Blog posts

I wanted to make a bread for a recent gathering of friends.  My preference was for something sweet but not a sticky, gooey kind of sweet.  After paging through a number of books, I came across a recipe in Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible for a sweet vanilla challah that sounded like it would fit the bill.  The recipe called for just 1/2 cup of sugar in a two-loaf batch of bread, so it wasn't excessively sweet.  The flavor, though, was driven by 1-1/2 tablespoons of vanilla extract in the dough and another teaspoon of vanilla extract in the glaze.

OK, I know you're out there.  Maybe those Birks are getting dusty or they're hidden in the closet along with your beaded vest and shrunken tie-dye, but you're really hankerin' for some good ol' fashioned hippie bread.  Just like the kind you used to eat while working on your macrame choker and groovin' to Cat Stevens before he became public enemy number one.  Here you go.

These were baked yesterday ...

I wanted to try some variations on a couple of breads that I have baked a lot - The "San Joaquin Soudough," which is a pain de campagne that has an overnight cold retardation at the bulk fermentation stage and the Sourdough bread from SusanFNP's Wild Yeast blog.

My San Joaquin Sourdough (SJSD) derived from Anis Bouabsa's baguette formula, as related to Janedo. See this blog entry: 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/8454/pain-de-campagne 

So this is my first post here. I've got a few pictures here of the bread display I am putting on for the open house at the college. Theres Baguettes, Ciabatta, Miche, Light Sourdough Rye, and Challah. I also had a semolina loaf but someone decided to drop the dough on the floor. Enjoy!

Today I made Crumb bum's miche (though I split it into two loaves).

I also made Saffron Rolls with currants.

I'm liking my multigrain breads especially if I can get my sourdough starter to work with them. This latest is one from Hamelman's 'Bread", the Five-grain levain recipe. I followed the recipe fairly exactly only making 2/3 of the recipe. I used my whole wheat starter and not any commercial yeast. For the soaker I used part Bob's Red Mill 7-grain cereal mix, flaxseeds, and sunflower seeds. I even did the retarding part of the recipe in the refrigerator overnight, approximately 13 hours and then a four-hour warm up/proof on the counter before baking.

I finally scratched the itch and plunged into the happy world of breadmaking. Okay, pretzel making. Break making will have to wait while I work on stirring up my sour dough starter. But the pretzels. . .ah! I followed Alton Brown's recipe (link on main page) and substituted whole wheat flour for the all purpose, sea salt for kosher, aluminum foil for parchment and salted butter for unsalted.

I've seen Hamelman's five-grain rye sourdough bread recommended a couple of times, but it wasn't until this morning that I had the opportunity to bake it for myself. It's a modest 25% whole rye, but the loaf is also studded with seeds and cracked rye, and there's a lot of flavor in it.

This has become a regular around here.  Pesto Pizza:

I use Peter Reinhart's pizza crust, Costco's pesto (which is actually quite good), frozen shrimp or chicken, and parmesan cheese.  The kids love it, we love it, and it is quick and easy, easy enough to do on a work night (or Valentine's, which is when this was from).

I was inspired by a question by someone in another bread forum and my own recent discovery and love affair with baking pita.  In the other forum, the person had frozen shaped bread dough and then was having problems reviving it.  I wondered if she could make pitas with it.  While that question remains unanswered, I tried a related experiment.