Blog posts

I was re-reading Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery and discovered the passage in whiich she describes the author Virginia Woollf's technique for making a cottage loaf. That sounded like fun, so I decided to give it a try, and was very pleased with the outcome. I blogged about it here.

Here's the loaf just after removing the cloche.

And here it is after final browning.

I baked a couple boules of Susan from San Diego's "Original" favorite sourdough today.

I've been away from The Loaf for awhile and I thought I'd post an update to my bread-state.

I'm rather fond of challah, but my wife isn't. Most challah is too rich and too sweet for her taste. The closer to brioche it tastes, the less she likes it. So, when I made “My Sourdough Challah” from Maggie Glezer's “A Blessing of Bread,” and both my wife and I loved it, I was delighted.

Wednesday my sister bought a rye loaf at the town market. I remember when I spoke with the guy and asked him more about this bread: this is a true rye they buy from Austria, the frozen dough is baked it in their oven.

I thought these ciabattas would make a nice first entry for my brand new blog .

• 200 gr of  a 100% hydration whole rye poolish (sourdough, of course)
• 500 gr bread flour (with a pretty high gluten content)
• 380 gr water
• 9 gr salt

3 hour bulk fermentation, retarded overnight in the fridge, 1 hour out of the fridge, shape (kind of) and 2 hour proof.

25 minutes in a very hot oven, 10 more with the oven turned off.

I just found an interesting article on The Heavy Table site - Solveig Tofte, the head baker at Turtle Bread Company in Minneapolis answering questions about her career. Might be helpful to anyone wanting to get into the baking business. Check it out, A.

Since my last post of Chocolate & Praline Almond Sourdough, I have done two posts at Sourdough Companion:

A Taste of Italy - Chilies, Sundried Tomatoes & Butternut Pumpkin Sourdough Baguette, and

Ever since MerryBaker posted this recipe (from Baking with Julia) in Helend's blog, I've been waiting to try it.  Here it is!  It is really lovely.  I added 1 packet of stevia to up the sweetness w/o additional sugar (I did use the 1/3 c specified).  I made 3 loaves, as directed.  The recipe called for "1 can" of raisins, I used about 3/4 cup.  The loaves are really small.  Next time I'll only make 2 loaves from the batch so each is a little bigger.  It's an incredible holiday bread...love it!!