trailrunner's blog

Thanks to David for posting his take on this loaf. An amazing bread indeed. I happen to have a lot of durum flour so I did incorporate some into the formula David posted. I actually used it in 2 ways. My starter is fed only with durum and I added durum flour for 1/2 of the WW that David used. I also only had 9" pans. I was concerned as the bread volume didn't rise above the pans during the 4 hour rise...but whoa did it ever rise in the oven. I baked at 400 for 38 min to 205.

I was moved to post this after seeing dab's lovely nut apricot bread. This is a riff on isand66's date nut SD that he posted in the past. Here is quick review of how to put it together. I find I simplify more and more and the bread is just as good  . Here goes ! 

528g 100% hydration starter

autolyse for 1 hr:

100g spelt flour

250g durum flour

250g AP flour

422g whey ( or use milk if you have no whey)

We left Vienna on our bikes with our group of 50 on May30th. We have been in a different town each night. We stay in hostels, inns and a college dorm so far. We are in Linz tonight. It is almost 10 PM here now. Very full days of cycling the Velo 6 route. Here are some pics of the lovely bakery goods from the center of Linz. A very very busy place. On a Tuesday at 5 PM almost everything was gone from some shops. Ice cream is incredible here as is everything we have eaten so far. Love the coffee also ! Since we are burning so many calories I can indulge as I wish :) Lovely.

What an interesting and tasty experiment. I usually don't  bulk ferment my dough but I decided to try it due to time and space constraints. I made the dough and did a couple s &f's q 20 min .then rest for 1 1/2 hrs then in the fridge it went. I removed it this AM and shaped cold. I always shape cold when I make Ian's buns and love the way the cold dough feels and handles. I made 3/650g boules. It is incredibly easy to shape and get the "free form" burst when the dough is cold as it doesn't really want to stick terribly well. Into the banneton and rising time of 2 1/2 hrs.

It is Friday and pizza was in order. I wanted to try a different crust from last time . I made up a batch of Sullivan Bread dough yesterday. This AM it was full of bubbles. I divided it into 4 pieces and tossed them with Durum flour and placed them in containers in the fridge. At 3 PM I took two out, just as we got back from our 25 mi bike ride. At 5 PM I put the oven on with the steel in place 6 " below the broiler. Temp set to 550. At 5:45 I turned on the broiler to high/550.

I bought 5/500g  bags of Italian Chestnut flour a number of years ago. Somehow I never found anything that I liked to use it in so it sat in the freezer in its vacuum packs waiting...and waiting..and....well you get the idea. I have been cleaning out and sorting and using up . I decided to only cook from my larder for 2014  , at least as much as possible. 

Ian had posted a date SD and I thought I would go with that basic idea. I added 100g toasted almonds and 2 tbsp grated orange zest. Levain was my rye starter fed with apple yeast water. I used whey for 292g of the dough water and AYW for the rest . I soaked the coarsley chopped dates in warm whey but didn't cook them down. I divided it into 3 boules. Great fragrance and very tender crumb. Sticky goodness when you get a date chunk. Baked in 500 degree pots for 5 min. and then 10 min at 460 lid removed and 15 more min. Bold bake and nice ears.

My husband is an artist when it comes to pasta. Always wonderful . Tonight homemade tagliatelle and a shrimp topping based on one that our son , the Chef , makes frequently. Preserved lemon and capers are the key...oh...and the homemade hot cure peppers. If you want the recipe just ask...I will be glad to forward the gist of the idea .c 

oh my...apple pie !  

before baking... after...most amazing...2 apples and a small amount of " goop"...if you want I will post the link to recipe...so easy.

I hadn't baked in a while and hadn't used my AYW in weeks!   Got my odds and ends of partial bags of flour out and voila....lovely bake.   Fed my  100% hydration rye starter with spelt and AWY 2x a few hours apart...it was SO active I had to refrigerate it overnight. Used up 65g Semolina, 42 grams Italian Chestnut flour, 86 grams Kamut, 123 grams sprouted Rye and 458 grams AP KA.  Mixed and autolysed  with  640 g water without salt for 1 hr. Added salt and used speed 2 for 5 min . Very slack dough but responded well to s&f's.