CAphyl's blog

I wanted to try a seeded sourdough with a flax seed soaker, so i found the recipe below.  I made a number of variations along the way, due to preference and timing.  I noted the changes I made at the right of the original recipe.I wanted more of a whole wheat loaf, so I changed the recipe to add much more whole wheat and used a whole wheat starter. My husband and I really enjoyed the result.  It was crusty, but chewy, and the seeds inside really added a lot of tangy taste to the loaf.

Baked another Tartine loaf with increased hydration, looking for the perfect crumb (which, of course, can never be achieved!)  We had this loaf for lunch with my husband's sister and her husband, Bob the baker from England.  They leave today, so we enjoyed lunch outside in the California sun.  Bob gave the bread passing marks. They return to Liverpool (and a bit of rain) this afternoon.  They did have rain here and in Las Vegas during their visit.

I am always trying to get bigger holes, so I experimented with a bit more hydration.  The stakes were high as my sister-in-law and brother-in-law are visiting from England, and Bob was a baker for more than 30 years!

They seemed to enjoy it.  We had lunch outside on the patio.  The crumb was good, but I am always looking to improve.

I was inspired by John, Song of the Baker, and his recent post showcasing an olive bread with lemon zest and herbes. de Provence.  I used my usual Tartine recipe (below) that I found online, but took John's suggestion and added more lemon zest (I used the zest of a whole lemon), marinated kalamata olives and green olives and added a tablespoon of the Herbes de Provence.  I also used the juice from the olives that had garlic, olive oil and more herbs.

I usually don't make a lot of sweets, but I did so today. Cheated in that I did not make the pastry dough.  I did make the Tartine bread today, and that was from scratch!  The mini-pie tarts are stuffed with chocolate (Nutella) and cherry preserves and covered in a pink glaze with red sparkly sugar.  Very easy.

Bread friends:  I am very excited about my second Tartine loaf.  As you may recall, my first one was nice, but I was disappointed with the crumb.  I just took this out of the oven, so will cut it later when it cools.  I actually started in on Wednesday and then forgot that I had to be out quite a lot yesterday, so I had my husband do a number of the turns for me.  Let's hope our joint effort is one to be proud of!  Phyllis

I divided a Multi-Grain loaf and baked the first one and froze the other late last year.  This is the frozen loaf. I defrosted it and then did a series of stretch-and-folds, adding water along the way as the dough was dry.

I just took this out of the oven, and hoping that

when we cut it for lunch I will see excellent crumb.  I was pleased that there was good oven spring on this one, so I do have my hopes up.  I experimented a bit on this loaf and used more white flour than wheat, as was called for in the recipe.  I also made enough for two loaves, so I froze this dough.

Had to make some muffins today to share with friends.  I usually make them with sourdough, but didn't today.  It's a good recipe; I added the toasted almonds to it because I always love muffins with both fruit and nuts. I got the blood oranges from the farmer's market on Sunday.

It is very exciting.  I have always wanted to bake a Tartine loaf and now I have done it. There certainly were trials along the way.  I weighed out the ingredients and just felt it was too much water.  The dough hydration seemed high, so I had to add some flour during the turn-and-folds.  It seemed to work out OK in the end.  I also did more turn-and-folds to get the dough to where I thought it would work. I am very anxious to see the crumb.