WendySusan's blog

Its summer in New England and its been a fairly nice summer but lately its been hot and humid.  I know some folks live in this kind of climate all year round or in hot, dry climates but for me, baking in the summer presented a challenge.

This time, I think I got it right.  Rising times are exponentially increased since its at least 20 degrees warmer in the house....with the a/c running....than in the winter time.  It took me a few tries to get good looking loaves.

I mixed up a batch of dough using Hamelman's Deli Rye as a guide.  I did substitute a little KA Sir Lancelot for the whole wheat I usually use because 1) I was out of whole wheat and 2) I wanted to see what Sir would add to the mix.  I also added yeast because I needed to bring one of the loaves today and couldn't wait hours!

The recipe:

675 grams KA Bread Flour
125 grams KA Sir Lancelot
200 grams Hodgsons Rye
600 grams water
300 grams Rodney
20 grams salt
7 grams SAF Yeast 

Today's adventure in baking involved the rest of the spelt flour, some orange juice, buttermilk, cranberries and honey.   The 50% spelt loaf came out nicely...after my burned, failed 100% attempt, so instead of leaving well enough alone and making another one, I decided to branch out.  I also wanted to use up the buttermilk and orange juice.

The recipe:

Today in addition to the Hamelman Challah, our rye starter was floating so we needed to put together bread.

Inspired by Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough with increased whole grains today's dough is really a 1.2.3 with an emphasis on pumpernickel...simply because I didn't feel like working at it.

384 grams of floating starter, 768 grams of water and @1100 grams of flour split:  200 Whole Wheat, 300 Pumpernickel and 600 KA Bread.  I actually dropped the bread flour a little because of the increased whole grain pumpernickel.

We usually have some Challah in the freezer and we like to make weekend french toast with...but we were all out.

My go-to recipe for Challah has been the Ciril Hitz recipe we were given in our October bread baking class.  I even used it for the Easter bread basket.  Since I bought Hamelman's Bread, I decided to use his recipe.

and I think I'm getting the hang of this sourdough thingy.  This week I baked twice, once was a 1.2.3 with a lean toward Rye and today was Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough which is fast becoming a favorite.

I love the 1.2.3 method because I don't have to really think about anything.  I just apply my math and voila....bread.  Guess I didn't score deep enough although the circular design is there.

Signature W...

So I've now made the 1.2.3 Sourdough twice this week.  Today's batch was made for knitting club along with some Weitzenbrötchen and I was selfish...only bringing one loaf instead of both.  At the end of knitting club there was only one lonely roll and slice of bread!  And the next knitting club is going to be sourdough baking club as I've been asked to share my knowledge.

I really like this recipe because it is so simple.  Started my levain the night before and built to 250 grams, it actually passed the float test.....wow...it really works!

Stumbling across a video from Der Back Profi making Kaisersemmel, this morning I just had to try them.  And I can't find where I stumbled over it!

Finally I have a new place to lose my extra loaves besides the freezer and birds so I am again trying to perfect my technique.

Today's bread is Vermont Sourdough from Jeff Hamelman's book Bread.  In his book, all the recipes are written in bakery sized formulas along with a home version which is written in pounds and ounces so I needed to convert them to grams.  I also upped the rye a slight bit and added a little whole wheat but kept the formula in the same balance.

My Levain
75 gr mature starter
125 gr. warm water
125 gr. whole wheat flour

Still practicing even though we are up to our eyeballs in baked goods, I had the bright idea to use up a piece of cheddar in the fridge in a loaf of bread.  I figured the Pain au Bacon would be a good starting place.

I think I got fairly good oven spring though probably still could be better.  This picture is of the loaf I slighly deflated getting it in the dutch oven.  The other loaf went in the freezer.