Blog posts

This weekend was a busy one, but I still managed to bake my loaves in the dual combo cooker.

Because we were having a BBQ birthday celebration on Saturday, I had too many things to do and not enough room to do them, until the house cleared out.  Saturday night, I took my tablespoon full of starter and mixed it with 200 grams of freshly milled hard red winter wheat, and 200 grams of water.  The product started out looking like this:

This experiment turned out so well I thought I'd share the formula. The levain uses only yeasts from fermented fig water. There is just a hint of fennel and caraway, with a gentle sweetness from honey. Typical of fruit yeast, there is a noticeable lack of acidity.  Nice moist crumb. Keeps well. Delicious!  

I used fruit yeast rather than sourdough or commercial yeast because with a bread this "pure", I didn't want any sourness or extraneous flavors to take away from the subtle flavors.

And there's something about using figs to leaven a fig bread.

This was Take 2 of Tartine's Ode to Bourdin (white-wheat blend), and the first time that I tried using bolted flour (the previous loaves used bread flour in place of the bolted wheat flour). So this was actually 100% whole wheat, just with some if the bran sifted out and applied to the outside during proofing. 

Hi,

It has been a while since i last posted. I've been away for a 3 week "vacation", so i missed June's crafts market in Dubai. I've returned, though, and began baking for the July Market and my lone client. 

I chose to bake the fastest selling breads: Hamelman's roasted garlic bread, and Olive levain. The third variety is 5 grain Rye sourdough also from Hamelman. I do realize i have to break free from Hamelman's book for the Market bread, and start using recipes of my own. 

Adapted from the recipe, this bread is 50% whole wheat flour and 50% bread flour.

Changes:

1) Instead of biga, I used a white sourdough. 

2) Added 25g water more into final dough because I find it too dry. So total hydration is close to 70%.

3) Instead of kneading after using the mixer, I used stretch and fold.

4) I proofed until I pass the "finger poke" test instead of looking at the size or clock because I don't know how to gauge the size using the round cane banneton.

You never know what that Lucy will come up with next and the horrid heat of the summer only makes her brain box overheat mote than usual and there is no telling if a great bread recipe will come out of it or a cup of piping hot Joe.   This time she thought up something new – sprouted grain flour.

I made these from the following post by kjknits: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3241/sourdough-english-muffins

I used:

almost 1/2 cup of starter (needed to reserve some to propagate)

2 cups white whole wheat flour (the closest I had to all-purpose)

1 c whole milk

Mixed and left the dough, covered, at room temp overnight. I estimate room temp was probably about 70 degrees.  

   I wanted to make a Semolina bread for my Father-in-law to take back home with him to North Carolina so I figured he would enjoy a porridge version.  I've been making some version of porridge bread a lot lately since I love the creamy and moist crumb you get from using this technique.

I created a starter using AP flour and Semolina flour and in the main dough I also added some Kamut flour.

When it starts getting hot and muggy out, my husband and I start grilling more. Today was hot and muggy for sure. Grilled pizzas sounded like just the thing. I've fixed the Cook's Illustrated version several times before, usually with white whole wheat flour (that being what I had). Today I had the bread flour the recipe called for, so I went ahead and used it. I'm blaming the difficulties I had on that change in flours. 

Here is the dough after I mixed it up, plus what was stuck to my oiled hand. 

Every June I eagerly await the arrival of John Driver's CandyCot apricots at the farmers' market. The apricots that he grows are unlike any other apricot I have ever eaten including the Blenheim. They are sweet and complex with a very concentrated flavor. According to their website, they measure between 26 and 32 on the Brix (sweetness) scale, while most supermarket varieties of apricots register in the low teens.