Baking hiatus until my situation is more solid at my new home - glorious Princeton University.
I hope to be back soon!
Til then - Happy Baking!
Back in July, a "Swiss sourdough youngster" introduced herself and was kind enough to share her recipes for some fantastic breads. I was particularly excited about the zopf because I had never made it before, and it was just the kind of bread I was craving. Salome explains that this is her mother's version of the traditional Swiss Sunday bread; it is not sweetened so will pair well with many things. I had it plain, and with blackberry jam (my first batch of freezer jam!), and honey, and butter, and cheese... not all at the same time :) but all of these variations were delicious.
We enjoy sandwich breads--soft crust, close crumb--a buttermilk white straight dough, the dough for three loaves made in our bread machine and oven baked, or a whole wheat variation has been our mainstay for six or seven years. My favorite is the whole wheat version. Recently, I've made a sourdough variation a couple of times, with enjoyable results. It was natural I'd turn to this favorite for my first go at making pain de mie--Pullman bread. This is a poolish started version. The final dough contains 25% whole wheat, and is firm (60% hydration).
Before I say anything, let me say thanks for the generous advice I've received!
The pain au levain with whole-wheat from "Bread" that I blogged about a few weeks ago, is quickly becoming one of my favourite levain breads. Here's one that I baked yesterday afternoon:
100 % sprouted grains? 'Sounds great and interesting', I said to myself and printed the Recipe of Reinhart's Whole Grain Breads a couple weeks ago. This weekend I gave it a try.
I sprouted my grains as indicated. They all had cute little white tails and were pleasant to chew. I would have better kept them as a addition to my breakfast cereals instead of trying to make them into a bread.
Getting home an hour earlier than expected + The best blueberries I've had in years in the fridge =
The recipe is from "The Best Recipe" by the "Cooks Illustrated" folks. These are "Lemon-Blueberry Muffins." I made 3/4 of a recipe. (That's the real "math.")
And for the rest of the "crumb shot" obsessed:
Background:
After so many searches for a good chocolate bread i took Hamelman's formula for french bread.
Replace 15 gms of flour with cocoa powder. Add 15 gms brown sugar (the best u can get) and finally, 120 gms 53% dark chocolate.
Didn't change the instruction. So far it's the best one i ever ate.
The second bread is another one from hamelman's book, Golden Raisin and Walnut Bread, which i love and did more then once.
But that unic combination is something i ate in east europe. So instead of the Walnut and the Raisin i put 5 gms dry basil and 50 gms Sunflower seed.
