Blog posts

Spent Fuel Boule

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Baking from his book this winter, I've come to appreciate Ken Forkish's practice of growing higher volume levain refreshments and builds than had previously been my habit.  I like to feel the warmth generated by, and smell the sweetness of, fermentation in these larger levains, raising them in plastic vessels chosen to minimize the culture's surface-to-volume ratio when it enters log phase.  I'm a believer in The Mass Effect and the proof is in the baking: The loaves raised with these levains have been unfailingly delicious.

Durum Bread

Profile picture for user dmsnyder

Durum Bread from Bread by Jeffrey Hamelman

The second edition of Hamelman's Bread includes 40 new recipes. This is the first of the new recipes I have made. Hamelman writes that this formula for “Durum Bread” is the best of a series of “test batches” he made some years ago. He does not describe it further and does not identify it as an Italian-style bread, although it does bring to mind Italian breads made with durum flour.

Rinehart's Artisan Breads

Toast

I bought three of Peter Rinehart's books, read them avidly, then vowed that they would not just sit on the shelf and provide inspiration. Instead I decided to work my way through the Artisan Breads book. I reckon if I can master all of these recipes ('master' might be too ambitious - let's aim for 'do a reasonable job of them') I just might be able to claim to be a breadmaker.

I've been keeping a diary with some pictures as I've gone on. The first three cunningly evaded the camera. Here is no. 4 'Pain au Levain', made on 6th December 2012.