Blog posts

This is my second attempt at home solod (unroasted this time).  

This recipe for Black Rye Bread with Buttermilk is from Der Foodcoach blog. I did not have Austrian R960 (light) rye flour or fresh yeast and used King Arthur Medium Rye and IDY instead. But I do have a lot of Wingold Dark Rye from Bay State Milling via NYBakers that was used for the Schwarzroggen (black rye).

Extremely flavorful and tasty. Amazing crust! 

Stage 1

100g rye flour

100g lukewarm water

10g rye starter

Mix into a ball, let ferment 12-16 hours,  until expanded, spongy and light colored inside and smelling acidic

Stage 2

All of the above 

650g lukewarm water

650g rye flour 

100g sunflower seeds 

100g flax seeds

30g salt

Bread spices, if desired (I used ground caraway) 

I roasted 100g of each rye, barley and soft wheat. Final weight after roasting was 262g

First project is homemade Polish style small beer (podpiwek)

Podpiwek recipe:

80g roasted grain, coarsely ground

20g any dark barley malt, crushed 

200g sugar

20ml lemon juice

Optionally, small handful of hops and/or orange peel

10-15 untreated raisins 

¼-½ teaspoon dry yeast

1 gallon of water

No secret I love barley flour in my bakes.  It's just a flavor I enjoy.  This bake is based on a recipe in The Finnish Cookbook by Beatrice Ojakangas.  I converted from volume to weight as best I could and took a few liberties.

1)  I replace half the rye flour with rye chops
2)  I added a YW pre-ferment that incorporated all the rye flour and half of the barley flour
3)  I used the rye chops, half the barley flour, and crushed fennel seed in a whole milk scald
4)  Eliminated the butter

Day before, afternoon:

2 cups whole grain rye flour, 1 teaspoon of rye starter from the fridge, enough water to form a ball of dough; cover and leave to ferment in a lukewarm spot 

Baking day, late morning:

All preferment,  2 cups whole wheat flour,  2 cups whole rye flour,  enough water to form very soft dough, salt to taste (around 2-2½ teaspoons), favorite seeds (flax, etc.)

Let ferment until nicely expanded 

I'm a cheapskate and an experimentalist so I'm always thinking of ways to cut corners. I wondered how well I could control temperature using a crockpot and a cheap controller.

So, I got the Inkbird C206T controller and used a rubber band to strap its sensor to a quart jar with 500g of water and my floating bluetooth thermometer inside. I filled the crockpot with enough water to match the water level in the jar, covered the whole thing with a "shower cap" and a small blanket. I set the controller for 43.5C. 

I made Fleischmann’s Rye Batter Bread a couple of years ago as I was easing back into bread baking. It was an easy recipe that produced a decent loaf of rye bread. I revisited this recipe a couple of months ago because a shoulder injury limited the amount hand mixing and kneading I could do.

Delicious! I wrapped the finished 13” Pullman loaf in linen towels and left it 24 hrs. Like a tender rich cake. Very cool mouth feel and a lovely crisp  deep toasted crust due to plenty of butter to prevent sticking. This dough was WET! It contained 2 YW levains one white and one Rye . It also contains my trinity of EVOO -honey - yogurt. 

Weet-bix (in South Africa and Australia, or Weetabix in the UK, apparently available in the US too...) is a breakfast cereal of 'biscuits' of wholegrain wheat biscuits. The usual way we eat it in my family is with a sprinkle of sugar on top and then allow it to soak up the milk. It can really soak up the milk. It's quite a comfort food, and would be a great way to increase dietary fibre and be fairly healthy too (if it wasn't for the aforementioned sugar).