Mebake's blog

There are times when I stare at my pantry and decide to be creative and use leftover flours in bread, this is one of those times.

I had some Whole spelt flour, and Whole wheat flour, and therefore decided to use both in a 50% wholegrain sourdough hearth bread. I made up a formula that benefits from my ripe White liquid starter, here it is:

Preferment:

Bread Flour: 188 g

Water: 188 g

White Starter: 1.5 Tbl

Dough:

Whole Wheat Flour: 280 g

Whole Spelt Flour: 120 g

All Purpose Flour: 251 g

Last week, I wanted to bake something different. I also wanted to bake something light and soft, yet healthy for the kids sandwiches to school. I browsed through the books, and remembered that i had not prepared any preferment, so naturally i headed to Hamelman's book and right into the straight dough section. I have not made the oatmeal bread, so oatmeal bread it was.

Yesterday, i was meaning to bake Hansjoakim's (a TFL member) Pain au levain with Rye sour, but changed my plans at the last moment. I stared at the Ripe Rye sour sitting in the bowl and thought of possible alternatives to my intitial recipe. I wanted a 100% wholegrain bread so I browsed through the bread books i have and found that most recipes needed a soaker of some kind, which i had none. I decided to improvise and bake some bread with my whole wheat and whole rye flours.

It has been a while since i have posted any thread, baked any bread, or joined in any conversation with the TFL community. 3 months have elapsed since the day i had my spine fused, and i now feel good, and have recuperated enough to be able to bake bread again.The bread shown is one of my favorites: Hamleman's Whole Wheat Multigrain.

As far as pain, it is mild, yet tolerable. I have removed the brace now, so i can bend easily.

Dear TFL'ers

I'm on an obligatory pause from baking, as i've underwent a spinal fusion Surgery in my lower back. Can't bake nothing now, nor bend forward... It is a dead pause for 3 months at least!  I'm bound to this dreadful back brace, so the only bread related activity i'll do is watch TFL, and learn more, take it easy, and enjoy some time in some personal reflection (remembering how vulnerable we are as humans, and that without God's mercy and grace, we are helpless).

Recently, I have been limiting myself to a weekly baking routine, as I nurse my back after the spinal Steroid injection. I have been on and off TFL, viewing other members’ posts, and drawing inspiration from their contributions.

Having baked a Volkornbrot from Hamelman last week, I wanted something lighter, and the oblack olives sitting in a corner of my fridge was I all the nudge I needed to choose Olive levain. I have baked this recipe last year, and did not care much for its flavor, but this time, I decided to give it another go.

This is an illustration i made of shaping a Sandwich loaf, that i wanted to share with you all.

Khalid

This is my third take on Peter Reinhart’s Multigrain Struan from his excellent book” “Whole grain breads”. My first two bakes were on stone, but this one is in a Pan. I have made few changes:

1 – Doubled the recipe to fit two Pans: 1kg, and 700 gr. (The loaf shown is the 1 Kg)

2 – Used only white sourdough starter for the Biga.

2 – Added 113g White Bread flour to the final dough, not whole Wheat flour.

Nothing new here, my old favorite: Hamelman’s Whole-wheat multigrain.  This time, though, and as I have come to appreciate sourdough preferments, as opposed to yeasted ones; I chose to skip the Instant yeast altogether. I have also chosen a new collection of grains for my hot soaker: Rolled oats, millet, Semolina,  and sunflower seeds.

I’ve always wanted to try Laurel’s Whole wheat buns, and last weekend I had the chance to try one. I’ve chosen the feather Puff recipe, which is an enriched 100% whole wheat bread from the book: (Laurel's Kitchen bread book: a guide to whole grain breadmaking). The recipe calls for  eggs, honey, butter, cottage cheese, and good deal of kneading (15 minutes kneading at least), and makes for wonderfully light buns (for whole wheat, that is!).I had no cottage cheese, and decided to do without it altogether.