Blog posts

There's something about oats in bread that I find compelling! Inspired by the community bake I made Maurizio's Oat Porridge bread. I followed the recipe as written other than to add 25 grams of raw honey to the dough (I just made one loaf). I baked it a bit too hot as I pre-heated the oven at 550 and didn't catch it until 10 minutes into the bake. That said, while the crust was a bit darker than I'd like, overall it turned out well.

Following up on my last blog post (from a while ago!), I've finally gotten around to making a 50% home-milled whole spelt sourdough, and I was very pleased with it. As has been my past experience with spelt breads, the bread tasted of whole grain, but less so than an equivalent 50% whole wheat loaf, and I find this milder taste more appealing.

As I do for most of my sourdough bakes, I generally followed dmsnyder's instructions for San Joaquin sourdough, albeit with different flours-- the aforementioned 50% whole spelt, and 50% high-gluten flour (Glicks brand).

I considered joining in on the community bake but looking through past ideas, I came across a bake that I had adapted from Mutant Space’s recipe. At the time, one of my friends said was one of the best breads she had ever tasted. 

I've been wanting to try milling some dried corn into flour for some time and finally found some on Amazon a little while ago.  For this bake I used around 17% fresh corn flour so it didn't really add much purple color as I had hoped, but it smelled amazing after milling and did add a nice subtle corn flavor to the bake.

I had some leftover rice so I added some into the mix along with some ricotta cheese to make a nice soft and flavorful dough.  This one smelled like you could eat it before even baking it!

Made last weekend for the current community bake.

Coated with white and black sesame seeds.. 

When I saw the other day Leslie's beautiful seeded loaf based on Ru's formula I felt inspired and dived into my books and online and on this site to look at different formulas..as it was time for my weekly 4 loaves bake for friends.

As baguettes (long batards),of course.  Covered by wheat bran.

Edit 5/18/2019 - And a second run with my adjusted formula to make sure that I understood the process, and because it's a darn tasty bread!  Changes applied:

When I began making bread a few years ago it was with a determination to bake nutritious and wholesome bread. What I did not fully understand or appreciate is the broad scope and variety, the many variables affecting the process, the simple and complex beauty of a well baked loaf of bread. And when I think of the countless varations of bread baked over thousands of years it is humbling to realize that each loaf I bake has very likely been baked before by someone else at another time. This was eloquently expressed in a blog comment by Andy (Syd-a) some years ago on TFL:

I followed most instructions of Maurizio with a few minor changes:

1. Using extra thick rolled oats instead of regular oats. Yes, Maurizio emphasized on using regular oats but I always use what I have on hand. Why didn’t I coarsely pulse them in my food processor? Well, who wants to dirt it up for 60 g of oats? Not me... Therefore, I upped the water for the porridge slightly.

2. Adding cold porridge to the dough. I made the porridge ahead of time and refrigerated it. The trouble of letting it warm to room temperature was just too much for me.

I adjusted my sourdough starter to 80% hydration rate.  How do I adjust a recipe calling for 100% starter to an 80% hydration recipe or do I need to adjust?  Hope this question makes sense to anyone?

Thanks,