Benito's blog

I’ve only slightly modified this recipe I saw Kristen post on Instagram.  I added a poppyseed crust to the bread because I thought that it would go quite well with the flavour of this bread and I was right.  My family did really like the bread and we had some good sandwiches on it.

This was only the 2nd sourdough sandwich loaf I’ve made. And perhaps only my 3rd sandwich loaf ever.  My first sourdough sandwich loaf was underproofed and was posted last year on my blog.  

Benny’s Ciabatta Bake No. 1

Prior to the many posting here about biga I had already decided I’d try a non biga ciabatta recipe.  One of the people I follow on YouTube, Joy Ride Coffee has a formula up that I decided to give a go.  I decided to make the ciabatta with a 12% white flour I have left over from an early baguette bake and only used whole grain in the levain.  The levain itself is my usual 100% hydration.

Flour and water mixed and autolyse x 1 hour.

Still wanting to see if our very strong 13.3% protein Canadian flours interfere with the open crumb I’m attempting another bake of this formula I’ve thrown together.  Instead of 80% strong bread flour, I use 50% strong bread flour, 30% lower protein flour (10% protein), 10% whole red fife and 10% dark rye.  9% prefermented flour is use and this time I’ve lowered the hydration to 75% because the 10% flour isn’t very absorptive of the water.

I realized that I hadn’t made any pizza in quite sometime.  My working on baguettes over the past several months got in the way ?. So 2 days ago I put together my go to sourdough pizza recipe from the pizza Community Bake.  I haven’t really many any changes to that recipe except that I now give the dough after cold retard 2 hours of RT final proof.  This has helped with a more open cornicione.  I’m still making 9” personal sized pizzas in my cast iron skillet.

Blasphemy, I know what the Baguette Brigade will say about these, Blapshemy!!!  Oh well, I do not care.  I was in the mood to do something with chocolate and had started the mix for these Bouabsa baguettes.  I added 100 g of Lindt 70% dark chocolate which is always a good pick me up.  I’m not sure I’ve seen anyone add chocolate to their baguettes, but I have to admit I haven’t done a search.  In all likelihood it isn’t an original idea.

I decided I’d try to apply some of what I’ve learned making baguettes to my hearth loaves.  One thing that has been in the back of my mind for a while has been whether or not my use of high protein Canadian bread flours 13.3% protein could be preventing my heart loaves from having a more open crumb.  I know that achieving an open crumb is multi factorial and for many not worth the trouble, but it is something I wanted to see if I could eventually achieve.

I threw together a formula with:

50% strong bread flour

30% low protein (10%) white flour

I thought I’d give a go at this formula again making one small change.  With my recent experience scoring warm dough I thought I’d skip the final cold proof and be brave and score room temperature baguettes.  The kitchen is much cooler now than before so my usual 30 mins bench proof turned into a 60 mins bench rest.  I now keep the aliquot jar out on the counter with the dough when taken out of the fridge ending cold retard.

I love the effect that sweet potatoes have on tenderizing the crumb and the sweet flavour of sweet potatoes and thought I should make another sweet potato sourdough but instead of pecans, this time adding black sesame seeds.  Those who know me know I love the flavour of sesame seeds and black sesame seeds in particular.

This formula makes a 900 g dough.

I built both the levain and saltolyse dough in the evening starting both with fridge cold water and some fridge time.

Levain 1:4:4 10 g starter 40 g 2ºC water and 40 g whole wheat

Having only made Bouabsa baguettes once very early on when I first started to bake baguettes I thought it was time to try them again.  Because I’ve been enjoying seeded crusts on baguettes lately I thought I should use sesame seeds to enhance the flavour and bite.

I seldom make boules, so I decided I need to brush off some of the rust on that skill and also had long wanted to make a bread with sundried tomatoes, so here is my take on this.

For one loaf only. Total weight ~ 900 

340 g white bread flour 80% total

87 g whole wheat flour 20% total 

Total Flour = 427 g

Total water 307 g 78% hydration  (82% hydration first time)

Final dough for mixing

340 g white bread flour

49 g whole red fife flour