Blog posts

At the moment I am pursuing two totally different themes in my baking: Gluten Free bread and bread for a school summer fair themed "Treasure Island".

This blog post is intended as a journal for my thoughts and ideas, nothing is final yet.

The photo above is my take on "Pease Bread", the 18th century wheat-free alternative. See below.

Let's start with Gluten Free (GF) bread:

It was late.   I had three breads to prepare for.   This meant two starters, two soakers and a biga.   My eyes drooped.   I was almost done - once I made the second soaker, and then the biga, I could go to sleep.   Yet something was wrong and I didn't know what.   I looked down.   Instead of holding a bag of whole wheat flour, I was holding a bag of whole rye flour.  And I had already made the biga and the soaker for whole wheat sandwich bread with rye instead of wheat.   No rest for the weary.

I always meant to try Reinhart's Pain à l'Ancienne, and today was the big day.  This was an easy formula and process.

I used a hydration of 70%, whereas Reinhart recommends a value somewhere in the range 70-88%. I diverged slightly from his instructions in a couple of places. 

It's Memorial Day this weekend believe it or not.  Doesn't feel like it's almost June, but it is certainly time to grill some hot dogs and hamburgers.  I hate using store-bought rolls since I know I can make ones myself that are far superior.

 Ever since I baked my first "Pillow Bread" last month I've been wanting to try baking this again with some modifications.  I wanted to use a 24 hour bulk retardation instead of baking it on the same day and I wanted to add some onions as well.

I also decided to use some of my apple yeast water in the levain and in the final dough but not as a rising agent.  Instead I  just to add some extra flavor and soften the crumb.

I also changed up the flour combination a bit using some Spelt flour in place of some of the Kamut flour and also in the levain.

Hello,

I am a software developer slowly becoming a farmer. My project is described in www.chilhuacle.com and www.gingeros.org.  I am reaching a point where I need to build a small bakery to produce sourdoughs as well as other yeasted breads. ( I finally have the teleras I grew up eating in Mexico City down to perfect).  My idea at first is to supplement my CSA boxes with bread.  I am not growing the grain myself, but source it from a neighbour who grows it biodynamically.

I shouldn't be baking when I am too tired, especially not something new:

I did only enough turns for croissants, getting 32 layers. Butter everywhere!

The next try was much better, with 256 layers:

But this time I think the problem is the oven. Fan only, and the door seems to loose a lot of heat.

Due to creative differences I am moving on from Chester St Kitchen to pursue a new venture ... I wish all the team at Chester St the very best for the future.

... stay tuned I guess :)

Happy baking everyone

Phil

Hi FOLKS

I responded to a post by Khalid the other day that started with reference to flour bags  and a job as an apprentice of cutting up the heavy hessian bags that the rye flour and rye meal used to come in, they were 150lb bags in those far off days.The hand mits are used by the men working the 40 - 50 tray travelling ovens also the 40 tray peel ovens for protection from the hot tins or trays but also needing to have their hands and fingers free for alternately loading the oven.

hands free to pick up things  tins or trays  to load ovens

I found a WW levain lurking in the back of the fridge.  It had been there for at least a week and maybe two.  It was a 100% hydration one since the hooch had separated out and was lying on top.  We poured off the liquid and fed it twice with multigrain flour and water on 4 hour intervals and it doubled in 2 hours after the last feeding.  So what to do with it?