Isand66's blog

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.

    This recipe is adapted from the book "Inside the Jewish Bakery" by Stanley Ginsberg and Norman Berg.  The original recipe is a straight dough made with yeast and I changed it up to use a white sourdough starter.

Bialys are mainly a New York kind of thing, and if you have never had one you owe it to yourself to bake some and you will never look back.

Most of the breads I bake need to rest 1 to 2 hours before eating, but with these you can feel free to slather on some butter or cream cheese when they just come out of the oven.

      I was in the mood for a nice Durum loaf and figured I would use the Tangzhong method to lighten it up a bit.  I've used this method for rolls several times but not on an actual loaf.

I have to say this simple recipe turned out amazing with a nice thin crust and moist and open crumb.  This is one of those breads you can just eat with some butter or cheese or olive oil and call it a day.

I highly recommend you give this one a try.  It makes great toast, grilled bread and sandwiches or goes well with some "Italian Gravy"!