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Hello, Friends.

I hope this blog entry finds you all well and your kitchens stocked. This weekend we Falzons, had a zoom family reunion. I setup a prep station and baked while I reminisced. It was a true NYC emigrant extravaganza!  Ravioli brought to NYC by our southern Italian pisani. At the very same time Bialy the not so famous cousin to the well known bagel! Enjoy!

 Post script:

Just wanted to register the results using a stiff levain. I took some of my 100% hydration starter and built the levain in two steps. The first build was also 100% hydration while the second build was a stiff version with hydration around 50%. I think the results have been better than expected based on using AP flour, since it does not have very strong gluten. Let me walk you through the method used:

Ingredients

60 gr stiff levain @ 50% hydration (20 gr water; 40 gr flour)

30 gr whole wheat stone ground flour

30 gr rye

180 gr AP flour

My long time lurking here started with the Bouabsa baguettes that Alfanso just posted about and I was doing the exact same recipe on the same day in celebration of white flour returning to our local supermarkets I made a double batch of them with KAAP and Wheat Montana AP to test the difference. I have tried to make a sourdough version and they tasted good but did not have the characteristics I like in a baton. This is a versatile recipe that I use for pizza, ciabatta, and all things white and holey. The only change I made in yesterdays bake was the mixing and folding.

I baked this today, and it turned out great.  I forgot to add the walnuts though! :-(. The recipe contains some milk powder, sugar and a small amount of butter, and the crumb is like a brioche, very soft and with distinct sour notes.  The pumpkin accents the sour flavor, giving Your sourdough a twist.

Here’s the recipe (using a KA mixer):

To learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS), please see here and here. 

A few months ago Hotbake posted this bread: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/61806/fermented-chickpea-sourdough. It looked amazing and it's been bookmarked since. I had some chickpeas and thought to give it a try this week. I didn't have enough chickpeas so I scaled the recipe down a bit and think I used much less water than the original post.

For my first attempt at baguette-making, I tried dmsnyder's San Joaquin baguettes.

Proccess

I followed the process detailed on the San Joaquin page as written,. Starter was being a bit slow, so bulk took 7-8 hours at ~72F, but got there eventually.

I haven't tried to make this bread in a while but went back it a few days ago.

Ingredients:

400g AP unbleached

2g diastatic malt powder (homemade)

2g gluten flour

80g 100% hydration starter

300g water

80g dried raisins soaked in 40g boiling water

40g brown flax

35g raw honey

20g sesame seeds

20g pumpkin seeds

20g poppy seeds

8g sea salt

We have a boatload of new participants on TFL, many drawn, or reacquainting themselves, to bread baking in the era of quarantine.  This write-up is for you!

I go back to basics once in a while, and re-familiarize myself with my baguette roots.

I humbly submit this week's baking epiphany: 

The optimal length for bulk fermentation of our house miche can be conveniently reduced to the following dress code:

• When wearing a sweater (UK: "jumper"), then 3 hours @ 78˚F (25˚C)
• When wearing a T-shirt (UK: Arsenal or Chelsea but not ManU), then 2 hours @ 78˚F (25˚C)