Blog posts

Lucy told me that, in the old days, Jewish bakers in Poland and around Vienna started baking these cookies shaped like a horn or twist several hundred years ago.  The root Yiddish word for Rugelach means little twists or horn and are made from triangles of dough rolled up with a filling inside.

(Baked 2/3/17)

This ended up being a particularly sticky loaf, and I had considerable trouble getting it out of the banneton when it was time to bake. Hence, the loaf is a bit malformed. Still, it was moist and delicious and had very good crumb.

Ingredients

• 500g King Arthur Bread Flour
• 350g water @ 80°
• 150g starter @ 70% hydration
• 12g salt
• 300g oatmeal porridge (1:1.5 dry to wet by volume)

Process

(Baked 1/30/2017)

Another Oatmeal Porridge loaf, this time with some added whole wheat instead of spelt. 

Ingredients

• 450g King Arthur Bread Flour
• 50g King Arthur Whole Wheat Flour
• 300g water @ 75°
• 150g starter @ 70% hydration
• 12g salt
• 250g oatmeal porridge (1:1.5 dry to wet by volume)

Process

One of my last successes in 2017. I've realized that bagels are the easiest breads to make. I have used bread flour because I cannot find high gluten flour but I think the chew was perfect as is, any more and it will be too hard to eat. These bagels have a crisp crust and that distinct pull while biting or tearing a bit from it.

(Baked 1/28/2017)

I do believe this was the first of many many loaves that where I added rolled oats. The way in which I added them continues to change and evolve, but on my first attempt, I actually precooked them.

Soaker

• 1 cup Quaker rolled oats
• 1.5 cups water
• Bring to a boil, reduce to low and cook covered for 15 minutes.
• Remove from heat and let cool while still covered.

Bread Ingredients

My apologies for the extended absence. Again. I've been baking bread, on and off, but I've also been doing lots of other stuff, and posting my progress toward my 2017 Bread Challenge kind of fell by the wayside.

As we now seem to be winding down 2017, I figured I would make an effort to finish what I started. You'll be seeing a bunch more of these blog posts in the next 24 hours. Maybe I'll even finish!

 The simple process still fills me with happy.

Reinharts Neapolitan pizza Dough.

DISCLAIMER: THE RESULTS OF THIS EXPERIMENT COULD BE DANGEROUS OR EVEN FATAL. I AM NOT ENCOURAGING ANYONE TO DO THE SAME INSTEAD I AM JUST SHARING MY EXPERIENCE IN THIS UNIQUE CRAFT. IF YOU WISH TO DO SOMETHING SIMILAR, DO SO AT YOUR OWN PERIL.

WARNING: EXPLICIT PHOTOS OF POSSIBLE BIO-HAZARDS. IF YOU HAVE AN IRRATIONAL FEAR OF FUZZY THINGS, CLOSE THIS TAB/WINDOW NOW!

 So, Thursday afternoon saw the annual Leftover Christmas Party at friends. Part of the fun is a vague idea, but no certainty of what there is going to be to eat. Christmas leftovers, but quite what,and in what form. I made a turkey and ham pie, and also wanted to take some bread (it is sort of expected, after all, and gives me a further excuse to bake).

Inspiration came from a link in the Christmas edition of Bread Magazine e-mail, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=9DNfPUsCYm4