Blog posts

In a never-ending quest to improve, for the next couple of loaves I decided to make some changes.  The loaf above had the water upped just a bit to 73.5%, because I wanted to try making an even more airy crumb.  I also had a mix of flours 50/50 of KA bread flour and Wegmans unbleached all-purpose, simply because I ran out of BF. :-) 

So, my scale finally arrived, and I got a banneton for proofing as well. I've been experimenting a bit, and I think I finally got it. Since all the folks here were so helpful, I figured I could contribute by sharing my results. Would really love to hear your comments too!  You can see the final product in the photo above.

The recipe:

In the morning, take starter from the fridge and feed it 1:1:1, i.e. equal amounts of starter, water, and flour.  Cover and let it sit in a warm place for 6-8 hrs.

When I heard about breads made with spent grains - leftovers from beer brewing - I was fascinated.

How interesting! But, where on earth, could you come by those mashed grains, unless you worked at a brewery? We have two micro-breweries in Bar Harbor, so I left a message, asking whether I could purchase a small amount of their spent grains.

The sobering answer: the mash goes to the (dogs) hogs. All sold to pig farms - sorry!

My first post is to say thank you to all the contributors on this site. I have learned a great deal about sourdough since I started out a good few months ago. I have eventually managed to bake a few loaves that have the taste and texture we like. The next effort is to make the loaves look pretty *wipe brow*.

I've made bread with sweet potatoes before, but I have to say this is my best one yet.  Moist and flavorful there's not much to complain about on this one.

I used a combo of freshly ground flours as well as Caputo 00 type flour.  The cottage cheese, eggs and roasted sweet potatoes created a moist and flavorful bread.

Note: Water content of whole eggs is 80 grams, Cottage Cheese 81 grams, Sweet Potatoes 145 grams for a total of 306 grams.  This was not included in the formula so the hydration of this bread is much higher than listed.

My timing was out, had to shape when I should have been cooking dinner so no cross!  

Used Hamelman's recipe from bread, scaled to give 20 buns at about 80 gms.  ready to proof.

The only changes were to replace peel with cranberries and similar amount of raisins, reducing currants a little and my own spice mix (don't remember where I found this recipe)

very yummy recipe!

Leslie

This recipe is our favorite cupcake but we made it as a cocktail loaf thinking maybe the Baby or Baby Girl would take one of them into work to spread the sugar around.  The recipe can be found here

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/38172/banana-bread

My obsession with mushroom bread began a little over a year ago when I was gifted Nancy Silverton’s “Breads From the La Brea Bakery”. While her books were personal and groundbreaking for their time, I do have one bone to pick: the measurements! Nancy’s recipes are expressed in tablespoons and cups, pounds and ounces, perfect for the American home cook (particularly at the time they were published), but maddening for the professional baker (and today, novice bakers too!) who is used to measuring everything in grams and kilos.

What do you know, I had some butter, milk and yeast in the house. Seize the moment and make some Hefeblätterteighörnchen. 

I believe there is a subtle difference between Hefeblätterteighörnchen and Croissants, honestly I don't really care too much, or better, my baking skills are not sophisticated enough to care. At this stage of my adventure into baking I am happy things taste reasonably well.

In any case, it turned out all right SWMBO approved. Can't complain too much about that.