Blog posts

This bread is based on a recipe simply titled Roggenbrot (rye bread) from a cookbook called "Was kocht ma Guats in Schnaitsee".  I can't come up with an English translation for this phrase that has quite the same ring to it as the original Bavarian, but the gist is, "Good things we’re cooking in Schnaitsee."  The entire book is handwritten, accompanied by sketched artwork and favorite food-related sayings of the various recipe authors.   

I've been making as many things as I can with oranges to try to use up this past years crop before donating the rest to the food bank.  So I've been  making orange marmalade.  Several years ago I forgot that I had marmalade on the stove and it nearly burned but it was just darkly caramelized like a flan.  So marmalade in this house now comes light, medium and dark just like the bread crust and crumb does.  No wonder jam and bread go so well together.  I think it was MiniOven that said when you think the bread is done, leave it in the oven 5 more minut

A blend of Seigle d’Auvergne and Borodinski where diastatic malt is used in the dough on the French side and non diastatic malt with scalded rye berries is used on the Russian side.  Thank goodness no retardation is required, no matter how nice it would be, to produce a nearly classic clash of multicultural bread with different colored malts and multi grain flours that ends up being slightly unique in the end - in a peaceful and united way.   The loaf rose well during final proof but the spring was more of a sprawl.  The crust is chewy the crumb is moist, soft and quite

Baked another batch of Multigrain sourdough using Four Grain Flour Richard (Ruralidle) kindly gave to me.   For this batch, I incread Four Grain Flour to 33% (=the proportion to main dough flour.  About 27% including levain) and used Dove's Organic Bread flour instead of Waitrose Leckford Estate strong flour.  Also I doubled the amount to make two loaves.  Dove's flour (12.5%) is lower in protein than Waitrose's Leckford Estate (13.6%),  so I did a few extra S & F to make sure gluten development is sufficient enough, but other than those changes everything

Kalács és kenyér blogom!

I've blogged about this bread many times before, however, this time i wanted to stay true to the spirit of Hamelman. Mixing instructions for this recipe, as with most recipes in BREAD call for moderate gluten development, and i have lately deviated from his mixing instructions by applying hybrid mixing, where french slap and fold, Laurel's kneading using a bench scraper, and other mixing techniques. What i wanted was to have a well developed soft dough that raises well in the oven. Not applicable to all breads!

OK, I've joined the club--that is the searchers for new mixers.  My 10-year-old K/A is still OK but starting to make squeaky noises, mostly at the join plate next to the body where the back of the bowl snaps down.  I've had it serviced twice in the past couple of years and am now observing the rules (y'know--the manual) and staying in second gear (er-speed).  But now I want something with more oomph and larger capacity; 7 qt.

Today's post is a special one!