Skibum's blog

This pulla raised with both sweet and YW levains is a Christmas present for my friends who are having this 'orphan' for dinner tonight.

 I used Ibor's 3 strand octopus braid for the first time after watching his very skilled hands work several times on the excellent videos her has posted here:

http://myfoodaddress.blogspot.ca/

Well this braiding produced a much different loaf of pulla than I have ever baked and should make a fine Christmas gift!

The yeast water really makes for some amazing oven spring. For this bake I used 50g YW and 25g sweet levains both at 100% hydration and less than 300g total flour, all AP except for the levains and still got this monster, mutant loaf:

Once again am egg wash and a generous sprinkling of sugar and ground almond. Sadly I was out of slivered almonds.

Happy baking folks! Brian

Holy oven spring Batman! This was essentially the same as my last pulla bake but used only YW levain to leaven the loaf. I also used only 30% bread flour and 70% AP. The dough felt quite a bit more extensible than just using strong bread flour. Yeast water makes for some mighty tasty pulla and sweet dough and the loaf volumes are truly astonishing to me!

I once again brushed on an egg glaze and sprinkled liberally with sugar, ground almond and chopped slivered almonds.

I was quite a bit more patient this time, letting the dough tell me when it was ready and this is the best pulla I have ever baked! I topped it with the egg wash, sprinkled liberally with sugar, ground almond and slivered almonds. I totally forgot I was going to bake this as a chacon and went in to auto pilot and divided the dough into 2 balls then one ball into 3 for braids . . . Next time I will try a chacon pulla! A skibum moment!

I again baked this Forkish style, proofing seam down and baking seam up with a slash. It looks like the well sealed seam bloomed open.

Formula wise, this was identical to my last bake:

300g total flour, using strong bread flour and 10% durham semolina

231g water

8g coarse sea salt

1Tbs EVOO

Another nice Forkish style loaf, 300 g flour, 10% durham semolina, 231 g water 1 tsp coarse sea salt and 3/4 Tbs EVOO. I once again worked at tight seams during the fold of the pre-shape and shape and it looks like a pretty tight bloom on this bake. Again this loaf was risen with 25g sweet levain and 25g yeast water levain.

This loaf was proofed seam side doen again, Forkish style and baked seam side up. Though I took great pains to seal the seams in both the pre and shape, it looked like they would bloom open and they bloomed open beautifully!

I once again used 25 grams of sweet levain and 25 grams of yeast water levain, 300 grams flour and 231 grams water total. I used 30 grams durham semolina for flavour and colour boost.

Total flour 300 grams, strong bread flour

Total water 231 grams

Sweet levain @ 100% hydration 25 grams

Yeast water levain @ 100% hydration 25 grams

Salt, 1 tsp or about 7 - 8 grams, should have spent the extra five bucks on the digi scale that gives me the decimal. .  I once again took extra care when pre-folding and folding the boule, making sure the full length of the fold was tucked in nicely.

This morning's bake was exactly the same as my last bake of this type:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/35521/yw-sweet-levain-boule-forkish-style

The only difference was trying to get my shaping tighter. Getting there, but still needs work. I will give another half loaf away and bake one off again tomorrow. People are always happy to receive my bread and making people happy makes me feel good.