Thegreenbaker's blog

I dont have any photos as the camera's battery went flat :S But the pumpkin bread was soooo great and tasted wonderful. it even had pumpkin flavour and was quite yellow.

Ingredients.

2/3 of a butternut pumpkin/squash chopped. seeded, peeled, boiled, drained and mashed.

500 grams of bread flour. (I used 1/3 cup of gluten glour which was approx 50g and made up the excess of weight with 100g spelt flour, 200g wheat wholemeal flour, 100g of white flour and made the rest up with rye approx 50g maybe a bit more.)

1 1/2 teaspoons instant yeast.

I looked here for a recipe for pumpkin bread and all I found was the chemically leavened one and a link to a yeasted recipe that my computer wouldnt open :S

Monday night for me is a seasonal feast and we are eating all the seasonal vegies like pumpkin, squash, apples and corn. Kind of odd considering that in the northern hemisphere ya'll are eating that stuff in October/november. :) but, it IS Autunm turning winter down here in the deep deep south! (Aust)

I began my sourdough journey last week on the 16th. My starter was active on day 2, died down and remained quiet until day 6. I fed it over those two days to make sure it was alive and kicking and it looked great. each time with in feeds it doubled even trippled and I decided yesterday that I was going to start my first sourdough loaf. I followed reinhearts baasic sourdough from BBA and put the starter (biga type I dont know the word) in the fridge over night. Took it out this morning, and began my permentation. I was so excited to see it grow to much.

I started my first ever sourdough starter last night. So tonights feeding is feeding 2...24 hours after it began.

Here is where it is up to now. No sign of anything happening yet but I know it can take up to a week, so my fingers are crossed.

I also made the buttermilk cluster today with wholemeal wheat and wholeleal spelt flour.

Yummo! I am eating it as I write!

Since my faith in my baking skills has come back I have been baking every 2 days or so.

I made a batch of rustic bread last night and it was soooooooo tasty. We couldnt get enough of it......needless to say we have almost finished the first loaf :)

Each time I bake I get more and more excited.!

heres a link to my flickr bread photo site.   

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7688602@N04/

Woo! Hoo!

Referring back to my blog about not being able to make my bread rise..........well, it rose!

I adapted a recipe from BBA. I have been wanting to make Pane Siciliano but time wasnt permitting so I used the Anadama Bread recipe but didnt use the soker. I added 1 cup of fine semolina,

1 cup gluten flour and 2 1/2 cups of wholewheat flour (wholemeal) 2 teaspoons of yeast, salt, 2 TBSPN Barley Malt and about 2 1/2 cups of water.

I did this as I didnt have time to do the soker over night then then let the shaped dough rise in the fridge etc.

And I have forgotten how to make bread.

Not only has life gotten so much more busy with the onset of school, new friendships to maintain and entertain, but I just cant get it right!

My bread is heavy, moist or dry (just depends) and even though it rises when being ferments or proofed, it doesnt do much in the oven. It is crubmly although it has that elastic bread feel.

It is just so dense. *frustrated look*

At the moment I am lingering between the recipes from lessons 1 and 2. Slowly improving my skill in kneading and learning my observing the dough as it rises and with little things I do differently.

I made a double batch of lesson one basic bread dough two days ago. One loaf was for us, the second for Xmas day at the brothers house.

Since I found this site and joined up, I have been baking ever 2 or 3 days. FOcusing mainly on the "basic loaf" recipe from lesson 1. My bread making has improved with each loaf. My kneading skills have improved immensely and with it my bread quality.