Blog posts

I don’t remember the last time I made a cobbler, and I was looking at my final half bag of frozen rhubarb sitting in my freezer that a friend gave me last spring from his garden and thought time to make a cobbler.  Of course, also feeling lazy I decided to buy frozen strawberries instead of fresh.  Although that is the lazy route, the frozen ones are much better than the fresh I can get this time of year so this should be better than fresh.  I don’t recall where I found this recipe that I’ve had saved in my Notes app for some time so cannot give the author credit.

Today's bake was based on this method with really only a change in hydration to suit my flours.  That, and I made a sandwich loaf versus a boule.

Bench resting.  Crap I forgot to put the cinnamon sugar inside.  I guess I'll just have to sprinkle it on top of the loaf before it goes into the oven. It won't be a "swirl" anymore.  I can't wait to bake this loaf.  The fermentation of the walnuts release a pretty purple hue into the dough around it.  

So round 10 one night I thought, "be nice to take fresh bread in to work..."

so I mixed, in the bottom of my mixer bowl.

1 3/4 Cup lukewarm water and 1 1/2 tsp active dry yeast

                          While it sat for 10 min I poured

1/4 cup boiling water over

3 tbsp of cooking molasses and

1 tbsp Brewers Wort

Secret formula folks ;) 

I wanted to post more data to help those interested in a fool proof way to flake grains. My last post was using rye in my Marga  Mulino Flaker and utilizing the technique I discovered on the Blog Foodprepper. 

I have even more positive proof that this is the best and easiest way to prepare and flake grains. I chose Einkorn grains as they are reputed to be “ too hard” to flake. Well with this method as you will see it’s simplicity itself. 

I have been getting much more relaxed about my bakes these days, a welcome improvement. My current mindset: it's bread. Nobody is dieing, nobody needs CPR, and the world will not come to an end if it doesn't come out the way I expected. And who knows what I may learn from the experience. 

The Tartine method is how I got started in sourdough baking and is still the basis for most of my sourdough loaves in its intention of making a open crumb bread with a less sour flavor. Lately I had been playing it safe by keeping the hydration at 75% and not risking over fermenting.

This is 60% dark rye, 20% high extraction wheat (stone ground, with a lot bran), and 20% strong bread flour.

Have never used bread flour for breads before, that's a first!