Blog posts

5/14/14.  I am a novice bread baker.  Made "Rustic Bread" (recipe on this site) today.  Tastes good.  Beautiful holes in crumb.  But need advice on two issues:

1.  Following the formula, the dough was VERY wet, sticky.  I could not shape it well.  .  Would not hold boule shape before baking.  Flattened out before baking.  Did not flatten out more once in the oven.  If I addressed this problem by adding more flour doesn't that make it more difficult for the crumb to form large holes?  

 Dough rose too fast after I sandwiched the three layers together, so I couldn't manhandle it into ropes as planned. Instead just twisted the strips around and tied them up as gently as I could so as not to deflate them too much. Came out looking quite strange but surprisingly edible nonetheless. 

 SD Sweet Potato Spinach Nyetzel Rollz

I used Reinhart's recipe from BBA with some deviations ...

- I made a 1/2 batch

- I used sourdough levain with about 1g of commercial yeast as leavening

- 4 day fermentation in the refrigerator

- Slightly heavier bagels at 6.75 oz/bagel instead of 4 oz/bagel

Hi all back to posting after a long hiatus. Inspired by the numerous Tartine 3 breads that have been popping up over thefreshloaf and reminded by a post that is filed under my to-bake list, I decided to make a Polenta Pepita Sourdough over the weekend. 

I adapted the Hamelman recipe below, as I really wanted to make a multi-grain bread with a soaker. I didn't have any bulghur, so I used cous cous instead. I continue to go for the bold crust, so I allow a little extra time on the bake.

It is just so much fun getting that soaker going, isn't it?

I've been reading for a while and took this opportunity to post.  Made some granary style loaves today from a KAF recipe: the bread pans were a bit big for the loaves (9x5) but the final product was absolutely delicious, with a slight crunch and a bit of malt flavoring. 

(sourdough starter in the background) :)

Phin

Lately I have been learning how to bake baguettes and have been experienting with various formulas and methods.