Blog posts

Two weeks ago, we were nearing the end of a week's vacation along South Africa's southern coast.  We had stayed in Kenton on Sea, Port Elizabeth and Plettenberg Bay.  On our way back to Plett from a day trip to Knysna (who knew it would be in the middle of their Oyster Festival?!), we passed a clearing beside the road with a large banner proclaiming "Saturday Market".  Not knowing quite what to expect, we made plans to return the next morning to see what might be available.

This recipe is from The Bread Book by Linda Collister and Anthony Blake and it was the second serious bread book I bought about 17 years ago.  It was quite forward thinking for its time as all the recipes include weight measurements (metric and imperial).  It is still one of my favourite bread books and it is definitely worth a buy.  It has really good photographs. 

Hello All,  I am new to this site and have found it very informative.  I have been away from baking for a little while and returned this week to try the 1,2,3 formula I found here.  The dough ended up a littlte to loose for my liking but tasted great.  The pictures below of those loaves.  The pictures at the bottom are from my 2nd batch baked Saturday morning with a much better shape.

There was much discussion recently about TFL t-shirts and good logos and tag lines and the like (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23436/interested-tfl-tshirt-ballcap).

I like the motto "Make Loaves, Not War".  Here's a couple pictures.  Maybe with some photoshop magic, this could be a t-shirt design.

     This is a bread that came from having too many different flours in the house at once.  I went to the freezer intending to make another bread altogether but saw these flours and thought, "beans and corn, classic!" Beans and corn and chiles?  Even more classic!  This was to be my sourdough salute to the American southwest, except... the bread never really worked like I wanted it to.  It's not a bad loaf, it just isn't making me as happy as I thought it would.  Hmmm...

Pain de Mie with Wheat Levain, Exploding Mixed Leaven Pain de Campagne and a 90% Rye Sourdough made with the Three Stage Process

Does any body have a hot dog bun recipe that I can use to make New England style buns? The one on the KA site is to rice and buttery for me. I'm looking for something simpler.

The pizza I made two weeks ago (Pizza Napoletana) elicited many helpful comments and suggestions. That pizza had a cracker-crisp crust and minimalist toppings. This week, I was shooting for a more robust, chewy crust that would stand up to tomato sauce and cheese. (Heavier toppings yet await a future pizza-making session.

I made Pastrami and Rye Bread today.  The Pastrami is going better (should be ready to slice soon).

The first time I made the Greenstein Sour Rye, back in May, it came out great.  Today, I tried to bake three big loaves at once and I think my old tired oven didn’t hold its heat with the overcrowding.  So it baked too slow, almost charring on top before it was done inside, over an hour.   The oven and stone were well pre-heated, but maybe not well enough).  The loaves also had some crust eruptions; not sure if that’s related to the oven problem.