Blog posts

This was a nice flavorful bread made with fresh milled Durum, Rye and Rouge de Bordeaux whole wheat. I used some baked potatoes that were mashed up but still chunky so you end up with a rustic bread with pieces of potato throughout. 

The buttermilk was originally going to be used in my English Muffins but I forgot so I pivoted and used it in this bake instead. It adds a little extra tang to the final bread.

Another birthday get together this evening means another cake needing to be baked.  I had just enough cream cheese left over from the ginger breads so I decided to bake a popular southern US cake.  The Hummingbird cake has quite a few variations, but generally they all have bananas, pineapples and warm spices along with cream cheese icing as this one has.  Generally I don’t love a ton of icing on cakes, so I then to avoid layer cakes.  This one just has the drizzle icing on top.  Mine was a bit too thick so didn’t drip down the sides without some coaxing.

I am nearing the end of a batch of homemade red miso I harvested last May 2023.  Fortunately I have a full batch that has been fermenting for just over a year now so I decided to celebrate that with another bread using miso.  There rolls are delicious, soft, fluffy and super buttery, maybe not for those on a diet unless you do as I do and share most of the rolls with others.  The dough is a my standard formula that I use for sweet rolls with 15% whole wheat (or other whole grain) that is also the flour used for the tangzhong.

A year or so ago, Troy (aka HeiHei29er) posted a recipe for a Lithuanian bread.  At the time I baked it a few times, but it had been awhile, and I felt that a revisit was needed.  Besides, we have some neighbors down the street from Lithuania, and I wanted to bake them a loaf (but after baking one for my wife and me to reacquaint myself with the recipe).

I wanted to do a slightly different sourdough focaccia using my homemade red miso.  This bread has both miso and toasted sesame seed oil in it.  I also used 10% whole kamut along with bread flour just for a bit more complexity.  The toppings I kept pretty simple a drizzle of red miso with olive oil, rings of red peppers, yellow cherry tomatoes, onions and black sesame seeds. 

A friend of mine has made these for us many years ago and I remember them fondly.  His homemade versions were far better than any of the store bought ones I’ve ever had.  I finally got around to trying to make these myself.  Although they’re called cakes, they are really pastries with a pineapple jam encased in a short crust wrapping.  I purchased a mooncake press/mold to shape these. I can do a better job with shaping these before pressing them as several of them had cracks after baking.  As typical of Asian desserts, these are not too sweet but tasty.

I first saw an article about Khachapuri, the cheesy flatbread from Georgia, in a Sunday Parade newspaper insert.

https://eweck1.wordpress.com/2021/03/04/khachapuri-georgian-cheesebread/

Edited to change the photo to 'Fiona ii' with an improved plait and glaze.

My 10-yr-old neighbor came over today to learn to bake bread.  I was very surprised at her kneading skills, developed by making 'slime' at home. We made a sandwich loaf, an enriched plaited loaf, and a crusty batard.

This is the plaited loaf,  which she christened Fiona. It is the Laurels Kitchen Loaf For Learning made with fresh-milled spelt.

This one was inspired by the Cheeseboard Collective’s delicious Hobrot, but has been adapted to be more similar to my usual sourdough loaves (eg the original recipe called for an egg and this has none). Love a worker-owned co-op <3

Ingredients:

• 95% T85 flour (I used cairnspring mills trailblazer)
• 5% whole dark rye
• 80% hydration
• 20% levain
• 15% coarsely grated cheese (I had cheddar and pecorino Romano on hand)
• 15% diced onion
• 3% neutral oil
• 3% curry powder
• 2.5% salt

Method:

I felt like baking baguettes this week and decided to do something just a bit different, so I present sourdough baguette noir.  So the colour and flavour of these baguettes do not come from charcoal like baguette au charbon vegetal.  No the colour comes from ground toasted black sesame powder that is added to the well developed dough at the end of mixing. This brings an interesting colour to both the crust and the crumb.  The fat from the sesame seeds also cause the crumb to be softer and the crust to be thinner and super crisp compared to my usual SD baguettes.