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Hi TFLers! It's that time of the year again that I have little more time to post. Pasta and phyllo are still my obsessions these days. This is not bread but I still wanna share some of my adventures with you.

I made the Naturally Leavened Brioche-Style Kugelhopf by Maurizio Leo. It cames out great! Wonderful recipe, I highly recommend. I'm the only one in my family that likes dried fruit, so I added very little. I soaked dried apricots in brandy and added some macadamia nuts. I'm really happy with the way it came out and the Nordic Ware Kugelhopf pan was perfect.

I have only posted hearth loaves so far because that's where the bulk of my experimentation goes on, but I do bake soft loaf pan bread for my kids twice a week. Preparing breakfast and lunch sandwiches for the kids five days a week means a lot of bread, and I prefer to know what goes into this significant part of their diet!

The usual formula for the kid's bread is simple. For a 1.1kg loaf, I combine 25% whole grain with 75% bread flour, milk, 1.5g yeast, 10g salt, 2 tablespoons of butter, and 1 tablespoon of sugar, around 77% hydration.

Today's bake: Danish Rye Bread   Ragbrod (Denmark)

Source: The Rye Baker by Stanley Ginsberg

Notes: Scaled to 2 loaves @ 1.575kg ea. from 1 loaf at 1.800kg.

Substitutions: None

Probably the best of my Panettone bakes so far this season! Lucky number 5!

I have been using the Milanese bound method exclusively to manage the LM this Christmas, in attempt to really get to grips with it and try to develop a deep understanding of what it does and how to use this technique wisely. Except for one occasion weeks ago where I made the over night in water, Piemontese style, as I felt the leavening seemed a little sluggish and as expected it massively ramped up yeast leavening power! Otherwise bound method all the way.

First up, Hamelman's Quarkbrot.  The formula calls for 60% bread flour, 20% medium rye flour, and 20% rye chops.  It also includes quark cheese.  Since the medium rye flour and rye chops and quark cheese are scarce as hen's teeth in my corner of northern Michigan, I was forced to adapt.  My trusty Komo grain mill does just fine at producing whole rye flour and cracked rye, so I used those.  The cracked rye was treated to a hot soak, rather than the cold soak for the rye chops; this per Hamelman's suggestion in a different recipe.  And Hamelman suggests that yog

Let me start by saying I haven't made them yet. But I saw these cute little meringue Christmas trees on America's Test Kitchen over the weekend and thought it a timely way to use up some egg whites left over from holiday panettone baking (I hope to get another bake in soon myself!). Since it was on the show, I think it is a free recipe, but if not, let me know and I'll see what I can do.

Meringue Christmas Trees | America's Test Kitchen Recipe (americastestkitchen.com)

At some point I imagined that a sourdough bread made with mostly cake flour would have a delectable soft sweet crumb texture. Or at least a better 'bite' than loaves made with bread flour. Perhaps softer on the tongue, with a good sweet flavour! And without the chew or bounce that I've come to expect with lots of gluten.

I've been baking more panettone than usual this season, mostly classic candied orange and raisin, but also chocottone and caramel apple flavors.

Each one is a bit different, and each bake presents its challenges. It's important to adapt to the context of each bake. Factors like the activity level of  the LM, the ambient temperature, the type of ingredients must be considered. 

But every time they go into the oven, it's exciting to watch them become grandi lievitati..

Dec

I made a couple different versions of this bread several years ago and decided to change it up a bit using a Tangzhong. Making a Tangzhong is simple and it really helps make a super soft crumb.