Isand66's blog

     My wife asked me to make a simple Pumpernickel bread to bring to my Nieces birthday party this past Saturday.  She wanted to stuff it with her Sour Cream Spinach Dip and I didn't have a lot of time since she asked me Friday afternoon.

Bacon, Potatoes and Cheese....what else do I need to say?  Throw those golden ingredients together with some flour, water and starter and let it ferment for a couple of days and you have as tasty a loaf as you're going to get.

I hadn't made any bread using the 36 hour technique in a while so I figured it was time to give it a go again.  I used the last of my KAF French style flour mixed with some freshly ground whole wheat and some KAF Durum flour to round it out.

  One of my favorite breads is my Sourdough Date Bread which was inspired by my good friend Khalid.  Since I recently picked up some fresh dates from the supermarket the other day I figured it was time to try it again but with some slight modifications.

   For those of you old enough to remember Mel's Diner, this bread pays homage to Flo who was happy to tell you to "Kiss My Grits" as she deemed necessary.

   This past weekend my wife and I visited one of our favorite supermarkets, Fairway Market which has a great selection of cheeses, fresh sour pickles, grains, meats etc.  I picked up some pearled barley and this great tasting cheddar like cheese called Double Gloucester which they were doing a free sampling.  I had some left-over mashed potatoes and caramelized onions, so naturally these needed to be incorporated into a bread.  Who doesn't like potatoes, cheese and onions?

   I wanted to make a Semolina bread for my Father-in-law to take back home with him to North Carolina so I figured he would enjoy a porridge version.  I've been making some version of porridge bread a lot lately since I love the creamy and moist crumb you get from using this technique.

I created a starter using AP flour and Semolina flour and in the main dough I also added some Kamut flour.

 I love challenge bakes and thanks to Karin from Brot and Bread and TFL we had plenty of fun with this one.  I won't repeat the background of this famous German Knight, but I will tell you that my apprentices Max and Lexi as well as Mookie were more inclined to bake a bread fit for the Black Knight who tried preventing King Arthur from continuing his quest for the Holy Grail.  I had to explain to them that unfortunately the Black Knigh

 These are by far the best hot dog rolls I have made yet.  I wanted to make a nice soft and fluffy hot dog bun without resorting to intensive kneading so I used my last version of these buns and added cream cheese to soften it up.  I also increased the % of Semolina and reduced the Caputo 00 flour.

To compensate for the 55% water content in the cream cheese I decreased the water in the overall dough but the water content for the cream cheese is not taken into consideration for the overall hydration of the dough.

   I'm really loving the whole porridge in bread thing.  Last week I adapted the original version to my own technique and it came out great, so now I figured it was time to get some more whole grain goodness into this formula.

  I love these rolls which were inspired by a recipe adapted from Karin Hanseata's blog.  The first time I made them I changed a few things but mostly stuck to the original formula per this post.