Blog posts

There has been some interest in using pH to help guide fermentation of our dough.  Before purchasing a pH meter I used percent rise to guide fermentation and make decisions, however, there are times when it doesn’t seem to be very accurate.  If you’re interested in learning how to use an Aliquot jar then have a look at this post I made a while ago.  By posting this I am not claiming to be a master at using pH, I am simply sharing what I do now based on trial and error.

A recent blog post about grain mash is awesome if you haven’t read it yet. Reading it motivated me to apply saccharification to the polenta porridge thinking it might enhance the flavour of the polenta. As you know saccharification of the polenta brings out its sweetness that is hidden in the starches in the polenta.

I haven't posted for a while since I've been busy and wasn't baking anything particularly interesting. But there have been a few posts about different carrot rye bread variations recently, and I was curious about this idea. I decided to make a big "experiment" out of it this past long weekend, and combined different techniques and ingredients to see what comes out.

Here is the formula and brief method description: https://fgbc.dk/2h9c

To walk you through it, I had:

This recipe from The Rye Baker surprised me with how complex the flavor was despite the simplicity of the method (i.e., no sourdough). Most of the rye recipes in the book are built on sour culture to provide the acidic environment and flavor; this one uses hard apple cider to accomplish those goals.

The dough is a 71% medium rye and AP blend (both King Arthur) with Blake’s Flannel Mouth hard cider (6.5% ABV and slightly sweet) as the liquid (71% hydration). There is also a bit of sugar and IDY. The recipe was scaled to one can of cider and it yielded one 782-g loaf.

After last weekend's success doing a cold retard during bulk, I decided to try it again, but this time with a whole grain loaf.  It's been quite a while since I made a 100% whole wheat loaf and I have some flour I want to get through.  This one's not quite 100%...  I used my white flour starter refresh again for the inoculation.  I kept the method the same and am happy to say it worked again for me.  My summer schedule gets pretty crazy, so I'm glad I tried out th

Been a while since I had some bagels and have been craving them, so it was clearly time to revisit this wonderful recipe from Peter Reinhart in the Bread Baker's Apprentice. I've done this at least 2 or 3 times in the past always going with the poolish and commercial yeast version. I figured it was time to try the full sourdough version.

RECIPE AND CALCULATIONS HERE

One of the first things I noticed was how much starter/levain I needed. 992 grams! Wait...really....yes really!

Having friends over and wanted to offer fresh bread with our meal. I wanted something that could be easily timed to be ready this morning that I could quickly warm up at dinner time. In order to reduce the work to do today I prepared the levain Thursday night, Friday morning it was ready and I placed it into the fridge. Friday afternoon I prepared the dough and did bulk and placed the dough in the fridge overnight for the cold retard. I don’t usually cold retard these milk breads because I don’t want them to be sour.

This is another variation on my 100% whole wheat SD Hokkaido Milk Bread which has become my favourite sandwich bread.  It is so soft and fluffy for a 100% whole grain bread and keeps so well because of the tangzhong. In this variation, I use the classic 1:5 ratio of grain to milk for the tangzhong but instead of flour I used an organic steel cut seven grain blend of wheat, barley, rye, oats, flax, millet and buckwheat and cook it as I would the tangzhong until it is nicely thickened.  The rest of the procedure is the same as my other SD Hokkaido Milk Breads.

I’ve never made a tart with a chocolate pastry before so decided it was time to try.  The first recipe I tried must have had a typo in it as it was more like a loose batter than pastry dough.  After tossing that attempt in the bin I decided to modify the pâté sucrée recipe that I’ve had success with by adding cocoa powder and a bit of vanilla.  It certainly baked up well so let’s hope it tastes good too.