Blog posts

Today's bake: Sweet Potato Levain

Source: Sourdough Recipes for Rustic Fermented Breads, Sweets, Savories, and More - Sarah Owens

Notes: Scaled to 2 loaves @ 1kg ea. from 2 loaves at .646kg.
Substitutions: None

…after watching a few videos from the Vito Iacopelli and Gluten Morgan YouTube channels. Having been reticent (or just lazy?) to explore much beyond my standard 100% hydration levains and poolish, the videos made a case for lower hydration pre-ferments.

Whole Wheat Rye with Corn Flour SD

1Mar

It’s time for a hot pastrami sandwich, so I made rye bread with fresh milled whole wheat, rye, and corn flour. I added some molasses for sweetness and some sour cream for extra tang.

A friend of mine decided a few days ago to kick off the BBQ season, albeit on short notice. Still, it was a good opportunity to try mwilson's burger bun recipe. Pls check his blog for the original recipe.

Said and done, I had to skip the cold bulk fermentation. Even then, the time was a bit tight for the final proofing.

My flour has pretty sure a bit less protein than the one in the original recipe. Needed 2-3x stretch & fold.

Laned here by asking about flouring a banneton which I've never used before.  All good ideas, thanks to all, but I decided to join TFL.  Thanks for the good ideas, re: apf and rice flour to use.

Learning baking baguettes was so much fun! I chose to postpone my endeavor for soybean baguettes, since the muslims where I live are about to enter fasting month, and l'm planning to do bakesale selling breaking-the-fast treats and loaves for pre-fasting meals. I need cosmetically acceptable enough result for photos to market my bakes.

I am very new to sourdough, as I have only made 2 loaves (1 Biga/poolish and one with a bit of starter from a friend).

I want to be able to make my own sourdough starter, but as of yet every single one of my starters either fails to double after two weeks of feeding every 12 hours or becomes so acidic (smells like ammonia, this smell usually starts within 4-5 days after I begin my starter) that it fails to rise at all.

I will try to be as thorough as I can in my explanations and how I do it.

This is how I usually make my starter:

120 grams bread flour (pilsbury)

23Feb

I love adding cheese to my bakes. Usually, I cut the cheese in small pieces or chunks and fold them in, but I decided I wanted to use shredded cheese and added some to the starter. I used Parmesan and smoked cherry cheddar cheese. The combination really imparted a noticeable cheese flavor and when the bread is toasted or grilled it smells amazing.

Just out of curiosity started an experiment with some no name(*) white flour (soft wheat) from the supermarket, protein 11%-12%. Nothing special, I assume the amount of gluten is rather below average.

I'm curios, how far I can go. Started with 5% whole wheat, 5% rye, 65% hydration, cold final proof. I'd prefer warm final proof, but was not possible because of time constraints.