Blog posts

I sliced a loaf from mondays bake in half and discovered a hole big enough to park the 2CV in. I was after large holes but not quite to this degree. I've since cut into another loaf from the batch, it was much tamer.

Last year i had permission to hold a promotional class consisting of colleagues family and friends with the idea that fellow TFL member Ross (ROSS-N-ROLLER) would come along and do an article that we could submit to the local paper  prior to a November date for a class on Sour Dough.

Ross and his partner Janice  came along and we had a great evening together.

Ross's article follows 

Well I finally got around to baking this weekend. My starter was 2 weeks old last Friday and bubbling and growing faster than I can feed it or use it!

I'm interested in making a Poilane style bread, so I thought it might be interesting to make a BBA Basic Sourdough with half of the flour being whole wheat.

I made the dough up using the same procedure I've been using for the other Basic Sourdoughs, except (of course) using much more WW flour. Due to schedule conflicts the dough stayed in the refrigerator for 4 days ... I baked the loaves yesterday evening.

So, I'm really excited (but also a bit nervous) to post the results of my first bake. Not my first bake ever, mind you; just my first bake after deciding to get really serious about baking.

Hi - I do not often bake yeasted bread but last night made a small white loaf with unbleached white flour. Ingredients 500gms U/B White Strong flour / 330gms water / 8 gms fresh teast / 8 gms salt.

Mixed and kneaded for approx 12 minutes then into bowl to rest. Rested for 1hr 20 mins (double in size plus a bit) and then into small loaf tin. Allowed to prove for 1 hr and 10 mins until double.

Then cut top with razor just before going into the oven. The loaf sank slightly and never produced any oven spring !

Any thoughts on problem would be appreciated.

I am on a mailing list which periodically sends me formulas for new breads developed at the San Francisco Baking Institute.

This is a tweaked-to-suit-my-routine version of the barley and flax seed loaf in Tartine No. 3.  The biggest change was to the leaven – all whole wheat flour, 75% hydration, and more of it.  I also switched from barley flakes to cracked barley because that is what I had access to. The rest of the numbers I just put together in whatever way I thought would give me the greatest margin for error.

BOY, do I EVER LIKE this bread! This was a full version of the ITJB rye to which I added 120 grams of re-hydrated granulated onion and garlic and remembered to account for the extra water this time. I used about 4 Tbs of the onion and 1Tbs of the garlic, using the water from the soak for the bake. I once again proofed my boules seam side down in a banneton, the baked seam side up Forkish style in a cast iron DO.

I love the 'organic bloom' this technique produces!

Formula: 615g bread flour, 35g whole rye flour, 460g warm water, 110g chef (100% hydration), 141g coarse ground cornmeal (thats the dry weight), and 13g salt.