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Today (well, and yesterday) was time for round 2 of my sourdough bagels.  The last batch were ok, but very dense, and HARD!!  So, I changed two things this time around.  I upped the hydration to 61% (from 59%), and I let the bagels proof at room temp for about 90 minutes after shaping.  The rest of the process I left the same, and, with the bagels now out of the oven, I think I'm on the right track.  Oh, wait, I did also add 25g sugar, so I guess I changed three things!  Here's what I did.....

Preferment/Levain - 339g

I got a bee in my bonnet the other day about making a simple loaf of 50% whole wheat sandwich bread.  Nothing special, just a good solid bread for toast, sandwiches and the like.  One thing I wanted to do was to keep the level of effort fairly minimal (somewhere just above using the bread machine....) :)  I read a bunch of different recipes, and this is what I came up with:

300g AP flour

300g Whole wheat flour

366g Water

30g Milk

1 Tbsp butter

1 Tbsp sugar

14g Salt

1.5g ADY

We finally got some time off to visit our SIL and daughter In their new Seattle home over the Memorial Day weekend and meet Mabel for the first time too.  We had a really nice time over the 5 days and got to see the city up close.  Mabel is cute as a button….. and smart as a whip unlike other baking apprentices who are bred to be stupid.

As bakers, we spend a lot of time on the "How" and very little time on the "Why". When we do bring up why, it tends to be why we do things in a particular way (e.g., which temperature to proof a particular dough) rather than why we choose to make a particular style of bread. 

I do not see thoughtful discussions of why people decide to learn to make baguettes.   Home bakers seem bake them because commercial bakers bake them, and people are in the habit of eating them, and so people like baguettes. Then, home bakers, bake what people like.

There are so many wonderful things about this bread, I don't know where to start. It's buttery like laminated dough but infinitely easier. It's actually fun to make. It's sociable, pull-apart, tear 'n' share bread. And it's a showpiece with a huge 'wow' factor.
Jewish breads are usually excellent, this one is the traditional bake of the Yemenite Jews. If you want to look at the details, here's my recipe link: kubaneh, yemeni bread

So, DanAyo suggested that I pick one bread to bake again and again as a way to build my skill at baking with 100% freshly-milled while wheat flour.

I'm using a variation on the Laurel's Kitchen Bread book 'Loaf for Learning.' The difference are that I'm using spelt and khorasan wheat, and adding a tablespoon of Russian rye sour CLAS for added flavor and a little acidity in the dough. I'm using these wheats because I suspect that there's something wrong with the hard red winter wheat I've been getting. Today was my first bake of this bread. Here is the recipe:

Gajar ka halwa aka carrot halwa is a popular Indain dessert savored by many. Although I do enjoy its caramelly aroma, it’s overly sugary for someone like me who doesn’t have a sweet tooth. Therefore, I decided to transform it into bread form as always!

Carrot Halwa Sourdough with 20% Sprouted Golden Quinoa

I already has bagels on the mind for this weekend when Lazy Loafer (Wendy) posted up her lovely batch yesterday.  So, I dove into the deep end, and took my first go at making sourdough bagels.  I did some searching, and decided to go with THIS RECIPE (posted by Quantum.)  I modified the levain build slightly (favoring a 1:5:5 build up), and also did the bulk proof in the fridge overnight.  I'll cut to the chase on the results......they ARE bagels, but they are a bit denser than even a

Hi all. Sorry it's been so long since I was active on the site. After our big trip to Australia and New Zealand last autumn, then Christmas, we decided to sell our house. It took a while to get it ready to sell, and part of that 'getting ready' was storing all my bread-baking equipment away out of sight, and not baking for customers anymore. The house is still on the market so I'm just baking for the family now.

Both of these bakes were pretty simple for me and I had to restrain myself from adding some cheese or other ingredient :).  Sometimes simple is best and I have to admit the Spelt Barley loaf tastes awesome.  It has a nice chewy crust with deep nutty flavors from the spelt and barley flours.  It made an excellent pastrami sandwich for lunch the other day with some melted cheese and Thousand Island dressing.