Blog posts

We are in morning.  Crayola is discontinuing the dandelion color in their box of 24.  No color has been discontinued in over 100 years.  We think they hate weeds and shades of yellow.  As a Libertarian who has long fought for the legalization of weed, this comes as an especially heavy blow….. almost as bad as when Arizona did not pass recreational weed use last November.   Life is not fair but we will never give up!

Like the title says, the weekend loaf was so good, we were out of bread by Tuesday. And since I had some levain left over that I had kept (I was thinking of making sourdough cinnamon rolls with it), it was conscripted to become a loaf to fill in the gap. 

This is not my normal routine for making bread but it still worked. No idea what the crumb looks like yet. It could be pretty interesting.

So here goes:

1. Toast 50 g of bulgur and 25 g of amaranth. Soak in 150 g boiling water and let cool until just warm. 

No, not the Crosby, Stills and Nash song.  Rather my "full sized" baguettes.  Geremy (kendalm) has been bugging' me ;-) on and off for a while to try my hand at a full sized baguette.  And so here is my first attempt using the same Pain au Levain w/ 125% hydration rye levain as I ran last week.

Since my last post on TFL (see here), I've been steadily working on my shop with my partner Jana. Roof repaired and renovated, parking repaved, custom fixtures and furniture in progress (photos to be posted on a later date). Additionally, sooner than expected, I restarted my sourdough starter last month, February, and conducted countless experiments. 

Baking lots. 

Regular SD WW loaves, seeded loaves and blackberry pecan loaves. Also did my fourth batch of yeasted Pain au Chocolat, which need some serious help. I can't get them to ferment and flake. 

Rye Ciabatta with ground flax. These were superb tasting. 

Blackberry Pecan WW SD loaves. Blackberry isn't all that great tasting. Sure looks nice though. 

  I have made several breads with this long autolyse technique in the past and I'm always happy with the well developed flavor and open crumb it produces.  By adding the porridge element and upping the hydration it really created a wonderfully moist and open crumb.  The toasted grains really came through in the flavor department as well.  This is definitely one worth baking again.

Note, you don't need to use the new Jumbo Size Kitchen Aid mixer to get the same results I did :).  (This was actually on display at the Housewares Show in Chicago last weekend).

I had made sourdough pita breads a few months ago with 50% whole wheat flour. They were much better than "store bought," as everything I had read led me to expect. I had experimented with two methods of shaping - rolling out versus stretching (like a pizza) - and thought rolling out had better results (a surprise). I also didn't allow any proofing time. I divided, shaped and baked. This time, I shaped all the pitas by rolling and allowed a rather brief proof period - about 10-15 minutes. I think this improved the puffing out of the pitas.

...although not necessarily with the BEST response!

If anyone ever tells you that weather patterns, especially pressure changes, don't impact baking, then please laugh in their face, or, at the very least, snort derisively... 

This weekend's bread is all about including whole grains. The levain is a combo of the 3 starters I have. I coddled it all week and it rewarded me with tripling in just a few hours when I made the final levain. 

Here is the recipe!

1. Sprout 50 g each of Kamut, Spelt and Selkirk wheat berries. 

2. Autolyse sprouts with 700 g water, 550 g no-additives unbleached flour, 102 g multigrain flour, 100 g fresh milled Kamut, 100 g fresh milled Spelt and 100 g fresh milled Selkirk wheat. Let sit for a couple of hours. 

this is actually a test loaf to obtain some feedback on the possibility of a mikro bakery. Only 10% wholewheat freshly ground with 5% levain bulk fermented at 26c for 6.5 hours with just a little tang. Decided not to go for a bold bake to cater for the asian palate n also a softer crumb.

what do you guys think?