Last loaf for 2014 is once again a panettone though it seems that there is a longer delay between when I baked it and when I post it. This year's special bake feature home made citrus peels (50% orange and 50% lemon) as well as beans from a vanilla pod for the added boost of flavour.
It has been on my mind for a while to put a post together - my last one is from nearly two years ago! I better get this up before the winter semester starts on Monday.
I always get so inspired from all the wonderful things you are putting up on this site and cheer you on from the sidelines.
These are a few things I have been making in the last months.
My son has been home from university over the Christmas break, and it has been so much fun feeding him. He lost about 6 pounds during the end-of-semester stress and I was more than happy to put those back on his ribs! :)
One of Mr Jeano's buddies expressed a wish for a loaf of sourdough, in the context of hearing another buddy was to be blessed with some rye bread. (The rye bread recipient had never eaten rye until he had some at our place). The buddy who wants sourdough commented his wife had gotten some at the grocery store and he'd really enjoyed it for sandwiches. (I will bet you almost any amount of money their local grocery doesn't carry unbleached flour, let alone bake any quasi-artisan bread).
Failure to plan. That was my situation this morning. I wanted to bake bread but failed to plan for it yesterday so I had no refreshed starter to elaborate, no poolish, no biga, no preferment of any kind. So I decided it was about time that I tried Jason's Quick Coccodrillo Ciabatta. I made the semolina version.
I followed the formula exactly, using the greater amount of water. I baked with steam for the first 10 minutes and left the oven temperature at 500 F the entire time. The loaves were done in 15 minutes.
I had a bit of levain left from my experiment with a Forkish loaf and I hate to throw it away. I kept it on the counter feeding it a bit each day until Thursday when I said "that's it". I followed gsnyde's San Francisco country loaf (found at this link http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/25402/sf-country-sourdough-%E2%80%93-my-best-ever%E2%80%A6not-sure-why), adjusting the formula to accommodate my 143 g of levain because you can't throw it out darn it. Anyway
since i made an acetobacter YW and my sourdough died at the same time (double whammy) i have to resort to commercial yeast while waiting for the rebirth of my sourdough.
bought the hario skerton coffee grinder to grind some buckwheat...was easy enough.
This week I've been honored by a visit from Pat Roth (aka proth5.) I invited her here and happily enough she decided to come and share some of her baking wisdom with me. One of the things I particularly wanted to master were those pesky brioches à tête. How do you keep those heads up high? How do you keep the neck from thickening until they look like body builders with no discernable distinction between body and head?
These are urgent matters but first
Lucy decided to do another take in her minimum 15 grain no more than 30 ingredient challenge bake found here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/39184/4th-july-%E2%80%93-15-grain-independence-sourdough-challenge-bake but this time using sprouted whole grains for 50% of the grain and cutting way back the other ingredients to a total of 22 (LaFama AP, KA bread flour, salt, water, IPA added to the 16 whole sprouted grains. 22 is a pretty big number around here
Eric's formula calls for neither a bold bake, nor making a ginormous boule instead of two smaller ovals, but I have been using my immense IMUSA caldera for big miche-like loaves for a while and couldn't resist giving an excellent deli rye a Forkish twist.
What is the best way of telling the internal temperature of a sourdough loaf? Probe thermometers will create holes in the loaf. Any Ideas? Also There is quite a difference in prices for thermometers that seem to have the same capabilities.
Thank You
Jim
