Blog posts

I've been hemming and hawing for a while about trying the Lahey technique, but when I managed to find an interesting ceramic cooking vessel for $7 at a thrift store ....

.... I thought it was time to give it a go.

Used an 80% hydration dough, with a pain de campagne combination of flours (88% unbleached white, 6% whole wheat, 6% dark whole wheat rye) in a 475 degree oven, 30 minutes covered and 30 minutes uncovered.

With English muffins and bagels out of the way this week and breakfast taken care of for several weeks, we moved on to our normal Friday bread bake.  We wanted to stick to our 100% whole grain recent theme, this time 99.89% while getting back to some of favorite add ins and return of the neglected; Toadies,  ground flax and sesame seeds.

I had to try another big honking loaf.  My interest was piqued this time by wassisname's recent post:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/34256/big-ol-rye

I hope to be baking full-time again reasonably soon ... within weeks hopefully, and I can't wait to post a photo of the first loaf coming out of the oven.

... but this has meant some patience and waiting on my part.

Greetings,

So the Sainted wife's co-workers wanted Baguettes, but since my Baguette molds are too big for my baking stone I decided to make "mini" Baguettes or Stecca's so they would fit in my DO. Along with a Batard and and a Boule. They are Sourdough with a poolish containing 20% Whole Wheat.

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I have had excellent results with my new La Cloche baker. in making sourdough bread recipes  The crust is really delicious.  Here is the recipe for a Classic Sourdough:

This is my first blog post here on TFL. I've been baking for quite some time now, but there's always more to learn and work on and I'll admit to being tentative sharing my bakes, but anyways --

Today, I baked:

Quite often - especially during holiday times - spending time with my family can interfere with the optimal sourdough build schedules.

If we then run out of bread I usually make some improvisations based on Dan DiMuzio's Pain De Campagne (90% bread flour, 10% medium rye, 68% water, 2% salt, 0.3% instant yeast, from memory).

These breads are quick because they are same-day breads; but they still take about 5 hours from start to finish.

Two of these variations have been especially popular with my family:

These are great crepes to make using up your sourdough discards.

Crepes make wonderful little packages.  Fill them with fruits, cream, cheeses.  Savory crepes are wonderful too!  Let your imagination run wild.

Mike loved the I served him after dinner.  He plans on putting one together for himself tonight.  Yes, even he can do it.