Blog posts

We took another step down the sprouted grain trail this week, even after vowing not too, when we decided to defrost the chest freezer and found a peanut butter jar full of frozen whey in the bottom of the icy depths near the bottom-  along with too many quarter hunks of bread.

A year ago, I decided to close down my little bake to order business, and see what else I could cook up.   I got my wholesale license, and into a pretty decent market, and set out to make a lot of bread.   A lot of bread all depends where you are coming from.   I'm baking out of my kitchen with fairly small equipment and it sure seems like a lot to me.    I picked up several wholesale customers, and just when I think I have that under control, I bake for a big market, all semblance of control vanishes, and I just bake as much and as fast as I can

Happy holidays to everyone and happy baking.

I was lucky enough to get some baking goodies from my wife.  A proper bench scraper, bowl scraper, and two books that will get me trying some new breads.

Here's today's sourdough loaves for your viewing pleasure.  Crumb shots to follow after we rip into these with turkey dinner tonight.

These are the little loaves I have been baking for everybody leading up to the New Year. I decided to try one myself and got a crumb shot before it was all gone.

Everyone here knows the smiles and joy a fresh loaf can bring to on occasion. I wish I could try some of the amazing bread I see here on TFL. To all the wonderful people I have met here, happy baking, happy holidays and very happy New Year.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas to those that do celebrate the holiday and also to those do not!  Great site, and great people.

Zopfbrot
A simple braid made with a milk and AP whiteflour dough. 
10% butter, 3% sugar, 2% salt, 2% fresh yeast.
Milk made up 100% of the liquids, this I made extra cold by placing it in the freezer for a half hour before mixing the dough.
The target end dough temperature is approx. 22C, it's quite firm and is given an intensive kneading before adding the cold butter.

Cari Amici,

questa volta non c'è un Pane, un Panino o il dolce delle Feste, c'è soltanto il desiderio di augurarvi delle serene e gioiose giornate di festa, perchè possiate passare un Buon Natale ed una fine dell'anno strepitosa.

Ci tenevo moltissimo a ringraziarvi per la gentile ospitalità che mi avete riservato al mio arrivo in questo straordinario spazio virtuale, per me fonte di grande apprendimento grazie al lavoro di tutti voi.

A presto ed ancora tanti Auguri a tutti!!!!

Anna

Goji berry style. Let's hope it works. This is Day 1

Sort of straight dough, but with 4% over-fermented sponge which I make up ahead of time and keep in the freezer, so I guess it's really sponge and dough.

This post has been edited, dabrownman in the comments below made me realize something was wrong in the formula presentation.  My apologies for any confusion that the flawed formula may have caused.  As a result of this edit, some comments may now be out of context.