…after watching a few videos from the Vito Iacopelli and Gluten Morgan YouTube channels. Having been reticent (or just lazy?) to explore much beyond my standard 100% hydration levains and poolish, the videos made a case for lower hydration pre-ferments.
…and when you make ice cream, you end up with a lot of unused egg whites. And when you have a lot of egg whites, @txfarmer’s super soft sourdough sandwich bread calls my name. So I whipped up 2.5 kg of her dough substituting buttermilk for her specified whole milk.
Claire Saffitz and Martin Philip both riffed on maritozzi recently, so I thought, why not? They are basically a brioche bun filled with a cream filling. I made some marscapone from the excess cream on the dairy shelf of the fridge and mixed it with vanilla flavored whipped cream. Following Clare’s lead, I soaked the brioche crumb with a vanilla-rum syrup. I found the prep to be a bit fussy. The final result was good but not great in my opinion. Those buns that got larger syrup infusions were significantly better than the more lightly-soaked ones which I found to be awfully bready.
Been on something of a viennoiserie jag lately brought on, of course, by the holidays, visitors and deliciousness. With 7 dozen croissant, 4 dozen kouign-amann and one chausson aux pommes under my belt (gonna need a new one if this keeps up), a few brainworms have been nibbling on my thoughts.
Finally got around to making bialys based on the King Arthur recipe. I've always loved the bialys they used to make at the Mendocino Bakery which has since changed hands several times and had sadly disappeared from the menu on our last visit early in the Covid epoch. I will be looking for them when we visit again in a few months. In the meantime, these came out just great so we won't go without.
Back in February, when @DanAyo posted about his experiences with an unexpected (by me, anyway) style of enriched sourdough posted by @txfarmer in 2011, I decided to give it a try.
A few days ago, @pul posted some lovely pics of creamy, yellow semola loaves that reminded me of the community bake of a year or so ago and my good results from that exploration. ...which got me ruminating and scheming on following @pul's lead.
So down the rabbit hole of @dmsnyder's, @Franko's and @dabrownman's meanderings on Pane Tipo Altamura I dropped, deciding eventually to follow @pul's lead with a few modifications.
A few months ago, Jack Sturgess mentioned that a breadstick challenge stumped most of the British Bake Off contestants. I happened to be making a batch of ciabatta at the time, so I thought, why not dedicate some of the dough to breadsticks. The results were pretty good and we love a crunchy snack with our nightly glass or two of wine. Anyway, after 4 passes, I think I finally have a repeatable process that produces attractive, munchable grissini.
