Blog posts

04/05/2024

Aim:

Participation in Ralph Nieboer's Breadworks FB group community bake. " The Winston knot". To become capable, and proficient in shaping and baking a six strand Winston knot Bread.

Winston knot community bake.

Woke up, got out of bed and dragged a buffing rag across my head. I made my way to the kitchen and got an early start! 

Photos

1. Tangzhung water roux. (150°F)

2. Rough looking dough after initial mix

3. Smooth dough after mechanical gluten development.

After two successive failures, I finally succeeded with Maurizio Leo’s Beginners Sourdough Bread.

When I'm in the mood nothing beats a fresh chewy bagel and for me this can be one of the most satisfying breakfast or lunch breads. I know some people aren't so into bagels, but I just think that (maybe) they've never had a great boiled bagel that came out of the oven a few minutes ago.

I've been thinking about making a rye tin loaf off and on for a while and chanced upon a Rye Baker TFL post:

https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/44945/outstanding-russian-rye-bread-moskovskiy-rzhannoye-khlebv

The post came with a nice looking loaf, so I thought I would give it a try.

As always, a few tweaks:

The Zoia Panettone Challenge

- Recipe from “Non Solo Zucchero” by Iginio Massari

Iginio Massari a name much revered in the world of Panettone yet his mentor, Achille Zoia is lesser known, but to his credit a speciality flour formulated to accommodate Zoia’s technological liking bears his name… “Panettone Z” produced by Molino Dallagiovanna is the flour of choice being favoured by many maestri for its excellent extensibility.

Grilling season is upon on us!  The weather is finally feeling like spring so some tasty rolls are in order for burgers and other tasty sandwiches.

I made a sweet levain by adding some dark maple syrup (the real stuff only of course) to some KAF bread flour and my stiff starter.

For the main dough some fresh milled Rouge De Bordeaux whole wheat was sifted and milled twice along with some fresh milled spelt which was  sifted  once and milled twice.  Some  more KAF bread flour rounded out the flour mix.

Hello folks - I just moved from UK to Spain along with my trust Panasonic SDD255 breadmaker.

I would appreciate guidance to sourcing flour, yeast and baking enhancer as substitutes for the brands I was familiar with in UK to bake for my household and friends. 

I live in the Malaga area so I am looking for any specialist outlets as well as online sources. My Spanish is not yet fluent although I can read/translate

Many thanks

As a special bonus of putting up with my nonsense, I present Nanny's (my Mom's) secret formula for her iconic special occasions or Sunday dinner

"Crepe Style Manicotti"

Enjoy the step by step simple instructions.

1. The crepes.

2. The sauce

3. The Filling

4. Assembly

5. Bake.

This is my second bake of the Gallina Limoncello and white chocolate Colomba, by far the best of my four rounds of baking. I learned a lot during these bakes, all of which I will leverage going forward.

This recipe from Luigi Gallina is nicely balanced, relatively easy to work with and is also the most delicious of the ones I've tried. It makes a cloud-like and moist crumb which is also sturdy enough to stand up to being baked in Colomba format.

Posting a bit late - last weekend it was Purim, so I baked the traditional Hamantaschen and cinnamon rolls :) I think this year the Hamantaschen are the best ones yet.