to blend 70/30 with the local rye.  I had to go buy more flour (I usually buy from my work at good prices/bakers perk)  I noticed King Arthur's whole white hard wheat and had to go with that.

I made a couple of adjustments with this bake.  For the batard, I reduced the proofing time to 35 minutes and voila, the lame worked like it was supposed to and for the first time I have the grigne I have been trying for.

I reduced proofing time on the boule to 50 minutes and once again got a clean score with the lame.  The boule contains 10% whole wheat, 15% organic rye which were autolysed in an equal weight of water overnight, oil and honey.  I baked the boule in a hot DO as I wanted to try and get it right today after a poor effort yesterday.

I have wanted to make a potato pizza ever since I first saw a picture of one in Daniel Leader's Local Breads. I'm good at delaying gratification. So, several years later, here I am with balls of the best pizza dough I have ever made and no plans for dinner. I made potato pizza. It did not disappoint.

Since reading Leader's recipe, I also acquired Maggie Glezer's Artisan Breads, which also has a recipe for potato pizza. The pizza dough recipes are different, but the potato topping ingredients are essentially identical. 

   This bread was inspired by my friend and fellow TFL member, Khalid.  His beautiful bread was a 100% whole wheat version using yeast while for my version I chose to convert the recipe to sourdough and used three different whole grain flours instead of one.

I decided to use my trusty Krups coffee grinder to make fresh ground flour for the entire recipe and I was quite happy with the results.

I used a 2 step build for the starter mixing Einkorn Ancient Whole Wheat with a Hard White Whole Wheat.

Following the month of Ramadan, where bread consumption was slow paced,  it was finally Eid celebration this past weekend here in Dubai. With not much time to be around the kitchen, i managed to squeeze a swift afternoon bake from the book: Bread by jeffery Hamelman.

There's quite a few good tutorials on this on TFL, but tons of lousy ones online, but I thought I would add my own. Mine is a bit different than others in that it focuses on maintaining warm temps throughout the starter creation process. I believe this is key to establishing good yeast and bacterial multiplication and a healthy starter ecosystem. It also focuses on just using flour, water, time and temperature to build a starter. No sugar, potatoes, honey, (heaven forbid) commercial yeast, other fancy stuff.

In my other post I showed the lasagna that I made from sourdough pasta. My husband is the pasta maker and I turn it into dinner...so it is a joint effort. It makes the most remarkably tender and flavorful pasta. I use what ever white starter I have  . Mine is usually at 100% hydration. One very nice thing about the SD pasta is its keeping quality in the fridge after you let it dry on the counter. It will last easily for a week if you wrap it well. We make extra and then dry on the counter on cloth towels and then store in fridge to be eaten with various toppings.

I like pizza quite a lot, but my wife loves it. She told me last night that Pizza is the one food she can “over-eat.” I could not start to list the foods I will predictably over-eat given the opportunity, but my wife has this super-human self-control. So this confession tells you that pizza is really special to her.

I've made some pretty good pizze and some not so good. Last night I made the best pizza I've ever made by a long shot. In fact, I do believe it was the best pizza crust I've ever eaten.

Hello everyone,

It’s been a summer of so much sun here in the Pacific Northwest – have tried to capture the season with some pictures –  flowers, light and beautiful sunshine.

the center of this flower seemed like the sun's rays...