Skibum's blog

Wow, this is the biggest rise and oven spring I have EVER had! Now the working part of my peel measures 8"x14" and this loaf filled most of it using 460 grams of flour! Best pulla ever, with a soft almost shreddalble crumb.

Normally, I will do a sponge of liquid levain, sugar, egg, flour and scalded milk infused with cardamom. After this got happy, I would put it in the fridge at bedtime, remove it in the morning and mix  after about an hour of warm up.

I began getting ruthless with my deep freeze a while ago and these are the only things I have baked in three weeks. I found an abundance of breads I baked then froze and have been eating my way through.

I bookmarked this recipe some time ago and finally got around to baking a half batch. this batch I rolled out, shaped a rectangle and cut the biscuits into squares using a butter knife, then baked on a parchment covered pan. Quick, easy and tasty!

My batch:

1 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 TBS sugar

1 C grated sharp cheddar

Well I had a craving for some curry and what better to go with it than some fresh naan bread. Boy did this ever turn out well! I used honey instead of sugar and the flavour comes through well in the finished product. This did my confidence a nice boost as two of the last three bakes didn't go so well. Ever have one of those bakes where everything that could go wrong does go wrong?

40 g liquid levain, newly refreshed

141 g milk, scalded

1/3 cup + 1 Tbs high fat Greek yogurt

25 g beaten egg

330 g bread flour

1 tsp palm sugar

1/4 tsp salt

The blueberry cream cheese bread and it's variants are one of my favourite breads to both bake and eat. After baking  the original blueberry, cream cheese formula last week, but using only 253 grams of pulla dough, I found I liked the ratio of fruit filling to dough better than the original recipe.

Foreground is cinnamon, sugar chocolate babka. I enjoyed the last one so much it was time to bake another. I used 2 x 300 gram balls of dough to roll out the babka. The remaining 253 grams of pulla dough was used to roll out the blueberry cream cheese bread front right.  In behind is a ciabatta style loaf with 20% durham semolina which resulted in a really nice snap to the crust!

Well, I was on my way to the ski hill and then it started raining.

Happy baking! Ski

Well taking a page from PalwithnoorinP's book, I tried my favourite dough, pulla and tried his sweet butter filled rolls. I used a cinnamon, sugar mixture to which I added vanilla and rum:  Appleton Estate Signature Blend. Boy is that nice rum and does it ever add a nice flavour to the sugar mix!  I used my standard pulla mix and for the enamoradas used three pieces @ 100 grams.

My search for a ciabatta style loaf had lift off today. Here is the fully proofed loaf prior to baking:

I changed only two things. First, after the letter folds, I gently pinched the sea closed on the side and end.

Well, it is getting closer and I am happy with the crumb. This makes a great sandwich loaf. I started at 80% hydration, thought, but had a mucky mess, so must have screwed up the water weight. I added flour to get the dough to a workable, but wet consistency. I re-read Peter Reinhart's instructions in ABED on working and shaping ciabatta and found I had missed a step. The oven spring was enormous on this loaf. Easily 3.5 - 4x spring. I wish I had a before photo of a proofed loaf perhaps 11/4" high.

Crumb:

I changed the hydration and because the starter had been refreshed two days prior, I used 60g rather than 50. The holes are just too darned big! It makes a decent sandwich loaf, but not quite what I was looking for. I searched some youtube videos and unlike Peter Reinhart, Ciril Hitz degasses his ciabattas and does not fold and his crumb structure is more even. I like the shape Peter's letter fold gives, but next bake of this loaf I will de-gas gently before folding to see if I can get a more uniform crumb structure.

Well with ski season full on, I have been living on Norm's onion rolls, pulla and Floyd's blueberry, cream cheese braid variations for three months now. This ciabatta is the first plain, lean loaf I have baked in some time. Sometimes you just get a taste for things.

This loaf was baked using 350g strong bread flour @ 78% hydration and using 50g newly refreshed liquid levain, 7g salt and 1TBs EVOO. I used vigorous mixing in the bowl followed by four sets of S&F's with 10 minutes rest and after 2 hours of bulk rise, then gently shaped as described by Peter Reinhart in ABED.