Blog posts

I've had a busy couple of weeks, and hadn't had the time to blog about my latest activities. 

Here it goes: I've completed my Pastry class in Shortcrust and pies some weeks back, and attended my Asessment in baked goods. I had to bake a fruit tart, and soft dinner rolls. Everything went alright, and the Chef approved my products. I have Chocolate classes left (next month), and i'll be done. 

I divided a Multi-Grain loaf and baked the first one and froze the other late last year.  This is the frozen loaf. I defrosted it and then did a series of stretch-and-folds, adding water along the way as the dough was dry.

I have finally managed to bake a 100% sourdough bread with oat bran that is not too dense and tastes rather good. The first criteria I decided upon was the weight of the loaf I wanted to bake. In this case, it had to be small since this was an experiment, hence 600g total. I was not sure how it would turn out and did not want to waste flours. The slashes are not very good. Maybe next time.

My planned bake was

1) Sourdough Ciabatta from TxFarmer Formula which I wanna try to improve the crumb. (Now I think I have issue with an ungreased container, when I flip my dough out after bulk fermentation it sticks. Will remember to grease all my containers next time before it hits the fridge. 

Oddly, all this time baking bread, I have never tried making an olive loaf.  I love olive loaves but for some reason never attempted one until now.  Having just recently been given the Tartine book as a gift, I used the idea of using olives, herbs and lemon zest.  I also baked up a few levain loaves to fix that San Francisco sourdough craving I have been having.

Finally we are getting some rain and I'm still on semi hiatus with the Farmer's Market trading and took another week off.  Even after making bread 40 hours a week and taking this off i find myself wanting to play.  I suppose I have a lot of inspiration with "end of the year gifts".  I received Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast, Tartine 3, Pizza, How Baking Works for my book collection.  I also got a Cuisinart Burr Mill Ginder so I'm now geeking out on making perfect coffee.  I make coffee on my scale now.  And it feels good.

Lately, when making the Chad Robertson Basic Country Loaf, rather than "save" the remaining 200 grams of levain (recall, baked with it all for my first loaf, by accident.  The bread came out nice but I think it was a bit too chewy), I have been making another 2 loaves worth of dough.  This results in a surplus bread.   So I have been making Pizzas:

Just a quick post.

26 hour Sourdough right out of the oven, still cracking and popping. 78% Hydro

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Great Crumb

 I've made German Pretzel Rolls many times now and they are always a hit at parties and just one of the best types of breads to make.  I usually make the original version using yeast and bread flour but I've made them with some dark rye and sourdough starter before as well.

This time I wanted to push the envelope a bit and used beer instead of water and added some caramelized onions to really kick it up a notch.

To get that authentic pretzel color and crust you must use Lye but if you really are afraid you can use baking soda.

[quote]Ever wonder why supermarkets have bakeries close to the store entrance? Not only does the fragrance of just-baked bread signal freshness and comfort, but store managers know that when you smell bread you get hungry. Some supermarkets don’t even bother with actual bakeries. Rather, they pump the scent of (artificial) fresh-baked-bread through the ceiling vents.[/quote]

I found the article interesting from a branding perspective, but the final paragraph was the killer app.