Blog posts

We are experiencing some pretty hot weather here in the West at the moment but i did find time to bake.

I was impressed with the 36 hr baguettes that were featured recently on TFL, i retrieved my s/d culture from the deep freeze here at work and it proved to be a little sluggish to start with, taking 3 or 4 days  to come out of its christmas holidays slumber.

I did a half size of tx farmers dough and here are the results, still not as good as the others but quite acceptable and very tasty.

 Today I produced 2 lovely loaves of Honey WW sandwich bread since I was taking dinner to some dear friends who have had more than their share of troubles recently. It's always so rewarding to see how fresh, homemade bread is received. As we all sat dragging our bread through the stew gravy in the bottom of our bowls everyone seemed to just relax and enjoy the quiet company of good friends and good food. 

This was an orange chiffon cake and I will call it an upside down cake and explain that later. I used a spring form pan and manually sliced 3 layers using a vanilla fudge spread for one layer and a chocolate fudge for the other. The cake was finished with enrobing chocolate and I thought a sprinkling of ground almond and some sliced almonds would go well, as a ski bum I don't need to watch my weight.

(Note: copied from my actual blog)

This is actually my first attempt at the basic country bread from 'Tartine' (with an exception, see note below). I read and re-read the sections on bulk-fermentation and shaping, until it was etched in my brain, sure not to mess it up. So, of i went...

3rd Test Formula - Basic Country Bread

Final Dough:

900g Strong white bread flour

100g Wholemeal flour

200g Levain

Here is my 3rd attempt at the Oat Porridge Bread.   I reduced the amount of extraction flour (hard red/spelt) to 25%, and omitted the chopped almonds.  At 4.5 hours of bulk, the dough only rose 10% but was well aerated, so I took a gamble, shaped it and proofed for 13 hours at 49 degrees Fahrenheit, and on the counter for 1 hour at 71 degrees.                                                      

January has been a busy month already and there is nothing to indicate that it will slow down anytime soon.  Consequently, I haven't posted much recently but I have been busy with baking.

This will be featured regularly at our house. We've come to like breads made with buttermilk for adding the sour taste, softening the taste of the whole grain.

The bread works really well for sandwiches, although a loaf shape would be better.

Here's the link to the recipe in English (through Google translate) -

This is my third go at making this bread. The only case where I didn't follow the recipe was the yeast water (mine is in the works). I substituted dry yeast (around 4 grams).

To my surprise you do not taste the apple (could me my palate isn't picking it up) but I think biggest benefit I've noticed the bread doesn't taste too "grainy".

Here's the link to the recipe (starts in German, scroll down for English version)

Been a while.  I actually did one other winter market but didn't take photos or notes and it was a loaf I did earlier in the year so I haven't written about it.  Been enjoying the oddly warm winter(not that it gets very cold here) for some time.  I'm sure the rain is on its way and we need it.  So this the Brown Rice Porridge Loaf from Tartine 3 with a few changes.  First off the rice.  I used some Forbidden Black Rice I found at Costco some time back.  I looked it up and this stuff is really good for you.