I have not been very active here in many years, posting only occasionally in reply to member questions, and even more rarely to my own blog. Perhaps so much so that I may even appear to only talk the talk. I decided today that I should, if not change that, at least speak into the silence a little bit. So, I will tell you of my latest bake.
I love Jeffrey Hamelman's book Bread! It offers many recipes that could qualify as my favorite, so I just don't bother to choose. Often, what I bake is driven by how much time I have, and for Homemade Bread Day I did not have a lot of time. Because of that, I chose Country Bread. It uses a biga that provides 50% pre-fermented flour for flavor, but also includes only a short prep cycle that fit my schedule.
The book "Sourdough" by Sara Owens was a surprise gift in more ways than one earlier this year. First, I was not expecting it, had not asked for it, and in fact, did not know about it. Second, it has proven to be a wonderful, inspiring and tasty addition to my library! Others have already posted my favorite bread from the book, the Honey Oatmeal Spelt recipe, so I decided, finally, after what must be two years of lurking, baking, and silence since my last blog entry, to post something for once.
Well, it's been a while (about two years I think) since I last posted to my blog. Lots of irrelevant reasons for that, but last night's bake from the first edition of Jeffrey Hamelman's book BREAD inspired me to return. Time will tell if I can keep it up.
This is Take II because I actually baked this formula twice this week. The first time I used dark rye instead of white rye flour by mistake. The second time I got the flour right, but I may have done something else wrong. Both bakes are very tasty. Almost addictive to a giant sweet tooth like myself. Even though I baked it for what seemed like forever though, it still came out not quite done. Or, it came out something else I don't recognize. Here is the picture that explains it.
I have been reading with interest the postings by Andy (ananda) about his work with double levain breads. Until now I had not experimented with them, but I had a fully refreshed rye sour at hand. I have already baked a solid brick of a Russian Black bread with that sour, and whilst licking my wounds I have been looking for something a little less difficult to exercise my sours with. I'm not sure if double levain falls in that category or not, but at least it is not a 100% rye bread.
It seems that all that was required was to step back, breath deep, and allow time to create a little distance. As I started to bake this again my wife asked "So, what are you baking?". After I answered she asked "So, what are you going to do different?". I said "I'm going to bake this like I never saw it before and see what happens." She just smiled and left me to it.
I have learned a lot about my oven this fall. One of the most important things I learned, though, I just confirmed this weekend with this bake. I have feared since I finished the insulation layer that my oven was too thin-walled to hold enough heat for multiple bakes. I also suspected that perhaps I just was not "charging the heat battery" fully enough to make it last. This weekend was a test of this theory.
I said I was going to take a break and bake other things, and I am determined to follow through. We made our annual pilgrimage to Apple Hill in the Placerville area of California, USA this past Saturday. We go every year to buy fresh apples, eat too much apple pie, and enjoy the Fall season, mountain air, and fresh apples. With a half bushel of Stayman Winesap apples we brought home sitting in a corner in the kitchen, I had to bake Aunt Lillian's Apple Cake from Inside the Jewish Bakery. We are very glad I did, because this is really, really good!
My schedule cleared up enough that I could sneak in another test bake of this recipe last night. Based on yesterday's exchanges with Eric Hanner and MiniOven I made only a couple of adjustments from the previous bake, and in particular changed the rack and tile setup in my oven at Eric's suggestion. Here is a brief summary of this bake:
