Blog posts

Old school Jewish deli rye. From inception to completion. 

1. The rye sour 

2. The final dough

3. The bulk ferment 

4. The proof 

5. Score

6. The finished product

I recently picked up Richard Hart Bread: Intuitive Sourdough Baking, in which Hart describes a very simple shaping method for his "City Loaf". Basically, after pre-shaping into a round and resting, he folds it in half like a taco and places it in the banneton. According to him, there's no difference in oven spring or ear formation vs the convoluted stitching and rolling method he learned at Tartine. I decided to give it a shot, so I doubled my normal recipe to do a side-by-side comparison.

I made a new rye starter and was surprised how relaxed the process was now that I know a tiny bit about sourdough. It had a few pin-sized holes from leuconostoc bacteria on the first day. By day 2, it had way more pinholes and started smelling like a combo of soggy grain and a pile of overused sweaty running shoes. Over a week of 1x a day discard and feeding, it acidified nicely. By day 10, it was rising and falling regularly, had small and medium sized holes, and was smelling sprightly and tangy. So I made my first bread with it:

Maltese beef and pea pie. ( My mom's meat pastisti filling) 

 I made a very quick oil based pie pastry yesterday. It turned out just a little too dry. That being said,bI got it into and on top of the pan. Smile.

I upped my Bundt cake game, with a fly, new pan! Made in the USA. Nordic ware.

Stay tuned for the finished product.

Million dollar cheesecake swirl carrot cake, with pignoli.

Decided to try-out the techniques I read and heard about from the locals when visiting Matera over the Christmas holidays to make an almost 100% semola rimacinata durum wheat loaf.

Didn't try the characteristic shaping. Thought it better to take on one challenge at a time, but the texture and flavour have come out superb. Maybe the best 100% rimacinata bread I have attempted so far. Here are the details:

Feeding 100% hydration SD starter

I haven’t made these in ages. It was time today. These are 50% home milled rye all of which was in the levain. 

I doubled the formula to get 16 / 100g bagels. I always use lye , absolutely no outrageous precautions needed except a towel to keep them from sticking to parchment/ pan. 

I didn’t retard these and it makes everything much easier , they rose beautifully. Very pleased . 

700g AP - Arrowhead Mills

240g cold water

56g milk powder

34g non- diastatic malt powder 

20g salt

600g active levain

I would like to have a good recipe,  for fruit buns,  with a shelf life from 4 - 6 weeks 

Any suggestions 

Thanks 

They look quite nice! 

17Jan

Made with roasted sweet potatoes, fresh milled durum, fresh milled Blue Hopi corn flour and King Arthur bread flour.

I was happy with the nice purple flavor.

I usually have a higher % of fresh milled than this bake, so I was expecting a more open crumb. I’m so afraid of over-Fermentation using FMF that I could have pushed bulk to 75-85% easily and achieved a more open crumb.

Either way, it’s a flavorful bake.