Isand66's blog

  I’ve been staring at the bottle of Baileys we bought during the holidays on top of my refrigerator all week.  I’ve been trying to lose some weight so drinking it was not an option.  Using it in a bread….now that could work!

   Fresh milled durum and potatoes make a great combination.  I added some high extraction fresh milled whole wheat and a little KAF bread flour as well.

I was very happy with how this one turned out.  The crumb was moderately open and you can really taste the nutty flavor of the durum and clean flavor from the whole wheat.  The potatoes add a nice softness to the crumb.  

This a perfect bread to mop up some homemade sauce and it makes some great grilled bread.

    I have not baked a porridge bread in a while and it was time to try a new one. I love the malty flavor adding Guinness to bread imparts. I decided to use some of the Harvest Grain mix I had purchased during my last trip to King Arthur Flour in Vermont.  It’s a mix of whole oat berries, millet, rye flakes, and wheat flakes and four seeds (flax, poppy, sesame, and sunflower).

I made the porridge with the Harvest Grain mix and added some yogurt in place of some of the water to add some additional creaminess to the dough.

  Nothing like using fresh milled rye and green corn!  At the last moment I decided to add some 100% cherry juice in place of the some of the water and it really added a wonderful flavor to the overall bread.

I may have over proofed this one, but all in all it came out with a nice flavorful crust and open crumb. 

 It made for a great pastrami sandwich with melted muenster cheese.

Formula

   This is a pretty simple durum semolina style sourdough bread made with high extraction home milled durum and Big Country whole wheat from Barton Spring Mills.  The added egg yolks add a nice extra kick of moisture and flavor.

   Who doesn’t like a good English Muffin…toasted with butter or cream cheese?  Nobody that I know of or at least admits to it!  

I’ve made English Muffins many times with varying degrees of success and I have to say this formula is by far my favorite.  It’s adapted from a version I found on King Arthur Flour but with many changes.

 I wanted to try  another new grain I purchased from Barton Springs Mill called Butler’s Gold Whole Wheat.  The whole wheat berries are harvested from a small farm in Texas.  It’s supposed to be a good neutral flavored whole wheat perfect for mixing with other stronger flours.  I decided to use this exclusively and only mixed it with a small amount of BF.  I did use KAF BF in the Levain so overall it ended up being a  50% WW bread.  I milled the Butler’s Gold berries to a high extraction sifting and milling twice.

   I recently purchased a new (old) ancient grain from Barton Springs Mill called Quanha.  You can get more information by pressing on the link if you are interested.  I milled this to a high extraction sifting and milling twice and added this to high extraction freshly milled Durum flour.

   I’ve made breads in the past using Guinness but I have to say this version by far was the best one yet.  I combined fresh milled rye, spelt and whole wheat which were all sifted to a high extraction.  I added some mashed potatoes with a little bit of honey and some olive oil for good measure.

A double build was used for the levain but you could easily just do one build if you desire.

    This is a nice 46% freshly milled Durum bread with some bread flour.  I added some egg yolks for some additional flavor and moisture and a little honey for sweetness.

All and all it came out very nice with the nutty durum flavor coming through.  It made excellent grilled bread with some brushed olive oil and melted fresh mozzarella on top.

I topped one of the loaves with black sesame seeds which is one of my favorites.