Blog posts

Hi to everybody. I've missed not being on this forum over the past few months. My husband was diagnosed with early Parkinson's disease mid-August and that really threw us for a loop. I've had MS for 40 years and although I am very active and strong in many ways, I can't walk very fast any more. Anyway, we've had to make a lot of decisions about whether to stay where we are or move, plan for the future, get educated on his disease, etc. I just felt too distracted to continue participating.

This is the first recipe I baked from my new copy of Dan Lepard's "The Handmade Loaf". The book is beautifully illustrated and has breads from all over Europe that are unique and well described. The official name of this bread doesn't do justice to the ingredients list. Lurking in the list are 100g of olives and olive oil that help make the dough smooth and delicious. I thought the final dough was a touch dry, so I added a couple Tablespoons additional water.

If anyone remembers, I intended to make a Spooky Gingerbread House to go on top of a cake for our Halloween party. Well, I got carried away and it won't fit. Who cares, the kids like it. I know it shows up a little over the top in the photos, but in person it does not. Don't know why.... Oh well, Happy Halloween Ya'll!

Hi to every reader of the site, I found out that I 'm member of the site from 33 weeks and, inspite of it, I never, really introduced myself: Paolo, born in Italy (near Torino) 44 years ago but living the last 21 years in Quito (Ecuador), married with a dentist, father of three good kids, I run a small hotel (our hotel) and started to bake bread about 6 or 7 years ago but during the last 2 years I just used  100% sourdough.

It's been a while, but baking never stops. It's just finding time to post about it!

Here's a couple of loaves I made in the last few weeks.

First is my standard sourdough, which is 25% WW and 25% high protein flour. The crust is wonderfully crunchy and the crumb is tight and pillow soft.

For this loaf I roughly followed Daniel Leader's "Quintessential French Sourdough" formula and added Kalamata olives and fresh rosemary from my garden. 

Very tasty, and even more so on the second day.

Crust...

and crumb.

Well, this is really "Idaho Sourdough". I loved finding this formula because I wanted to cold retard the loaves overnight (to bring about more flavor and to make slashing easier) and also it fits perfectly into the 2 (and only) brotforms that I have. 

The flavor was great and I think this will end up being a regular at our table.

Tiny bit of an ear? 

This past week I tried "Chad Robertson's Country Sourdough" as relayed by Shiao-Ping here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/13525/my-imitation-chad-robertson039s-country-sourdough

Her formula (of course) turned out perfect. My attempt? Well, not so much. BUT- I was still very pleased with the results. :-)

Has anyone used this flour? I am getting 50# of All Trumps unbleached from a local food service company and asked about an AP unbleached and she said they carry "Sarasota"- she couldn't give me any more info than that. Any info is appreciated!

Amaz.