Isand66's blog

 I wanted to make a fairly uncomplicated bread with a good portion of spelt flour and while I was at it I decided to add some walnuts since I love nuts and my new apprentice Max is quite the nut as well.

My wife picked up some chocolate infused olive oil on close-out at William Sonoma so I figured that along with some chocolate vinegar would be a good compliment to the mix of nutty flours along with the walnuts.  I'm not sure you really end up tasting too much chocolate flavor but it did add some nice chocolate undertones to the final bread.

   This bread was inspired by my friend and fellow TFL member, Khalid.  His beautiful bread was a 100% whole wheat version using yeast while for my version I chose to convert the recipe to sourdough and used three different whole grain flours instead of one.

I decided to use my trusty Krups coffee grinder to make fresh ground flour for the entire recipe and I was quite happy with the results.

I used a 2 step build for the starter mixing Einkorn Ancient Whole Wheat with a Hard White Whole Wheat.

  It's been a few weeks since my last post.  I've been very busy, traveling to Costa Rica on vacation which was amazing and upon my return we added another family member to our pack.  I am happy to introduce Max who is our new 9 month mixed breed puppy.

This was supposed to be a 36 hour sourdough but I got stuck in my favorite airport O'Hare for about 4 hours longer than expected and didn't get home until 1:30 AM.  Due to the extra hours in the refrigerator and the blueberry beer I used this one ended up real sour.

I wanted to make a mostly whole grain bread and this one came in at around 72%.  I used freshly ground flour for the levain and for the main dough I added some First Clear for some gluten strength and Durum because it's one of my favorite flours.

My wife made some Sangria for the 4th of July and had a ton of fresh blueberries and raspberries left over so I decided to use some of them up.  My fellow baking friend Evon inspired this bake with her use of blue berries, cherries and cranberries in her recent sourdough breads.

We bought some chicken Buffalo style sliders the other day so I wanted to make some tasty buns to go with them.  The buns needed to be hearty enough to hold the burgers and the fixings as well as soft enough like a hamburger bun needs to be.

I adapted a recipe from KAF and made several changes including the flour types and changes and additions in several ingredients.  I added some dried onions and some Parmesan powder to give it a little extra flavor and just enough honey to round out the flavor profile.

  A couple of nights ago I grilled some ripe plantains brushed with some olive oil and sprinkled with some cinnamon sugar.  As you can imagine it tasted amazing and I could have eaten the whole thing all by itself.  Luckily I managed a small amount of self-control and saved enough to use in a bread.

I have made a plantain bread in the past, but this time I used a completely different flour mix and ingredient list and I have to say it couldn't have come out any better.

Cheese....the next best thing to bread.

   I have made several variations of breads with cherries with different formulas and flour combinations.  While several of them were very good, none of them really tasted exactly like I was craving.  I wanted a soft tender crumb with a strong cherry flavor without being overpowering.

Well since the last few bakes have been very white I started to feel the Force draining and I was being pulled towards the Dark Side!  This bread is a 70% whole grain power-house made with a soaker which I scalded to make sure it was nice and soft.  I used 5 different whole grains in the scald and 3 whole grain flours plus some French style flour in the double starters and main dough.