Blog posts

Mostly Sourdough Brioches

Total weight: about 1600 g

3-build starter: 250 g @ 65% hydration

All flours: 732 g (100%), which breaks down as follows:
- 348 g unbleached bread flour
- 232 g unbleached all purpose flour
+ 152 g in starter

15 g sea salt (2%)
353 g eggs (48%)
100 g sugar (14%)
303 g unsalted butter (42%)
3 g fresh yeast (0.4%)
25 g flavours (alcohol: eau de vie & orange blossom water)

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This part is not important. Calculated for fun.

I had some eggnog in the fridge approaching it's ""sell by" date and nobody in the house is a big eggnog fan.  

I looked at the ingredients list on the bottle (milk, cream,sugar,corn syrup,skim milk,egg yolks, and a bunch of mysterious flavoring and additives).  It sounded like the stuff somebody might put in sweet rolls or coffee cake.

Rather than throw the eggnog out I decided to try making sweet rolls out of it.

Crumb 

Blueberry braid with fresh blueberries

My first baguettes ever, from the formula for French Bread in BBA. Saved the big one for our family and sent the other two off with a big steaming pot of chicken and sausage stew to a friend who'd just had a baby. I was very pleased, except I would have liked a more open crumb and a thinner, crispier crust. Plus, I don't have a lame and apparently a bread knife just dents and drags the dough, so they weren't as pretty as I'd hoped. Nevertheless, they were a treat sliced up, slathered with butter, and dipped in some stewy goodness. Yes.

This time I tried it with about 15.5 oz of water, 50% WW flour, resulting in a hydration of ~76% to 77%.

Fermented for 4 days in the refrigerator. Baked at 525dF, this time I staggered the loaves so the first loaf baked for about 25 minutes at 525dF, the second loaf baked at 525dF for 15 minutes, then 475dF until browned (about 20 to 25 minutes).

I lopped off a piece for a coworker who used to be a cook ... I haven't tried it myself.

My regular baguette recipe (from my local Artisan Bakery) uses about 66% hydration.  This is my first foray into a much more difficult 80% hydration.  This was a real challenge and the results far from perfect, but the experience gained along the way is invaluable and worth the trouble.  I would say without any hesitation that these have been the tastiest baguettes I have ever made and the closest I have come to that genuine baguette flavour expectation.

This loaf is formulated like white bread, only 20% of the bread flour has been replaced by whole grain spelt flour. Additionally, 2.5% vital wheat gluten was included in the formula, which raised the hydration by 3%. This dough was mixed in a KA K5SS 5 quart stand mixer equipped with a replacement spiral hook for a 6 quart mixer.

Here is a view of the dough immediately after mixing all of the ingredients together (except salt and honey).

New Starter happy and growing

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10% Sprouted Organic Spelt Four Sourdough with Caramelized Onion and Rosemary

I was pining for something sweet but not too unhealthy and whilst watching TV, saw a shot of beautiful Venice, a city that I have visited annually for the past 7-8 years, and this put me in mind of their wonderful Italian baking.  A particular shop there sells all manner of Biscotti type delicacies as well as countless other delights but I always now pick up a bag of their gorgeous Cantuccini's which are nutty, citrusy and pretty darn addictive.