Slideslinger's blog

I've been working on my ciabattas lately and I think I'm finally getting the knack. Let me know what you guys think of my efforts - I truly appreciate your feedback, it helps me improve my skills. This is a poolish ciabatta, loosely based on the recipe seen in this video from Kingdom Bread. I cut his volume by half, giving me 4 fairly large loaves.. As you can plainly see by my crumb shots, this was a high hydration bake. I guess I should admit that I broke a couple of rules along the way.

 Saw this made in one of those French bakery videos and thought, wait a minute, even I can do that!! I made a relatively small batch of baguette dough and voila!!

Haven't posted anything lately, but that doesn't mean I haven't been baking!! Baguettes galore, Ciabattas, and crazy different fruit and nut sourdough breads including Blueberry Pecan and Apricot Walnut! On tonight's menu, one of my favorite "treats", the erstwhile New York style Bialy topped with everything mix and onions! I prepared a Pâte Fermentée in advance and refrigerated overnight, which definitely added some extra nice flavor to the finished product. Fairly typical preparation, bake in a 500F oven for approx 12 - 14 minutes.

I'm definitely starting to get into a regular baking routine. Is this even normal behavior? 🤣

I've been salivating over producing this delicacy that hearkens back to my NYC youth for quite sometime. I cannot tell a lie - this is NOT my first attempt. I tried, and failed spectacularly, about a month ago. The doomed pair literally came out of the oven like a chocolate boat anchor - heavier, even!! The big difference between this Yotam Ottolenghi (Jerusalem Cookbook) Babka and a NY style babka is the citrus inclusion in the dough, and the overnight cold retard. This is also known in Israel as a chocolate Krantz Cake.

Because my wife and I just cannot seem to get enough of this fantastic flavor! Shoutout, as usual, to everyones friend Benito for the initial inspiration. This is my 4th time baking this knockout sourdough, and I've tried different formulations each go round. I substituted dark rye for the whole wheat, and used Giusto's La Parisienne for the bread flour along with 50 g KA all purpose for good measure. Also added 15 grams of Giusto's All-Natural Barley Malt, which has been giving me outstanding results.

Here's my attempt at baking the "No-Fail Baguette" from the NY Bakers website. See the recipe HERE

This is very loosely based on the recipe from Modernist Cuisine. I found myself searching for variations and I was pleasantly surprised to find a few solid contenders, including a great looking Chocolate Sourdough Noir on the Clever Carrot website. One of the websites copied Modernists recipe, almost getting it right except for one pretty major goof. Instead of 1/8 tsp of active dry yeast, the writer listed 8 grams - a heaping tsp. And dummy that I am, that was the recipe I used.

I've decided to pursue the Ken Forkish Walnut Levain recipe a bit further. This weekends bake consisted of a combo of Giusto's La Parisienne Flour (https://nybakers.com), KA Organic Whole Wheat Flour, and my own rye based levain. I substituted the active dry yeast with Fleischmann's Fresh Active Yeast.

Baked this earlier in the week. Pain De Campagne sourdough, using NYBakers Farine De Campagne flour. Came out GREAT! Lots of rise, and the crumb was amazing.