Blog posts

Here are 3 calculation tables for Nancy Silverton's 145% White Starter from her book "Breads from the La Brea Bakery."

I created these for anyone who wants to convert one of Nancy's formulas to baker's percentages. It's no more difficult than any other conversion until you realize her starter is a 145% hydration that's refreshed as 52.21% starter : 28.32% water : 19.47% flour.

Using these tables, you can determine the amount (in grams) of flour and water required when one of her recipes, like the Olive Bread, calls for 12 1/2 ounces of white starter.

For breakfast we had a nice YW Buckwheat Apple Pecan Pancake loose based on sweetbird's bread but using YW as leaven and milk to thin it out to pancake consistency.  Very nice!

   Here's my first loaf to place on The Fresh Loaf, hope you enjoy it!                   

After last week’s delicious experiment, today I tried another version of Asiago Bread.  This time I used my San Francisco Country-er Sourdough (15% whole wheat and 15% dark rye).

Using the same filling and frosting as the YW Cinnamon Rolls, you can make a nice banana bread cake by substituting your favorite banana bead recipe for the dough - and you might need some sprinkles too!  Much better than plain old banana bread and 3 times as fattening too :-)

I've made similar bread with cheese and potatoes before, but this time I added  some Durum Semolina flour to the starter and I smoked a sweet Vidalia onion and some baby red potatoes as well.

I like to work with fairly high hydration doughs and this was no exception coming in at 75% hydration.

Oven Baked Pancakes

One of my readers wrote to me about how she wanted a less oily pancake than what came out of the skillet. She tried baking them in the oven and had great results. I finally tried it and am happy to say it's an excellent option! The finished pancakes are much less oily and cook through really well. I can bake a whole tray in a lot less time than it takes to bake the same amount in a skillet or a stove top griddle.