Blog posts

I know, I know!   I haven't posted for over 8 months.   I could say I've been very busy, which is true, but isn't everybody?   So, I have little in the way of excuses.   As you are about to read, however, I have recently moved into a proper unit and set up a bakery, so, any posts would really be about out-and-out commercial production, and that is really beyond what this great website seeks to offer.

   I'm really loving the whole porridge in bread thing.  Last week I adapted the original version to my own technique and it came out great, so now I figured it was time to get some more whole grain goodness into this formula.

I am a broke college student that loves to cook.  I have been experimenting with bread making for a few years, and it has become a great hobby!  I own a bread machine, but lately I have been venturing forth into the realm of non-bread machine artisan bread.  So far, I am having pretty good luck at everything I have attempted (I just made my first loaf of artisan bread in the oven the other day and it turned out great!)  I also started my own sourdough starter (I may have cheated a little bit since I started with this recipe

  I love these rolls which were inspired by a recipe adapted from Karin Hanseata's blog.  The first time I made them I changed a few things but mostly stuck to the original formula per this post.

This week the stiff rye sour has been in the fridge for 4 weeks, 672 hours at 36 F, and it is ready to make some sour bread.  The sour come not so much  Its not so much that it is cold but that it is cold for a very, very long time with plenty of food to eat allowing LAB to reproduce at 3 times the rate of yeast..

Many years ago, we lived for a while in a small town in France.  Every day I would walk to the bakery around the corner to buy our daily baguettes.  Could life be any better?   When it was my turn to order, I would conjure up my finest French: “Bonjour, Madam, je voudrais deux baguettes, s’il vous plait.”  To which Madam would reply “Combien”?  How many?  I would meekly raise two fingers.

I've been fascinated with the fougasse shape ever since reading about it in one bread book or another, but I finally got to see some examples "in the wild" when visiting Nice earlier this Spring, where it seemed like there was a loaf of bread I couldn't resist at nearly every turn in the maze of narrow streets inVieux Nice. And then there was the socca and pissaladière, but I digress. Here are a couple examples from the market in Nice, one plain, and one filled:

This is my second take on the SBFI Finnish Rye. Didn't get so much spring on the first take, but it was tasty and seemed pretty popular. I only got one slice out of two loaves.

This time I focused on a little more gluten development, mixing for about 8 minutes, then adding the soakers and mixing for another 3-4. Bulk ferment was 3 hours with three folds, final proof about an hour both at 78F. Also added a couple of Tbs of vital gluten to the mix. The dough is pretty sticky stuff; wet hands help.

After reading Don Sadowsky's guest post "The Hole Truth" on Barbara's wonderful blog "Bread & Companatico", I knew I had met a kindred spirit.

Tonight's dinner was a white sauce pizza. Mornay sauce made with Peccorino Romano, fresh Mozzerella, Baby Spinach sauteed in garlic-infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar, fresh asparagus tossed with garlic-infused olive oil and tarragon, and Feta cheese.

Our pizza dough is a simple 50/50 mix of semolina and AP flours, water, olive oil and salt. We make enough for three pies, divide and freeze two rounds, using the remaining round immediately for that evening's pie. This crust was the thawed third round of the last batch made a couple of weeks past.