Vogel's blog

I searched for different traditional Stollen recipes, combined several parts from all of them to match my personal taste and then baked my first Stollen yesterday and finished them today. I've never done them before, so I don't know if they will be good. The Stollen are quite heavy; 1 kilogram each. But traditional Stollen are supposed to be rather dense, without a lot of air inside them. Now they need to "sweat" for about a week in order to create the typically moist and soft structure and a good flavour. At least that's the plan and I hope it will work.

Yesterday I made another [u][url=http://www.wildyeastblog.com/2007/07/08/my-new-favorite-sourdough/]Vermont/Norwich Sourdough[/url][/u]. I basically followed the recipe, but used medium dark rye flour instead of whole rye.

Since I've never really been satisfied with my Ciabatta, I tried to do it in a more conservative way. I only used a 75% hydration dough, so the lower end of the Ciabatta range. Instead of doing the stretch & fold directly in the bowl with wet hands, I did it on the floured work surface, which took a little more time. I carefully followed the principle of the dough having an axis with two poles (the smooth side and the sticky side). The result was a dough that was so strong that I couldn't even really stretch it in order to cut out the pieces.

I've baked several things during the last weeks and I really wanted to post some pictures here, but first I had a foodborne infection from bad olives, then my camera went to die. I hope I will be able to post more regularly during the next weeks.

[size=20]Work in progress: rolls[/size]

[size=18][b]Tales of doing every mistake you can do[/b][/size]

[size=18][b]Introduction[/b][/size]

Usually I am not too much involved in the blogging world, or the blogosphere, as it seems to be called. There is a fine line between writing just for serving your own ego and writing as part of a social endeavour, the desire to contribute to the wide array of knowledge and media which is the source for all the people, including myself, in the need for advice. I always feared going too much for the former.