kendalm's blog

happy thanksgiving !

Been a little while since I made these - getting better at keeping them down in the mold - half this batch stayed down thr other half popped up. No idea why !

Fry something of course - two somewhat cruller looking crullers - these are #5 and 6. First four got consumed already.  I been a little worried my oven is going to explode since it caught on fire recently and so couldn't resist mixing up a quick choux and crafting a makeshift piping nozzle out of a plastic mini containers. Turned out ok - better than sulking all day - happy baking and thank the powers if you haven't killed your oven ;)

Baking when your environment is 10-15F warmer is just no ok sometimes - 30 minute proofing give you just enough time to prep - i want 68F ambient back please - Blech ! These are my yeast on salt hypothesis -> experiment as a corollary to Abe's recent proving that starters don't give a hoot if salt is introduced - yeast was on fire today.

These actually turned out ok ! Dealing with a 80 degree kitchen does not help in the least - I usually do these when it's closer to 68-70F which affords a lot more time to work the dough and butter. Strategy today was to employ some freezer time and just hustle. By the time shaping came around dough is pretty soft and very hard to manage. Shaved off a few grams of yeast and final proof for only one hour as opposed to 1.5-2 - it is possible !

My poor little oven is dying a slow death. It no longer gets above 500f - this bake took 25 minutes - a good bake for long baguettes should be 20 max preferably 18. Result, disappointing pop, but fortunately decent structure on the inside. Dark on the bottom and thicker tougher crust. This mix was rather low and slow on yeast getting about 1.5 volume overnight on cold retard had these puppies been given a bit more kick i am sure they'd be fantastic ... Quelle dommage !

I just recently received a shipment of T65 Moulin D'Auguste which is my go to flour for baguettes. I'll usually breeze thought 30lbs in a couple of months and then restock. with each shipment there's usually a slight difference in the way the flour performs. This shipment however has thrown me for a bit of a loop. First thing I noticed was the usual 72% hydration was incredibly sticky - felt like 80+% and was near impossible to score. A few bakes later and I've found that 65-66% feels about 'normal'.

Greeting - been a little while since I posted thanks to being busier than normal but thought I'd drop a snap of a mixed bake - bread and croissants. This sure does challenge your timing skills and this time ended up with really nice crumb on the baguettes but a little overproofed croissants - no big deal - still pretty edible.

As several other member's have bit the Abel bug I thought it's about time to give it a shot. This was a half ditched effort since I couldn't locate my loaf tins and so had to go free form. Not disappointed, thos of course was an unfocused experiment more-or-less just to see how it would turn out as a side bake against croissants with more attention to the croissants.