Blog posts

I am on a countdown now from leaving  paid employ , for the last 10 years or so i have been with Challenger Institute of Technology which is a Government training organisation formally known as Tafe which stands Tertiary and Further Education.

I have had a number of rolls at Challenger being a Purchasing Officer, a stint with Hospitality Section as the technician and back at supply currently as a Contracts Administrator and auditor of credit card spending.

Sourdough Italian Rolls

April 18, 2015

Those familiar with my San Joaquin Sourdough will recognize the rolls I baked today as its Italian cousin. Besides the obvious difference that these are rolls rather than bâtards, they also have around 20% Durum flour, some sugar and olive oil, and they have a sesame seed coating.

I based this loaf on the Semolina from Tartine. Very pleased with this one. I incorporated a bench rest period, which I think may have helped my shaping issue from last week. The crumb is so nice and chewy and a little sweet and nutty. The crust is a little thinner and lighter than in previous loaves which I like, and I attribute to using parchment in the dutch oven instead of oil. I'm currently enjoying it as a triple decker sandwich with butter lettuce, guacamole, smoked turkey, and bacon. 

Lately I've been experimenting with steamimg methods. Before this I had been using a pan full of lava rocks, preheated with the oven, and pouring a cup of boiling water after loading the bread.

I tried and tested a few dough combinations and surprising as it may sound, the sourdough whole spelt marries amazingly well with an enriched yeast chocolate dough.  It was such a labor of love this bake I have published it, rather demo-style.  For details look on www.mybreadandbrot.com

Stumbling across a video from Der Back Profi making Kaisersemmel, this morning I just had to try them.  And I can't find where I stumbled over it!

Lucy has had a bit of Desert Durum berries burning a hole in her pantry.  We can’t get any more until this year’s AZ crop comes in since last year’s crop is all sold out.  She decided to use it up with some whole sprouted and milled 4 grain consisting of rye, spelt barley and wheat.

Finally I have a new place to lose my extra loaves besides the freezer and birds so I am again trying to perfect my technique.

Today's bread is Vermont Sourdough from Jeff Hamelman's book Bread.  In his book, all the recipes are written in bakery sized formulas along with a home version which is written in pounds and ounces so I needed to convert them to grams.  I also upped the rye a slight bit and added a little whole wheat but kept the formula in the same balance.

My Levain
75 gr mature starter
125 gr. warm water
125 gr. whole wheat flour

I've been so busy I haven't had a chance to post what I've baked for a while, so this post is going to lump everything I've done for the past couple weeks in one - mainly for my own reference. In this issue:

Colomba di Pasqua
Black Rye w Raisins & Walnuts
Buttermilk Bread
no-Knead Focaccia
Genoese Focaccia
Normandy Apple Bread

Week 1:

The campus market started the week after Easter so I had made some more Colomba di Pasqua ("Easter Dove"), and an interesting black rye with raisins and walnuts for the first market.

hi,I wondered what I am practising is right. I was running short of starter last weekend and thought of making more by creating a new one. My 100% organic dark rye flour did not have any activities after more than 16 hours. I was a little worried and added 3 tbsp of my old starter to the new one. The new one showed some activities of fermentation as there are some small bubbles within hours,say 3-4 but not rising as vigorously as the old starter that I have. My indoor temperature is at 28-30 degree celcius year round. So things are 'happening' quite quickly over here in my kitchen.