Blog posts

What I ate for 6 days in Western Europe

A paper I wrote about baking was recently accepted by an artificial intelligence conference in Trondheim, Norway. I decided to make the most of my trip and visited as many countries as possible in my 6 days abroad. Below I have provided a list of the foods I sampled:

Day 1

Germany

Rosinenschnecke (Pain aux Raisin)

France

Roggenbrot mit Sauerteig, Broetchen (Sourdough Rye bread with roll)

Crocque Monsieur Grilled Cheese with cured meat) + Salad + Rose aux Provence (

Foccacia di Recco - 62% hydration King Arthur Bread Flour, Pillsbury Bread Flour, King Arthur All Purpose Flour, Gold Medal All Purpose Flour, Bobs Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour (left to right) - July 1, 2017

I saw MutantSpace's loaf from a question he/she asked and loved the look of the crumb. I do plan to make it as posted but I needed a few loaves this weekend and thought I would just adapt it to sourdough. I think I may have messed up in the salt though and not put enough in. I will know when we taste it.

This recipe made 4 quite small loaves although you could divide it 3 for larger loaves. I wasn't sure that the larger loaves would fit in my Dutch ovens and I wasn't making any for sale so the smaller loaves were just fine. 

After last week’s 99% white bread, Lucy nearly went into shock with the Dark Side Heebie Jeebies.  Yes, there is such a thing as fatal HJ’s but Lucy has an app for that.  So, this week she went dark starting with prunes and Deshuette’s Black Porter, 61.3% wholegrain rye and 38.7% whole grain red and white wheat. 

Well, we're on holidays again. I usually try to bake at least once during any week that we're away, and have to make do with whatever equipment is available. We're at our usual resort (nice units, good kitchens but a little dated now) and I was expecting a certain number of baking items to be available. Alas, it was not to be!

For the love of a simple sourdough. We have been gradually packing up our home for an interstate move next month and the baking has been neglected. Using up the leftover flour and sourdough starter this week. Looking forward to a new life and lots more baking.

This was a pretty simple bread for me, with 80% freshly ground whole flour between the spelt and the whole wheat.

The ricotta cheese added a nice softness to the crumb.

The bread turned out great with a nice whole grain flavor and made perfect grilled bread.

Formula

It's been a crazy month of chores at the farms, a couple of multi-day cross-country trips for family events, an unexpected minor surgery, and all of the usual stuff that we all deal with.  As we all know, there truly are not enough hours in the day, and sometimes something just has to be neglected...

Foccacia di Recco - 58%, 62% and 65% hydration (front to back) - June 26, 2017

Image

Where it all started - Lesson One

My attempt at Artisan Rosemary Bread June 18, 2017