Blog posts

This weekend was a "disaster" in terms of baking waste. I don't even recall what I was trying to bake, but I got distracted and used the wrong quantity of water.  I determined this because the autolyse was very dry and when I weighed my container it was short by a whole lot.  Unfortunately, it was not possible to incorporate the missing water at this point.

After a few days struggling with baking ciabattas with low-protein flowers sold here in Brazil (trying to achieve an open crumb), I took a one-day break from bread baking and tried this olive oil, orange, pound cake. It turned out pretty good. 

I was in a Chad kind of mood this week, so I baked an 80% whole wheat boule ala Tartine.

Tartine 80% Whole Wheat

80% whole wheat flour
20% all purpose flour
5% wheat germ
85% water
2% salt
20% levain

A secret turning in us
makes the universe turn.
Head unaware of feet,
and feet head. Neither cares.
They keep turning.

Rumi - The Secret Turning

Okay, so I'm here often, looking, reading, comparing, commenting, but mostly, mostly learning as much as I can as quickly as I can, and putting that knowledge to work. I'm grateful for the skill and generosity of the members - even when thoughts or advice presents differing experience or opinion, even controversy, it's offered in good faith and helpful to so many. Thank you all.

It's been a busy week. I baked these loaves Monday and took some to my Italian class Tuesday evening where it was appreciated. I have tried this bread untoasted plain and with butter and with goat cheese and toasted with butter and with almond butter. All were very nice. The formula is from Hamelman's Bread.

I am testing this to see if this image looks better than my earlier blog.  ElPanadero mentioned that my photos are faded and yellow (I have been resizing them, as I have struggled to post multiple photos), so I just want to see if this photo looks better than the one I posted on my earlier blog, which has the recipe and other photos.  Phyllis

  The recipe is from Peter Reinhart's <Whole Grain Breads>.

    I use wheat berries, millet, three colors quinoa.

It's my husband's birthday, so I wanted to make something special and different. Inspired by so many bakers on this site, I tried something new in making this bread, improvising a bit on the ingredients. I felt a need to incorporate some fresh herbs from the garden, so I decided to alter the Tartine recipe I typically use to add a few ingredients that may be tasty together.