Blog posts

For weeks I ventured into the herbal and spicy world of Southeast Asia. Cambodian mint, Thai basil, black and white peppercorns, cassia, cardamom, ginger, turmeric, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, star anise, and so on...

For days I spent fine-tuning an Indian beverage called masala chai---a brew consisting of black tea, milk, sugar, and an assortment of spices and herbs.

Hi Everybody,

this is my first post on TheFreshLoaf, though I've been starting in amazement at everyone's baking for quite some time. This is my attempt at Iginio Massari's Colomba Pasquale recipe from his book "Non Solo Zucchero vol.II". I'm not sure if this book is available in English yet. I bought my copy in a shop in Milan. This version seems to be quite a bit richer than that found in Cresci, and presented me with a number of difficulties :) Please be kind!

First impasto tripled in volume

The quest for the New Your bagel continues.   This time we lowered the hydration 2% to 56%, used more barley malt, used 27% whole grains (the bulk of which was whole wheat in the dough flour to try to mimic first clear flour) and we used AP with VWG since we didn’t have any bread flour.

Messing around with flavors I like and see if the will work in bread.

the first one is Toasted Fennel Seed and Roasted Carrots Whole Wheat.

The next is Flax and Sunflower Seed Whole Wheat.

Anyone use one of these grain mills for a Kitchenaid Mixer? Any feedback on this mill would be appreciated.

http://www.kitchenaid.com/flash.cmd?/#/product/KGMA/

Cheers,

Wingnut

San Francisco-style Sourdough Bread with Walnuts and Dried Sour Cherries

March 12, 2013

Some of my classroom time for the Master Food Volunteer Program run by Kansas State Research Extension Service has been spent at the Olathe, KS campus of Kansas State University. It's a nice, modern building equipped with up to date classrooms, communications, conference rooms and a well equipped test kitchen that my class has been fortunate to use as a kind of playground for making jellies, baking pies, drying foods, and more.

No not a publishing company, or a fancy new German housewares line - just a humble cobbler's loaf and miller's miche.  

Easter came early in our house this year J

No, seriously, I wanted to re-jigg my Hot Cross buns recipe in time for Easter and decided to start practicing well in advance.

The result has exceeded all my expectations – deliciously fluffy buns, studded with a variety of spiced fruit – read the whole recipe on my blog here

There are times when I stare at my pantry and decide to be creative and use leftover flours in bread, this is one of those times.

I had some Whole spelt flour, and Whole wheat flour, and therefore decided to use both in a 50% wholegrain sourdough hearth bread. I made up a formula that benefits from my ripe White liquid starter, here it is:

Preferment:

Bread Flour: 188 g

Water: 188 g

White Starter: 1.5 Tbl

Dough:

Whole Wheat Flour: 280 g

Whole Spelt Flour: 120 g

All Purpose Flour: 251 g