Blog posts

I haven't posted in quite some time, but there is rarely a day that goes by that I don't check in here and marvel at the TFL creations.  I haven't posted, as I was pretty much making the same bread every week, so not much to share.  At some point (early Covid lockdown) I decided to acquire a Pullman pan and work on my sandwich bread.  I've been making this loaf with small tweaks to the flour mix here and there, and just wanted to pop in, share, and say thanks..... without some of the wonderful breads I see posted here, I would not have achieved this kind of result.

I recently saw the Nussknacker (eng: Nutcracker) on Dietmar Kappl's Instagram feed and decided straight away that I wanted to bake it.  It comprises a tasty mix of wholemeal spelt and coarse rye flours, leavened with a rye sour and packed full of roasted hazelnuts, almonds, sunflower and hemp seeds.

All, 

I posted on here a few months ago regarding issues with my starter. I've baked around 30 loaves between then and now and all have been failures. I'll attempt to add as much detail as possible to this post.

This is Whole Rye and Whole Wheat from Bread - A Baker's Book of Techniques and Recipes by  Jeffery Hamelman

I baked two loaves the other day of this delicious bread.  I have to say that I'm quite happy with the way they turned out. The crumb is mildly dense and has a nice, light tangy flavor. The crust is crisp and has toasty/roasted flavors. This bread will definitely go into the rotation. Recipe and process are below for those interested.

Well it is almost fall and soon Instagram will be full of pumpkin shaped breads. I have never tried to make one of these so thought it might be fun to do. I also haven’t shaped a boule in sometime so thought I was due.

Yes, posted before and guilty as charged!  However, I'm here to sing the praises of this extraordinary bread.  And can't think of a better way than to put it in front of your eyes again.  After these came out of the oven and cooled, and we'd had a few slices, I said to my wife - if I had only one bread that I would be able to bake forever, I think this would be the one.

Loosely based on (i.e. "inspired by") this formula: https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Cookbook:Scottish_Wheat_Bannock_Bread

My take:

Our recent babka community bake gave me a hankering for what my grandmother would call 'bulkas/boolkes/bulkes' - yeasted cinnamon buns made with milk.

They are simple, soft and buttery, and not too sweet or as complex as babka. Lovely to eat when spread with butter. We also like to have them as the perfect food for breaking the Yom Kippur fast.

This is a Hamelman’s recipe that I’ve baked a few times. It is 75% Whole-Spelt flour that I stone-milled the day before baking. The Pate Fermentee is made 14 hours before mixing. I love the taste of this bread as it is full flavoured and quite different from our everyday Vermont sourdough loaf.