My wife and I have been taking Italian language lessons in a small group for about 2 years. Our teacher was born in Palermo and trained to be a teacher from 16 years old through University. She has lived in the US for about 15 years, and she misses Sicily a lot, including the bread.
I have made the Pane Valle Maggia (or "Pane Maggiore") 3 previous times. I have decided I actually liked the first version the best, so I made it again today. The procedure was substantially the same. See Pane Valle del Maggia.
I was in the mood to bake on Saturday, all I had in the house was a bag of store brand Whole Wheat flour so looked around the fresh loaf for something to bake that will require the least about of ingredients but still give me a nice sandwich loaf for the next few days. I’ve always been a fan of txfarmers super fluffy breads so after checking her blog index I found this 100% whole wheat bread
The below was inspired by her blog post but is actually a very different bread
Had my 2nd engineering staff meeting and thought it would be nice to offer a sweet bread instead of sourdough. Plus I haven't made this bread in a while and it's always a hit. Let me know if anyone wants the recipe. It's basically flour, potato water, mashed potatoes, butter, eggs, milk, sugar, lemon rind, and mace. I bought some AP flour for use in Irish Soda Bread but used a bunch of it for this bread ... will be interesting to see what happens when I use bread flour.
Here is a couple 16 hour Sourdoughs and some Scones I made for my Wife's co-workers, plus some food.
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Every day, I pass a homeless lady who stands in the side-doorway of church that I pass by on the way to work.
I decided that I ought to give her one of my extra loaves of bread, and this morning I did so. She was very appreciative and, dare I say, excited to be gifted the loaf.
I told her it took me three days to make it, and she said "Three days?!" so I explained it was a sourdough and she understood right away.
Here it was after proofing overnight in the fridge.
Another of the porridge breads from Tartine No. 3. For this, the millet seeds for the dough are toasted and then cooked. Having absorbed all the water from cooking, they are added to the dough after the first couple stretch and folds (an hour into the bulk ferment). Compared to the two oat porridge breads in the book (fermented and not), this one uses less of the "porridge" grains. I think it may have contributed to a lighter, airier loaf than the oat ones.
I have been in search for a light pumpernickel formule for quite sometime, until DAB sent me the one posted by our TFLer dmsnyder. You can find the original post here.
below is the formula i used, which is basically the same as his but I have left out on Altus and did all the mixing n kneading by hand
I've just received a few pounds of organic sprouted red winter wheat flour and organic sprouted spelt flour. Anyone have any advice before I dive into it?
Hydration?
Gluten strength?
Flavor?
I'm excited to try it, but I'm still novice enough to worry that it will be a challenge.
This forum has been an inspiration and is full of great advice! Thanks!
Gail N-K
This was my second attempt at this loaf. Intrigued by David's description of how good it tasted, I just had to give it a try. My first go yielded a flat boule that was very, very sour and quite pale. I let everything go on too long especially the final proof in the fridge. Due to other commitments, it stayed in the fridge for almost 20 hours as opposed to the 12 that David recommended.
