Blog posts

Last week I was considering baking a bread with corn porridge to use up some polenta lurking around in the back of the cupboard. As a northern European, cooking with corn is unfamiliar to me and associated with Italian and/or American cuisine. As a child in the 80's, I thought maize = corn = tinned sweetcorn. Tinned sweetcorn was either an unwelcome addition to tuna mayonnaise or one of the 10,000 things crammed into salads along with boiled eggs and cubes of cheese.

This is a simple but flavorful bread I baked a week ago.  I used freshly milled Durum and whole wheat along with some KAF bread flour and potato flour.

I used some pistachio oil hoping to add to the nutty flavor but you couldn't really taste it so olive oil will do just fine next time.

The final bread came out very tasty with a moderate crumb and a nice nutty flavor you always get from using durum flour.

I used Tartine's Ode to Bourdon quantities and types of flour but followed dabrownman's suggestions for getting a lighter crumb and better oven rise. Well, the oven rise definitely worked, however, the crumb was very similar to the one I got using Robertson's extended autolyse. This one was a tad lighter but not by much. This might have been my fault as I think I cut the bulk ferment by one hour and the retarded proof by 3 due to work commitments. Anyhow, here is what I did:

We have been making 50% whole grain, half sprouted bread the past couple of weeks and Lucy was about to have a conniption fit since we are out of the rye bread we like so much.  The whole grains were 70% rye and the rest wheat with half of them being sprouted.

After returning from my trip out west and meeting with David Snyder on his home turf I couldn't wait to hit the oven running, so to speak.  But what to do?  I was torn between a bake of David's SJSD's and Hamelman's Pain au Levain w/WW.  There are no losers here.  But in the end the Pain au Levain won out.  I've yet to get a bad bake from these.  Easiest dough on earth!

Well taking a page from PalwithnoorinP's book, I tried my favourite dough, pulla and tried his sweet butter filled rolls. I used a cinnamon, sugar mixture to which I added vanilla and rum:  Appleton Estate Signature Blend. Boy is that nice rum and does it ever add a nice flavour to the sugar mix!  I used my standard pulla mix and for the enamoradas used three pieces @ 100 grams.

Thanks to suggestions from this group, I have been on the "proverbial" quest for the perfect loaf of bread. Remembering that beauty is in the "eye of the beholder", I am happy with the look of this loaf, the time strategy, the equipment used, and the taste. I have the Bosch Universal Mixer. It is efficient, powerful, easy to clean and light weight, they have added an "extended dough hook. This is somewhat subject to the type of recipe. I needed a mixer that could easily be moved around. I finally got bannetons from Lucky Clover - reasonable and well made.

This was one of the most flavorful and nurturing loaves I've baked in a long time. I started with the recipe on page 192 of Tartine Book No 3 but used a flaked 5 grain cereal from a local store in place of the oats. I inoculated a porridge of 250 g water and 250 g grain with 1 T leaven and forgot about it for a week, at the end of which time it had an inviting sweet smell.

Lately I have been messing about with keeping things very simple, and adding lecithin to my doughs to make them softer.

So far it's been a wild and unexpected journey this year. Who would've thought, I'd stray into a different direction: sourdough doughnuts.