Hello All,
I began writing this account travelling back to the UK, as follows:
Monday 21st August 2012; 14:32, UK time.
Last Friday I finally returned from my latest trip to China and was eager to try my hand at a rye bread after reading about some interesting ones on The Fresh Loaf. I wanted to make one utilizing a Yeast Water starter per my baking friend DA Brownman who recently baked a master piece using a combination of a Yeast Water starter and traditional SD starter.
I've been back from a week's vacation in lovely cool Aspen and just getting things caught up.
The day before I left. I got a sudden urge to bake in my wfo. I don't know what brings on these urges, I'm sure there is some disfunctional reason, maybe fear of not being able to bake for a whole long week.
Update: The round boule was wrapped in parchment and a towel for 30 hours to see what difference it might make. It cut much cleaner and tasted twice as sour. A quartered pix and another one with one of the quarters sliced.
Hey all,
You haven't seen me here for the last 5 month because I don't like baking or bloging anymore, no the opposite is the case. I can't wait till end of October to be back in my own kitchen and have again the time to bake and follow the Fresh Loaf. If you are wondering what I was doing during this time, klick and have a look:
Happy baking
Thomas
This is my second attempt at the multigrain Struan from Peter Reinhart’s wonderful book: Whole grain Breads. This is no easy dough to deal with, and I remember now why i have chosen to put it off for a second trial. The high proportion of soaked grains (I used some seeds too), held loosely by 100% whole wheat flour, some butter, and honey; makes for a very sticky dough.
In a way, today was “really” the first day of my retirement. Our granddaughters are back in their parents' keeping. I'm not teaching this week. I discovered a couple of changes in my cooking and baking, compared to my approach pre-retirement.
A couple weeks ago I got a new cookbook, the recently updated version of Margaret Fox’s Morning Food. It is chock full of great recipes for muffins, scones, omelettes, fritattas and other a.m. goodies. It is also a great read, written with humor and charm.
I decided to go back and make the Tartine Country Loaf for a change since I've been making a lot of whole grain mix loaves lately. It is still one of the best breads for me . . . I just love it fried in butter, slathered with Nutella or fig jam.
85% CM ABC unmalted
15% CM Organic Stone Ground Whole Wheat
80% Water
20% Leaven
2% Salt
