Sjadad's blog

Today’s bake was 50% whole grain (spelt, rye, & whole wheat) and 85% hydration. I was very pleased with the oven spring - in fact it was so strong it blew out my double score (likely some operator error there too). Considering the high percentage of whole grain I was quite happy with the openness of the crumb, although it’s a bit uneven. Probably a result of my limited shaping skills. This is one of the most delicious loaves ever!

My first attempt at this formula. Overall I’m fairly pleased with the result, although I expected a bit more oven spring, a more pronounced ear, and a more open crumb. Perhaps the relatively high percentage of rye is the culprit or, more likely, “operator error.” It’s a very sticky dough and I may have shaped it a bit too tightly fearing it would ooze when unmolded from the banneton. It held its shape quite well when unmolded.

A lovely aroma, and I’m sure it will go well with the frittata we’re having for dinner.  

This is my most successful attempt at Ken Forkish’s Overnight Country Brown (30% WW, 70% KA AP). I followed his formula and directions, with only a few deviations. 

Inspired by Benny and others, I tried my hand at decorative scoring - nothing elaborate, just a wheat stalk. Here are the loaf details:

After taking too long a break from baking sourdough bread, I made a new starter and got right back into it. Here’s a loaf that’s 50% whole wheat and 50% bread flour. 85% hydration.

I've been making pizza for years with very good results. A few years ago I got a wood fired oven, anticipating to up my pizza game to a point where my pizzas would be better than anything I could get outside of Naples, Italy. Until I followed a tip from Ken Forkish's book THE ELEMENTS OF PIZZA, great WFO pizza proved to be elusive. 

Ready for The New Year.  L'Shana Tova!

It's been quite some time since I baked a pure levain from FWSY so yesterday I decided to make the Overnight Country Brown.  Right off the bat I had a couple of problems.  First, I use equal weights of white and whole wheat flours in my starter and keep it at 100% hydration while Forkish uses an 80% hydration starter.  This was not a huge obstacle since I'm pretty good at math so I could do a conversion.  My second problem was that I didn't have enough whole wheat flour to make the levain per Forkish's formula and still have enough to make the final dough,

I based this loaf on Ken Forkish's 50% whole wheat bread with biga. Instead of 50% whole wheat I made this 40% whole wheat and 10% rye. The hydration is 80%. 

I am very pleased with the result. A nice open crumb and light texture considering the high percentage of whole grain flours. I also love the deep color of the crust, which is shatteringly crisp.