Blog posts

Reversing direction from my recent thang to make baguettes from boule/batard formulae.  I searched TFL and found minor but inconclusive evidence that anyone had published their results for creating batards from the Bouabsa baguette format.  So it was high time that some silly goose decided to do it.  I waddled into the tide with both webbed feet.

I have been trying raisin bread off and on for a while, but haven't been totally satisfied with the result. This one, however, turned out very well so I want to document it for future reference. Here is the recipe:

Central Milling all-purpose flour: 400 grams
King Arthur white whole wheat: 35 grams
Water: 261 grams
100% starter: 145 grams
Salt: 10 grams
Golden raisins: 1 cup
cinnamon: 2 teaspoons
butter: 1 tablespoon
honey: 2 tablespoons

Because sometimes you just want a basic bun. From http://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-make-your-own-hamburger-153290. Instead of 8 I made 6 extra large buns. 

I might have an addiction. 

This is the style of empanada in the Ilocos region of northern Philippines. Living in a former Spanish colony; I've seen and tasted empanadas here close to the ones in Latin America, those with flaky crust filled with minced meat and potatoes and either baked or fried, just tweaked to the local palate but the people of Ilocos adapted the empanada like no other. The dough is made with rice flour filled with green unripe papaya, mung bean sprouts, longganisa (local garlic sausage), and a fresh egg then deep fried which makes it closer to a taco or spring roll.

I used Cook's Illustrated's ciabatta recipe with the following modifications:

I added two tablespoons of olive oil to the dough because I couldn't understand why it was left out of their recipe in the first place. Ciabatta without olive oil? Weird.  The biga rested at room temperature for 8 hours and then into the fridge for 12.

The bread came out pretty tasty. What do you think? How'd I do?

I have made a variety of sourdough breads with nuts and with nuts and dried fruits. For some examples, see:

San Francisco-style Sourdough Bread with Walnuts and Figs

San Francisco-style Sourdough Bread with Walnuts and Sour Cherries

I enjoyed these rolls so well, I made a second batch. The big change? I used 3 Tbs granulated onion rehydrated in 2C boiling water rather than 2Tbs onion. I have enjoyed these rolls for sandwiches as dinner rolls or just on their own with a schmear of butter. One of my favourite recipes from any source. Bless you Norm!

Happy baking, Ski

Bread is carbs and contrary to recent diet trends carbs, if they are whole grain and low glycemic are should not be avoided.  Anyway, even though all TFLs are carbo-fans, being bread -fans I am happy to share with you a bread I developed with the aim of making a reduced Gycemic bread.  I was also keen to make sure that this lower GI bread still maintains its identity as bread.  This lower GI bread, made from whole wheat and whole barley flour and enhanced with gluten and sunflower seeds is definitely a nice and tasty bread and definitely a lower GI bread.