Casey_Powers's blog

Well, this was fun!  It is nice to bake and have something to show for it in the same day!  The house smelled wonderful.  My boys and my husband's work benefitted from my labor of cinnamon roll love.  Notice that one giant end spiral. I knew it would not be mine but I hoped.  I think my oldest son or husband got that one fairly early. 

This was my ode to my man!  I thought "hey these guys eat japaleno popcorn all day. I am going to send in some salami and spicy cheesy goodness!" I am picturing a home improvement Urrr Urrr Urrr sound coming from men as they take huge chunks of bread and taste that primal combo.  Well primal, maybe not there are no wild meats. However,  We have a wild woman, some wild yeast spicy cheese, and meat.  Let it begin!

I really like the look of the rustic banneton.  It also makes (in my humble opinion) my boules easier to move.  They feel more firm.  The boule with the C is a total natural seem opening.  Not bad, it almost looks like I placed a C on my boule myself.  Well, when I do 4 boules with 2 bannetons it does provide options for those that may prefer one to the other. 

Warm Regards,

Casey

Here is what appears a normal proofing Struan.  However, I encountered a few issues.  The soaker never soaked up and turned into a stiff dough like Reinhart showed in his picture.  It remained like a watered down oatmeal.  I had some brown rice, quinoa, and  kasha mix in the fridge.  I added that and  enough wheat flour to make a somewhat dough consistency.

This was a huge success.  The boys ate this up.  What wasn't to like?  Red wine salami and provolone cheese made this a once in a great while recipe.  This Casatiello came from Reinhart's BBA.

This was my first addition experience.  I thought I would take a bit of risk and go for something savory.  I think this was so tasty!  I added 120g of toasted pecans and 105g of the Tillamok Sharp Cheddar.  I used 125G WW and 675g KA AP flour, 360g of my Levain.  The retard was 8 hours.

Here is 1 of 4 pizzas I made.  This one had cherry tomatoes and basil from the garden.  The nitrate free pepperidge farms jalapeño and Monterrey Jack cheese gourmet grillers added a level of spice.  I made a modified puttanesca Sauce for my pizza.  This was really good.  The boys are Hawaiian pizza guys so they had their own.

This is the same 675 AP and  125 WW Pain de Campagne I have been making.  However, this dough had a different feel all together.  Again, never throw out what could be a disaster.  This was proofed in a regular bowl instead of my standard banneton.  I am not used to a bowl I suppose.  The dough was more stiff than usual and appeared a little lumpy.  The proof looked weird.  It did not have a nice rounded bump when I removed it from the fridge.

Unfortunately, the site will turn my photos upside down.  I think there is a Mac issue.  This is my 5 AM Double fed sweet Levain.  It is a 9.5 hour retard compared to a 12-14 hour.  The crumb is very moist and airy

I adjusted the wheat to 125g and the AP 675g to have more wheat And to make up for not having rye flour. They proofed for 5 hours on the counter and in the fridge for 9 hours.  I got a nice rise.  I was afraud I had over proofed my dough.  I will never throw out dough just in case it surprises me, and it usually does.

Warm regards,

Casey