Blog posts

For my second sourdough loaf I tried this awesome recipe:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/59838/stout-and-2year-old-white-cheddar-sourdough-oats

I followed it pretty exactly, but added caramelized onions and 1/4 tsp instant yeast. I still want to work on getting a slightly better oven spring and more open crumb, but it tasted amazing! I'm still trying to figure out if I am over proofing, under proofing, or not developing the gluten enough.

Provolone Piccante… again? Yup, last week’s bread tasted so good that I want Provolone in my bread for another week. Although I’ve kept the cheese, the rest of the formula is completely different. However, that’s still saying a lot considering how afraid of boredom I am.

I was so busy the past week that I wanted to make something quick to celebrate Father's Day. Instead of making bread, I decided to make cookies. This is just my second time to bake cookies; I am slowly exploring quick breads in my oven. It was quick but not that easy because of a few components which was inspired by the cookie principle of Monsieur Albouze. I made 3 giant single serving cookies, though roughly the same but with a variation for each.

The lead photo is Auvergne Dark Rye from Leader's Local Breads.  While I won’t know until tomorrow how it looks inside, I really like the way the crust turned out.  I expect it will be worlds better than my disastrous first attempt with this bread a few years ago.  

I learned the Ideal Gas Law ( https://www.khanacademy.org/science/physics/thermodynamics/temp-kinetic-theory-ideal-gas-law/a/what-is-the-ideal-gas-law ) circa 1962, and it has been on the tip of my tongue ever since.

Hello everyone,

Yesterday I baked Barm bread form Daniel Lepard’s book. I did one single bread instead of two and I used T80 type of flour (the recipe called for white flour). The result is a tasty bread, full of flavor and I can say that it’s on the list of “to do again”.Below is the result.

Thank you!

After baking a lot with 50% Einkorn, I felt like I needed to get back to some dough that could hold a little more structure. Einkorn is VERY sticky and hard to work with, so this was sort of a break from that phase.

I'm using AP, but contemplating switching to bread flour in the future for the white flour portion of my doughs. All in all, looks great, tastes better :)

   I had not made a porridge bread in a little while, and I've been loving adding freshly ground barley to my bakes, so here we are.  I thought freshly ground Kamut would make a nice combination with the barley and I was not mistaken.

I added some polenta I ground from the purple corn I recently purchased with some rolled oats to make a porridge and added some caramelized onions I had leftover in the main dough for good measure.

I was very happy with the flavor profile on this one and the nice moist and tasty crumb as well.

This was my first attempt at the FWSY 80% biga. As usual I made the dough using 25% whole wheat, I reduced the water temperature given the temperature of my apartment, and slightly reduced the proofing time. Given the lack of oven spring and tighter crumb structure, maybe I should reduce the proof time further? It tasted good, but definitely room for improvement. Is a good rule of thumbs for FWSY to end the bulk ferment when the dough is 2x the original volume? 

This loaf was made with CLAS, whey, mashed potatoes, lard, spices (coriander, caraway, and fennel seeds), and 100% home-milled rye flour. 

Thank you, Rus!

CLAS after refreshment, pH 3.4