Blog posts

I made a similar version of this bread over Thanksgiving but never had a chance to post it.  I changed a few things including increasing the hydration and used walnuts instead of pecans.  I wanted to really bring out the nutty flavor in this one and used barley flakes along with rolled oats for the porridge.  The Greek Yogurt was added for a little extra sour edge and I find it adds a little extra creamy texture to the final loaf.

All in all this is one of my favorite breads I have come up with and made an excellent grilled ham and cheese sandwich :).

Well - this one seemed like a bit of a chore. I used the Dove's Farm recipe of the back of the packet again. I do seem to be getting good results from their own recipes, and they do not require a lot of ingredients and equipment etc I've noticed. Here's a link for the recipe: https://www.dovesfarm.co.uk/recipes/fig-and-walnut-spelt-bread/

Hi there, after lurking and reading for a couple of months without being registered, I decided it was time to join in and share my stories with other bread freaks. To be honest nobody in my direct group of friends or family can't get exited when I talk about gluten strength, hydration or crumb. They all do love to eat the bread though...

Sunday, I baked a couple loaves of Hamelman's Pain au Levain with Whole Wheat. This is a wonderful everyday bread for me. It's a favorite player in a host of bread roles. (No pun intended.) I see that alfanso has nominated it for some prestigious post - I can't figure out which one, but we definitely share an admiration for this bread. Here's mine:

Ever since trying Skibum's pulla this summer I've been meaning to bake one.  

I used jarkkolaine's recipe as the basis since it had metric weights.  The one notable difference is that I used a tangzhong to try to get a fluffier crumb. Did it help? Mmmm... I'm not sure it did, but I may not have nailed the timing quite right.

As the primary season for the next US president officially kicked off this evening (although there has been ad nauseum preening and jockeying going on for a year already), I decided to throw my support behind the candidate most suitable.  I can't really decide on one, although I'm leaning toward the tall dark handsome candidate by just a hair.

This was a cautious attempt at making bread with spelt flour using a recipe from Tartine #3. Overall there is 40% spelt flour and 60% wheat flour. It's probably not enough spelt flour to really raise any serious issues but still a little intimidating...

This bread was the result of the above request.  I decided to concentrate on dried fruit since there was a couple packages almost empty. Finished off the cherries and blueberries while tossing in some dates and sunflower seeds.

Hello, everyone,

Long time no see!   Hope all is well and Happy New Year!  I have been away from TFL for quite a while.  During this time, I stopped baking bread, got rid of all the starters and bags of grains that I had accumulated,  and devoted my very limited free time to pursue other hobbies. 

A while ago I wrote a post, Life With Fred; Maintaining a Starter In Pictures, about how I maintain my starter; an approach focused on minimizing both waste and stress. The starter, Fred, seemed pretty resilient. While I usually baked every week or two, sometimes Fred would cool his heels in the fridge for a month or more. I wondered how long he could go between feedings and still remain viable. I knew that dabrownman was taking a similar no-waste, laissez-faire approach.