Blog posts

The Chinese like soft and fluffy white breads. The whiter, the better. It might explain why something called Hong Kong flour exists. The HK flour is bleached and low in protein so that the resulting bread is super white and super soft. I don't really mind if my Chinese breads turn out white or not. So I just use what I have on hand which is Central Milling's Artisan Bakers Craft, a 10.5% protein, organic, malted, unbleached flour. The results are definitely more off-white than white. Soft and fluffy is easy. Enrichments such as butter, egg and milk will do the trick.

  One of my favorite breads is my Sourdough Date Bread which was inspired by my good friend Khalid.  Since I recently picked up some fresh dates from the supermarket the other day I figured it was time to try it again but with some slight modifications.

Lucy noticed that we were out of Jewish Deli Rye sandwich bread and pumpernickel too so she was flummoxed as to which one she would craft up a recipe for this week.  Of course she chose pumpernickel since I is always her favorite kind of bread but, since I had recently smoked a corned beef, freezing half, I told her the pumpernickel would have to wait.

Another loaf made using the "Sponge and Dough" method, only this time the sponge contained whole wheat flour and vital wheat gluten.

Formula:
Sponge:
70% Stone Ground Red Whole Wheat Flour
5% Malted Milk Powder
2% Vital Wheat Gluten
0.5% Salt
0.6% Instant Yeast
0.18% Soy Lecithin Granules
73% Water (variable)

Dough
30% Bread Flour
4% Brown Sugar
3% Shortening
1.5% Salt

Baked my first San Joaquin Sourdough based on http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24078/san-joaquin-sourdough-update (Thanks to David!)

I reduced the hydration to 70% instead of 75% since I am not comfortable with high hydration dough yet.

My shaping has room for improvement.

Crumb shot.

This is a simple recipe with overnight poolish, since I havent got time to refresh my starter last week so I used overnight poolish instead.

33% preferment @ 100% poolish

70% hydration (withholding 5% to mix with yeast n salt)

10% Rye

90% white bread flour

Build the poolish 12hours before i mix the dough, with unexpected even I have leave it in the fridge for a couple more hours.

Mix the dough and autolyse for 1hour

Dissolve yeast in the remaining water, squeeze into the dough mix well till they come together.

bulk fermentation: 2 hours

I fed the Starter at 9.55pm tonight for tomorrows baking and put a rubber band where it was when just fed.

I covered it with plastic wrap and poked 5 tiny holes in it.

Here you see * Gordon * grow:)

* I hope he wont try to get out of that Jar. eeeek *

This loaf was made using the "Sponge and Dough" method.

Formula:
Sponge
66.7% Bread Flour
3% Dried Buttermilk Powder
0.5% Salt
0.6% Instant Yeast
0.18% Soy Lecithin Granules
62.5% Water

Dough
33.3% Bread Flour
4% Sugar
2.8% Shortening
1.5% Salt

Inspired by one of the many killer loaves I had eaten at High Street on Market in Philadelphia, I decided to try and recreate their buckwheat cherry bread. They haven't shared their recipe, so I played around with a basic sourdough cherry bread recipe and subbed in 20% buckwheat flour. 

This version ended up with a moist crumb, a chewy crust, and a great flavor balance from the nutty buckwheat and the tart cherries. Just as good as High Street's, if you ask me. It's delicious toasted for breakfast or just devoured on its own.