Blog posts

Today I baked a traditional (i.e. round) Challah for the new year's celebration.

Round Holiday Challah

Certainly not my best ever, but it'll do!

--dolf

I got a new digital camera, inspired by all the wonderful pictures on this web site.  But then I had to wait for photogenic bread.  Then I had to wait for an AC power supply after the wimpy alkaline batteries died.

The bread is very dense - 6 cups rye flour and 3 cups whole wheat.  Inexplicably, it also calls for a mere 1/2 teaspoon caraway seeds.  I put in about a tablespoon, but I could have added more.

I've posted a spreadsheet that summarizes what I do these days to analyze rise times and to dissect recipes or design my own variations. Below is some discussion and also some instructions for the spreadsheet. Use it as is, and modify it as you like. It may contain errors, bugs, and it is not carefully designed to work on all computers and operating systems.

I finally made those muffins. I ended up using a little whole wheat flour which I found to be a nice addition. (They're not really red; I need to get to know my camera better.)

Sponge Ingredients:

110 g ripe 100% hydration sourdough starter

160 g flour

100 g whole wheat flour

276 g milk

Final Dough Ingredients:

75 g flour

3/4 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1.5 t. agave nectar or honey

sponge

Back in Ohio after a month in Japan; baked whole spelt loaves so we'd have something to eat, using our faithful King Arthur "New England" starter (although after a decade, I think it's more Ohio than New England).  Starter a bit slow after a month away, so not much oven spring.  But good crumb.  More photos and recipes at www.alan-ohio-bread.blogspot.com if anyone's interested--

Alan 

I baked my very old recipe for pumpkin bread this weekend. I love this very spicy recipe and like to add more cinnamon than called for as I always do with that spice. It is a very moist pumpkin bread and also very fragrant. You can see how easy it is to make as well. You basically measure and dump everything together and mix.

I got the book last week, so today, my regular baking day, I wanted to make some. As luck would have it, after having started baking in April, I had finally decided to create a sourdough starter, but had to delay until recently due to my vacation. Last week I started creating Maggie Glezer's firm french style starter (as well as a whole wheat and rye version). The composition of that starter is identical to Leader's stiff levain (although the feeding formula is slightly different), so I used this in the recipe.

This bread is almost 100% whole grain, except for a small amount of white starter. It uses whole wheat and rye flour, and a soaker of flax seeds, sesame seeds, bulgur, and oats.

The recipe, along with a bit about what happens when you overproof it, is here. (These loaves are not overproofed, but the first ones I made were.)

Susanfnp