Blog posts

In the summer I live in the Chicago area but I spend seven months of the year in Fort Myers, FL. Down here I greatly miss the great Asiago bread made by Panera (formerly St Louis bread company.) Nobody makes it in this area, so I thought I would give it a try. I was sort of on my own, because I couldn't find a recipe. I chopped up 2 1/2 oz. of the cheese in a mini blender. I used three cups of flour and followed exactly Floyd's lesson number five for making french bread. I used 1/2 tsp. of dry yeast (bulk from Costco which I keep in the freezer) in the starter and 1/2 tsp.

So last night I was thinking to myself, "I'd like to make some sourdough this weekend. Tomorrow morning I'll take out some of my ripe chef and make a starter with it. It can activate while I'm at work." This morning, I went into the fridge, grabbed my tub of chef. Grabbed the scale and a spatula, took out the stone ground rye. Then I walked over to the garbage can and dumped half of the chef. Then I stared at the chef I had just discarded. *sigh* Stupid auto-pilot. -Joe

My 2nd attempt at a 100% sourdough rye bread. :)Finally turned out better!! Made with wholemeal rye and chopped rye grains. Aromatic and sour.. Would increase the hydration next time to obtain a more open crumb...if possible.

I was searching for some information relating to my bakers course when I stumbled upon the Bread and Breadmaking book. I could only find it available on the Internet Archive.

It has been a very busy month. Work, class, guests, birthdays, etc. I've baked fairly regularly, but I haven't had time to take pictures, post recipes here, or experiment. Today I used my sourdough starter. I've been feeding it once a week, but I hadn't baked with it in a while. I just made some little buns: They weren't bad. I served them with a pot of homemade split pea soup. The real star of the meal were the homemade croutons.

Here's my try at rye and pumpernickel bagels. I adapted the sourdough rye and sourdough pumpernickel recipes in Bread Alone to make bagels. I used high-gluten flour instead of the AP/bread flour in the 20% bran mix. I also made the dough stiffer than for normal bread. The rye ones worked out great. They passed the 'float test' within 20 minutes of proofing. The pumpernickels are much denser, and haven't floated yet after almost an hour. Once they do, it's off to the frige for an overnight ferment. Tomorrow, I bake!

I think my neighbors are starting to feel overwhelmed by all the loaves of bread that keep appearing at their houses :) Like most of us here, I find little more satisfying than pulling a couple of gorgeous loaves off my stone. I don't have room in my freezer, and I'm way too impatient to wait until I finish one loaf to bake another :) So what do you all do with your spare loaves? I was thinking of finding a homeless shelter, or the like, in the area to donate them to. -Joe

Well, I was surprised to see a big, flat package on my doorstep today. It was my SuperPeel, sent to me by Gary. I ran inside to unpack it, and was pleasantly surprised at the professional packaging and instructions. I'm waiting for the belt to go through the wash once before I assemble it, but I was immediately struck by what a well-designed and executed product it is. I can't wait to play with it! It definately looks like its worth what he's asking on the website. I'll be sure to take some pictures once I get it all together. Thanks again, Gary. Oh, and you were right.

Don't make bread when you're sleep deprived! Mix everything but the yeast and salt into the dough before letting it autolyse! I'm making potato rosemary rolls again (thank you for the clarification, Floydm) but incorporating the autolyse and cool rise techniques. I was half asleep at the time and thought it was a good idea to mix in the potatoes and proofed yeast while I knead.