Blog posts

Hello Everyone,

Just wanted to share two nice loaves that came out of the oven this morning.

The first loaf is a 100% semolina sourdough and the second is a yeast water raisin and sunflower loaf, both at 75% hydration. Both loaves were mixed up at about the same time, fermented and baked together.

Yeast water raisin and sunflower loaf

Michigan's deer season opens this coming Sunday, November 15.  My brother-in-law and some of his cousins will set up camp on Friday and Saturday, continuing a tradition begun by my late father-in-law.  Accommodations are rather Spartan, in the form of a converted school bus.  I've volunteered to bring bread as my contribution to the groceries for our stay. 

My grandma every year makes yeasted homentaschen poppy seed pies, and they are delicious. Last year I asked her for the recipe, and made them myself, and it worked great, despite having no prior experience with yeast myself back then.

Multi-grain Sourdough Bread with Home-Milled Flours

David M. Snyder

November, 2020

Those who read my blog on The Fresh Loaf know that I have been experimenting with different proportions of home-milled flours over the past couple years. About a year ago, I found a mix of flours that makes breads with the most wonderful flavor. I have occasionally re-visited old favorites, but, really, this is the best of class. Of course, it is “best” to my taste. Yours may be different.

Proth5 – returning from the void! Well, hardly. But I thought my recent activities might resonate with the “old timers” – those who were posting when I was a regular on this site – and I had to break my blog silence just this once. For the new folks, beware. My time away has only brought out the curmudgeon in me.

From time to time we all see the news stories where a couple met in high school and fell in love, but something in life intervened, they were separated and went on with their lives. Then they meet in a nursing home, recognize their old love and get married.

these pumpernickel sourdough bagels are so good they deserve odes written to their nobility and splendor...like I should have to go on a quest to prove my worthiness ?

pumpernickel everywhere bagels some topped with gruyere and some of those with habanero hot sauce. they're everywhere and not just everything because they have seeds on top, bottom, and mixed into the dough (in this case caraway seeds, aniseeds, fennel seeds, nigella seeds, black sesame seeds, hemp seeds, cracked rye, dried garlic, and salt)

Ilya's bake #1

I've tried Maurizio's ciabatta recipe before the CB 3 times, and was never satisfied with the result. So was quite keen to sort it out.

I followed Dan's 4th bake recipe. Here is the formula: https://fgbc.dk/vi6

Followed Maurizo's recipe. Had thick rolled oats, so I decided to soak the oats overnight with all the salt and then cook them a bit. Then I wouldn't need to mix in salt and then porridge since I finding mixing things in later annoying. However, its probably better not to do that since it's harder to mix in the porridge evenly, so then the salt probably wasn't evenly distributed. I also threw in 100g of walnuts because I like nutty loaves. Tried coil folding towards the end to be more gentle.

I love using potatoes in bread.  It gives the final product a nice soft and moist crumb.  It is supposed to also prevent staling, but I usually freeze half or more so I have never tested that theory out.  I've made this recipe before but this time I upped the amount of freshly ground spelt and reduced the amount of whole wheat.  I was very happy with the end result. The purple sweet potato is not as high in water content as the orange style and not as sweet, but it does add a wonderful texture to the bread that is worth trying.

Dear Diary,

Thus spake DanAyo, a goodly baker:

"The flop became a precious treasure because I learned something new."

Word.

This is my new mantra! I love this.

Here's a man staring into the jaws of defeat and sees a victory. And he's no fool.

May beginners like me take note. This... is the name of the sourdough game. NEVER get discouraged!

This is a hobby for me. This is how it's SUPPOSED to be. Else, it's no stinkin' fun.