Isand66's blog

I just returned from the annual Thanksgiving pilgrimage to North Carolina and needed to make some bread.  I refreshed my trusty AP starter and decided to incorporate some of my freshly milled and sprouted whole wheat flour with some Durum flour and some good old KAF Bread flour.

The results are in and this one is a keeper.  A nice moist and open crumb with the nutty taste of Durum along with the unique flavor of the Sprouted Whole Wheat really makes this one worth baking and eating.

 I needed to take a break from baking and eating rye bread .  I was in the mood for a nice lighter loaf and since I had some leftover sweet potatoes and roasted fingerling potatoes along with some caramelzied onions the rest fell into place very easily.

I used a combination of European style flour from KAF (you can substitutes bread flour or AP along with about 5% white whole wheat), Durum flour and a little First Clear.

Who knew there were so many different styles of rye bread?  This is just the third week of testing and I am continued to be amazed and impressed by the recipes in the new yet to be published book on international rye breads.

This week's breads included one from Poland called Wroclaw Trencher bread which is meant to used as a plate to hold your meal.  This was by far the most sour tasting of any of the breads to date and would go great with a nice beef stew.

This is my third attempt of the Pain Au Levain formula from Peter Reinhart's new book "Bread Revolution".

The first 2 did not come out correctly.  I now suspect the main culprit was that I did not dry out the sprouted winter wheat berries enough and the flour was too moist.  This time I let it dry out using a fan for a day and half and the bread came out much better.

This is the fourth recipe I have been asked to test from the upcoming Rye Bread baking book by Stan Ginsberg.  This one was much different than the first three.  It ended up being pretty simple to make and the final bread had a very tender crumb and soft crust with a nice mild tang to it.

This is the third recipe I have been asked to test from the upcoming Rye Bread baking book by Stan Ginsberg.  The beer is not too overpowering and the crumb is fairly moist for this hydration level of bread.  Overall a nice rye bread that makes a nice sandwich with some pastrami or corned beef.

The other night for dinner I decided to use the left-over pizza dough I made last week and make some calzones.  The pizza dough is similar to my normal one using mostly type 00 Caputo flour mixed with about 10% whole wheat.  I ran out of Caputo so I actually used around 20% Caputo along with some AP flour, potato flour and whole wheat and I added some Asiago cheese just for the fun of it.

 This is the second recipe I have been asked to test.  It is very different than the first one and has an interesting shaping technique utilizing natural scoring. 

I am honored to be participating as a recipe tester for Stan Ginsberg's upcoming bread book featuring rye breads.  We are not legally allowed to share or discuss the actual recipes we are testing, but fortunately we can at least wet your appetite with some photos.

I really loved the way the first version of this bread came out but I wanted to change it slightly and see if I could make it even better.

The only changes I made was to build the levain using Durum flour in a 2 step build.  I also used garlic infused olive oil instead of plain olive oil.  I also used a new proofing basket I just purchased which fit the amount of dough produced perfectly.

The results were excellent.  I like the flavor and creamy texture the increased durum starter imparted on the final bread.