Hello to all my friends at The First Loaf....
It has been a long time since my last post here, upon leaving for France in January of 2010!
BreadLab goes epic
The macaron is a puzzling piece of confectionery. It can either be a good day for it or not. Some days, macarons are just in the air, those egg whites all ready to be whipped to the ceiling and back. But not any dull old day will do for the dainty lady to make her appearance.
She prefers a dry and sunny day over humid dampness, and, however unfair it seems at times, that is her prerogative. She'll only get off her feet and grant you a glance at how her skirt falls perfect over her calves when she is ready and feels like it.
Hi, This is The Making Of ...
Russian Rye
from Andrew Whitley's "Bread Matters.
Photos and timeline from refreshing the "production sourdough" to the finished bread are in this post (** Now with crumb shot **),
you can find notes about the formula here:
The kitchen was around 22C all the time.
I have been busy baking in the last few weeks, trying out some new recipies... but my only success have come from outside the sourdough arena. I'm blaming it on the weather. Read about it on my newest blog post, which is hosted on blogspot!
http://sourdoughrye.blogspot.com/2011/10/bialys-tortillas-pitas-and-one-too-sour.html
Knowing I'd work at home today (Wednesday) I made a preferment Tuesday morning:
100 G KA Bread flour
100 G 100% hydration starter
60 g water
Tuesday night I made the dough:
All of the preferment
400 g KA all purpose
35 g rye
35 g oat flour
15 g salt
44o g water
30 min autolyse
Was really wet, so added flour until I could get some development. (Think I need to learn how to calculate the starter into the final %s. Was aiming for 68-70% hydration)
15 minutes kneading
Inspired by GermanFoodie's Sourdough Whole Wheat Crackers I used up some extra starter last night with a batch. I added 1/4 teaspoon caramel color to the dough, rested for 5 hours, and sprinkled with oregano, basil and kosher salt prior to baking. They came out tasty, really crispy and surprisingly sour, and are a way better deal than the 'gourmet' crackers available at the store. The only change I'll make next time is to incorporate the dried herbs into the dough rather than sprinkling on top.
Hello,
Hello,
I got the bug to make Hamelmans Focaccia with Poolish a few days ago. It started with watching Frankie G's video on the subject and seeing him use 1/4 sheet pans. I liked the size and all the toppings got me drooling. So I ordered the 1/4 sheet pans from Frankie G which came with a cool trivet counter saver (thanks FG). I like the Poolish version of the Ciabatta dough which is Hamelmans dough for his Focaccia. The additional 10% fermented flour helps the flavor develop during the Poolish build up, overnight.
