Got quite a bit of spent grains from a friend who is into Homebrewing and decided to try making a bread out of it. The grains (mainly barley) were roughly cracked using a hand grinder before being heated for about 2 hours to create a malt extract from them. This means that they are no longer sweet but still lend a nice texture to the bread.
I haven't been baking nearly as much as I would like, but I'm making an attempt to bake on Sundays this winter. I feel like any skill I have obtained since I started making bread has been lost, and gaining my skill set back might prove frustrating. My girlfriend loves bread and I don't mind lavishing her with fresh treats. A favorite bread of mine is ciabatta, but I've never made an attempt to add any cheese or mushrooms to the base bread. I decided to use dried shiitake mushrooms reconstituted in water and baby bella mushrooms.
Made with 35% fresh milled local Hard Red Winter Wheat (Hollis). I miscalculated with the olives and after pitting came up short but proceeded. I will post my formula but I'd double this for sure. The addition of an herb could also be nice but my olives were a mix of three green varieties brined with garlic and oregano. Had I used enough maybe I wouldn't need any herbs. I'll find out next time around.
Well just because I haven’t been blogging doesn’t mean I haven’t been baking.
There’s just been a lot of “stuff” happening in my life and I haven’t had the energy (or time) to pretend I care about photography at all – and I know that’s what everyone wants – the pictures. But with winter fast approaching, I’ve got a little relief from the yard work – and a little more time.
I’ve been working hard on my croissants and if I’m ever happy with them, I’ll let you all know.
This Remberance Day weekend I have reminded myself of how to bake bread. It's been a little over a month and a half since I baked. Having the business transferred from my parents to me takes a lot more paperwork, legal and technical work than one would imagine. Quite draining actually. Now that things have settled down, I decided to tackle a challenge that I have had in the recent past with whole wheat loaves. Those of you who helped me, know of my frustrations with higher percentage whole wheat bread attempts. Looks like I was simply over proofing and ov
As we come upon the last weeks of the market I have now missed a few but next week will be 20. Had all plans set to make an olive bread but the cost of nice olives made me bail on a large batch and simplify. Maybe had I thought ahead I could get some wholesale prices but I didn't. So I threw together a formula for a Spelted Sourdough that I'm quite pleased with the results. The dough is lovely smooth but quite slack and was just super fun to shape. I also continue on my quest to learn and make 100% ryes which may or may not be going so well.
This Friday’s bake started out as 2 bakes which were originally to be completed while we were smoking some brisket and pork sirloin over 12 hours. Neither bread was to be retarded but completed within 12 hours – not including the time it took to build the SD and YW levains.
After my white bread I decided to bake another load with higher whole grain content.
this is based on peter Reinhardt cinnamon sticky bun, I charge it to 25% wholewheat and sub part of the yeast with sourdough.
did a 6+ 4 slap n fold and 3 s&f over the initial 2 hours of bulk fermentation, total 3.5 hours till double in size.
I used water wash with bran topping which added nutty flavor from the side it looks like a shreddable crumb. A crumb shot with filling will be posted tomorrow
Since I had a disastrous attempt at pumpkin sourdough, which ended up in the bin, a straight dough would be perfect for saturday bake.
this recipe is borrowed from Folkish - flour waster yeast and salt Saturday white. But since it is a straight dough I added 10% of whole grain to give it some flavor ( rye 3%, wholewheat 5% and corn flour 2%) And increased the hydration to 76% to compensate the whole grain flour water absorption.
