Skibum's blog

Well I got a successful yeast water culture going and it is bubbling and fizzing like a can of Vernor's ginger ale! A big shout out to dabrownman for pmi'ng me detailed instructions, followed to the tee. I baked this exactly as the last sd boule only using YW to build the levain. The dough felt immediately different -- more extensible and felt nearly fully developed after the second set of S&F's. Nice volume, nice open crumb and very mild flavour and great chew - almost too mild, so I guess I have come to appreciate the flavour profile of my sweet levain!

This bake was done almost exactly as the last boule bake with a couple of exceptions. I upped the hydration to 77 from 75% and compensated by autolysing for 40 minutes and proofed for 50 instead of 45 minutes.  I also increased the bake time in the covered cast iron DO from 10 to 11 minutes and finished with 10, convection, turning often.

I would like to make a big shout out to dabrownman for pm'ing his detailed for producing and maintaining a YW starter. I have tried and failed twice and this time I was anal: boiled the glass jar, boiled the Brita filtered tap water and sat in the sun in a glass jar for the day to fully eliminate the chlorine. Next as per dman, 1/2 un-washed organic apple cored and minced and half crushed, ditto 20 organic raisins ditto. I am going to follow the dman's instructions to the tee and post daily photos. Another new fun project.

Thanks again dab, you are DMAN!

Regards, Brian

Well after 2 disastrous bakes in a row, it was nice to get a good result. I have borrowed tips and techniques from Ken Forkish, Chad Robertson and Peter Reinhart. I prefer a sweet rather than sour loaf so use the levain when is quite your, like CR.

This bake was based loosely on Norm's onion buns recipe and hey, the way the buns lined up in the Lodge cast cooker looked somewhat like the Olympic logo. I soaked 2 Tbs dehydrated onion and 1 tsp dehydrated garlic in boiled water until reconstituted, then used the resulting water for the mix and the onion and garlic for topping mixing salt and oil as per nbicomputers - I think. I used about 20% white levain, forgot to add the egg, but used lots of malt syrup and sugar . . .

I used 1/3 of the Forkish recipe and made a couple of change ups. First, I left the WW flour out of the levain, but kept everything the same. Second, the first 2 KF loaves I proofed in plastic mixing bowls lined with linen. When proofed, the linen was wet and stuck to the loaf. Ken proofs in wicker bannetons and I am going to have to get off of my wallet and order one.

Take 2 of Karin's challenge loaf almost ended in disaster, but turned out well.  I made more or less half of her Friesisches Schwartbrot recipe:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/18037/friesisches-schwarzbrot-friesian-rye

Well I got delayed on my shopping today and this is a great example of an over proofed loaf.  It was ready to bake when I got home, but the oven and DO were cold, call this one 45 minutes over proofed.  It was the blob upon removing it from the plastic proofing bowl. The seam was totally sealed despite proofing in 4 layers of linen, so I scored and it was nearly impossible to get a clean cut -- WAY over proofed! I need to get off of my wallet and get a wicker banneton.

I love the flavour profile of this Forkish bread and well the crust and crumb didn't turn out shabby:

The only twist was to add a scant 1/4 tsp of instant yeast after I added the salt to the top of the dough.  Ken Forkish recommends using a little commercial yeast for increased volume and a more open crumb.  Check on both points!