Blog posts

Hi all, I have not been posting for a while..as a bit busy on a total new adventure and some may remember when I started baking here and baked the Champlain loaf with Dan on a community bake again and again....

I have now a little bake room at our house No. 44 and just started baking for a market as well as smaller subscriptions as I handmix only...

I've been working my way towards making what I envision as my ideal focaccia in the past couple weeks.  Due to time constraints on previous batches I sacrificed quality to fit my schedule.  The results were okay, worth eating but not worth writing about.  In my latest batch I applied what I had learned from previous batches and simultaneously found myself with less time constraints as I'm sure many are at the present due to COVID-19.  I'm happy to share my process and results and encourage you to give it a shot.  This recipe is entirely mixed by hand so the only rea

I posted this last week and it got shuffled down in the blizzard of traffic recently.

I have been repurposing the plastic bins that salad greens come in (they no longer take them at the recycling place) for some bread tasks that have reduced my use of plastic bags and wrap. Them seem to work great so I want to share it with everyone. My "Hillbilly Breadbox" and the no more shower cap proofer. 

This is a nice multi-grain bread with a hint of fresh ground rye and around 38% fresh ground whole wheat flour.  I added some leftover mashed potatoes and at the last moment some shaved Parmesan cheese because....well it's cheese :).

I was very happy with the flavor and it's the perfect sandwich bread and I've been eating a lot of those since the pandemic hit.

I’m still trying to hit the sweet spot on this recipe from Maurizio’s The Perfect Loaf.  I’ve posted the recipe that I followed two blog posts earlier.  

I didn’t extend the bulk fermentation this time as I believed that my starter was more active now than for the first bake which I felt was underproofed.  After final shaping I did leave the dough in the banneton on the counter for 30 mins before placing it in my 3ºC refrigerator for its cold retard overnight.

After at least two years of using sourdough, I'm finally starting my own starter.   I half-heartedly tried once before, but I used a firm-starter/biga method and gave up after about 3 days.  That was way before I found TFL.

So yesterday...

Thursday, PM, I started two would-be cultures:  one using home-milled Kamut, and one using home-milled Hard Red Winter Wheat that had been hermetically sealed for about 12 years.

So... sometimes you just don't try that hard, and you get good results!

RECIPE

100% (500g) wholewheat stoneground flour (can't give any more info than that because I got it at the bulk store)
15% (75g) starter
85% (425g) hydration
2% (10g) salt

METHOD

1 day before, I discarded most of the starter leaving only about 2 tbsp. Refreshed this with 50g water and 50g WW flour.

Greetings, 

I am a bread newbie. I had my biga at 70 degrees for about 7 hours then transferred to a 40 degree cooler for another 9 hours. Should I bring the biga to room temp before mixing the final dough?

Thank you,

Erin