Blog posts

Hello to everyone,

I would like to share with you guys my todays loaf. I used Bacheldre Watermill's Oak Smoked Malted Blend Strong Flour plus my old good sourdough.

Tasting notes:

These scones are lovely and moist and have a wonderful flavor.  They taste great with jam and butter.  I enjoyed a wedge with mascarpone cheese.  They make for nice looking Easter scone.

My variation on a lemon scone recipe.

8 oz. plus extra for some light kneading and adjusting hydration - I used Pillsbury All Purpose Flour

2 Tablespoon Sugar

1 Tablespoon Baking Powder

1/4 teaspoon Salt

1/4 cup Unsalted Butter

2 teaspoons Lemon zested

2 teaspoons Fresh Rosemary - clipped into small pieces

2 Medium Eggs

I'm continuing my exploration of bread baking with Gérard Rubaud's mix of flours. Today's breads were made with a firm levain, as used by Rubaud, and a high-hydration final dough. I made about 1500 gms of dough. The flour required is shown in the first chart.

For the love of bread,  I woke up 5 am,  with 4 hours of sleep just to see this bread rise and baked.  I didn't regret.  

Adapted from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Breads,  I tried my hand again on this Pain de Campagne Poilane.  In addition,  I also tried using a claypot to bake this.  

Hey All,

Just wanted to share with you a very large 2.225 kg mixed levain miche that I baked on 2/23/10.  It is roughly 12 1/2" in diameter by 5 1/2" tall.  It was well worth staying up late on a weeknight to do.  We cut into it on 2/25/10 at a dinner part, and it was worth the wait...

Please excuse the crumb shot as it was from my friend's iPhone under less than stellar lighting conditions...

Tim

This a adapted from a formula I've used for a few years now and decided to replace the 100% Hydration Poolish with 100% Hydration Levain. I made no adjustments to original formula for this.

Original formula is from Bread Bakers Guild Team USA 2002

Poolish

Flour-----------100%

Water----------100%

Yeast---------------.1%

Final Dough

Flour---------100%

Water----------43%

Yeast------------1.3%

Salt---------------3.3%

Malt-----------------.8%

Poolish----------1.33.4%

Process

I wanted to make a practice Pandoro for Easter.  It came out GREAT--and was simpler than I expected!  I used the recipe in Maggie Glezer's Artisan Baking.  I followed almost every direction to the letter (except shaping).  I used KAF Lancelot flour (14% protein) and SAF Gold yeast (along w/ SD starter).  I always have cocoa butter on hand, so that wasn't a problem.  I did use salted butter (unsalted is specified), so did not add any additional salt (the recipe uses a lot of butter!)

I have a question on the use of old dough.  I read somewhere that we can freeze old dough,  which I did to mine, probably about 14 days old. Now I'm taking out to use to try out on my Polaine de Champagne again. 

I took out from my freezer and refridgerator to defrost, not counter top. It looks like the yeast is still active.  Am I doing this right? should I have just defrost it within a short period and use it?  The colour and smell still stays good.

I went to my neighbourhood bookstore, Mary Ryan, after dropping my son to school the other day.  The timber flour and the Bach playing in the background made me want to stay longer.  I paid for a cookbook, [i]Bécasse[/i], and quickly left.  I wanted to have breakfast and coffee at Chouquette Boulangerie & Patisserie.  This was my first time ba

Following is a sweet tarali recipe for all seasons.  They are light, sweet and delightful...you can't stop eating them.  They are also great dunked in red wine.

6 large eggs

1-1/2 t. salt

½ cup shortening preferable Crisco

1/2 envelope of dry yeast

1/2-cup water

6 to 6-1/2 cups all-purpose flour (Do not use all the flour if not needed.)