Blog posts

The new recipe for Salzburg Wheat Germ Rye by Markus Farbinger in Hamelman's Bread 3rd ed intrigued me, It's so different from the German detmolder ryes so close to Hamelman's heart. The bread involves a rye starter focusing on lactic prominence, a hefty dose of wheat germ, a cold pre-soak of just the wheat portion, and a mixture of aromatic spices (toasted coriander, fennel, caraway), along with toasted rye malt,.

I  wanted to try adding an egg to my country sourdough again.  I’ve seen other bakers on IG post their bakes and some of them achieve quite incredible rise and open crumb when adding an egg to their otherwise lean dough recipes.  Then again, these same bakers always post super open crumb anyways, so who knows if the addition of the egg adds to this or just adds to the rise.  When adding the egg one has to compensate for the water in the egg (74%) and reduce the water used to make the dough.

A recent comment by Michael Lily regarding dough bulk volume increase got me thinking about a topic I have already given a lot of thought to - volume increase during bulk and it's effect on the final bread.

In that post Michael suggested a bulk volume increase of 20% to improve oven spring, which I would agree with, but I think there may be a downside in terms of flavour development.

It’s been a long, long time since I’ve been active on TFL, but I recently got a new starter and had to come look up my old English muffin recipe. I didn’t want to fool with starting my own starter this time, so I bought the one that King Arthur sells. It arrived Wednesday and I got to work feeding it. Yesterday it doubled in eight hours, so I decided to use the discard for these, since the recipe also uses baking soda and I figured there would be enough lift even from that. Not disappointed…they’re as fluffy and big and beautiful as they ever were!

Today's bake:  Benny's SD Hokkaido Milk Bread w/Walnut, Sesame and Poppy Seed & Whole Spelt  - Plant Based Version

Source:  https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/72628/walnut-sesame-and-poppy-seed-whole-spelt-sd-hokkaido-milk-bread

Note: Increased  TDW to1665g  from 950g, Pan to 15.75x4x4 from 9x4x4, Water % to 20.4% from 15.4%

I have been remiss in not posting sooner about my little (VERY little), home-based pico-bakery, Nickel Cat Bread Company.  I made my first loaf of sourdough bread about 11 1/2 years ago, which was a success in very great part to all of the information I gleaned from this site as I was diving into the hobby.  On June 3rd of this year, I sold my first loaves of bread as a licensed cottage bakery.  I have purposely kept my production very small, providing loaves to friends and neighbors for porch pickup here in Redwood City, CA.  My typical weekly production is 8-10 loaves,

We would like to hire an intern to work at Bread Obsession in Lexington, MA for this fall.  This position would be ideal for someone who loves to bake bread and wants to try out commercial baking in a relatively small and high quality artisan shop.  This is a paid position.  Email breadobsession@gmail.com if you have any questions and/or would like to apply.  Please include your resume, and explain your reasons for applying.

Today's bake:  HERITAGE WHEAT ROSEMARY FOCACCIA

Source:   Mastering Pizza - Marc Vetri

Note:   Makes 2, Pan Size = 14 BY 10 INCHES/35.56 BY 25.4 CM

Substitutions: None

Discussion: 

I want to maintain my skills in making baguettes.  Unlike Alan and Don who has really developed their skills for the long haul, I find unless I make them every few months my skills backslide.  I haven’t made baguettes with inclusions in a long long while so decided to add a handful of poppyseeds to the dough.

I haven't been logging loaves as much recently in part because I don't have easy internet access but also because I haven't been doing too much different.

  I found a handful of chanterelles the day before I wad planning to bake, so that became the inspiration for this one.  For whatever reason the ones I've found this year don't seem to have much flavor, but it's still fun to throw them in.  Olives are always a nice savory addition.

450g loaf