GSnyde's blog

A lovely weekend on the North Coast of California. 

First, the Fauna.  Our yard seems to be the pasture of choice for our neighborhood herd of Mule Deer.  And the herd has grown in the last few weeks.  We’ve seen at least three new babies (we refer to them, collectively, as “The Fonz”).  And the young buckeroos were particularly rowdy this weekend.  After the pictures below were taken, a large group assembled not 20 yards from our porch (perhaps drawn by the smell of Focaccia buns baking; more likely by the dandelions in bloom).

Why not?  I know rye bread is traditional.  But when one’s spouse doesn’t care much for rye bread, and suggests Challah, what is one to do?  Easy answer:  make Challah.

It has been several months since I made baguettes.   I had promised myself I would do a multi-week baguette experiment and compare different formulas and build my technique. But life intervened.  I’ve been very busy at work, and there never seems to be time for baking all the breads I want to bake.

This weekend, I departed from my cheese bread experiments to try again a wonderful tasting bread from Hamelman.  The Whole Wheat Multi-grain is a sourdough with about 50% whole wheat, a taste of honey and the baker’s choice of other grains and seeds.  Some day I want to try it with cracked wheat, but I couldn’t find any.

After last week’s delicious experiment, today I tried another version of Asiago Bread.  This time I used my San Francisco Country-er Sourdough (15% whole wheat and 15% dark rye).

I hadn’t made Hamelman’s Pain au Levain with Whole Wheat for a while.  I remember that bread as one of the best I’ve ever made.  I made up the levain last night, and mixed the dough this morning, and then went to the grocery.  There, I began to crave cheese bread.  So I bought some nice dry, sharp Asiago.

Today I baked some bagels.  Again, I used a variation on Stan's Krakowski formula made famous in the Wall Street Journal, except I used 25% Bread Flour and 75% Sir Lancelot, and shaped them without the twist.  They were great.  My sister loved them.  And my wife (who shaped most of them) paid them the ultimate compliment: "Just like the bagels at Russ & Daughters".