Blog posts

When I - driven from a real "Breaking Bad Bread" experience - challenged my baking buddies from The Fresh Loaf, Facebook and several congenial blogs to create a "Bread for the Knight with the Iron Hand", I promised myself to try all 30 loaves over time.

One of those congenial blogs is Britta's Brot vom Niederrhein - Bread from the Lower Rhine.

I allowed myself to completely run out of San Joaquin Sourdough Baguettes. This is not acceptable, but it is remediable.

And in the mood for some whole wheaty bread. PiPs is in the queue, but today I made Hamelman's Whole Wheat Levain. It's pretty delicious fresh baked or toasted with almond butter.

"kaku-shoku" - a Japanese sandwich bread. This one is whole grain.

Like what Mini said, who cares if it comes with some birds or flowers : )

Got this pot for free from a friend yesterday and baked another sourdough to find out if clay pot can really substitute a Dutch Oven so that I can finally have some good bakes but most importantly, a good crust!

It had been almost 3 years since we did any serious Kamut bread baking.  It was June, 2012 when we did a 100% Whole Kamut at slightly more than 100% hydration.  Perhaps it was a little hopeful but the bread spread set in and it stuck to the basket too making for a really bad looking Fisbee.  Oddly the crumb was very open for a 100% whole grain bread.

I just made a Norwich Sourdough with lemon zest and poppy seed this afternoon. Without having a Dutch Oven, baking stone or pizza stone, I had to use what I have in my tiny kitchen. So I turned to my roasting pan and my WMF stainless steel stock pot. This is what I did.

I preheated the roasting pan and stock pot at 250 dc for 20 mins prior to baking. Spritz water onto dough. Used the roasting pan as base and the pot to trap steam since it is heavy. The result? No, I couldn't get the crust that I hoped for but it solved my problem with having a pale bottom bake.

When the weather gets warm it means dinners outside and bread from the grill. While the shapes can change based on the rest of the meal - they are mostly a basic pain au levain,

Part wheat and part rye levain - and then flour, water, salt. After so many loaves I still find the highest pleasure in pulling the most flavor out of those ingredients. A nice long ferment and the right mix of levain makes such a perfectly simple treat. The added flavors of the fire and outdoors is just enough to make the bread of summer a special treat.

I have been baking most of my life, the quantity and variety of baking has diminished as my family grew up and I became more careful about what I was eating. I was still baking bread in my usual way, using basic bread flour and commercial yeast, with little variety in flavour, shape or style. I make preserves every year, clementine marmalade, jam from a variety of soft fruit and indulge in the baking frenzy prior to the festive season.  I was however in a bit of a bread rut.

A wickedly indulgent bake, these are great fun to make and are insanely easy to eat! 

I have gone for a very tangy, fragrant strawberry flavour for the ganache inside and for the fondant icing.

The freshly fried crounts are rolled in a mixture of sugar and lemon powder - which gives an almost sherberty flavour. Just wonderful as it cuts through the richness of the pastries themselves!