Blog posts

This was a huge success.  The boys ate this up.  What wasn't to like?  Red wine salami and provolone cheese made this a once in a great while recipe.  This Casatiello came from Reinhart's BBA.

Natural tearing; let nature do the work --it looks better.

My other experiment yesterday was a Roasted Garlic Sourdough with about 30% whole wheat flour.

I made two experimental doughs yesterday.  The winner by a landslide was the White Chocolate Apricot Sourdough.

I’m not sure exactly but Pate Maison has to be one of them.  The great thing about Pate Maison is that it is true to its name.  As master of your house, you can put what ever you want in it so it is like your favorite loaf of bread you invented and like the best.

Dicided to make a dark rye because I wash making bangers with French Green Lentils for dinner. Love the taste of the rye with this dish.

I used two different poolish mixtures, I don't know why I guess I wanted to try it since I have never done it before. One was Sprouted Whole Wheat and the other FA AP Flour. Here they are floated around in their warm bath ready to be mixed.

A little background info first.

Not being experienced with pancakes (crumpets), and having only ever made ordinary ones twice in my life, I was a bit unsure of how to go about achieving a tasty treat using the sourdough starter which I felt reluctant to throw away. I do remember the few odd occasions that mom made them for sunday tea but they were never a regular on the menu........ so a very special treat indeed!

It has been a while sinceI baked anything without yeast! 

While I havent had enough sourdough discard, n my mom is calling out for crackers, so i thought why not bake it with the most basic ingredients - wholewheat flour, seeds, oil and whey. 

1 1/4 cups whole-wheat flour

1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds (toast it till golden brown)

1/2 teaspoon salt (set aside pinch of salt to sprinkle on top)

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil or sesame oil

6 tablespoons whey, as needed (u might need more, it should be a stiff dough)

I was trying for croissants, ended up with butter everywhere, divided the dough into six pieces, tried to roll it into a ball, shaped it with an apple corer, gave each an egg bath and sprinkled sesame seed in the center. Looks like crap but tastes absolutely wonderful!

So now that my culture is alive and well I'm starting to play.  Things I've learned.  It's slow, slower than sourdough (I was told this and its true).  It really likes to be warm (78-80)  If much cooler it barely acts at all unlike sour which will just go slower it just won't get going at all.  Second and third builds start to act more like a sweet levain and timings shorten significantly.  As a combo with SD it adds nice structure and oven spring and balances sourness (this is great if desired but if you want sour this will not help).