Blog posts

A funny thing happened in the pastry chapter of Tartine No.3… 

Anybody have a handy cheat sheet for calculating hydration when adding ingredients like pumpkin? The Internet is full of recipes for sweet pumpkin quick bread, and the last time I forgot to account for the water content in pumpkin puree I got soup, not bread. I had a hunch that TFL would come through, and sure enough, big thanks to Karin's post here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/34842/dan-lepards-pumpkin-whey-bread, and to Dan Lepard's original recipe.

This is a batch of bread I baked and delivered for a regular client of mine. She is my first client outside of the market, and the only one thus far. The breads are: Olive levain, Whole Wheat multigrain, and Oatmeal bread, and 80% rye; all from Hamelman's book: (BREAD). My wife's shaping skills are improving fast! she shaped and scored some of the loaves depicted above. Can you tell? I've gotten her hooked now ;)

Hi Guys!

I've been MIA from TFL for quite a long time now. Been working on building up my blog www.nothymetowaste.org which is primarily baked goods, and I haven't been making much bread. Especially during the hot summer months! But, it's autumn again so naturally I'm back on the bread train. 

It doesn't get much simpler. The following formula expressed as baker's percents is used to refresh existing sourdough starter:

67% all purpose flour
33% cake flour
160% water

The above combination of flours is approximately 9.6% protein. A 50:50 mix of all purpose and pastry flour is a close alternative, as are several other flour combinations.

Calculate ingredient weights with a particular flour weight

Yesterday was like an early Friday, so I thought pizza would be fun. I improvised on this recipe, but about an hour into the process, I remembered that I had the pizza dough recipe from My Bread! Too late, so I decided, if I wasn't going to use Lahey's dough, I could still use some of his toppings. I decided to make the sweet potato pizza: sweet potatoes, onions, and olive oil. I also put together some pizza marinara with some leftover tomato sauce, some herbs, and some almond-parmesan. Here was the formula for the dough:

400g King Arthur All-Purpose Flour

325g water

My basic pain au levain coming off the grill. With the summer heat I have been working on this method for awhile.

On a recommendation being sent to Yeast Spotting

For Rosh Hashanah, my wife stopped at Chompies Bakery http://chompies.com/  to bring home a fine, non sourdough, snail shaped, raisin challah.  It was a leaner to the left with the inner circles higher than the outer ones – very tall.  Just beautiful, perfectly baked and delicious!  I can’t wait to have it for French toast this morning.