Blog posts

We needed bread for school lunches yesterday and I wanted to make something other than the usual Amish Bread from allrecipes.  I also have way too much disgarded starter in the fridge, so I just decided to see what would happen if I winged it.    Some (about to be disgarded) starter, oil, water, wheat germ, yeast, sugar, salt and flour.  I've done this a few times before, but yesterday's loaf turned out so well, this is all that is left:

We always have some Italian dishes during our holidays. Whether it is Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve or Easter, there is always ravioli on our table as a first dish. We would set up an assembly line with all of us pitching in to make hundreds of them before Thanksgiving so that we could have them for Christmas also. They freeze very well, but don’t ever defrost them before cooking them, just put them into a large amount of salted boiling water directly from the freezer.

Recent visit by Harmony primary  school to the  technical college where I work . Children involved  in a program FROM THE GARDEN TO THE TABLE, Garden produce was bought in and menu's  compiled by the school children were tweaked and produced for lunch for parents invited guests including the mayor and food critic from the local paper in our commercial kitchen with the help of our students and chefs.

A hearty garden soup, vietnamese spring rolls, salmon and salad.and a mini trio of sweets, (all very tasty) 

Here is a short Pizza Baker video titled "Naturally Risen".  I received it from Pizzatherapy.com.  Enjoy!

http://pizzatherapy.com/naturallyrisen.htm

I made Struan Rolls to go with a pot of soup Dorota made tonight.

Often my Struan comes out a bit heavy (like in the photo in the recipe I linked to), but tonight I nailed it.  They were light, fluffy, soft, and just the perfect sweetness.  When you get Struan right, it is hard to beat.

This is my first blog, so bear with me ....

I'm about 6 weeks in as an amateur bread baker. I started in an effort to save my family some money, and find a new hobby. After my first loaf of pain sur poolish, I was hooked. So far I've made some pretty good breads, and they seem to have gotten a little better each week as I practice my technique.

I made four loves yesterday and they all turned out.  After reding sooooooooooo many recipes, I came up with one that seems to work.  The recipe needs just a little tweek.  Little more water and salt.  I did not retard in the frig but next  weekend I will not skip this step.  I just couldn't wait!

I remember rustic bread from "Bread" being a staple in my kitchen before I got started with levains and sourdough breads. It's a clean, wholesome bread, and it's over a year since I'd made his rustic bread, so the time was ripe for another attempt.

I wanted to try some different shapes as well, so I divided the dough in two, both weighing 750 gr. each. One was shaped as an ordinary batard, and the other piece was cut into smaller dough chunks, and shaped into mini-batards and the tabatiere and pain d'Aix shapes shown in ABAP.

David Snyder (dmsnyder) has convinced me pre-steaming is beneficial, but I've still been uncertain I'm generating enough steam, considering my oven door is not an airtight fit, and the convection fan blows some of the steam out around the door. So, today, I tried a new way to generate steam. I saw it recommended in Hamelman's Bread, but I ignored it happy as I was, at the time, generating steam with pre-heated lava rocks. It was only when David wrote of his experience pre-steaming his oven that I started reexamining the details of my steaming practice.

Last weekend I gave Susan’s Sourdough Boule another try after it had come out with a crumb that was too dense the first time around. Since the ingredients were exactly the same as in one of Susan’s recipes (I used KA bread flour and pre-soaked flax seeds), the culprit could only be the starter. This time I made sure it was up to speed and strength after feeding it twice before using it and it happily produced the desired results: