Blog posts

Lucy’s recent methods for spouted sourdough breads of 30-100% whole and sprouted flour have used the bran to feed a small amount of long retarded rye starter to make a 3 stage levain that is then retarded for 24 hours.

It always amazes me how much the acid in the levain bleaches out the flour color.

Still converting boule and batard formulae to baguettes.  This time it is Jefrey Hamelman's Pain au Levain with mixed SD starters.  I'd made this once before, when I first started doing batards and had just then recently created a rye starter.  And now its number came up to make some baguettes - and one batard (just for old time's sake).

Today I dedicate this bake to my eldest son, who suddenly collapsed and passed away 4 weeks ago today. My head is everything except okay but we could no longer accept store bought bread.  So I chose a simple loaf to start baking again (Forkish overnight white) but I have to say the pleasure I normally have is missing. 

crumb shot

If anyone would like a copy of the Breville BB200 manual, please leave your email in the comments. :)

Hoptik is a portmanteau of hopia, a Chinese pastry (see here) and tikoy, the Chinese version of mochi. It is essentially a flaky pastry filled with bean paste with mochi in the center that's why they're sometimes called mochipia. I first had this in a Chinese restaurant and we all liked it so I made my own yesterday. The crust is different from my first hopia post because I opted for a more traditional one with a higher fat content.

Rye and Barley sourdough with 100g Rice flour. It gave me a better rise than I expected.

Got home to this beautiful sunset. Well, who wants to be inside cooking? Ploughman's dinner on the balcony, of course.

Hey Everybody,
I haven't been very active here lately, but thought the Freshloafians might appreciate a recent article that was written about me and my mobile bakery in Bread Magazine.  Click on the photo below to see the article.

Photos are by: Tim Goessman, Stephanie, and yours truly ;)

Enjoy.

-Mark

Sometimes, I think, it's best to start telling a story by jumping to the end. Especially when that story is still alive and unfolding.

It's Sunday morning and the bakery is open once again. On the sunlit shelves lie gently whispering baguettes,  butter laden pastries and warm, plain loaves.  Sunday bread.  Bread to make you feel good inside and sprinkle a touch of nostalgia over your long, lazy breakfast.

Through the open door to the street outside waft the irrestible scents of the ovens offering.

People fall in haphazardly. 

Here were my weekend bakes. I took these to a picnic—one loaf sliced up, the other given to the host. I'm incredibly pleased with the way these came out. Everything from the crumb to the crust to the color was ace in my book.

One of the great things about this site is the volume of great recipes to try. One of my favourites is Norm's onion buns:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/6245/another-one-norm-onion-rolls

My two key changes were using a liquid levain and upping the hydration to about 68% The dough hydration as written would be not workable at my elevation and I hand mix all my breads, so no big mixer to help.