Blog posts

It's sunny in Northern California and the Farmer's Markets are kicking out all the goodies.  Still sticking to some of my solid formulas that are either set in their way and/or need just little tweaks.  Last week it was a new rendition of Country Bread and I'm very happy with the results.  

Looks better with the puff paste top on?

2014 Dabrownman’s TFL Blog Index

1/1/2014 - New Year’s Panettone - 2014

1/3/2014 - YW SD Spelt and White Whole Wheat Miche

This weeks bake was brought about by chance.  Lucy found some Turkish figs hiding out in the fridge where they were tossed several months ago.  Thank goodness they were already dried before being lost to the cold.

Well, I had to try it again, to see if I can do better than my last effort.  I would say that this is the best gluten-free loaf I've ever made, and it's sourdough, which I prefer. Not close to regular sourdough, but OK.

Gluten-free bread tends to be much heavier than gluten-bread, and this was no exception.  However, I got decent crust this time, and the crumb was OK. The taste was good, very dense and moist compared to gluten bread, but tasty and tangy.

Recipe is from Peter Reinhart's Artisan Bread.

Some changes

1) 10% whole wheat flour

2) 10% whole spelt flour

3) 5 types of nuts/seeds of equal weight - pumpkin, sunflower, flax, pine, sesame.

4) More pumpkin seeds were added to the top of the loaf after shaping instead of the suggested sesame seeds.

Dough was in the fridge from Wednesday night to Friday evening.

After shaping, it was proofed in a loaf tin for 2 hours.

I actually baked this recipe while I was in the Midwest twice and again today back in California.  The new twist is using a mixed starter (AP/WW/Rye), which adds some texture to the loaf and a much different cold proofing process.  This was produced a wonderful crust, moist interior and the most tangy, sourdough loaf I ever baked. This is the CA loaf (above); the Midwest loaf is at top.

In my last couple of blog posts, I had some questions and difficulties. People were very helpful with suggestions, and this week's baking was much more successful. Thank you!

   This past weekend my wife and I visited one of our favorite supermarkets, Fairway Market which has a great selection of cheeses, fresh sour pickles, grains, meats etc.  I picked up some pearled barley and this great tasting cheddar like cheese called Double Gloucester which they were doing a free sampling.  I had some left-over mashed potatoes and caramelized onions, so naturally these needed to be incorporated into a bread.  Who doesn't like potatoes, cheese and onions?

We always have frozen walnut, basil, parmesan and olive oil pesto in the freezer - perfect for putting into anything like Italian bread.  Lucy hasn’t made a pizza like this before so we were a little leery but it smelled so good baking we knew it would be rewarded.

I decided to try the rye bread from the Tartine Bread book.  This is the fourth formula I have more or less followed from the Book.  I've made the Basic Country Loaf numerous times, the Walnut Country Loaf once (my favorite bread so far), the Whole Wheat country loaf, and now the rye.

I only had 500 gram so AP flour in the house, so I made up the rest with home-milled hard red winter wheat berries. And the rye flour called for in the formula was also home milled.