Blog posts

Like Ulysses to the Sirens.  Like rodents to the Pied Piper, like Cupid’s arrow to the heart, and like Springboks to Spring Break - or at least to the watering hole on the Savannah. Abel Sierra posted his version of Baguette au Levain a few days ago.  Lovely, and that might have been that!  Except that in response to Old Baker’s comment stating that he would try it, Abel’s reply was "Maybe it's difficult to get this result at home.

Having found that cider doesn't seem to add much flavor to bread, and worrying its alcohol may have hindered fermentation, I thought I'd try milk. I was curious if the milk would curdle from the acidity of the dough, and if that would matter. When mixed into dough, is curdling even something that milk does?

The fat may be the more significant part of milk in bread. The crumb turned out tighter and more tender, less chewy. There's a definite milky aftertaste, that mucusy feeling like after eating a bowl of cereal. This loaf is basically granola as bread.

We had a holiday last Friday, so a longer weekend, I've never made so many breads! Still testing weak flours and also a new recipe with a little wholemeal flour. There were 6 breads, the picture above is only 5 because one had already given away to friends. There were 3 different methods, 2 loaves each, I'll explain each one briefly and put the results photos.

Please turn your attention to Hollands' North sea coast, Friesland, one of the Netherlands' northern provinces. Alongside world-famous Dutch cheeses like gouda and edam, there is the signature Frisian Gingerbread. This 100% "quick" rye bread, was often times steamed in a water bath rather than cooked in a dry oven. Here is my interpretation of

 Stanley Ginsberg's formula

Visit The Pie king at the link below for more information and photos.

This is probably the easiest post I've ever written...

One for you, one for him, NONE for me 

Bye Bye babies...

Hope the uncles will treat you well...

A warm greeting to all the people those passionate about the art of the bakery and pastry.

With the due permission of the administrators of thefreshloaf.com, we would like to ask you to support our project, which is exposed in the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter, with the intention of raising the necessary funds to be able to carry it out.

It's an innovative attachment that will radically change for the better the way to knead bread at home.

I am still jet lagged after 2 longhaul flights but we were running out of bread.  so over the weekend I dug my starter out of the refridgerator, refreshed it and then built enough 100% hydration levain for 2 loaves.  I used some bran left over from earlier bakes as well.  My brain isn’t yet upto much so I stuck with the 1:2:3 formula making 1 all white loaf and 1 loaf with 25% rye.  

Group Bake # 2 Spiced Honey Rye

A simple formula that’s perfect for busy days.

20% Germinated Red Rice Oat Porridge Sourdough

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

150g      50%       Whole spelt flour

90g        30%       Whole white wheat flour

8:30pm toast 68 g oats, soak in 133 g cider and 3 g salt, refrigerate

9:00pm mix levain: 28 g starter, 33 g bread flour, 33 g water

9:00pm mix autolyze: 85 g oat flour, 340 g bread flour, 282 g cider

7:30am remove oats from fridge

8:15am knead together autolyze, levain, oats, and 9 g salt

8:50am S&F

9:30am S&F

10:15am S&F

11:15am S&F

12:25pm S&F

1:25pm S&F

3:50pm shape, coat outside with quick oats

7:20pm bake covered

7:40pm uncover

8:20pm done