Blog posts

So, I've been absent from my blog, but it doesn't mean I haven't been baking.

Lately I've been baking almost exclusively the Rustic Bread by Floydm. I never made loafs with preferments, so it was new, but I liked doing it.

I also recently acquired a Le Cruiset pot, so I baked in it for the first time. And I have to say, it was the most beautiful bread I have ever baked!

I made half a recipe, I thought it was too much. But now I'm doing the whole one! It's very good.

First attempt at 100% whole grain bread. Only 2 tablespoon starter required and 9 hours to a nice loaf. Very happy with the results!

After several weeks of whole and sprouted wheat, I needed a break and was seeking middle ground between the Multigrain SD breads I prefer and the soft sandwich type breads my husband prefers. And I missed including rye in the mix, the flavor it brings and even didn't care if the dough is kind of sticky. I wanted a soft, yet open crumb and rich flavor. So, what's in the kitchen to contribute? Rye (25%), of course, cornmeal (12%), caraway seed, a touch of molasses and an extra baked potato (15%).

Cari Amici,

questo Pane è stato messo in produzione tante volte proprio perchè il suo gusto, i suoi profumi rievocano in me i ricordi più belli della mia infanzia, quando accompagnavo la nonna al Forno del paese per cuocere il pane che aveva lievitato lentamente tutta la notte sotto una calda coperta.

Quante volte lei mi ha regalato un pezzetto di impasto e mi ha insegnato cosa fare per ottenere un buon pane.

Quanto mi piacerebbe che i bambini di adesso avessero la stessa fortuna.........

The prep schedule got messed up when i had to drop everything and go marketing with a friend. Ended up with the autolysed dough which was slapped and folded about 2 mins on the counter and hurriedly thrown into an oiled bowl, bagged and immediately refrigerated. Came back more than 6 hrs later and started to do the first SF. Left dough on counter and did 2nd SF an hr later then refrigerated again another 3 hrs. Shaped and couched then went into fridge again overnight. Slashed and Baked this morning after 12hrs proof. There is no magic protocol here. Just a play with time and temp.

This is one of my favorites from the recipe testing group to date.  It has hints of fennel and caraway and overall just tastes great with a nice moist crumb.  It's perfect for sandwiches or just about anything.

For this week’s Friday bake, Lucy came up with another variation on our sprouted grains experiment.  We are trying to increase the whole sprouted grain amount and still get a 12 hour cold retard without the dough over proofing in the fridge or turning to goo.

Howdy everyone. So I'll start out by saying I wasn't entirely happy with this bake, and I used both rice flour and hard white whole wheat, both of which (to my understanding) have lower gluten forming abilities, though I may be incorrect on that.

Hi folks i got around to a bake  this week after 7 weeks holiday, and also being the last week of students at the college, i suggested a loaf based on one that i had seen in The Bourke Street Bakery book, Theirs was roasted Potato and Rosemary, mine was a bit different in that i was going to use 1/3 wholemeal flour, i was also going to use a biga,

i needed to make a 2kg biga, so quickly worked out the quantities of wholemeal flour that i would require and the water to have 2kgs this was simply 100% flour 65% water = 165%  2000g divided by 165 =12.12

I've been baking for a while now - started as a kid, but serious baking and sourdough for about 10 years now. What I love about baking is that I am still learning new things, every week I find something new to try. 

I've created a post to summarise a few things I've picked up over the years - its all my own experience, not scientific or book explained, all I know it works for me.