Blog posts

We were invited to some friends annual Boxing Day party. It's always fun. It's a pot luck with wonderful food. There is always live music. This year it was a Celtic string band. I get to visit with friends that, since I retired, I seem to see only once a year, at this party.

I was asked explicitly to bring bread. I brought a large loaf last year, and they never served it. Oh, well. This year, my wife made a delicious shrimp dip, and I baked SJSD demi-baguettes to slice for the dip. I also made a couple small miches using the original SFBI formula.

I haven't been posting/reading much on the fresh loaf lately and I haven't been super pleased about it, but due to lots of work around the holiday season and general lazyness my TFL activity has decreased but my bread baking is still at a fever pitch.

Merry Christmas, all, and many thanks for the wonderful resource that is TFL.

Today I used my rye starter (converted from white mother) and decided to make a batard.  Decided to slightly underproof, added extra steam a la dabrownman (pyrex with rolled cloth steaming) in addition to my normal steam pan.  I watched in amazement as it cooked! the steam obviously made the rise much better!!! I have NEVER made a batard this good.  I am over the moon!  and very happy with the crumb.

I have now made this bread about 4 or 5 times.  The first two i replaced some flour with w/w and rye.  The bread came out good but a little dense.  The last two times i almost stayed with the recipe except, added 30g flax, 25g chia and 40g sunflower seeds and about 20g additional water.  Everyone raved about these two bakes, including people who have eaten many of my breads, commenting that this was one of my best.  I plan to bake two more times before the end of the year.

We took another step down the sprouted grain trail this week, even after vowing not too, when we decided to defrost the chest freezer and found a peanut butter jar full of frozen whey in the bottom of the icy depths near the bottom-  along with too many quarter hunks of bread.

A year ago, I decided to close down my little bake to order business, and see what else I could cook up.   I got my wholesale license, and into a pretty decent market, and set out to make a lot of bread.   A lot of bread all depends where you are coming from.   I'm baking out of my kitchen with fairly small equipment and it sure seems like a lot to me.    I picked up several wholesale customers, and just when I think I have that under control, I bake for a big market, all semblance of control vanishes, and I just bake as much and as fast as I can

Happy holidays to everyone and happy baking.

I was lucky enough to get some baking goodies from my wife.  A proper bench scraper, bowl scraper, and two books that will get me trying some new breads.

Here's today's sourdough loaves for your viewing pleasure.  Crumb shots to follow after we rip into these with turkey dinner tonight.

These are the little loaves I have been baking for everybody leading up to the New Year. I decided to try one myself and got a crumb shot before it was all gone.

Everyone here knows the smiles and joy a fresh loaf can bring to on occasion. I wish I could try some of the amazing bread I see here on TFL. To all the wonderful people I have met here, happy baking, happy holidays and very happy New Year.