Blog posts

I suppose that I know I am jaded.  I got some half decent bread at City Market in Houston for 5 weeks.  It said it was sourdough and it looked OK on the outside but it wasn’t like any sourdough that Lucy and I make at home.  It didn’t look the same on the inside.  But it wasn’t 25% sprouted 6 grains using a 10% bran levain made from a NMNF rye starter either.

Majority of the heavy work and projects for the mid of the semester were done, I just have to compile them in a portfolio so now I can relax and prepare for exams and do some heavier baking/cooking. Still, I can't function well during hectic times without making bread so for a forced "bake", I made a simple bread: steamed buns; can be cooked indoors in under 20 minutes. I made this about 2 weeks ago when our professors were mad giving projects after projects, just before going to class.

I saw someone post a Granola Sourdough which looked pretty good so I threw 60 grams of granola into my standard recipe to see how it would come out. I was pretty impressed as the granola added a good subtle flavor and texture which I really liked.... I will be experimenting more with this soon. 

450 grams strong white bread flour

50 grams wholewheat

100 grams starter

10 grams salt

60 grams granola

325 grams water

How about the Anglo-Italian fusion for Easter: a combination of hot cross buns and panettone? Yes, I know, there's the properly Italian colomba di pasqua and I've made it too, but my bunettones are just a bit of fun.

I used a sourdough starter but didn't go through the faff of lievito madre, getting up at four in the morning etc., like I did back at Christmas time. Not orthodox, but ordinary, lively 100% wheat sour starter seemed to work well.

after seeing some lovely cut/stencilling by ana a.negra, I decided to try it myself.  I've always wanted to make sea weed bread, so I thought I'd do the two together. 

I live near the coast where dulce seaweed is harvested, so I swapped some bread for fresh seaweed from the local cockle man.  The seaweed took two days to dry in my oven, then I blitzed it into flakes.  I've made a low hydration dough here as I thought the cutting will be easier, which it was.

20% Canadian white

65% bacheldre a local flour 12% protein

5% light rye

that are perfectly ripe.  Made a tomato, fresh basil, cracked black pepper, tangerine balsamic vinegar, manzanilla olive oil, mini fresh mozzarella ball and parmesan cheese salad.

This is my second attempt at a similar bread.  I wanted to use my new Apple/Orange Yeast Water to make a Levain for this bread and not use any other sour dough levain.  When I did this a few weeks ago I didn't let the levain ripen long enough and the dough didn't develop correctly.  This time I let the levain go for a good 12 hours and then refrigerated and used it the next day.  No problem this time with developing the dough correctly.

I loved the taste of this bread so decided to make it the way it was originally written by Hamelman as much as possible (except for the addition of yogurt) since I am doing this by hand and he used a mixer. I also used some vital wheat gluten to replace his high gluten flour which I am guessing is around 15% protein. To do this, I found the niftiest online calculator. 

http://flourmath.bradfordrobertson.com

With my brother and sister-in-law in town I baked a few semolina-fennel seed-golden raisin-toasted pine nut baguettes (that's a mouthful - in more ways than one) and then followed that up with a batch of Vermont SDs.

This bread should be my first post. I don’t know how I could post any other recipes before this one is even shared.

Though I enjoy a stack of pancakes for breakfast from time to time, I’m not one with a sweet tooth and would almost always go the savory route for my bread. The combo of sesame and cheese is a match in heaven and is undoubtedly my all-time-favourite. If you’ve ever had sesame crackers or breadsticks with your cheese board before, you know what I mean.