HeiHei29er's blog

The list of bakes from other TFL'ers I want to do keeps piling up, so I decided to start trying a few of them.  First up on the list was Benny's swirl milk bread.  Didn't execute it as well as the master, but didn't come out too bad for the first attempt.  :-)  Followed the method exactly as outlined in the post link below.  Only change...  I did not have black sesame seeds, so opted for black chia seeds.  I couldn't find a purple sweet potato, but I found a Garnet yam, and the color from the yam held nicely.

Tried a new method on a standard bake for me with the best results so far (on the outside anyway).  Beginner's Luck?  Will have to see if I can repeat it.

When it comes to folds and shaping, I kind of feel like I'm all thumbs.  When to fold?  Which fold to do?  How hard to stretch? How hard to degas? Which pre-shape? Etc.  Skills I need to develop, but I'm not very consistent yet.

Had planned to try a white sandwich loaf with 10% barley flour today, but my copy of Rheinhart's "Whole Grain Breads" arrived yesterday.  Skimming through it and his section on mashes caught my eye.  What could make better mash than barley?  :-)

I wanted to push my learning curve a little bit on this bake and used Benny's recent bake as my template.  This one turned into a definite learning curve.

Did a variation on my regular recipe.  Swapped out all the WW for a mix of AP/Bread flour.  With all the non (low) gluten flours and the soaker, it's hard to keep this recipe from spreading flat when doing a free standing loaf.  This time I tried it with a round and seam side up.  I think it helped the loaf hold its shape with no score.  Spread just a bit on one side, but overall not too bad!

The request for a loaf to go with dinner tomorrow was "something Italian".  So...  Semolina Pain au Levain bake #2.

This one went well and was easier than the first one.  I didn't worry quite so much about degassing while rolling in the toasted sesame seeds, and I think I got them on better.

My wife asked if I could make a soft sandwich bread for this weekend, so I did another round of my Pullman pan test loaf.  Just increased the size of the loaf.

For the levain, I used a combination of Raisin Yeast Water and little bit of mother starter in the build.  So...  I guess we'll call it a sour poolish.  :-)

I've been thinking about learning to make ciabatta buns for pulled pork sandwiches this summer.  I've never made ciabatta or buns, so decided to try it for the No Comfort Zone Community Bake.  In addition to the new bread and shaping, it's the first time I've used a white flour at higher than 70% hydration, which was a whole new set of challenges too!

Long week at work and wanted to do a simple bake to start the weekend before trying my Go Out of Your Comfort Zone CB tomorrow.  I got this recipe from Abe, and it works really well.  Has room for flexibility on the flour selection.  I just got a bag of barley flour in, so I added some of that into the mix this time.  First time using barley flour with an AP/Bread flour base (have only used it with WW before this), and the aroma of the barley definitely comes through more on the finished bread.

I've been tweaking this recipe a little each bake and narrowing it down to a method that works for me.  Have tried it as sourdough, but I like it better with raisin yeast water.  The toasted buckwheat really comes through, and I've slowly reduced the amount so it doesn't overpower everything else.  Have tried it as both a hearth loaf and a pan loaf, but it's really working better for me as a pan so far.  It's hard to keep good strength with the non gluten flours and the inclusions, so the hearth loaves tend to flatten more than rise.  Today, I tried Dan's loaf pan m