Blog posts

I've been real busy the past few weeks so have not been online much, but did make time to bake each weekend.

I really like the Multigrain Bread Extraordinaire or Struan from the BBA and have been modifying since I first made it with the hope of using sourdough as the main leavening, since Struan is an old Scottish bread I thought it would be good to have it all sourdough.

So with my Spelt starter in hand I changed the recipe once again:

My soaker was:

Woo! Hoo!

Referring back to my blog about not being able to make my bread rise..........well, it rose!

I adapted a recipe from BBA. I have been wanting to make Pane Siciliano but time wasnt permitting so I used the Anadama Bread recipe but didnt use the soker. I added 1 cup of fine semolina,

1 cup gluten flour and 2 1/2 cups of wholewheat flour (wholemeal) 2 teaspoons of yeast, salt, 2 TBSPN Barley Malt and about 2 1/2 cups of water.

I did this as I didnt have time to do the soker over night then then let the shaped dough rise in the fridge etc.

I ran myself right out of bread flour today :)

First we have some poppyseed "bloomers." Last time I followed the recipe to make one loaf and it was gigantic! This time I broke it in two.

To bring to dinner at my brother's house today, I made a pile of grissini. These are super easy to make and very tasty, what with the extra virgin olive oil and rosemary in them.

My Valentine present, which had been back-ordered, showed up while I was out of town last week: the KAF Whole Grain Baking book.  My, oh my, oh my!  There is some serious baking to do!  Since our grandson is staying with us for part of his spring break and since he loves cinnamon toast for breakfast, I decided to start last evening with the honey oatmeal bread recipe, which has a cinnamon swirl option.  It contains honey and oatmeal, natch, as well as whole wheat flour, unbleached AP flour, butter and other good things.  I didn't have any nonfat dry milk o

And I have forgotten how to make bread.

Not only has life gotten so much more busy with the onset of school, new friendships to maintain and entertain, but I just cant get it right!

My bread is heavy, moist or dry (just depends) and even though it rises when being ferments or proofed, it doesnt do much in the oven. It is crubmly although it has that elastic bread feel.

It is just so dense. *frustrated look*

Quite often,my loaves will rise unevenly in the oan and break open along one side of the loaf.

I've tried changing from dark to light colored pans,adjusted the moisture,adjusted the amount of

yeast,changed the oven temp,etc. but it still happens. Any thoughts from anyone out there? 

I am new to bread making... But managed to whip up these rolls. The recipe for the dough is from BBA.

Interior:

The recipe is here

***Edited Link***