Blog posts

As some of you may know I've had serious problems trying to get my Sourdough bread to rise, after posting my problem in the forum many of you guys took the time to give me some advice, for which I'm truly thankful. So for those who hadn't read my question before, here it is, and apologies for repeating myself to those who have.

Friday afternoon, I mixed the dough -- again using 50% White Whole Wheat (milled from Praire Gold White Hard Spring Wheat) and 50% Caputo "00" flour.  I put the dough balls in the fridge and left for the weekend.  On Sunday afternoon, I realized that I was out of canned tomatoes. Fortunately, I had a fresh tomato, and I decided to make my own tomato sauce.

On Friday afternoon, we left for a weekend at the NJ Shore.  I had no idea what time I'd be home on Sunday and did not want to try and figure out a way to pre-plan my loaves for a Sunday bake.  So, I mixed up some pizza dough and stuck it in the fridge, figuring we could eat it for lunch or dinner on Sunday.

If he shows talent as an artist, give him pencils or modeling wax in his playroom, but do not let him bite his slice of bread into the silhouette of an animal, or model figures in soft bread at the table. And do not allow him to construct a tent out of two forks, or an automobile chassis out of tumblers and knives. Food and table implements are not playthings, nor is the dining-room a playground.

Table tricks that must be corrected from Etiquette (1922) by Emily Post.

I started a new job about two weeks ago and, as a result, I haven't had much time to bake or surf the internet lately. I miss being able to read TFL daily, but I miss sleeping more so I chose sleep over the internet. :) My brotformen are still vacuum-sealed for safe keeping while I get settled with my new routine, so I've been baking in loaf pans.

I hope everyone is having a good late summer, early fall.  

Things have been remarkable busy in my household the past few months and only appear to be getting busier the next few months. But I have been baking when I can.  

Mostly I've been baking sourdough boules, these sorts of things.

500g KABF 100%

100g Oven roasted Sweet Potato 20%

14g Sea Salt 2.5%ish

1/4tsp DA Yeast

400g Water

Today we baked some more San Joaquin Sourdough in the Dutch oven over charcoal.  This time I upped the whole wheat to 300 grams, added 10 grams of water to the initial mix and used pumpernickel flour in place of the dark rye.  One glitch in transfer to the pot was my handkerchief flour lined bread bowl wasn't floured enough so the bread stuck to the kerchief, but a quick whack with the bread knife/lame took care of it. 

Heating the charcoal

Waiting for the bread to bake -

Here is Lucy's latest version of here fruit stupid.  The black plumbs were replaced by empire prune plumbs, the Nutella was replaced by mini chocolate chips and pecan pieces, the bread crust was replaced by a short crust pastry and the berries were replaced by nectarines and peaches.