*** Previous blog: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19777/calculating-baker
It's a rainy Sunday afternoon where I am - good time to tap out a post. Besides, it's 10-10-10...gotta commemorate that somehow!
Here is one of my recent bake from the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook, the Chorizo and Thyme roll.
The roll is really nice and the flavour is really well-balanced with chorizo and carmelised onion.
It was an easy and quick recipe, apart from slicing 500g of onions and having to cook them until they become really caramelised. But it's all worth it.
The recipe is also quite versatile that any filling combination is endless. I'm thinking chicken pesto with sundried tomato for my next bake.
When I took the Artisan I workshop at the San Francisco Baking Institute last August, Miyuki demonstrated the method of oven steaming they recommend for home bakers.
The oven is not pre-steamed (before loading the loaves). A cast iron skillet filled with steel pieces (nuts and bolts, rebar pieces) is pre-heated in the oven along with two baking stones. One stone is placed on a rack above the stone and rack on which the loaves will be loaded.
My quest for a passable baguette continues. To recap: In an attempt to improve my baguette skills, I'm making the Baguettes with Poolish formula from Hamelman's Bread every weekend until I get it right(-ish). Following my experience from week 1, I made two changes:
This is a three bake weekend for me, and I thought I'd offer this shot of the midpoint of it all.
From right to left: Poolish Baguettes, fresh out of the oven. A bag of sourdough bagels (the BBA formula), baked this morning for breakfast. And a batch of dough for Vermont Sourdough with Increased Whole Grain, currently in the bulk fermentation stage to be baked tomorrow.
If you keep your bread ends around to use up, here's a great way :) Hint: weekend breakfast or brunch is in the bag!
Weekend Breakfast Strata
http://www.brightbakes.wordpress.com
Love,
Cathy B.
Autumn is truly here, and every tree is decked out in breathtaking yellow and red colours. This is one of my favourite parts of the year, where afternoons are best spent strolling among the autumn leaves on silent sidewalks and catching every last bit of warmth the sun can muster.
Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating this weekend!
I tried shaping breads as Pumpkins for the occasion.
I tried this recipe first:
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/10/16/world-bread-food-day/
substituting 75% stone-ground whole wheat and 25% bread flour for the high extraction flour,
substituting canned pumpkin for the sweet potato,
substituting flax seed for pumpkin seed
Hey all! Bread rises faster at high altitude. Do you think that sourdough starter would rise faster when you are doing builds, etc.?
The question never occurred to me until today. Thanks, Pam
