Blog posts

Wifely complement of the week: "What do you call this bread … so I know how to ask you to make it again?" Well, I couldn’t think of what to call it. I have made it before … sort of. It is based on Forkish’s “Pain de Campagne” from FWSY, except with a different flour mix, no commercial yeast and a different fermentation schedule. I’ve generally called such breads “in the spirt of …” whatever my starting point was.

Anyway, it is awfully good bread - very moist, wheaty and only mildly sour.

I had about 500g extra of my 100% hydration WW start (90% hard red winter wheat, 10% rye), and needed to bake a loaf for some friends, plus some for us. I wanted a bit more rise than I've been getting with 100% WW, so I used AP for half the flour bill (Reinhart's basic sourdough recipe). I'm really happy with how it came out. 

edit: Crumb Shot

I'm back again after long períod of absence of this blog. I will make efforts to contribute 2 times weekly with posts and discussions here sharing all my expertise on artisan breads.

I always bake with passion and curiosity. For me one of the bad things is to look that carbage boxes full of old staled breads that go away trough carbage trucks at final day at the bakeries of my wide country, Brazil.

I decided to revisit what ancient grains I have on hand with this simple loaf. It is about 60% a equal combination of Einkorn,  Spelt and Kamut  all fresh ground with the rest being AP for a total of 500g at 70% hydration. It is naturally leavened with one build using 50g starter 100g flour mix and 70g water. The rest of the flour was started to autolyse at the same time. The leaven doubled in about 3.5 hours at 80F and was mixed with the other plus some salt.

I love whole grains, and I wanted to go back to some of the loaves I’ve made and try and make them more whole grain. My polenta pepita SD has been one of my favourite loaves so I decided to start there. The first time I made it, I used 100% white flour (ignoring the rye flour in the 6g of rye starter I used). 

Here’s the formula I used this time: 

   I wanted to use some fresh milled flour from my Mock Mill that I'm testing out so I through together a simple bread using fresh milled whole wheat, fresh milled Kamut and some barley flakes.

I do have to say I'm very impressed with the control you get with the Mock Mill.  I used the second finest settings and did one sift and reground the sifted out parts again.

The end result was a very tasty wholesome bread with a moderate crumb.

My own version of a Chad Robertson's Tartine 3 recipe. It has 20% of Brûlée Creek partially sifted whole grain flour and 10% dark rye as well as 120 grams of toasted sesame seeds. Total flour amount not including Levain was 1000 grams. I used 150 grams of 100% rye/wholewheat levain that was fed 3 times after being taken out of the fridge. The dough hydration was 75% not including the levain. I believe it was 77% including levain. 

Toasted the sesame seeds in a dry frying pan and then used 50 g of the water to hydrate them.

Let's repeat the King Arthur Flour Classic Sourdough Bread and really nail that down before I try anything more complicated. The recipe makes two loaves but let's just make one over and over again with an eye towards practicing a baking schedule to fit everything easily into my day. My prediction is that the levain will rise 75% in three hours.

I've taught a basic 1-2-3 Sourdough Bread class at work and for friends a number of times and people generally ask what can they add to the dough in order of getting a variety bread from the same basic recipe.  I give them a few examples and off they go.  I would like to give them a bit more direction than that, like a longer list and approximate amounts (in Baker’s percent).  So, my target is Sourdough recipes like 1-2-3, Tartine (Chad Robertson) and FWSY (Ken Forkisk) and wondering what you would add and how much?