Blog posts

I've slowed down on the Brown Bread baking, but as part of my grain CSA I still need to work my way through some Chiddam de Blanc Mars. I recently made some Coffee Cake with Proof Bakery's recipe which was complicated but amazing. Unfortunately the center was undercooked because I didn't have a temperature recommendation, just time. So no photos. But yesterday we baked Maurizio's Sourdough Babka with better results.

Using the recipe from the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook, I recently made teething biscuits for two great-nephews who are each 6 months old:

Peter (I've no idea why the picture refuses to display in the correct orientation.)

Amos

Getting them off to a good start with home-made baking.

I had a friend make this recently. He had trouble with the dough being too slack and this loaf ended up dense. I thought I'd make it to figure out where he might have lost his way. I soon realized it wasn't him. There's a problem with the recipe IMHO. While making the dough I googled and realized many others struggled with this recipe. It calls for seed additions that are excessive and much too much water in the seed soaker. For a 500g loaf it's asking for about 145g of flax that's soaked in water twice that amount. That's a 30% seed addition.

Bake from a couple days ago...

Overall, bake turned out decent.  Made the loaf for a friend and they liked it, so I guess that’s all that matters.  Had to slice and check the crumb before giving it to them. ?

Levain build went well.  Starter was 2 weeks old, but levain was over doubled and very bubbly at 11 hours (72-74 deg).  Dough temp was right on target after mixing (as 75 deg).  However, as usual for me with high white flour recipes, my BF progressed very slowly.

Someone mentioned Joe Ortiz’ book The Village Baker . I remembered I met him I think at the Gilroy Garlic festival 20 yrs ago and had a signed copy ...as I wasn’t interested at the time in bread baking (just bread eating !) it sat on a shelf ..loaned to a friend ,..got it back yesterday and reading through it ..now it all starts to make sense ..it’s  a terrific resource...I just started my bread baking journey this January 1 ..recommended reading 

I’m learning each day ...this is one of the most satisfying adventures 

These 2 loaves started out the same shape, proofed in an oval bannetton but scored differently.

As part of a grain CSA I've recently been tasked with using unexpected flour. This was made with 100% Chiddam de Blanc de Mars. It's a pound cake with 100% substitution. I used a  Stella Parks recipe and am extremely pleased with the results:

The crumb is nice and light and the requests for more are endless (for now).

So, there was this thing that Don said the other day in a TFL blog post that really got me thinking. Think it was a quote from Jennifer Lathams about tweaks to the Tartine bakery method, and the thing that was said was "[...] longer includes the leaven in the autolyse and salt is not added until enough water has been incorporated to make a very extensible dough."

I think I've been doing bassinage wrong! I usually try it after the salt is already in the dough.