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In recent weeks I've been kibitzing a friend who's starting up a new restaurant where he's been trying out a recently purchased, second hand, commercial "combo oven".  The oven is proving a bit cranky and he's working out the bugs and tinkering with bake times and temperatures.  I got a chance to bake a couple test loaves in the oven and was very impressed with the "jump rise" achieved in "combo" mode (heat with superheated steam in the oven).

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

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As part of my preparation to move from South Africa back to the United States, I dried my sourdough starter using two different techniques.  The first was to simply smear a thin layer of batter-consistency starter across some parchment paper and allow it to dry at room temperature.  The second was to mix flour into some starter until it was reduced to crumbs.  I found that a mezzalune was very helpful in the latter stages of incorporating the flour by allowing me to chop the progressively stiffening starter into smaller and smaller pieces while blending in more flour.

Because of some scheduled maintenance on my car, I had to work from home one day a week or two ago.  That afforded me an opportunity to accomplish a couple of additional objectives: first, clear out some of the pantry contents in preparation for my pending move and second, make some bread.  As it turned out, that also became my last bake in South Africa.

Rye Sourdough Black Breads with a Hot Grain Soaker

Last night was my second attempt at homemade pasta using home-milled flour. While my first attempt (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/25340/experiments-pasta-milling-my-own-flour) was delicious, I tried a few new things based on comments there and reading elsewhere.

Our friends from Israel (wife) and Idaho (husband) joined us for a bike ride today as temperatures in New England hit 80F! 

Do you love cooking shows?  Ever noticed a difference in the way cooking shows present what it is to cook?  Are they the Julia Child types that lightheartledly take hammers to meat and throw a little wine into the pot because "heck, it was already in my hand!"  Or do they precisely measure things and triple-check for accuracy like on "America's Test Kitchen?"

Read about my thoughts on this dramatic stylistic choice and how it impacts bread baking in my lastest blog, hosted here: