Blog posts

Today was my first attempt at a rye loaf! I decided to start cautiously so I went with Peter Reinhart’s “Transitional rye sandwich loaf”. It definitely didn’t disappoint.

I wasn't sure what i was supposed to expect in terms of the crumb, i know that rye tends to yield fairly dense loaves, but this is a lot lighter than i thought, probably due to the fact that there is only about 41% rye flour.

I think I'm finally getting the hang of the shallow scoring at a low angle. I love the gradient of light to dark I'm getting on the batard. And even some blistering from the several hours in the fridge..

This was using Hamelman's Country Bread recipe (with the 50% pre-ferment)

This was one of the first sourdough recipes I tried when starting out last spring - and I failed royally with it, ending up with blown-out wonky loaves with flying crusts and a kitchen smeared in sticky dough. Admittedly I was a relative newcomer to baking bread and made every possible newbie mistake with it.

Wanting a change from the last few loaves of pain sur poolish, my baking supervisors - Poppy and Lexi - suggested I take the plunge and give this a whirl again. But this time, I've taken a lot of advice, lessons and feline displeasure on board.

I haven't had much time lately for baking so it was nice to spend a day in the kitchen. 

This is by far the best German Hefezopf I have baked and I have tried heaps of different recipes. This one is so light and fluffy and stayed fresh for days.  

Recipe can be found here 

http://www.chefkoch.de/rezepte/378801124204434/Friedas-genialer-Hefezopf.html

After getting Alan in trouble with his latest higher whole grain (25%) SJSD baguettes, Lucy felt terrible about it and when he shot back a challenge bread for her with a 7 Stater,  4 Sprouted Grain bread after last week’s 4 Starter, 7 Grain Bread. 

The first of this year's volunteer daisies popped up on my birthday last week

1/1/2016 - New Year’s Eve Pizza – 2015

1/5/2016 - Westphalian Pumpernickel – 1537

1/8/2016 -  3 Starter Italian Olive Bread with Rosemary and Sun Dried Tomato

This bread was inspired by STUinLouisa's spring cleaning post. The nuts and dried fruit in the cupboard were, unfortunately, limited to 70g of hazelnuts and 160g prunes left over from Christmas.

I over indulged last night so thought some wholesome wholemeal and plain flour soda bread would help. The smoked salmon, cream cheese and gravadlax mustard sauce helped :) http://www.thebreadkitchen.com/recipes/irish-soda-bread-recipe/#

Make no mistake.  dabrownman is a puppeteer, a master manipulator, one who is capable of, and who garners great pleasure in takes unfair advantage of those weak of will and of mind.  Like me! 

Dear Loafers, below are photos of my first sourdough loaf, and I'd love some critical feedback.  Do any more experienced bakers see defects in the crumb, for instance?

This is a BBA Poilane style loaf recipe from Breadtopia, http://breadtopia.com/whole-grain-sourdough/.  I used a Le Creuset instead of a La Cloche, and the bottom was a bit darker than ideal.  I should have checked it once I removed the lid for phase two of the baking.