Blog posts

Using this time to get back into baking. I've never really left baking to be honest but sometimes life 'retards' it a bit. These times are difficult for all and I feel incredibly fortunate that my wife and I both have jobs that can support full time work from home. My career is a bit more flexible than hers and thus it has provided me with ample time to bake. However with a run on flour and yeast that throws a big wrench into the mix. On top of that my wife and I can't (shouldn't) eat all of the bread and pastries that I want to bake. Some compromises were made.

In my search for real Pain de Campagne, I made various recipes for Poilane style bread a few times. They are good. (Fresh bread is good by its nature). However, my experience is that it is possible to make a better bread of that style than the recipes floating around the net produce:

Shelter in place does things to you! Baked a Thom Leonard Country French today. Seems I haven't quite forgotten how to (although a little shape mishap)...

Today’s red fife loaf. I dropped the hydration a bit from the recent loaves. The past few loaves have been tending to relax a lot while in proofing and flattening out bit. So I brought the hydration down a bit from 78% to 75%. Added a small amount of olive oil for flavor. 
Very good wholewheat flavor with malty notes. Soft crumb - not at all chewy. I’m getting the hang of this grain, which is weaker than the northern red spring wheat I usually use. Could have proofed a bit longer, but not bad for 100% wholegrain. 

We have been using the World standard Zojirushi for many years.

A truly consistant and effective machine that just needs a replacement bowl and paddles every 1,500 loaves or so.

More recently, I have been attempting to create sour dough loaves in this beast.

I have however, been completly stymied by the Zojirushi incorporating a knock back prior to both rises 2 and 3.

In addition, although the first rise may be set very long, the secondary rise periods are much shorter than a true sour dough requires.  Thus, skipping rise 2, doesn't help.

Da Brownman's instructions for building a starter contain this instruction:

The starter should double 4 hours after the 2nd feeding. If it doesn't then toss the 2nd feeding total amount by weight and redo it.

I don't understand what this accomplishes. If I have 70gm of starter at the second feeding but it doesn't double, what is the advantage of throwing out 35 gram and adding new flour and water?

I'm sure there is a reason, but my old brain can't quite grasp it. I'd welcome any clarification. Thanks,

Greg

Happy Easter everyone, in spite of it all.

I've been wanting to develop a SD Hot Cross Bun formula for several years, and, despite rossnroller's verdict that his CY version was better, I declare these to be not only a success but superior to all previous Easter's CY versions we've made.

I am so happy today because I successfully made bread, and I had not made bread for almost a year. 

Last year, I threw away all my sourdough starters as I did not need them. I know that I can make delicious bread with CLAS, and it only takes a day to make. 

      It's been a while since I made a porridge bread.  I love the moist and flavorful crumb I always get from these types of bakes.

I added some leftover mashed potatoes for some extra flavor and the ricotta cheese added even more moisture to the creamy crumb.

The end result was an extremely flavorful bread with a moderately open crumb.

Super-massive oven spring!

Based on a formula by Iginio Massari.

I was able to add extra water to the dough because the strength was so good.

Marriage's flour is excellent!