Blog posts

This is a somewhat off topic blog post, but I promised Janetcook that I'd send some pictures of the vast, bustling proth5 estate which has undergone the usual spring transition since she last saw it.

My retirement is going well. I have traveled more than I really wanted to but have managed to spend considerable time at the location that is the most exotic to me in all the world - my own crumbled abode.

I haven't felt like baking much lately. You see my Father-in-law lost his one sided fight with Parkinson's. He, and I, are NOT religious, in fact with think it is a lot of hooey. But I digress, he was a brilliant man, full of laughter and knowledge. Self made, hard working, dedicated family man.

We left Vienna on our bikes with our group of 50 on May30th. We have been in a different town each night. We stay in hostels, inns and a college dorm so far. We are in Linz tonight. It is almost 10 PM here now. Very full days of cycling the Velo 6 route. Here are some pics of the lovely bakery goods from the center of Linz. A very very busy place. On a Tuesday at 5 PM almost everything was gone from some shops. Ice cream is incredible here as is everything we have eaten so far. Love the coffee also ! Since we are burning so many calories I can indulge as I wish :) Lovely.

Today's bake was Hamelman's Pain au Levain with Whole Wheat Flour. This is one of a series of versions of Pain au Levain in Bread. I have baked all of them - several, like this one, many times. My favorite is whichever one just cooled enough to eat. This one was pretty yummy. Crunchy crust, chewy crumb. Complex wheaty flavor.

Pretty loaves, too, if I do say so myself.

I made my first baguettes this weekend. It was pretty fun! Especially since I got to use my new couche and peel for the first time. Thanks to all who gave me advice on my questions about getting enough steam - the cloth method worked great!

I feel like there wasn't as many air pockets as I thought there would be in the crumb.. So maybe they were slightly under proofed? 

Hi Everyone,

This is my first entry and I hope that I can find some help.  I bake mostly sourdough loafs (75% hydration) with organic Bobs Red Mill flower (90% white, 10%wheat, or sometimes 10% sprouted spelt).  Mostly I am very happy with the texture and taste of the bread, however I have one reoccurring problem…sometimes my bread will stick to my benneton during the final resting period.  Is it a matter of not dusting the bowl with enough flower?  

This bake followed my usual formula, except I increased the hydration slightly, adding an extra 20 g of water to the final dough. The formula and procedures can be found here: San Joaquin Sourdough: Update

I was pretty happy with my first attempt at a polenta sourdough (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/38701/polenta-sourdough). The hydration in that first loaf was 70% without taking into account the water in the polenta porridge. But I wanted a loaf with higher hydration, a more open crumb and more polenta. I decided to go with the tried and true Tartine basic country bread.

Lately in the midst of making a lot of decent bread, I've had a string of mysterious failures.   Here are the symptoms:   at best poor opening of scores which leaves the resulting bread more compact than it should be and with gummier crumb.   At worst cakey crumb and collapses along the crust which leave a skin of paperlike crust with a cavern beneath.   The second gets thrown out; the first is fine to eat but nothing great.