Blog posts

What did you expect? :)

In the spirit of a few of David's recent bakes, these were loosely based on a bunch of stuff in FWSY, with some last minute stuff from TFL.

If memory serves:

400g KA AP
25g KA WW
25g Bob's Red Mill dark rye 
100g 100% SD starter (didn't build a levain, just dumped in from the feeding discard)
~0.5g IDY (insurance policy :)
11g salt
375g water (a guess based on flour mix and starter amount)

Sour Cherry

Strawberry Rhubarb

This week, I baked a batch of SJSD baguettes. They aren't the prettiest I've ever baked, but I'll post a couple photos of mine, since there have been so many folks baking these and enjoying them recently.

Baguette is one of my favorites, but I have not got it quite right ... yet. 

I followed the authentic baguette recipe from Cook's Illustrated with the MegaSteam method. Based on the result, I think it was a nice try. I let the steaming going for too long, so the crust was a bit too thick. Of course more practices are needed for scoring ;P 

True to her word, Lucy took last week’s baguette bake and tried to improve it seve4ral ways.  She cut the cold time in the fridge from 19 hours to 13 hoping to the keep the dough from over proofing to get better spring, bloom and maybe ears.

She increased the sprouted whole grains for 19% to 29% - more than a 50% increase which help the flavor but probably hurt the possibility of a more open crumb.  She also subbed barley for last week’s Kamut for one of the 5 whole grains.

A continuation of my journey into the world of cold proofing the shaped, and sometimes shapely, baguettes.  This reporting of the trip again required no passport or Global Entry/Trusted Traveler documentation.  Just a curiosity of what happens when I retard the baguette dough in its final phase prior to its own voyage from couche to oven. My interest in investigating this method is nothing more than an experiment in learning about ways to control the time/temp elements of fermentation, baby steps at a time.

Like Rye breads with that tangy, sour taste?

I think this is my first post on TFL. I registered way back in July of 2011. I used to be active on CountryLife.net before Lehman's "rescued" it.

The other day, when I was making a batch of German-Style Many Grain Bread (from Peter Reinhart's "Whole Grain Breads") I did a search online to see if anyone had any comments on the recipe. A couple of the search results were on this site.

At first it was clearly the levain which objected to being returned to the west coast after spending several months on the east coast.  Finally it decided it would make due with its new, but in reality old, surroundings.  Then it was clearly my hands which had totally lost their mojo after spending those same months generously feeding the levain but not demanding that it work for its living.  One bread after another was poorly shaped, poorly developed or overproofed, or poorly scored.