Blog posts

Weet-bix (in South Africa and Australia, or Weetabix in the UK, apparently available in the US too...) is a breakfast cereal of 'biscuits' of wholegrain wheat biscuits. The usual way we eat it in my family is with a sprinkle of sugar on top and then allow it to soak up the milk. It can really soak up the milk. It's quite a comfort food, and would be a great way to increase dietary fibre and be fairly healthy too (if it wasn't for the aforementioned sugar).

To learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS), please see here and here. 

I decided last month to try and revisit making baguettes again. I had not made any in quite some time and my shaping and scoring skills were not up to snuff.

I decided to follow David Snyder’s famous recipe from The Fresh Loaf.com and baked them several times with a few modifications (because I just can’t help myself :)). I’m still not happy with my shaping and scoring so no pictures here…but the crumb came out excellent just like you want with a nice open honeycomb and crispy light crust.

Inspired by a picture of Derek's (Yozzause) recent Chelsea bun bake and also by some Fitzbillies of Cambridge UK buns that our daughter sent us, I thought it was time to try my hand at them.

Similarities to cinammon buns of course, but a surprisingly steep learning curve to get them right. I will need a couple more bakes to get them nearer how I think they should be. But I'm happy enough for a first attempt.

Tried a cold oven start today...Interestingly I baked for 30min on stone, covered with a pot, when I removed the lid, there was hardly any oven spring. But after another 25min, it came out not too  bad I suppose. :)

Crust was crispy and interior soft and moist. I suppose I could have proofed the loaf a little longer. Anyone uses the cold oven start method? Have a great sunday!

Still playing around with my new toy, the Pullman pan, I wanted to bake the Hamelman WW levain loaf.  At this point I've baked it many times before but not in the Pullman pan shape.  Post-mix, I made a slightly dopey but not costly error.  I decided to add cinnamon and golden raisins to the loaf.  Not being incorporated into the formula, the percentages were now off, but likely not by much.  

The basis for this recipe is from Hamelman's Bread (3rd Ed.).  Two main changes:  I used RYW (the one giving me "yogurty" levains) for half the pre-ferment water and I "caramelized" potatoes instead of roasting them.  With the baking steel, I have trouble with the starches from the potatoes burning the bottom crust, so this was cooked at lower temps and the top element shield removed after steaming to get color into the top crust.  Worked quite well.

Makes one loaf...

I had high hopes for this recipe from theryebaker.com. I really enjoy the flavors of rye and cornmeal and I liked the fact that the recipe wasn’t sweet like a Boston Brown Bread. Unfortunately, the recipe didn’t quite work out for me.

It begins with an overnight sponge of fine rye meal (Bay State Milling) and instant dry yeast.

Feb. 19, 2022. 87th bake.

Goals: A boule with 500+ grams of flour to fit in the deep pot of a Lodge 3.2 qt combo cooker, and to fit the baked loaf in a one gallon plastic zipper-seal bag. Mostly home milled, but also use up some store-bought flours such as semolina and two kinds of durum. Mostly commercial yeast, but also use up a chunk of low hydration rye starter that I had set aside but didn't use as expected.

I recently engaged with  Lance (albacore) about his lovely dough machines and mentioned that i had purchased a new machine so here is a little bit  about it and its maiden effort..

 A second present that i treated myself to arrived yesterday afternoon, it was a week earlier than i was expecting . It is a Chinese noodle dough machine, This one is from Sydney rather than the long wait from China, and significantly cheaper @ $129. The postage from China was more that the advertised price of the machine direct from China.