Blog posts

Although I usually prefer bread with lots of texture, I decided to do something a little different. This soft, moist and tasty white sourdough developed over three days. It almost did not last long enough for a photo. 

I had to improvise as the original recipe was in Spanish and the translation was not that clear.
http://blog.codrudepaine.ro/2011/07/paine-moale-pentru-sandwich-cu-maia-sourdough-sandwich-bread/

Another laminated sourdough, as I've said I want to practice lamination in this short cold weather so here is another variation. This is a treat that you either love or hate! I'm a raisin lover (while some really detest raisins and I don't know why) and I love raisin bread in all forms so I decided to try this super deluxe version.

I've been making Kouign Amann for a long time but it wasn't until I visited their homeland of Brittany I realized I had completely misunderstood this delicious pastry. In Brittany I discovered Kouign Amann is not the sophisticated laminated pastry made from croissant dough I thought it was. It is a rustic treat with humble pedigree and it tasted tasted better, much better, than anything I’d ever made. And to add insult to injury it was also much easier to produce!

After a few weeks of making really basic loaves, nothing fancy just 1-2-3 loaves, I thought it was time for a high rye.

I’ve made 70% rye before so I thought I should be brave and try 80%. I was going to load it up with all sorts of seeds and nuts but I ended up going for a fairly plain rye. The only extra in this loaf is a bit of Star Anise (which I’m not usually a big fan of, but bread tends to make things better).

So here’s the formula:

I mentioned in an earlier post that my wife was not so enamored with "artisan" bread. For this loaf, I did a complete 180 and baked something that was far, far outside of my wheelhouse. Actually, my wife was specific about it, after I pressed her on why she wouldn't eat my bread for the fourth time that day.

"I want brioche" she said. "Make me brioche and I will eat it."

"How hard could it be?" I said, foolishly, and not for the first time.

One of my coworkers has a serious problem tolerating wheat, though she is not celiac. She agreed to try some experiments (with her as the subject!) to see where the boundaries of her wheat issues lay.

Our first experiment, some time last year, was a very, very long ferment sourdough. That loaf was modestly successful -- her symptoms were relatively mild.

I'm falling behind on posting. Still baking, but I have a backlog of photos and posts to do. Trying to catch up.

Here's a loaf to change things up a bit. My wife is actually not super fond of "artisan" bread. She'll eat it, but she prefers softer bread, and always cuts the crust off regardless of what kind of bread it is. This is, needless to say, a bit of a sore point in our household.

I managed to find some of Cedar Mountain's recipes on Tapatalk and since hubby had requested a rye loaf for this week, I thought I would give it a shot. It didn't get the oven spring that Cedar Mountain gets but it sure smells wonderful. Crumb shot will be forthcoming once we cut into it.

Lucy had come up with a 50% sprouted 9 gran SD for this week’s bake but, at the last minute, we saw Lazy Loafers 50% whole wheat bread that has a yeast kicker in it.  Normally we don’t put yeast in a SD bread because it just makes things go faster and reduces the flavor of the bread.

Buongiorno everyone.  It's been a while.