Blog posts

It's been a while since I last tried one of Hamelman's rye loaves, so I pulled his book from the shelf and started browsing chapter 6. I have baked quite a few of his rye loaves before, but for some reason, his 70% rye with whole wheat and a rye chops soaker has escaped me up until now. The last couple of rye loaves I've baked, have been from doughs that I've composed on my own, and there's always some winging going on with regards to proper hydration and fermentation times. With Hamelman, it's safe to let one's guard down and simply roll along with his detailed directions.

This is not the easiest sourdough starter to culture.  It took many days for the Golden Semolina starter to be ready and even then it did not look very robust.  It would not surprised me if this type of flour is extremely low in sugar content.   I was going to abandon the starter or even add instant yeast to the final dough, but I thought if it didn't work out, no harm - it's an experiment.   

With all the chat lately about the 'Baguette Monge'  I pretty much followed that recipe.  I used my K.A.A.P. flour and a poolish..was what I had and I did want to try it with some added Olive Oil as suggested a while back by Jane!  They where baked under a steam cover with added steam!  Just out of the oven so I will post a crumb shot a little later this evening!

Sylvia

Scali loaves make a wonderful flavored Italian bread!  I think I will will use this recipe from King Arthur Flours to make some torpedo rolls even though it is traditionally braided with added sesame seeds.  The crumb is perfect for sandwiches and the crust is crunchy good with the added flavor of the sesame seeds.  We loved it even with my fresh made "Bing Cherry Jam"!  Oh, the cherries are so sweet and good this year and well worth the pitting to make jam!

A quick entry today because I didn't do much. The raisin bread is wonderful and filled the house with that "to die for" smell, but I can't take much credit for it. I had a mound of dough left over from the sticky buns yesterday so I figured I'd just stretch and fold some raisins into it and let er rip. It sat and proofed for another hour and into the oven for 40 mins at 350. I think the neighbors could smell it from the street cuz it's going fast. I just made myself a "moscow mule" and browsed BBA for SD tips. I have a firm starter getting ready for a basic white SD tomorrow.

I tried making the grilled pizza margharita featured last week on WildYeast over the weekend. The recipe makes two pizzas so I grilled one Friday night and the second, Saturday for lunch.

-- Recipe revised on July 7, 2009 | Shaping technique revised on July 7, 2009 --

         Hi. Here is a short introduction. I'm one of the newer Dave's on TFL. I'm 56, Canadian  and getting ready to retire. I spent my early years in open pit mining and oil field construction work. I spent a couple cold and interesting years in mine construction in the high Arctic. The last 16 years have been spent operating in the pulping and steam side of newsprint production. Now we're waiting for our house to sell in a slowing Alberta economy so we can move to our second home on Vancouver Island.

I needed to revive my grape starter (I dried it using [url=http://www.wildyeastblog.com/?s=drying+a+starter/]the method here[/url]) to make sure that it is still alive and happy.  And indeed it is.  I dried it a month and a half ago because it was getting too strong and active and I couldn't keep up with it.  It took me 4 days to bring it back from its sleep and on the 5th day (yesterday) I mixed up a batch of dough.

Hamelman's 5-grain Soudough made with rye sour is currently one of my favorite bread. The formula calls for high-gluten flour, but I have not had any for a while. I now have some KAF Sir Lancelot flour, and this is the first bread in which I used it.