Blog posts

Previously i have posted about this ghost town in outback Australia which is being rebuiilt by volunteers, One of the first restoratiuons was the underground bakery which contributes  many needed dollars for further restoration .

The works programme  lasts  a short time when volunteers gather to perform their work. Bakers are essential services and volunteers  are always needed so if you want a real adventure  a holiday in Australia and fancy a unique baking experience this could be for you in 2024. attached is the news letter recently arrived 

I was going to add cinnamon to the purple sweet potato but realized that I wanted this bread for sandwiches so the cinnamon wouldn’t be a good idea.  However, if this bread was for toast, adding some cinnamon to the purple sweet potato would have been delicious.  To make this bread, you’ll need to prepare some mashed purple sweet potato.  I did this a while back, then portioned and froze the portions in ziplock bags.  Once defrosted I blend the mash with a combination of sugar and flour.

A slightly experimental bake, with a stiff French levain (for raising power), a liquid levain (for pH reduction) and an overnight yeasted sponge (for flavour).

All went well, but bulk (to 60% vol increase) was rather fast at 2hrs 10m. Retarded, shaped and baked the following day.

As soon as I turned out the loaves from the bannetons onto the peel they started to spread and I realised the loaves were "classically" overproofed.

Sure enough, the ears and loft were poor and the crumb was closer, more regular and more "frogspawn" than I like.

With Callebaut Gold and white chocolate. 

This is the highest-rise panettone I've baked yet, due in part to some changes in the way I'm maintaining the lievito madre, and some alterations I'm making to the recipe to improve the first impasto.  

The crumb is soft, moist, lofty, shreddable. There is no trace of acidity, or of toughness, dryness or other common problems. The flavor comes from 1. mellow complexity from the 12-hour rise on first impasto (which tripled in exactly 12 hours at 22-24C), the Vanilla, toffee, pecans, and chocolate. 

I was pressed for time and was tasked with bringing bread to my family’s Thanksgiving dinner yesterday.  The previous time I made rolls with Nfld savoury I didn’t use enough to taste them as much as I would have liked.  This time the Mt Scio savoury flavour was lovely and the milk rolls were enjoyed by all.

Day#1

The natural yeast leiven, and the soaker

Day #2- have all the final dough ingredients weighted and ready. Prep the ingredients for the mechanical mixing. Mix the final dough, with the goal of achieving a soft cohesive dough ball that is slightly tacky and just about passes the window pane test. Bulk fermentation until 1 1/2 times the volume is achieved.

The main players:

KA Sir Lancelot high gluten flour - 60%

Great River Milling dark rye flour - 40%

total hydration - 69%

Day One: The rye sour build 

Stage #1 - 6 hours

Rye mother at 100% hydration

Rye sour at 80% hydration

Rye sour build #1

I found my forum post Matera bread. I share the link to preserve the record of to date one of my best bakes ever!

Matera bread

I got my hands on some good stoneground whole red fife so wanted to incorporate it into my milk bread.  I haven’t used any red fife for a long while so it was due.  Because of the issues with gluten breakdown that seems to happen with red fife, I decided to use it all in the tangzhong, 20% since the gluten in the tangzhong won’t matter since it is cooked.

I had some pepitas and a handful of sunflower seeds lying around so decided to add them to this loaf.

The formula:

General Mills extra fancy Durum wheat 500g - 100%

Water                                                            520g - 104%

Instant yeast.                                               2.5g  -    .5%