Blog posts

I'm a morning runner.  I run far.  And I run a lot.  Except on Sunday.  Sunday morning is my turn over and go back to sleep day.  My laze in bed reading day.  My nesting day.  

The last two weeks have been busy for me, but now exams are done! Well, for now at least, one more to go in November. For now, I’m free to bake and post again :)

This weekend, I decided to try a loaf with a mix of seeds, and after seeing CedarMountains beautiful seeded loaf i was quite inspired. 

Here’s the formula:

I was able to get one shot of the crumb from the Oatmeal Porridge loaf. This was sliced 2 days ago, I am really impressed with the moisture. This made the best grilled cheese. oh and we had just made some fresh peach jam and it was wonderful!

I've been incredibly lazy for the past three weeks or so. Beats me why. I'd like to blame the unbearably hot summer we've had but I know myself too well. No excuses. Just lazy.

It's turning cooler and just in time! I'm running out of the 12 loaves I baked a few weeks back to give me the practice and confidence I need in proofing and shaping bread. I've said it before and I'll say it again: practice, Practice, PRACTICE!

The slew of baguettes that I made the other day for my in-laws yielded a set of Hamelman Pain au Levain w/WW that I wasn't really thrilled with.  The crumb was too tight, the baguettes seemed to lack some standard amount of girth that I expect from them and all along the pathway from mix to bake something just didn't feel right.  A nice part about baking is that I get to do a do-over.  These seemed more "right" to me starting at mix time and beyond.

Tried a new recipe from Michael Kalanty. Turned out nice, 3 folds, let ferment over night, warm up, form place in basket, let raise bake 500 in a dutch oven. Turned out very nice. It really helps to have a nice 100% starter, well fed. 

I tried making oatmeal porridge bread. Follow Chad Robertsons Tartine #3 Very high hydration, 4 folds over 3 hours form, basket, overnight in fridge bake 500 right from the oven. Very tasty. 

Borodinsky bread was being baked long before the Battle of Borodino that supposedly led to its name and way before the Commies in Russia decided to standardize the recipe to make sourcing the ingredients for the bread much easier.  When the Soviet government says this is the way this bread is to be made then that is it – no variants or options allowed.  Free people don’t live like that of course.

Sprouted rye

In the spirit of my latest experiments with yeast water/SD combo and because I had some wholegrain kamut flour leftover this was my last bake before a 10 days trip to San Francisco for Oracle Open World event.