Blog posts

Bread and Roses in January 2013

I've taken a bit of a break from baking, recently. Sourdough starter has been sitting in the fridge untouched for almost a month now, and it hasn't been fed in quite a while. I'm not worried about it. It's a resilient starter - in the past, I've abused it far worse than this, and it's come back for me after a week or so of careful attention.

  Been a long time since I blogged properly about the bread I baked. I was baking at least a couple of times a week during those absent days, as I’d always done, but haven’t got around to blogging about it, for one reason or another.  But today, I finally decided to gently and timidly ease myself back into my old bread-blogging routine, starting it with my recent (like, yesterday…:p) baguette. 

I got this idea from another post on TFL but can't seem to find it again - props to whoever you are.

Anyway, the idea is that since you can't use the DO method with a baguette, you use a covered steam tray which can accomodate a 3 loaf baguette form.

Lumos did a lovely cocoa sourdough with cranberries, walnuts and orange peels for Codruta from the fresh loaf. www.thefreshloaf.com/node/25490/xxi 

visited Tokyo recently in December 2012. there, they have lovely ingredients for all sorts of cooking. especially at the tsukiji fresh market. bought some good green tea powder and black beans. 

Just put multigrain bread in oven that proofed over top of pan. When I checked 30 min later, bread had fallen and was BELOW pan top! What happened?

Today I was on a mission.  To defeat this fear of developing and shaping rye dough.  I learn best through video and photos and I have found that there are not nearly as many video tutorials for rye breads as there are for white breads.  I used a 40% formula and followed all that I have learned on this site as much as possible.  My last week's attempt came up short with little rise/oven spring.  This time, a combination of longer bulk ferment and proof times, along with an amazing organic medium rye flour from a local mill, produced loaves that I am finally happy wit

For a few weeks now I have been maintaining my typical Italian style sourdough, experimenting, trying to increase the pH level at it's maturity. I've managed to go from 4.1 - 4.6.
Depending on which schooling of Italian sourdough you follow, methods and guidelines vary slightly. But according to one source optimum pH at maturity is 4.5 but can vary between 4.3-4.8.

Lately I have taken to the method of keeping this sourdough in cold water over the tied in cloth method. But I still use both to keep the acidity under control.

What is scoring?

“Scoring” is the word used to describe the cuts made in a loaf of bread before it is baked. Some breads are not scored. For example many loaves baked in pans are not. However, almost all free-formed “hearth breads” are scored.

When is scoring done?