Blog posts

Long time lurker, first time posting (and will be my only post)

Never thought I will get back baking sourdough again. Or bake anything. I love baking, but no longer have as much time as I used too. Since I decided to get serious about getting in shape, I am very careful about things I eat. I constantly trying to figure out ways to sneak in more protein into my food. And I want real food.

On hold. To be competed 

Goals

1. Practice mixing a Baguette dough that is manageable, and mechanically mixed to the optimal dough development to achieve an open airy crumb.

A. Use a tried true formula that has proven to yield good results.

B. Practice using our senses to gage dough development. Touch, look., and smell. Taking care not to overly work the dough. Leaving time, and temperature to fully develop the gluten network. 

2. Gain proficiency in handling, divide, preshaping and shaping.

This doesn’t quite follow the guidelines of the Infinity Bread for the Community Bake, but it is my contribution.  My non wheat flour isn’t up to the 33% range that is in the write up.  I chose buckwheat flour which I toasted well to bring out the nutty flavour to the maximum.  I used the toasted buckwheat flour as all the flour in a tangzhong.  The texture of the tangzhong is different from what I’m used it, it was clumpy in lumps rather than one big mass.

Close friends of our send us rhubarb every spring so I wanted to make something to bring them when we were visiting last weekend.  I came up with a sweet bun with a sour cherry and rhubarb filling along with a lemon icing.  They turned out quite well.

Phase 1.

The formula.

Day One:

The rye sour was refreshed, and the seed/grain porridge cooked.

Day two:

The three different final dough fours are autolysised for 45 minutes.

So I made a loaf of bread last week. I think I really need to knead longer and/or ferment longer. My starter seems to rise just fine, but even after several hours, the bread itself doesn't rise as much as with commercial yeast. My house is 76F. I would put it outside but our screens are torn and the squirrels would chomp on it.

For today's bake, I'm trying out a multigrain loaf for a possible upcoming community bake.

134g Bread Flour (25g in starter)

133g Whole Wheat Flour (25g in starter)

13g Rye flour

60g Oat Flour

60g Cornmeal

When my wife and I went to Italy earlier this year, we had a pizza in Bergamo that became my wife's favorite combination of toppings: red onion and bacon. I was itching to make some pizza, and my wife said I could make it any time as long as it had onion and bacon.

Almost qualifies for Paul's CB but not quite 

This bread idea was thrust upon me when a fellow bee keeper at a bee buddy meeting  gave me some SPENT GRAIN from a mash that he had done earlier that day for a stout brew.  I had used SPENT GRAIN before in bread and it was excellent so not wanting to waste it i knocked up  2 doughs the next morning one was a ricotta cheese and olive bread that i already had planned and the other was this Brewers Spent Grain.