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It's true I have neglected the blog. Certain friends (Taiwanese software engineer that you are) have commented on it, and so I have decided to re-launch with a two-part tutorial. This part will be an over-all review of bread making as I understand it.

Anyone that has tried to learn baking, either from a text or from a teacher has heard of the “steps”, the twelve steps of baking. I think of these steps in four movements; mixing, fermentation, shaping, and baking.

Mixing

mise en place

mixing

Shaping

dividing

I recently purchased a King Arthur baking steel with the thought to replace my baking stone for both pizza and bread baking.

How does it perform with breads? I typically create steam in my oven cavity for the crust, by sometimes placing a tray of water or using a sprayer. Does this effect the steel?

Thanks.

Hey yall!, yesterday and today I made this sourdough with kalamata olives and rosemary.

The formula is as follows. 592g bread flour, 29g whole wheat flour, 29g whole rye flour, 452g warm water, 98g olive juice, 130g chef (100% hydration), 72g kalamata olives, 33g rosemary and 13g salt.

My first crack at this very traditional Spanish sweet bread.  Also known as "King Cake" this is traditionally served at Christmas.  I have some good Spanish friends coming for dinner in a week's time so this was my practice run.  It's not Christmas but hey,  some things are too good to only have once a year !

Mostly Sourdough Brioches

Total weight: about 1600 g

3-build starter: 250 g @ 65% hydration

All flours: 732 g (100%), which breaks down as follows:
- 348 g unbleached bread flour
- 232 g unbleached all purpose flour
+ 152 g in starter

15 g sea salt (2%)
353 g eggs (48%)
100 g sugar (14%)
303 g unsalted butter (42%)
3 g fresh yeast (0.4%)
25 g flavours (alcohol: eau de vie & orange blossom water)

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This part is not important. Calculated for fun.

I had some eggnog in the fridge approaching it's ""sell by" date and nobody in the house is a big eggnog fan.  

I looked at the ingredients list on the bottle (milk, cream,sugar,corn syrup,skim milk,egg yolks, and a bunch of mysterious flavoring and additives).  It sounded like the stuff somebody might put in sweet rolls or coffee cake.

Rather than throw the eggnog out I decided to try making sweet rolls out of it.

Crumb 

Blueberry braid with fresh blueberries

My first baguettes ever, from the formula for French Bread in BBA. Saved the big one for our family and sent the other two off with a big steaming pot of chicken and sausage stew to a friend who'd just had a baby. I was very pleased, except I would have liked a more open crumb and a thinner, crispier crust. Plus, I don't have a lame and apparently a bread knife just dents and drags the dough, so they weren't as pretty as I'd hoped. Nevertheless, they were a treat sliced up, slathered with butter, and dipped in some stewy goodness. Yes.

This time I tried it with about 15.5 oz of water, 50% WW flour, resulting in a hydration of ~76% to 77%.

Fermented for 4 days in the refrigerator. Baked at 525dF, this time I staggered the loaves so the first loaf baked for about 25 minutes at 525dF, the second loaf baked at 525dF for 15 minutes, then 475dF until browned (about 20 to 25 minutes).

I lopped off a piece for a coworker who used to be a cook ... I haven't tried it myself.