occidental's blog

I ran across this post by CalBeachBaker of Jalapeno Cheese Bread a while ago and put it on my to bake list.  Yesterday was the day.  

I didn't make many baguettes for several years due to having a gas oven.  Then I got an oblong combo cooker which made them, along with batards, possible again with gas.  But now that I have an electric oven after ten years with gas I remember what I was missing.  These were baked on the stone with 5 ice cubes in a cast iron pan for steam.

I have not used spelt in the past, so I thought I'd give it a try.  I made up a sourdough formula that had 40% spelt, with 50% bread flour and 10% rye making up the rest.  Hydration was approximately 77%  The loaf turned out pretty good, the flavor was nothing distinct, tasted like a whole wheat loaf, with moderate rise and an average crumb.

If you have a favorite spelt recipe, let me know in a comment or link to it.  I have plenty of flour left and would like to explore using it in some other bakes.

We had charro beans (using Anasazi beans) on the menu and some cream cheese in the fridge we needed to use.  I came up with a "Chile Cream Cheese" sourdough to soak up some of the beans.  

I kept at the experimentation with the blue corn sourdough after using some in the community bake. This time around was a bit simpler approach.

I started with 100 grams of 100% hydration starter

I scalded 75 grams of blue corn flour with 150 grams of water (probably wasn't enough water in hindsight as this is a thirsty flour).

For this Community Bake of Infinity Bread bake I decided to use some blue corn from New Mexico that a friend gave me this summer.

I started by refreshing my sourdough starter with 25 grams whole wheat and 75 grams AP along with 100 grams of water.  Not long after I soaked 100 grams of sesame seeds in 175 grams of water.  

Once the starter reached peak bubbliness I mixed up the dough.

Dough Formula:

I made my first attempt at Hammelman's Olive Levain yesterday and am pleased with the result.  The formula calls for mixing in the olives on the low speed in your mixer once you are done kneading but that didn't work for me.  I dumped the whole mess out on the counter and worked in the olives by hand kneading.  I retarted the formed loaves for about 5 hours while out for an afternoon hike then baked it up  as the centerpiece for dinner.  The flavor is fantastic and the olives have infused their taste througout the loaf.  I think I'll be making this one again.

Wow, it's been a bit over a year since my last post.  Time to rectify that!  I baked my first loaf in 2012 a few days ago.  I meant to bake Susan's Simple Sourdough but after going by memory and adding too much water I had to improvise a bit to keep the overall hydration in the ballpark of what it should be.  Anyhow, the loaf turned out great, with a crackly crust and a fairly open crumb.  Best to all your baking efforts in 2012.

After reading several posts about Hammelman's Vermont sourdough with increased whole grain I decided to give it a try.  I've been impressed with my results from the basic Vermont Sourdough and this version didn't let me down either.  I found the errata sheet on the web here: ( http://mellowbakers.com/ErrataSheetJune2010.pdf ) and used those amounts to put the formula together.  I proofed one loaf in the kitchen (~67 degrees) and the other in the garage (~50 degrees) to account for the extra time the second loaf wou