Blog posts

I occasionally teach bread classes at our local library.  This weekend's class featured chocolate babka.  Lots of fun and some really good bread.

Paul

6Dec

Made with fresh-milled Rougue de Bordeaux wheat milled from Barton Spring Mills berries, as well as fresh-milled spelt.

The cranberries were soaked in water and drained before adding to the dough right before bulk. The ricotta cheese adds a nice softness to the final crumb.

I love pecans so this was the perfect pairing with the cranberries but feel free to use walnuts or any nut you desire.

6Dec

I dare you to say that 3 times fast! My wife made some fresh Greek yogurt, so I decided to use the whey in place of the water in the main dough and also add some yogurt to the dough as well.

I love the way the scald creates a soft, fluffy crumb. I used some fresh-milled Hopi Blue Corn and Butler’s Gold Wheat ground into flour using my Mockmill 200.

Slow-Moe, wishes all my friends a very good morning.

For today's exercise, we have a double batch of extra long Baguettes.

Formula exceptions.

Since this is a double batch of relatively low hydration dough, I opted for the improved mix process. Rather than the more labor intensive rubaud hand mix. 

Enough said...

Bonjour breadheads,

Decided to change my blog's path this week. Picked up King Arthur's "Big Book of Bread" and was going to slowly make my way through some of those recipes. Started with the English Muffin pan bread! Came out a bit dense, maybe from under-kneading by hand or being cold during proofing time, but otherwise tastes good :). First simpler bread I've made with an overnight preferment.

This is another ingredient adjustment trial, this time with somewhat increased yolks but not high hydration. It moves slightly in the “European” direction while still being lofty and light. I liked the result, and the dough handled extremely well.

Fermentation was on target, tripling in exactly 12 hours at 23C. Final dough rise took exactly 4 hours. 

this is my attempt to bake the 'hop miche' from the perfect loaf site.

caveats:

-- as I couldn't find a scale when I started prepping the bread, I eyeballed the measurements for the levain and tangzhong and I think I made everything way way way too wet. 

Another attempt at Stollen for Christmas. I've never been entirely happy with the Stollen I've made in the past. Usually too flat, solid and dry.

This time I decided to buy a Stollen mould - sharp intake of breath from the purists. But it makes sense to me: better loft/no spread, less drying out in the oven, no ruined burnt raisins and sultanas to pick off the top. We''ll see what the final result is like, but so far so good.

South Africans love to braai. You might call it a barbeque or BBQ, but our word for it is braai! A braai may not even be what you expect in terms of meat grilling on a grid. When we go camping sometimes we make something which we call a 'potjie' pronounced 'poy-kie', or potjiekos.