Blog posts

Surprisingly, the sweet potato didn't gave as much sweetness as i expected. But it actually helped tenderize the dough and really keeps it moist. The bread came out soft and nice (without added fat), and didn't go dry even in the fridge after more than a day. Perhaps later on, i might experiment with yam, avocados, zuchinni, carrots & ...parsnips?? :P

Howdy all, I've been lurking around this website for about a week and decided to join in. I'm an occasional bread baker who would like to improve my loaves. I got into it because my sons have nut/sesame seed allergies. This meant my wife and I could not trust a normal bakery for good rustic bread because there is no way to be assured that the bread didn't get cross-contaminated with sesame seeds or nut products.

I was just playing with some ingredients on Sunday afternoon, and this is what I came out with - it wasn't perfect, but is probably my favorite breakfast/dessert bread that I've made to date. Ingredients: 1.5 cups water (80-85 degrees) 1.5 cups freshly brewed coffee (allowed to cool to 80-85 degrees) .5 cup whole milk 1.25 cups chocolate chips 4 tablespoons brown sugar 2 tablespoons white granulated sugar 1.5 cups all purpose flour 2-5 cups bread flour (enough to give a good dough consistency - slightly tacky, but not wet) 1 packet instant yeast 1 tablespoon finely ground sea salt Combine t

For the Lunar New Year, aka. Chinese New Year, which was yesterday, i made a batch of steamed buns with sweet black sesame fillings. They were soft and fluffy, except for the age of my flour, which gave a yellowish tinge to it, i think. :) Happy Year of the Dog!

So today I am pretending to camp in our living room with my three (almost four) year old son. At one point, while he is pretending to be a daddy, he turns to me and says "Now, I have to bake some bread and make some pizzas. You stay here and play with mommy and your sister for a few minutes" and marches off to the kitchen. Doh!

Hey Guys, Lucky me I am going to Paris in the spring of this year and I plan on hitting at least one of the bakeries/ patisseries I know of, that being Poilane. However, I want to know pf any others I should hit. Any ideas anyone? Thanks Ryan

Sourdough photos: Yum.

I had an unmitigated success with my sourdough starter today. Two round loaves of something resembling my rustic bread but with my starter instead of yeast. I pulled the starter out and started feeding it every 12 hours beginning Thursday evening. During that time I kept it in my oven with the light on so that it was in a 80 to 90 degree environment. It seems to require that: without it, I don't even get a doubling in 24 hours. With it I get nearly a tripling in size in about 8 hours.

This recipe comes from "Home Baking-The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World" by Alford and Duguid. I don't know if this book is known on this board as I recently got involved with this site. It is available from chapters.ca and is well worth it.

Continuing my bread exploration, i decided to try the Sweedish Rye aka Limpa recipe in the BBA. The loaf was too big to fit in my rather..too small oven, so the loaf look like a snake tht've swallowed too many chickens. In fact, one end was falling a bit from my baking sheet (covered all of it in the photo though) :P. I reduced the sugar content and used blackstrapp molasses instead. I regretted it. I should have added more sugar.