Blog posts

Woah did I get a surprise today, extra dark baguettes.  Needed a boost of heat toward the end and so I activated the top elements on my bread oven.  Meanwhile went to inspect my canele progress and kinda forgot about the bread.  Got a bit darker than I usually shoot for.  Kinda happy though- cheers alfanso - did I make proud going to the dark side ? 

This is a continuation of my ongoing experimentation with my family's daily bread. I first posted about this here and with this loaf I applied some theories I had been considering regarding the development of gluten.

20% White Khorasan Sourdough with 10% Wholemeal Spelt.

Recipe for 2 medium Loaves: 

490g Strong Bread Flour

140g White Khorasan

70g Wholemeal Spelt Flour

525g Water(34c deg)

140g Starter

14g Salt

2 Hours Autolyse

Add starter and rest for 30 minutes then add salt and mix.

Using slap and folds with 10 minutes rest interval until the dough is smooth and developed gluten.

5 hours Total Fermentation before pre shape. With 2 Stretch and folds(30 minutes rest intervals

I laminated a chocolate brioche dough layer at its ends.

JR posted his Chocolate Sourdough bread and it inspired me to give it a try. Two changes were made. The salt was reduced to 1.8% and 3% honey was added.

The chocolate paste tasted very bitter, so just enough honey was added to offset the bitter. But not enough to make the bread noticeably sweet. 

I decided I should be more than an occasional commenter on forum posts so thought a formal introduction would be a good way to kick off my TFL blog. I most especially would like to reduce the bloat of the community bake threads so will post a link once to CBs if I participate but try to keep any discussion channeled back here. Worth a try anyway.

The last time I made this bread, I said I'd definitely make it again.  That was two years ago.  Two years!  At least I got back to it faster than MacArthur got back to the Phillipines.

About a month ago, I reviewed Daniel Leader's Living Bread.  In passing, I mentioned that I had baked one bread from the book and would post about it separately.  Well, finally, here is the promised post.

Friday Feb. 5, 2021.

This is my 2nd loaf in the Semolina/durum Community Bake. Previous loaf here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67295/36th-bake-02032021-100-durum-fiber-wala

The goals here are to use mostly whole grain durum with a portion of bread flour to get a better crumb, and  to use enough sourdough starter and instant dry yeast to bake it tonight.