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Berry season. Strawberry Focaccia for brekky. It melts in the mouth.

I really love creating boules and batards. But there are times that a standard loaf shape just makes more sense. Metal loaf pans never did what I wanted, but a few months back I received the Emile Henry Loaf Baker and today I gave it a try.  

Sounds like ice cream, but nicer. Full of fruit and 100% rye it does not rise a lot, but it is a really tasty little loaf. A different method from my usual. I opted for sultanas and used a different rye flour too, so it was not as dark as the previous loaves I made. Really good with cheddar, blue cheese or just butter.

Method:

Returning after a long sabbatical, I have managed to save my poor  3 year old  very malnourished starter  Levi and with careful coaxing after almost a year of scant attention in my fridge, on occasions he was lucky to be fed once a month or longer. berate me if you will, but I have a  plausible excuse and no need to go into it.

Anyhow, I  dragged out an old Pierre Nury print out I  was interested in a few years back and with my restored  starter on track, I decided to just do it. Make  some bloody bread.

I made a bread not that long ago using pecan meal in the porridge which came out great so I wanted to try another version and bump up the flavor profile a bit.  The addition of the smoked cheddar cheese I bought on my recent trip to Vermont really makes this an amazing bread.

I also used some freshly milled whole wheat and rye flour in the levain and in the main dough.  I grated the cheese coarsely this time, but you can also cube it instead.

Give this one a try if you can and you won't be disappointed.

1/1/2015 - New Years Eve Pizza

1/2/2015 - 50 % Whole Grain Sprouted 8 Grain SD/YW with Japanese Black Rice & Seeds

1/9/2015 - 50 Percent Whole Sprouted 16 Grain SD with Lake Havasu Desert Magic IPA

After Abe’s recent success with his new yeast water, Lucy went looking for our cherry YW in the back of the fridge where it has been neglected for months.  Plus, I was bit shaken with Lucy’s latest attempts to make all of us redundant and nothing shakes the Lucy Blues she creates with her computer apps as much as a nice jar of cherry yeast water.  It was time to give it some refreshment.

Lucy tried to find the last time we used dates in bread and it was 2012.  We prefer figs to dates because you don’t have to pit them and they taste better but dates in bread have been around for thousands of years and not to be overlooked.

Sourdough Fermentation Data

We all know that all other factors being the same, the more sourdough starter in the dough, the faster the rise during bulk fermentation.

 Since your starter may resemble dough (60 to 70% hydration), others may use a liquid starter (200%+ hydration), and mine is the consistency of mashed potatoes (100% hydration), The percent of flour used in the starter (as percent of total flour) is unaffected by hydration. This is a concept I’ve seen in print somewhere and one I find very useful.