Blog posts

Last week was another busy week with a high need for sandwich bread and not a lot of time to make it.  It was also still stupidly hot (27 deg C or more), and continuously hazy / smoky from all of the fires off to the west and south.  We don’t have air-conditioning, and opening the windows was questionable, so I needed to plan leaven amounts and refrigeration for best bake timing.

I need another cook book as much as I need another hole in my head.  Last count, I had several hundred cookbooks.  I've read them all, many times.

So, I resisted buying "Tartine Bread" because I've put myself on cookbook restriction.  I am not permitted to go to Barnes & Noble, and I can't spend too much time on Amazon Prime cookbook section - because I have no will power.

There was such a buzz about this book and this method, so I gave myself permission.

Today, Labor day Monday 09-04-17, I am baking a N.Y. deli rye, using Rose, Levy, Beranbaum's formula. Tomorrow, I will convert her formula, to incorporate the Tang Zung method. The Tang Zung method formula is below. https://goodcookingfortheheartandsoul.blogspot.com/2017/09/rose-levy-beranbaums-nyc-deli-jewish.html

Beranbaum's N.Y. deli rye, Tang Zung method

Total Flour 563 Grams -  100%

Well with record breaking heat this summer in my new town, I haven't baked much. The blueberries and jalapeno mixed well together. A simple easy, quick recipe.

Heat oven to 400-410F and heat an eight inch cast iron skillet in it.

1/2 C each cornmeal and flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 Tbs sugar

1 egg beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk soured with vinegar

2 Tbs honey

1 jalapeno minced, I will use 2 next time

3/4 cup of blueberries

Got some einkorn flour recently and did a small bake, good stuff! Easy to work with and pretty much like white flour, nothing like whole wheat with bran included. Good taste, cool color and mouthfeel. Going to add einkorn to my whole wheat batches, maybe 30%. 

Recipe was 100% einkorn flour, 50% hydration, 100% hydration levian, a litte oil. 2 hour autolyse, because.

    I used fresh milled and sifted durum flour for this bake.  My wife had made a big pot of rice with mushrooms that I've been eating all week as a side dish and I've been meaning to make a rice bread and also a mushroom bread, so here goes.

I did not use enough water in this bake and only had around 56% total hydration which ended up being way too low and caused the crumb to be very tight.  I have adjusted the formula to reflect what I should have used.

https://goodcookingfortheheartandsoul.blogspot.com/2017/08/100-whiole-grain-rye-tang-zhong-method.html

Stumble across this site by accident and I had to register on this. The post's on the site is a world of knowledge for me as a home bread maker. I would like to say a BIG THANK YOU, to MIKE on his example and explanation on the WATER ROUX method posted on 23 Jun 2017 @ 08:45pm.

I was stuck at a point if I using 500g of bread flour in a recipe.... How much WATER ROUX do I have use in the bread and the example is well explained by MIKE.

I will surely use your guideline that you provided.. Thank you once again.

 Decided it was time to make a multigrain loaf. Sunday night grabbed starter from fridge and mixed up the levain. made up hot water soaker with salt and left on bench.

This is the same recipe as the Olive, Sun-dried Tomato, Feta without the add-ins. We needed some simple bread for sandwiches and I tested out my base recipe to see what came out of it without all the flavour enhancements that I usually put in. It came out delicious but the crust was a bit tough as I didn't add in any yogurt. If I had any doubts that 30-50 g of yogurt made much of a difference in the tenderness of the crust, well this certainly answered it. The yogurt is definitely needed!

So here is the base recipe: