Blog posts

Getting Ready for Ploetziade 2

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Lucy has been gathering up ancient grains like farro and einkorn and Kamut and other allowed newer organic heirloom grains that are being replanted in small quantities in Arizona like Desert Durum, Pima Club and Sonoran White.

 

Joining TFL

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I've been avidly baking and reading this site for 6 months now, so I thought it was finally time to join. This week I baked a 50/50 levain using my new liquid levain culture as well as a test batch of baguettes to propare me for an upcoming production for a winery (My town has like 5,000 people and none of them can bake- well none except one:) . Anyways, my levains have usually been going flat inexplicably out of the refrigerator; any tips on how to make a wet dough hold up after removing from a basket?

I baked my levain

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I had commented on doing this awhile back. I kept feeding my levain intill it reached 1200g. Pulled 200 off and added salt to the rest. Hydration is around 65%. Not totally sure since I just went by feel and it felt about 65. Bulk ferment at room temp then shaped and into the fridge for a cold proof overnite. It has a nice fruity smell from the levain being at a young stage and having a meal of barley from this past weekends bake. Its cooling now and I will cut into it after work.

Painted Cinnamon Raisin-Filled Sourdough Dinner Rolls

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So I wanted to make cinnamon rolls. And I wanted to make sourdough dinner rolls. And I wanted to learn to paint bread. And I love baking, but I can't do it every day. Then inspiration hit, and I did it all at once. These have sugar in the filling, but just a touch and they aren't so sweet that I would call them a dessert. The raisins were soaked, so they are soft and yummy.

Batard and a Skinny baguette

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Tartine - Baguette
Main recipe
WeightIngredientBaker's %
676.84Wheat flour, white, all-purpose, enriched, bleached75.00%
225.61Wheat flour, white, bread, enriched25.00%
580.15Water, tap, drinking64.29%
1.93Leavening agents, yeast, baker's, active dry0.21%
15.47Salt, table1.71%
1,500.00

Seed Loaf

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After bookmarking it more than a year ago, last weekend I finally got round to making Karin's Saatenbrot.  It turned out really good and was made extra special by the freshly ground bread spices which I roasted and ground up.  Not everyone in the family liked it, though.  They thought it too heavy and too strongly flavoured.

Cinco de Mayo - 2014

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It all started off with tasso, potato and egg breakfast burrito smothered in red sauce with cheese.

Then it took nearly the whole day to get dinner ready to go.

 

The rice looked god br=efire being cooked.  The pinto, purano & black bean refried looked fine before mashing.

4 Recent Bread Experiments: Irish Soda, NY Style Pizza, Multigrain Levain, Overnight Country Brown

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A bit of catch up today on some Spring baking, starting with Irish soda bread for St. Patrick's day.  The recipe couldn't be easier (especially when compared to all the levain breads I play around with these days), and is a family favorite every St. Patrick's, and this recipe is one I picked up from Elise Bauer's great blog some years ago.  (I like the added raisins).

Sacrilicious Challah

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There's not a lot to say, really, but the picture doesn't show the whole story, so I suppose I'll have to explain.

What you see above is a new rendition of Hamelman's Challah recipe, altered a bit. There's milk where there should be water, and butter in place of oil, honey instead of sugar, and a small amount of whole wheat flour, just for a little somethin'.

It's not what makes this bread significant, though. Nor the weaving of four strands of dough together, which went well enough for not having done it for so long.