Blog posts

 Bread with bold flavours wanted this week.

25% Germinated Red Rice 15% Sprouted Rye Sourdough

I had a reliable, easy starter in Pittsburgh. I have been baking sourdough bread every weekend for the past year.

I just moved to Charleston SC and started a new starter with 100% fresh milled rye flour and water, the flour was purchased 1 year ago and kept in a sealed Tupperware container in a dark cabinet. The temperature in my house is 78F. 

After what seems like forever, I finally baked yesterday.  This is a Hamelman-based 50% whole grain bread with a soaker.  Hard wheat, rye, spelt, and kamut comprised the whole grain.  I attempted to sift for a bran levain, but the sifter stopped working.  Therefore the levain was all whole grain, which at least helped somewhat.

Here's another Egg Harbor white bread from Bernard Clayton's New Complete Book of Bread. It always turns out dynamite.  Sorry about the measurement in cups.  Haven't converted it yet.  

1.5 tbl sugar

7g salt

3 cups bread flour

1 tbl butter

1/2 tbl salt

50g starter 

Glaze: 1 tbl milk + egg white

1 1/4 cups water [120-130f)

1. Dissolve the sugar and salt in the water. Toss the butter in. 

2. Mix half the flour and yeast.  Stir in the water mixture.  

We sent a picture of the last focaccia to the daughter and she said that she wanted on when she was here this weekend.  This one was a bit different because Lucy is so old she can’t remember from one minute to the next and never liked doing the same bread twice anyway when she could remember.

To the random person on the internet that clicked on my blog,

Its midnight and I start my new job in 8 hours.

Hi, just wanted to let you know that this post ended up being a little long, and rambly. It’s late here and I just want to talk about my bread :) 

I made a similar version of this bread several weeks ago but gifted them to some friends.  I wanted to try baking it again and decided to sub Farro for the freshly ground Spelt.  Spelt is one of the oldest cultivated grains initially discovered in the fertile crescent of the Middle East. Grano farro is the original grain which other grains are derived. More commonly it’s now grown in Italy in the regions of Lazio, Umbria, Tuscany, the Marches, and Umbria.  It adds a nutty flavor profile and I was very happy with the final result.

I had never used a recipe from The Perfect Loaf before, so I decided to try the beginner sourdough recipe. Not being able to help myself, I decided to add 16% seeds (poppy, sesame, sunflower, and pumpkin). This recipe was 78% hydration and only 7.5% starter inoculation.