CrustyJohn's blog

I've long been yearning to bake a nice perfectly rectangular rye loaf.  Earlier this year I finally bought a pullman loaf pan, but since starting to use it, I've discovered it's not so simple as just baking a loaf in such a pan.  Thus far the rye loaves I've baked in it have stopped their rises just a little short of the rim, thus resulting in a slightly domed top.  On the other end of the spectrum, a wheat loaf blew the lid off the top.  There's nothing wrong with rounded tops, but I wanted the Nordic esthetic.  I realized it's important to get the dough volume rig

Normally the loaves I record here are the successful one.  There are plenty of so-so loaves that don't offer too much to dwell on worth writing about.  And then there are the total disaster loaves.

I haven't been logging loaves as much recently in part because I don't have easy internet access but also because I haven't been doing too much different.

  I found a handful of chanterelles the day before I wad planning to bake, so that became the inspiration for this one.  For whatever reason the ones I've found this year don't seem to have much flavor, but it's still fun to throw them in.  Olives are always a nice savory addition.

450g loaf

I came across this purple sticky rice while stocking up on some pantry dry goods recently.  I've never heard of it before, but it has a nice rich flavor, and I've enjoyed working it into my recent breads.  

My first go-round was a 50-50 white/whole wheat loaf 

I think amounts were about

200g Maine Grains hard red spring whole wheat

200g KA special patent 

~3tsp salt

50g starter

@ 80% hydration I think

I    've been interested in really dialing in on making a nice whole wheat loaf this year, hoping to get to a point where I can consistently make a loaf that has enough of an airy texture + richness of whole wheat to make white flour less relevant in my repertoire.  I've had some good starts that I documented here, but I recently had a really satisfying breakthrough loaf, that I think pretty well meets my criteria for success, so I'll give it a post of its own.

      I've been interested in making nice airy-ish, free-form loaves with all or substantially whole wheat flour for a few years, but I kind of put that on the back burner for a while.  I've gotten a lot better sense of gauging fermentation as well as experimenting with cooked or soaked grain or porridge add-ins the past two years.  I think it's time now to return to whole wheat loaves.  I think my baking goal for this year will be to 1. Learn to make an airy, well-shaped 100% whole wheat loaf 2.

Basically a second go-round with my loaf earlier this year except that I was lazy with the polenta- instead of doing the whole saccharification process, I just microwaved it.  

King Arthur bread flour- 360g (80%)

Bob's Red Mill whole wheat flour- 90g (20%)

water- 340g (75%)

starter- 50g (11%)

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salt- ~3 tsp

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45g Cateto Orange polenta from Redtail Grains

150g water

tbsp Rag & Frass Farm cane syrup

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      Well, 9/40ths Rye to be exact, but that doesn't roll off the tongue so well.  I haven't had rye flour on hand in a while, so I've been wanting to do a partial rye loaf for a while.  I did a full rye loaf two weeks back, which was tasty but a whole different beast.

The farm I worked for this year sold at a farmers market in Atlanta at which a small bakery, Osono Bread, sold very good bread but, more importantly, top-notch cream-filled doughnuts.  I've been wanting to attempt something akin to them this whole year.  I finally got around to it for Christmas morning!

After taking a go at an olive polenta loaf a few weeks ago, I wanted to try the saccharification process highlighted by Benny in his loaf that's currently featured on the homepage.  I didn't have diastatic malt powder on hand, so I used honey as it's supposed to also have amylase.  The polenta definitely seemed a little sweeter after the process, but then again, I added honey to it, so it's a little hard to attribute the source of the change.  Pretty straightforward approach otherwise.