Blog posts

Lucy loves Haiku and between bakes she thinks up some good ones.   Between bakes I thought we should all give it a try and see if our bread improves.

Just add them on here as comments.  Here is Lucy's first shot and then mine but there will be more as time allows.

Don Baggs makes baguettes

Out of any recipe

 Turns dough into sticks

And mine

Pumpernickel airs

Wafting through the bakery

So few friends remain

This bake was quite a change in method for me.  Normally I mix, bulk ferment and shape during the day, cold retard overnight and bake first thing in the morning.  This time I started late in the day. 

Using a recipe posted in 2013 by d_a_kelly for Panettone a tre impasti in June. My adaptation was to use mango yeast water as the water to build the first impasto and then a small amount ( 5gr) of stiff rye starter in the second dough build. 

I'm constantly frustrated by any amount of left over starter. It seems so wasteful. So most of the time I simply place whatever's leftover into the jar with the rest of Charlie - my loyal starter.

This weekend I made a solstice sun twirl bread and had way too much starter left over. I had originally planed to make some other bread but our weekend plans changed and I knew I wouldn't have the time to properly deal with it. So I thought about using the starter as a biga of sorts.

Re-visited Forkish's Saturday White recipe today after a slightly disappointing attempt yesterday. The following chart shows my ingredients, process, and an interpretation of the given instructions (with alterations due to limitations in gear, as I don't yet have bannetons):

As I baked the first loaf, the second was in its proofing bowl in the fridge. The first loaf:

knowing that you are dying to find out what it will look like inside and the love that goes into making it!  Kat

Before I talk about the details of this bread, I have to express my gratitude for Joze and Alan. Without their tips and advises, it would not be born. Thank you so much! 

This is my fifth attempt at barley flour, which also happens to be the first successful one. Regarding the challenges I faced when working with it, please refer to my recent forum post:  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/56589/does-barley-have-exceptionally-high-enzymatic-activities

I have now made seven loaves of bread! The learning curve is steep but I'm excited to keep improving. 

Over the last few days I made an "experimental" bread (which was really just an adjusted version of the suggested TFL first loaf) and my first recipe out of Ken Forkish's FWSY, the Saturday White.

First came my "experimental" white:

• BF 43%
• APF 28%
• White whole wheat  15%
• Spelt 15%
• 90% hydration
• 20% levain
• 2% salt

Someone somewhere on the site posted the suggestion of a summer solstice bread challenge. This is my answer to that call. It's a sourdough summer solstice sun twirl with Ontario Maple Syrup, Quebec wild blueberry jam, sugared almond slivers and topped with cinnamon sugar. Happy summer to all..