alfanso's blog

At some point I started to occasionally snap a photo halfway through the baking cycle, after steam was released and the loaves rotated.  Ordered from oldest to most recent.

David-based (Son of) SJSD

PiPs 100% WW

WoodenSpoon's 33% Rye Levain

Last year I kicked off the year with two entries of 2016 in review.  The first was baguettes I baked, and the second was the batards.  This year I thought that I'd document a slew of selected baguettes from my favorite viewing angle.  Some are repeats from last year as this is not a 2017 review.  With few exceptions, all are different breads.

Other than on his The Perfect Loaf site, I can’t remember where I saw Maurizio’s 50-50 WW SD posted by anyone.  I warehoused the formula until this week.  Not being a big fan of bread that leans too heavily on WW, I was cautious about this one.  I generally find that they taste a little too “earthy” for me.  I decided to tinker with this a bit.

After Abel posted his 90% Biga @45% hydration (70% overall) a few heads were turned and some fast commitments made to reproduce this bread.  Mine too.  Some questions were left unanswered, i.e. the optional levain hydration, baking temp and time.  So some jeri-rigging was needed. 

Biga hand mixed, not "crumbly" as advised.

Final dough ingredients incorporated.

I performed my due diligence (old IT terms die hard!) and came up empty when looking to see whether anyone on the internet had posted a reference to the FWSY Field Blend #1 as baguettes.  So the door was swung open for me to get in “first”.

 alfanso-style.

Friends paid a visit last week from the other side of the peninsula.  And I baked them some bread.  Jim is the extraordinarily talented chef of his own small restaurant and does indeed like my bread, so I was pleased to provide him and Donna with two favorites.  The remaining batards sent home with them.

 We returned home from a summer of quasi-gluttony downing pint after pint of heavy but oh-so-tasty ales and enjoying virtually every dinner out at old favorite restaurants as well as newer in our old city of Portland.  Only to immediately make a U-turn out of here when the specter of hurricane Maria bore down on Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands and was barreling straight for us.  Upon return once more, I looked forward to reviving my sleepy levain and start baking again.  Which I did for a very short while.

After my self imposed hiatus of three months away, I decided to kick off the "new baking season" with a run of the Hamelman Vermont SD, again using AP instead of bread flour and using a rye levain instead of white flour - thus the "alfanso style" moniker.  Fortunately it looks as though I haven't lost a beat.  Funny thing is that my final blog entry before I left in June was for the same bread.  

Little T Bakery  t-shirt, Portland Oregon

Hamelman Vermont SD with 125% rye flour levain

My first foray into the Vermont SD was back in April with the straight formula: 125% bread flour levain with bread flour, plus the 10% rye flour used in the final mix as directed.  

A week later - the same bread flour levain but I used AP flour for the final mix.  The dough was more extensible and less "rubbery" to work with.  A change for the better in my book.  2 letter folds during the bulk ferment.