Blog posts

I think we all agree Phil's breads are awesome. When I saw his latest post, I instantly decided that I want to make the desem bread... but I didn't have a desem starter, and with 2 active starters in my house, I didn't really wanted to make another starter from scratch. But a couple of days later I saw David's post on the same topic and I followed his example.

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

Click here for my blog index.

This is inspired by the brandy roll formula from the book "A Handmade Loaf". I have made 80%+ of the recipes from that book, with variations, all have been great.

Just heard this wonderful news.   The IACP award, which is discretionary, is given to "a book that exemplifies Jane Grigson’s extraordinary ability to put food in a wider cultural context, using diligent but not pedantic scholarship. Jane Grigson, a cookbook author from the United Kingdom, was a prose stylist of high degree. The book should exhibit distinguished scholarship in the quality of its research and presentation."

 Hearty congratulations to you, Stan and Norm, for this well-deserved honor!   

Joy

So we just got back from our two-week vacation in Europe-   Spain, France and Holland to be precise.

I'm going to roll through some of the highlights, but if you'd like to see a lot more pictures of the Big Adventure, you can check them out on my Facebook page here.

Peter Reinhart's Pane Siciliano–or, as a friend calls it, Pan Sissy.

Here's the formula in BBGA format using Reinhart's original quantities as listed in the Bread Baker's Apprentice. 

(I'm still learning the BBGA format, so please let me know if you spot any errors.)

After reading about Dave's never-ending quest to create the perfect San Francisco Sourdough bread I felt it was time to give his latest recipe a whirl.  I have never been to SF so I don't know exactly what the final bread should taste like other than by his description.

Top: The boule

Bottom: A sloppy turkey and jack w/mayo and dijon on seeded sourdough

Made a modified sourdough (with 1/8 tsp active dry yeast for timing) with toasted sesame, poppy and sunflower seeds. Came out great. Thanks to TFL'er Jay and the "The Basic Problem with my sourdough" thread contributors for guidance on my starter.

Formula

Levain:

102 g KAF AP

108 G water

Leaven

• 20g starter @ 100% hydration
• 100g water
• 15g light rye flour*
• 85g all purpose flour

Ferment @ 29C (84F) for 9 hrs. 

 Sponge

• All of the leaven
• 250g water
• 250g bread flour  (12.4% protein)

 Allow to sponge @ 28C (82F) for 3 hours.

 Main Dough 

It is finally getting a bit warmer here, but nights and mornings are still bitterly cold. We have winds from north, and they chill you to the bone if you're not well packed in. The weather has been beautiful the last couple of days, with clear blue skies and some warmth coming from the sun. Still, things don't thaw up before lunch time, and summer is clearly still a few months away.