Blog posts

Just posting up some results from my saturday wood fired bake. I did a pain au levain, running off of thoms country french but I increased the hydration a bit because my high extraction flour absorbs a lot of water due to a small bran content. I mill the flour myself and dont have a super fine sifter so the extra water gives quite an open structure. Comments and Questions are always welcome.

After last week's 70% rye bread, which I thoroughly enjoyed, I wanted to return to the first rye I had made – Jewish Sour Rye – to see if my tastes had shifted. I made the Jewish Sour Rye from “Secrets of a Jewish Baker,” by George Greenstein.

This is a classic “deli rye,” or “light rye.” It is made with a white rye sour. Rye snobs (who will remain nameless) turn up their noses at white rye because it has so little rye flavor. In fact, most of the time, I make this bread with whole rye. But, this time I made it “by the book.”

here is an update on some of my recent baking. I started to experiment with a few new shapes.



I don't know what to call it, tubeshape?



On this picture are just a couple of fastbreads, put in the fridge late in the evening, baked early in the morning. Brought them over to a friend for lunch. Made a BIG impression, a lot more then the effort I put in.

After rye, I think spelt is my favourite flour to work and bake with. Even though it's closely related to wheat, spelt behaves remarkably different in baking. Whenever I bake mostly white spelt loaves, I opt for a 30 minute autolyse before mixing the final dough. After the autolyse, salt, levain and yeast (if using) are quickly incorporated in the dough. The mixing times tend to be extremely short - just a couple of minutes on first speed is often all that's required. I usually do two or sometimes three folds during bulk fermentation.

This is an article I wrote for the journal, Wise Traditions, that teaches traditional cooking techniques, including sourdough, for better health.It's a long article detailing my journey from rye sourdough to gluten free sourdough.

Yesterday, I decided to venture into batards. I shaped one, and a loaf. Both were Sourdoughs with a 24 hr old liquid preferment. The final dough undergone its first proofing in a refreigerator for 24 hours (i was out). Yesterday, i deflated the cold proofed dough, and knead it until it became somewhat warm.

My daughter will be away for her 17th birthday at the end of this month.  She and four other Year-12 students are representing Australia in an International Young Physicists Tournament in China and are leaving this Saturday.  My husband had asked if I wanted to go along and help with the language translation.  I said No because I think the kids can do with a bit of freedom (and excitement) in a foreign country.  And, sure enough, because the mummy doesn't want to go, the daddy had conveniently engineered a business trip to be up there at the same time - the daddy and the

A big thank you to Susan for this simple and delicious formula.  My kids loved these loaves tremendously.  They had it for breakfast with a spread of butter; at dinner clam chowder in a bread bowl.  For me, it's another great lesson in sourdough.  A few new things I tried in this project: 

Almond-Scented Cinnamon Rolls- I know more cinnamon rolls..but these are a little different and a delicious Italian version!  My husband has been begging for cinnamon rolls and it has been a while...so I thought I would make some with an bit of an Italian flare..this is my adaptation from a recipe on the http://www.rusticocooking.com.  The dough is easy and comes together so fast in the food processor.  This is the first time I have made dough in a food processor..I have to say I was amazed.  I also liked the fact tha

I love pumpkin, but when my husband came home with three huge pumpkins, I worried.  What am going to do with all these pumpkins, I asked. I got no reply.   He had gone camping with our son and our son's friend at our farm, two hours north west of Brisbane.  The caretaker's wife keeps a small patch of vegetable garden and every now and then she gives me something from her vege garden.  My favorite are cherry tomatoes and silverbeets.   These pumpkins are from her garden too.