Blog posts

Hey All,

Just wanted to share with you some more stuff.  This is my own improvisation of Pain de Beaucaire.  I decided to make them more stick like, which actually made them resemble the Chinese fried doughnut "yauh tiuh".  For more info, please check out the following websites:

http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=121

http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2009/04/13/pain-de-beaucaire/

Enjoy!

Tim

Living in southern Japan, where even the most basic of ovens, beloved from childhood , are rare and extraordinarily expensive makes a baker's life challenging, and a home baker's more than just a bit frustrating. In need of crusty, heavy, unsweet breads, my sweetheart of a husband purchased  an 'oven' for me quite a few years ago. At least he thought it was an oven.

The first "real" bread book I ever read was Amy's Bread, borrowed from the library. I copied out some of the recipes and over the years looked for it again in different libraries with no luck. There were copies on Amazon but they were out of my price range, so I was thrilled to find the new version.

I just recently started baking bread and I'm having trouble with flat loaves. The bread recently baked was San Francisco Sourdough from Peter Reinharts book Artisan Breads Every Day. The dough rose fine overnight in the refridgerator and when it was proofed. I was careful not to deflate  it during forming or handling but the loaves are 2 1/2" high and 10" round after baking. The bread does have a nice crumb large irregular holes and a great taste. Thanks for any help

Ed

I've read that sugar will "feed the yeast"... I'm not exactly sure what that means. How does sugar affect the rise process, density of the bread, etc.. If I add honey to a recipe that calls for sugar, should I reduce the amount of sugar? Also, does milk and butter cause bread to be more dense? What's the benefits to adding milk and butter? I've made bread with and without and I don't notice too much of a flavor difference. The biggest difference I find is in the texture.

Thank you!

Darren

Hansjoakim described this gorgeous rye bread in his blog last Fall, and I made Hansjoakim's Favorite 70% Sourdough Rye myself in September. I made it again today, inspired by the delicious-looking ryes Mini and Eric have showed us recently.

I finally invested in a new baking stone, one that fills an oven shelf with only a couple of inches to spare. Now I can make baguettes that approach 18" to 20" in place of the stubby ones I baked before. Consequently, along with sourdough, sticky buns, foccacia, and getting familiar with spelt, I've been baking my own baguette formula that has borrowed heavily from Anis Bouabsa's formula and especially his process, and, in the most recent batch, Peter Reinhart's pain a' l'ancienne procedures.

One night my wife and her friend had dinner in a local French restaurant.  The owner/chef came out to speak with them about their dinner and offered desserts.  My wife mentioned to him that I had been making Madeleines that night before she left.  The chef got very enthusiastic and took my wife and her friend on a tour of his kitchen, offering them free desserts and sending a suggestion home to me that I should try to make canneles (kan-nuh-lay), which he did not make.  I started researching canneles online and not only found many different recipes with slight varia

Today's baking was one basic sourdough batard and a yeasted mostly white sandwich/toast loaf.  Very pleased with the white yeasted loaf, not overly thrilled about the batard, only because my starter's sourness has dropped off of late (will have to work on that) and the crumb was fairly tight, which was unexpected.  I attribute it to the hydration being too low.  Nonetheless, a nice tasty loaf (and a more delicate sour taste seems to be more to the family's liking, I am the only one apparently, who likes it good and sour).  The white loaf is excellent, very fluffy and lig

I have seen Schiacciata recipes from several books, as a big fan of savory focaccia, I've always wanted to try it. Recently we bought a lot of fresh blueberries on sale, so I combined several recipes, used blueberries instead of the usual concord grapes, added some rosemary flavor, and here's a beautiful schiacciata (i.e. sweet focaccia) that's delicious too. 

- The night before, make sponge: