Blog posts

We have been making 50% whole grain, half sprouted bread the past couple of weeks and Lucy was about to have a conniption fit since we are out of the rye bread we like so much.  The whole grains were 70% rye and the rest wheat with half of them being sprouted.

After returning from my trip out west and meeting with David Snyder on his home turf I couldn't wait to hit the oven running, so to speak.  But what to do?  I was torn between a bake of David's SJSD's and Hamelman's Pain au Levain w/WW.  There are no losers here.  But in the end the Pain au Levain won out.  I've yet to get a bad bake from these.  Easiest dough on earth!

Well taking a page from PalwithnoorinP's book, I tried my favourite dough, pulla and tried his sweet butter filled rolls. I used a cinnamon, sugar mixture to which I added vanilla and rum:  Appleton Estate Signature Blend. Boy is that nice rum and does it ever add a nice flavour to the sugar mix!  I used my standard pulla mix and for the enamoradas used three pieces @ 100 grams.

Thanks to suggestions from this group, I have been on the "proverbial" quest for the perfect loaf of bread. Remembering that beauty is in the "eye of the beholder", I am happy with the look of this loaf, the time strategy, the equipment used, and the taste. I have the Bosch Universal Mixer. It is efficient, powerful, easy to clean and light weight, they have added an "extended dough hook. This is somewhat subject to the type of recipe. I needed a mixer that could easily be moved around. I finally got bannetons from Lucky Clover - reasonable and well made.

This was one of the most flavorful and nurturing loaves I've baked in a long time. I started with the recipe on page 192 of Tartine Book No 3 but used a flaked 5 grain cereal from a local store in place of the oats. I inoculated a porridge of 250 g water and 250 g grain with 1 T leaven and forgot about it for a week, at the end of which time it had an inviting sweet smell.

Lately I have been messing about with keeping things very simple, and adding lecithin to my doughs to make them softer.

So far it's been a wild and unexpected journey this year. Who would've thought, I'd stray into a different direction: sourdough doughnuts.

I had intended to try baguettes again a few weekends ago, but some cookbook photos of a pain d’épi changed my mind. So much crust on these!

I made a basic baguette following this formula:

-       500 g levain

-       750 g AP flour

-       10 g salt

-       0.5 teaspoon instant yeast

-       430 g water

This is the actually the second attempt.  The first loaves stuck to the bannetons.  Much soul searching ensued.  I have found both times that the dough is quite sticky to work with.  I made several changes this time:

A few years ago, I bought a Hearth Kitchens, HearthKit which has been sitting in my basement unused.  In the past, this was in demand and i'm wondering if anyone on the Fresh Loaf is interested in buying it from me. If so, let me know!  Thanks for your interest!