Isand66's blog

I was reading someone elses post the other day and they commented that they were using a smoked flour for their next bake.  I love just about anything smoked...ribs, brisket, chicken...you name it as far as I'm concerned it tastes better after smoking with some wood.  Unfortunately the flour in question is only available in England and Amazon UK will not ship to the USA, so I figured the n

I just received my new order from KAF the other day and was dying to try some of my new flours I ordered.  I wasn't too happy though when I received an email the day after it arrived telling me how excited I should be about the KAF 20% off sale!

I was inspired to try adding some balsamic vinegar into one of my breads after reading about Karen Hanseata's Wild Rice bread on the Fresh Loaf this past week.  I have some cherry balsamic  that I love using so I was curious to see if it would have any affect on the taste of my bread.

My first intention was to make some hamburger and hot dog buns, but as usual I couldn't resist the temptation to be more creative.  These rolls really didn't turn out ideal for its original purpose, but they do taste real good none the less.

Now that I finally made the famous Phil's 100% Whole Wheat Desem bread I figured it was time to push the envelope and put my own twist on it.  I love onions so I added some toasted onions and figured I would try to mix up the flour a bit by adding a small percentage of Quinoa and Barley flour.  Both of these flours impart a nice nutty flavor to the dough along with the toasted wheat germ I

I had some leftover sweet potatoes from dinner the other night and after refreshing my starter I decided it was time to concoct something new and different.

I've been wanting to try my hand at making Phil's 100% Whole Wheat Desem bread since it sounded so simple but yet so good.  I had started preparing the Desem starter a while ago but had to abandon it when I went away for business.  I was not thrilled with the way it was turning out anyway so it wasn't a great loss.

I've made similar bread with cheese and potatoes before, but this time I added  some Durum Semolina flour to the starter and I smoked a sweet Vidalia onion and some baby red potatoes as well.

I like to work with fairly high hydration doughs and this was no exception coming in at 75% hydration.

This recipe comes courtesy of David Snyder who posted his adaptation here.

I have posted about other rye breads I have tried making previously and I have to say all of them including this one have come out pretty good.  The big difference in this recipe is that all of the rye flour is added into the rye sour and the dough is fairly high hydration compared to the other ones I have made.

It's great to be back home from my 11 day trip to China for business.  I couldn't wait to get home to my wife and my 5 kitty cats.  We recently adopted another furball named Cleopatra and she has lived up to her name taking over the household like she's been with us forever.