Skibum's blog

I found with my last bake, that by coating the dough with melted butter, then the chocolate filling, that as the dough rose in the proof and baking stages, it squeezed most of the chocolate to the top of the loaf.

With version II, I omitted the melted butter and think it bonded better to the dough and this version has more veins of chocolate than the first bake. I also used a little more than half a batch of pulla dough and found 525 grams properly filled the loaf pan. Pulla is a dough enriched with milk, sugar, eggs and cardamom.

I baked a half batch of bagels this morning following Peter Reinhart's recipe fro "Artisan Breads Every Day." Boy did they ever turn out good! I should have made a full batch. It was my first time attempting bagels and this recipe will definitely be a regular in my baking rotation.

I enjoyed my first home baked bagel for a late breakfast with cream cheese. Now I need to go out and find some lox!

Happy baking! Ski

Greeting fellow bakers. I have not been here for a few months and am poorer for it. My baking was in a rut, so I came here for some inspiration and it paid off in spades.

My first bake out of the rut was NY Style Deli rye from P. Reinhart's, "Bread Baker's Apprentice." This is one excellent sandwich bread and keeps well on the counter.

I have been baking pulla religiously every couple of weeks and thought, why not use the pulla dough for babka?

Greetings Fresh Loaf friends. I continue to bake every week but have been negligent in posting my results. This is my weekly sandwich loaf:

I have been making this recipe for a year now and have it dialed. I am also fortunate to be able to buy the best bread flour from my local bakery. Boy does great flour EVER make a difference. I also use a sweet levain at 100% hydration. This is essentially a sourdough starter that isn't sour, hence sweet levain.

Here is the recipe:

Merry Christmas fresh loafers! This has been my go to recipe for sandwich bread for some time now. It freezes well sliced and each loaf keeps me for 2 - 3 weeks in sandwich bread. The recipe is a version of Peter Reinhart's recipe for soft sandwich bread and rolls from Artisan Bread's Every Day. I use a natural yeast, a sweet levain at 100% hydration. The current levain is at least three years old.

I bake infrequently now, but continue to maintain a sweet levain @ 100% hydration. Today was pulla for breakfast in the morning. Second bake, rising is P. Reinhart's soft sandwich bread. It is an bread, enriched by butter, milk and eggs. I modified Mr. Reinhart's recipe to use my sweet levain, which is a sweet version of a sourdough starter. I don't care for the sour taste in my breads.

Beautiful flavour and a nice crumb. A successful Christmas bake! Merry Christmas!!!

Since I moved to my new home 31/2 months ago, I have eaten little bread. Now that the cold weather is setting in, I have had cravings for grilled cheese sandwiches. I actually bought a store loaf of sliced white bread and it made a pretty good grilled cheese. I figured I could do better.

Well with record breaking heat this summer in my new town, I haven't baked much. The blueberries and jalapeno mixed well together. A simple easy, quick recipe.

Heat oven to 400-410F and heat an eight inch cast iron skillet in it.

1/2 C each cornmeal and flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 Tbs sugar

1 egg beaten

1/2 cup buttermilk or whole milk soured with vinegar

2 Tbs honey

1 jalapeno minced, I will use 2 next time

3/4 cup of blueberries

My first bake was soft pull apart dinner rolls and they didn't turn out well. Now I have moved from a kitchen elevation of 4,420 ft above sea level to 2,600 feet. I was not getting the rise with the same amount of levain. Also moving from an electric convection to a non-convection oven gave different results.

Well, I have neither baked much nor had time to visit this site for the last couple of months. Moved from Canmore AB to Golden, BC. Moving is a HUGE pain, but I am very satisfied with the result. I love my new home and town!!!