Blog posts

It’s been quite a while since I posted except for the CB earlier this week.  I pulled my starter out of the fridge on Sunday and did one refresh. Then 9:15 pm mixed the levain

9 g starter + 44 g water + 44 g flour and left on the bench over night.

Monday am popped it in the microwave to warm up as room temp was only 12°C, brrrrr. once it was nice and bubbly mixed final dough

335 g bread flour + 6 g gluten flour

94 g Durum

60 g freshly milled whole wheat

37 g freshly milled spelt

360 g water.

Since I started working with white dough, I’ve come to recognize the importance of gluten development in bread. Whole grain dough tends to be stiffer even when fully hydrated, which gives a delusion that dough mixing is neglectable. Wrong. I was so wrong! Two rounds of 3 minute mixing and 1 set of lamination contributed enormous elasticity and extensibility. The dough felt completely different and it does show in the crumb.

30% Sprouted Sorghum SD

I used the Honey Spelt Oat recipe from Sourdough by Sarah Owens. I followed her ingredients exactly, except I swapped out the spelt for whole wheat. The loaves in her book are a little small for my liking, but given my poor prior attempts with this recipe, I was happy to make less dough. 

Lucy was thrilled to make 2 breads in one week for a change and she really came up with a dusey too - a  Lebanese, Greek, Italian and Mexican Focaccia.

Been baking so many breads with lots of add ins, back to basic but keeping my new favorite wheat germ parmesan crust.

I got a new lame finally, oh it made a world of a difference! Cutting through dough like butter, I'll so try the double slash again

There are only two places left on this course https://www.artisan-bread-school.com/course/five-day-course-in-lyman-maine-usa-october-2019/. The next course in the USA will be in late 2020.

This is a 45% rye bread made with fresh milled rye sifted so it's close to a medium grind rye flour.  The ricotta cheese resulted in a nice moist crumb and the onions just go perfect with rye of course.  I added a little balsamic vinegar which added a little sweetness.

The flavor was perfect in this one with a nice sour tang perfect for a pastrami or corned beef sandwich.

Swiss Farmhouse Bread – “Bread. A baker’s book of techniques and recipes, 2nd Edition” by Jeffrey Hamelman.

My experiment into the world of yeast water bread was inspired by an organised community bake on the Fresh Loaf bread site. The members have such a wealth of experience and expertise.  When things do not go to plan, experts jump in with great advice. I learned a lot by participating and through others experience.

This bread contains walnuts and raisins and uses raisin yeast water for leavening. The first step is to make the yeast water and takes 5 to 6 days.

Two 260 g loaves, whole wheat sourdough, one autolysed, one mixed all together at beginning with 1% diastolic malt.

I liked the first one better for its larger crumb, deeper color, and a bit more tang.

But then again, who likes apples and who likes oranges?

This was the result of a whatever-I-had-in-the-pantry + I-need-a-good-camping-loaf. It was so good I decided to put it on here. It went something like this:

329 g King Arthur AP flour

174 g King Arthur White Whole Wheat

42 g King Arthur Bread Flour

260 g Local Stone-Ground Spelt, 60 sift (From Migrash Farm in Baltimore County, MD!)

336 g Flying Dog Gonzo Imperial Porter, 10% ABV

219 g H20, warm-ish

330 g medium-ripe levain (~100% hydration, mostly local wholegrain stone-ground rye, also from Migrash, + a little KA bread flour)