Blog posts

Back in Ohio after a month in Japan; baked whole spelt loaves so we'd have something to eat, using our faithful King Arthur "New England" starter (although after a decade, I think it's more Ohio than New England).  Starter a bit slow after a month away, so not much oven spring.  But good crumb.  More photos and recipes at www.alan-ohio-bread.blogspot.com if anyone's interested--

Alan 

I baked my very old recipe for pumpkin bread this weekend. I love this very spicy recipe and like to add more cinnamon than called for as I always do with that spice. It is a very moist pumpkin bread and also very fragrant. You can see how easy it is to make as well. You basically measure and dump everything together and mix.

I got the book last week, so today, my regular baking day, I wanted to make some. As luck would have it, after having started baking in April, I had finally decided to create a sourdough starter, but had to delay until recently due to my vacation. Last week I started creating Maggie Glezer's firm french style starter (as well as a whole wheat and rye version). The composition of that starter is identical to Leader's stiff levain (although the feeding formula is slightly different), so I used this in the recipe.

This bread is almost 100% whole grain, except for a small amount of white starter. It uses whole wheat and rye flour, and a soaker of flax seeds, sesame seeds, bulgur, and oats.

The recipe, along with a bit about what happens when you overproof it, is here. (These loaves are not overproofed, but the first ones I made were.)

Susanfnp

I finally made the English muffins, thanks browndog, etc. I made one batch with milk and one batch with buttermilk. I did add 1 TBL. olive oil and used 1/2 cup starter. Neither had open holes but still tasted very good with the buttermilk batch having a little more flavor. The picture shows the crumb (both batches looked the same inside and out). My picture is not very good and I sent my daughter home with all the nicest looking muffins. These were, as everyone who made them said, very easy indeed and very good. No more store ones for us.

last night i made use of some of a pumpernickel soaker/starter i had going last thursday that was intended for a large batch of what i call my light rye levain, among friends i call it a sourdough but it's not usually very sour, so it really is happier under the umbrella of levain....as i was saying, the intent was to turn the starter into about 20lbs of dough that would become six loaves of bread to be used for bartering with vendors at my local farmer's market, but that didn't happen and i was left with a lot of this pumpernickel stuff.

==== "Remember always that a wise man walks with his head bowed; humble like the dust." -Master Kan==

Labor Day Bread Medley

I got a bit out of control during the Thursday evening through Monday period of the Labor Day weekend here in the States.

Front row: