I have really enjoyed making David's baguettes recently (link to recipe below), both in the UK and back in the U.S. in California. I use a baguette tray for proofing and baking and that has worked well for me. I tried the couche cloth to start, but found that it was harder for me in handling a wet dough.
I keep trying to improve my gluten-free bakes. It is so hard to achieve anything close to my gluten loaves, but I did have some improvement on this one. I altered the recipe slightly (see below). The dough is difficult to work with and doesn't hang together too well, so you have to stick with it. It is also a very heavy loaf...very filling.
Warning!: This report contains graphic images of misshapen loaves and loaves subjected to extreme thermal trauma. Young children and those easily upset by pictures of charred crust are advised to immediately go on to the next blog.
The first month of bread has been refreshing, and tasty :) Many mistakes and trial and error, fun stuff.
I really wanted to get to sourdough and I'm having success with my starter. I'm reading books, but TFL is an amazing translation tool for application.
What else is there to do in retirement but perfect my baking skills. Everyone benefits and I'm getting fat!!! Ha Ha
After seeing the recipe in the feed for the Blueberry Cream Cheese Braid I just had to try it.
Made some adaptations. Subbed the flaxseed with poppy and chia seeds and halved the portion. Because chia is so thirsty, i did not half the water for the soaker instead just cut it about 25%
my preferment looked a bit lethargic so bulk fermented for 3.5 hours and proofed for 5 hours. Although the weather was probably around 29-30C it did not overproof with 5 hours.
the taste was excellent considering it had a total of 92% BF and only 8% rye! Colour of crumb looked as though it has 30% rye....very pleased
Did two bakes this week using the fresh milled einkorn flour I've been experimenting with. One was a spur of the moment thing that used a northern cornbread recipe substituting einkorn for the cornmeal and flour. As with most guickbreads it was highly enriched. The result was better than expected being both light and very tasty. The other was a natural leaven bread using 75% einkorn to 25% whole wheat new flour (not counting the flour in the starter). The loaf was dense like most whole grain breads are but also was good tastewise. The picture is of the latter.
