breadsong's blog

Hello, I recently purchased the Tartine Bread book, by Chad Robertson, when I had an opportunity to visit the Bakery.
I was there for breakfast, so alas, did not get to taste Mr. Robertson's bread, but did get to enjoy a lovely croissant & have a good look at his book... 


I really liked how Mr. Robertson described his journey as a baker and it's beautifully written and illustrated.

Hello,  I recently attended a weekend workshop at SFBI where we made six different kinds of baguettes. This workshop was a lot of fun and we benefited from excellent instruction from our talented, organized, extremely knowledgeable and hard-working teacher Frank!
On day 1 we made three kinds of baguettes (straight dough, sponge dough, poolish dough).
On day 2 we made teff, then wheat germ, then sunflower seed baguettes.
All were good, with the poolish, teff and sunflower seed baguettes being my favorites flavor-wise.

Hello,

This bread is from Artisan Breads at Home by Eric Kastel. The original recipe calls for walnuts, but this is Hazelnut weekend in my kitchen.

These are hearty little loaves, loaded down with lots of goodies, and the sweetness from the apple-cranberry pairs nicely with the sourdough.

I want to try making crisps with some of the bread, as described by farine-mc on her blog:
http://www.farine-mc.com/2010/09/hazelnut-cranberry-whole-wheat-crisps.html

Hello, To celebrate the Hazelnut Harvest which happens this time of year, I wanted to make some sweet rolls, using hazelnuts.

These are rolls made with Basic Sweet Dough. with Nut Filling, from Baking Artisan Pastries and Breads by Ciril Hitz.
This is a nice sweet dough recipe and includes some lemon zest for an added dimension of flavor.

Hazelnut flour was used in the filling, and the rolls were glazed (icing sugar + a decent measure of Frangelico liqueur
+ a bit of cream + a bit of pure vanilla extract + a teeny-tiny pinch of salt).

Hello, This Ciabatta is made using a double flour addition/double hydration technique, with thanks to SteveB - breadcetera!
Here's a link to SteveB's recipe and technique: http://www.breadcetera.com/?p=162

I did three stretch and folds during bulk fermentation (not following SteveB's instructions here!), thinking it might help add some air bubbles.
Apart from these S&F's and "gently" rolling the dough over onto the peel I tried not to handle the dough, for fear of degassing it. 

Hello, I've been wanting to make croissants for years. hansjoakim's recent post and getting a copy of Ciril Hitz's Baking Artisan Pastries and Breads spurred me into action.

Hello, I tried Mr. Hamelman's Baguettes with Poolish (half-recipe) again today. A big thank you to khalid who gave me some very useful comments after my first baguette post, which were a great help this time around. This time the baguettes were easier to score.
I am still hoping for more holes:
 

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving to those celebrating this weekend!
I tried shaping breads as Pumpkins for the occasion.

I tried this recipe first:
http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/10/16/world-bread-food-day/
substituting 75% stone-ground whole wheat and 25% bread flour for the high extraction flour,
substituting canned pumpkin for the sweet potato,
substituting flax seed for pumpkin seed

Hello, Here are my impressions of IBIE, attending as a "tourist" and non-professional. I was able to attend at the end of Tuesday and some of Wednesday and am overflowing with enthusiasm for the whole experience!

Thanks to proth5 for the exceptional day-by-day reporting on IBIE 2010, and to Sam Fromartz for his comments and photos:
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/blog/proth5
http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/19889/pictures-team-usa-lesaffre-competition

Hello,