Blog posts

Chocolate and hazelnut SD

I ended up with extra lavain this week and a little tub of rye and whole wheat flour I had mixed for … something. I hate wasting food and I’d been planning a chocolate loaf for a while, but just hadn’t mustered up the courage, so I decided to give it a try.

Having some hazelnuts left over from my last couple of bakes and a slab of dark chocolate that had been sitting around in my cupboard for a long time made me think “Chocolate + hazelnuts = YUM” (we can’t all be wrong about Nutella, right?!)

Formula:

OK.  The title is mis-leading.  I actually baked an FWSY country blonde but my intention is to work my way through Hamelman.  Why did I bake the FWSY?  I wasn't able to get home from work early enough to start the Hamelman Vermont Sourdough that I planned.  My starter was ready to go, so i needed to do an overnight bulk ferment.  FWSY recipes cater to that.

2’s are big around here, especially this week.  Being a twin, the 2nd one born (a real born loser), in the 2nd month, on the 2nd day, 2 minutes before midnight in 1952 makes 2 a really big deal.  It is not a lucky number having lost more money betting on 2 and 22 or even 12 or twice 22 to make one stop betting on 2’s........ if you could.

Ready for sandwiches. A close, elastic crumb, with just enough moisture.

Hi Loafers,

I baked 2 of these pumpkin loaves last night. Using some steam pumpkin puree, organic strong bread flour, rye starter, an egg, some avocado oil, a table spoon of organic brown sugar, salt and water. 

pretty much as per Ru's post of 31 October, but as I don't like walnuts I used macadamia nuts and added sunflower seeds as well. Nuts and seed % as her bake.  Bulk ferment a touch longer, room temperature about 23°c. Final proof went quickly as I wanted to bake today (no retard) and an hour and a half later I put it in refridgerator to slow things while oven heated up.

First off I baked the two 1:2:3 loaves I had made (wasn't happy with last bake at all so needed to repeat it) and these turned out well so that is good.  

This is another experiment in preparation for bread evaluation this Friday. 15% whole grain spelt, 15% whole grain rye, 70% AP flour,  8.5% of starter from AP flour @100% hydration, allover hydration 72%. Rye and spelt grains were freshly milled at home. BF for 3.5 hours at dough temperature 28dC. After adding 2% salt after 30 minutes from initial mix I used Trevor's "stretch and scoop” method for about 8 minutes with a short brake and then S&F at 30 minute interval.

Sometimes, people just want a loaf of nice white bread, you know? I tried this recipe from America's Test Kitchen's book "Bread Illustrated", and found it to be just the thing. It's a soft bread, enriched with some olive oil and a bit of sugar, made with AP flour instead of bread flour. A pre-ferment (sponge or poolish) gives it a flavour boost too. The dough is very soft and delicate.

SFBI Pain au Levain w/caraway seeds.  Inside and (clearly) outside.