Blog posts

When you want your comeback to be remembered, you have to come back with a bang! Here it is! Last week I promised to go back to bread baking after an addiction to pastries. Well these are viennoiseries, still a hybrid between pastries and bread but there's yeast in it so I consider it closer to breads. I made croissants and pains au chocolat for this week; it's an ambitious bake for an ambitious baker.

My recent fruit and nut bake garnered the suggestion from a few TFL folks that I should soak the dried Calmyrna figs prior to folding them into the dough.  And so I did.  I wonder if I soaked them too long because they expanded and became a force all of their own with relation to the final product.

I am a retired scientist and love good food, good cooking and find the science behind them quite fascinating.  Long story short, I was having "stomach" issues a few years ago, and working with a doctor and dietician I did an elimination diet and when i added bread back in bingo all my issues came back.  Seems I may have developed some sensitivity to something in bread, gluten, wheat, or whatever.  After reading Michael Pollan's "Cooked" I began to really understand why many people are having "issues" with today's bread.

This is a modification of the Overnight Country Brown that Ken Forkish describes. In fact, I changed it so much that one might argue that it is not the same bread, but here it goes for one loaf:

Levain, active rye sourdough, 100% hydration, 110g

white bread flour, 250g

whole wheat flour 130g

12 grain flour 100g

water 340g at approx. 35 degrees Celsius

salt 11g.

I was visiting the King Arthur Flour web site last week and, as I usually do, wandered into the "Professional" section of the site to see what might be new. There, I found a new formula for "Harpoon Miche." You know, with a name like that, I had to check it out. It sounded like a bread that would stick in your ribs ... if you weren't careful.

I’d like to share my basic sweet dough recipe which I’ve found really reliable and versatile. I bake a lot of buns and tea breads as that’s the preferred breakfast fodder in my house... And before you say they are best from the oven – of course, but I freeze them as soon as they cool down and – though not warm – they are as good as defrosted. Show them the oven if necessary.

I have already posted todays attempts here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/45745/my-accidental-bread-haha

So I guess I can make a note of it as it's 'my' blog ..... hehe :)

The last whole grain yeast water bread I made was possibly under fermented realized from the very good post that Yippee made. This time I wanted to take it to the other extreme. All the flours used were high extraction with just the biggest bits sifted, an extraction rate of 90-95% depending on the grain. This bread was a throw together bread where nothing is actually measured. The flours were Spelt, Kamut, Turkey Red, and some sprouted multigrain that was left over and I don't remember exactly what was in it.

  It's nice to be home after a two week business trip to Asia.  I'm always happy to bake some fresh bread after eating pretty crappy bread most of my trip.

I used some Buckwheat flour I had recently purchased from KAF and combined it with some freshly milled hard red whole wheat along with some French style flour and potato flour.  Barley flakes were added for some additional flavor.

Not very successful because I didn't proof the dough enough after the folding....so it didn't double...but still...it tastes good!

I like the flavor with Rye flour and banana..