Blog posts

Last weekend, I've thankfully managed to squeeze in a bake in the midst of a hectic family, and professional commitments, Phew!

I've been wanting to bake the High extraction Miche in "Whole grain breads" ever since i saw it, but the idea of sifting whole wheat flour (Oh the horror!) deterred me. Until, that is, i realized that the flour is abundant in Dubai, and UNDER MY NOSE!. In fact, there are several mills in Dubai that produce the flour "Chakki atta" and many  available in supermarkets, but i've settled for what i think is best in terms of refinement and quality.

Pane Valle del Maggia

February 23, 2014

 Several bakers on The Fresh Loaf have shown us their bakes of “Pane Maggiore.” This bread comes from the Swiss Canton of Ticino, which is the only Swiss Canton in which Italian is the predominant language.

While the Ticino Canton has Lake Maggiore on its border, the name of the bread supposedly comes from the town of Maggia which is in the Maggia valley, named after the Maggia river which flows through it and enters Lake Maggiore between the towns of Ascona and Locarno.

This is my take on the 5 grain loaf as described in "The handmade loaf:  Contemporary recipes for the home baker" by Dan Leopard.  

A book which I certainly recommend, if only for the sheer variety of the recipes and the accessibility for the average amateur baker.  I usually 'roll my own' but when following recipes and preparation descriptions  they invariably turned out well.  Plus, they're beautifully illustrated.

I'm not sure about copyright restrictions so won't post the detailed recipe here but in general terms, preparing it involves:

Yesterday I made FWSY Overnight Country Blonde (with chopped olives), and started too late in the day. I put the dough to rise - in a large bowl covered with plastic - in a back bedroom that is around 65 degrees during the day. At 8PM, I suddenly realized that it would be midnight when I should divide the dough, shape the loaves, and then have to let them rise another 4 hours. Not happening!

I have been grinding flour in my bleNader, using 200 grams hard winter red berries to 800 grams all purpose flour and making my 200 grams of levain with either 100 grams of the fresh flour or using a 50/50 blend. 

Hello to everybody. I want to share with you some pictures of these Romanian little sweet breads we make for the 9th of March. The dough is brioche like, but maybe sweeter, the same dough we use to make the traditional "cozonaci" (similar to panettones maybe), the ritual sweet breads we make for Christmas and Eastern.

Today I baked off this fennel&date sourdough, 

To make the levain I mixed 10g 100% hydration chef with

                     20g whole rye

Hiatus goes well but I did a small bake so i can gift a few loaves to my farmer friends this week.  Many moons ago I found a recipe for a "Poilane" styled loaf that sounded good and fiddled with it at work.  Do to limitations at work adjustments were made and an approved bread resulted.  We call it our "Whole Wheat Sour".  VWG and commercial yeast are among quite a few changes to make this bread come about. It's 50% whole grain (29WW/11Rye/10Spelt) and rolled in poppy seeds.  It's actually a nice sandwich bread with a finer crumb.

In 1824 "The Virginia Housewife" by Mary Randolph was published.  It contained a recipe for Soda Cake.

Dissolve half a pound of sugar in a pint of milk; add a teaspoon of soda, pour it on two pounds of flour--melt half a pound of butter.  Knead all together until light.  Pour it in shallow molds and bake it quickly in a quick oven."

I have not tried the recipe above. 

I did bake this one last night.        

I have changed the feeding of my levain. I now feed it 1: .5: .5 every 24 hours. It has been a week now. The bake this morning produced a house full of nice sour smells. I tasted this loaf and still no tangy bread. This bulk fermented at room temp then went into the fridge overnight for final proofing. Im happy with the results. A nice crunchy crust and soft crumb. I would like to have a more sour flavor to it. Im thinking of increasing the levain in the dough. My levain sits at room temp and this time of the year is around 65 degrees.