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One of my customers requested a savory loaf with feta and olives so I made a repeat of this one but by using James (Ciabbata)’s method. I was going to try to dump all the add-ins at the beginning but I had second thoughts because of the oily  nature of the extras. Then I decided that I could add the extras while laminating the dough which is something I’ve never done (the lamination). Experimentation is good, right? So here goes…

Recipe:

Makes 3 loaves

Add-ins:

I seldom make boules, so I decided I need to brush off some of the rust on that skill and also had long wanted to make a bread with sundried tomatoes, so here is my take on this.

For one loaf only. Total weight ~ 900 

340 g white bread flour 80% total

87 g whole wheat flour 20% total 

Total Flour = 427 g

Total water 307 g 78% hydration  (82% hydration first time)

Final dough for mixing

340 g white bread flour

49 g whole red fife flour

We knew that 2020 would be a momentous year, long before we ever heard of COVID-19.  We had no idea just how much the virus would affect our plans. 

Fortunately for us, we have not had to endure any illness.  Nor have we lost any family members or friends to the disease.  We recognize that as a true blessing and are grateful.

Doing a dry run for the upcoming World Bread Day 2020 in a couple of weeks.  This is a SD bread I shouldn't eat since it a 100% white bread with just 15 g of NMNF starter, but it does show that Focaccia is one bread where your artistic side can make you feel at least a bit Bohemian.

These are my first go at an all white flour 10% protein, in this case from Quebec, that is sourdough and no commercial yeast.  After the good results I had with the sesame semolina sourdough baguettes without commercial yeast I decided I needed to give it a go again but with the Quebec white flour.  These are essentially Abel’s baguettes au levain without the commercial yeast and hydration increased to 70% during bassinage and finally encrusted with poppy seeds.  So I’ll just call them Yorkville Baguettes since that is the neighborhood that I live in ?

At the end of July I finally gave in to temptation and ordered a new oven.  I settled on a 13 Function Bosch (not sure if I will ever use all of them!) and finally a week ago it was installed.

For this bake I just played around with some seeds - didn't want a heavy loaf so it was

Bread flour 80%, Wholewheat flour 15%, rye flour 5%, 80% hydration and salt at 2%.  I adjusted the flour to include 0.05% diastatic malt.  To this I added

Chia seed 4%, sesame seed 5%, flaxseed 5% sunflower seed 5% and pumpkin seed 5%. 

Method:

Please see here and here to learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS). 

This is a rare mid-week bake of a single batch that gives 3 loaves. What prompted this? James (aka Ciabatta) produced 12 loaves of 4 (Yes! Four!) different breads. His streamlined method piqued my interest so I decided to give it a shot since it I think it would shorten my dough making time significantly. So here goes:

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves 

Porridge

100 g rolled oats

200 g water

45 g honey

40 g butter

Add-ins

25g raw Black Sesame seeds

45g raw Sunflower seeds

I've been taunting Benny for weeks now about trying out some Canadain T55 and decided to have two baguettes square up and have a face off for the TXX grand prix.  For the record on the left is Canadian T55 blended 50/50 with French T65.  This blend is done by recommendation of lepicerie.com seeing that this particular T55 is ancieny Khorasan grain.  On the right is straight T65 from france.  First impressions is that the Canadian blend turned out really much nicer than the French.  The shaping and lead up was noticeably different in that the Canadian dough was a bit