Blog posts

This Remberance Day weekend I have reminded myself of how to bake bread.  It's been a little over a month and a half since I baked.  Having the business transferred from my parents to me takes a lot more paperwork, legal and technical work than one would imagine.  Quite draining actually.  Now that things have settled down, I decided to tackle a challenge that I have had in the recent past with whole wheat loaves.  Those of you who helped me, know of my frustrations with higher percentage whole wheat bread attempts.  Looks like I was simply over proofing and ov

As we come upon the last weeks of the market I have now missed a few but next week will be 20. Had all plans set to make an olive bread but the cost of nice olives made me bail on a large batch and simplify.  Maybe had I thought ahead I could get some wholesale prices but I didn't.  So I threw together a formula for a Spelted Sourdough that I'm quite pleased with the results.  The dough is lovely smooth but quite slack and was just super fun to shape.  I also continue on my quest to learn and make 100% ryes which may or may not be going so well.

This Friday’s bake started out as 2 bakes which were originally to be completed while we were smoking some brisket and pork sirloin over 12 hours.  Neither bread was to be  retarded but completed within 12 hours – not including the time it took to build the SD and YW levains.

After my white bread I decided to bake another load with higher whole grain content. 

this is based on peter Reinhardt cinnamon sticky bun, I charge it to 25% wholewheat and sub part of the yeast with sourdough. 

did a 6+ 4 slap n fold and 3 s&f over the initial 2 hours of bulk fermentation, total 3.5 hours till double in size.

I used water wash with bran topping which added nutty flavor from the side it looks like a shreddable crumb. A crumb shot with filling will be posted tomorrow 

Since I had a disastrous attempt at pumpkin sourdough, which ended up in the bin, a straight dough would be perfect for saturday bake.

this recipe is borrowed from Folkish - flour waster yeast and salt Saturday white. But since it is a straight dough I added 10% of whole grain to give it some flavor ( rye 3%, wholewheat 5% and corn flour 2%) And increased the hydration to 76% to compensate the whole grain flour water absorption.

  I was asked to make some rolls for Thanksgiving again this year so I decided to try to turn my Sweet Potato Maple Pecan bread into rolls.  In the original bake I had discovered that I used way too high of a hydration in the dough so this time since I was making rolls I cut down on the hydration considerably.  My calculations say 53% total dough hydration and 78% with the add-ins but since the sweet potato variety I used this time was a red variety with white flesh I think the moisture content of the potatoes may have been less than calculated.

it suppose to be a pita bread, but it didn't puffs up all the way though, maybe the roasted garlic blocked the puffs somehow. But this bread is very soft and taste like a naan. 

These days I've been trying hard to my baguettes.  (still working on it...)

a few days ago, I got an idea to add a little beauty and fragrant to the dough--- the dried rosebuds from the rosebuds tea... For the flour, I just randomly mix what I have in hand.  The smell of the rose baguette is so beautiful when it's baking and after it's done^^~. 

poolish: (room temp. 12-16 hours)

200.5g of organic artisan breakers craft plus malted flour + 100 T55

yeast 1/8 tsp

water 300.5g

the dough:

This was my ode to my man!  I thought "hey these guys eat japaleno popcorn all day. I am going to send in some salami and spicy cheesy goodness!" I am picturing a home improvement Urrr Urrr Urrr sound coming from men as they take huge chunks of bread and taste that primal combo.  Well primal, maybe not there are no wild meats. However,  We have a wild woman, some wild yeast spicy cheese, and meat.  Let it begin!