Blog posts

I started up a new starter culture last week using Sourdo's Polish Rye. It is now working well enough that I'm starting to have extra levain, so the first thing I made with it were sourdough pancakes. I really liked Knead_Love's "Meditation on Sourdough Pancakes" blog entry (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/32308/meditation-sourdough-pancakes), so I used that as my base recipe with the following mods:

* Tripled the batch size, except for the brown sugar, which I just doubled (4 T total)

 If you love onions this one is for you.  I had some leftover caramelized onions that my wife had cooked up so I decided to incorporate them into my next bread.  I thought adding some maple syrup would give this a nice overall sweetness and some Greek yogurt was added to soften the crumb.

I used a combination of medium rye, fresh whole wheat and French style flour from KAF.

Record long bulk fermentation (10 days, I was extremely busy during that time) and final proof (24 hours ) were done in the fridge.  And this loaf turned out just fine... 

Portobello Mushroom Bread

My San Francisco style sourdough - this is definitely one of the top breads in my baking repertoire. It's incredibly tasty, even though made just with white flour, it has richer flavour than white breads usually have.

Hansjoakim's Pain au Levain with Rye Sour

June 3, 2016

Hansjoakim contributed this formula to TFL a bit more than two years ago. (Sourdough bread and fyrstekake) It was added to my “to bake list” right away. Well, I am finally getting around to baking it, since I had extra ripe rye sour looking for a meaningful role, and I was in the mood to try something new.

Most of us realize how tiny and insignificant we are in the scheme of things until it comes to our passions and emotions. Then all hell breaks loose and we instantly want to become the center of the Universe.  I am always telling my young daughter to keep her head even when everyone else is losing theirs.  On humans this sometimes works...... but for Lucy …...not so much.

It must be spring - I have garlic scapes in the garden! Of course, that inspired this week's test loaf - Roasted garlic scape and Asiago cheese levain. The scapes were chopped and roasted with a little EVOO for about 15 minutes in a covered dish at 400F. I baked demi-loaves (scaled around 400 grams) because this is a specialty bread, not an everyday kind of bread. Each loaf had about 2 Tbsp each of chopped, roasted scapes and shredded cheese.

A slow sourdough with wheat and rye starters as well as a soaker made with dry bread, water and salt. It is then made with wheat and rye flours, semolina and ground hazelnuts. Great depth of taste. Lutz just called it dinner. Dinner it is.

Recipe here: https://www.ploetzblog.de/2015/07/25/abend-brot/

I have been so boring in my baking and sorry I haven't posted in so long.  I keep making the same recipe and trying to eliminate steps as I go, to make it as easy as possible, including the clean-up.

For this loaf, I don't accurately measure the ingredients...I sort of do it by feel.  I use about one cup of really active starter (still on the rise); 1-1/2 cup of water; 1 cup whole wheat flour and 2 cups of bread flour. I generally use King Arthur Flour or Bob's Red Mill; you can't beat high quality flour.