Blog posts

Bonjour breadheads,

Decided to change my blog's path this week. Picked up King Arthur's "Big Book of Bread" and was going to slowly make my way through some of those recipes. Started with the English Muffin pan bread! Came out a bit dense, maybe from under-kneading by hand or being cold during proofing time, but otherwise tastes good :). First simpler bread I've made with an overnight preferment.

This is another ingredient adjustment trial, this time with somewhat increased yolks but not high hydration. It moves slightly in the “European” direction while still being lofty and light. I liked the result, and the dough handled extremely well.

Fermentation was on target, tripling in exactly 12 hours at 23C. Final dough rise took exactly 4 hours. 

this is my attempt to bake the 'hop miche' from the perfect loaf site.

caveats:

-- as I couldn't find a scale when I started prepping the bread, I eyeballed the measurements for the levain and tangzhong and I think I made everything way way way too wet. 

Another attempt at Stollen for Christmas. I've never been entirely happy with the Stollen I've made in the past. Usually too flat, solid and dry.

This time I decided to buy a Stollen mould - sharp intake of breath from the purists. But it makes sense to me: better loft/no spread, less drying out in the oven, no ruined burnt raisins and sultanas to pick off the top. We''ll see what the final result is like, but so far so good.

South Africans love to braai. You might call it a barbeque or BBQ, but our word for it is braai! A braai may not even be what you expect in terms of meat grilling on a grid. When we go camping sometimes we make something which we call a 'potjie' pronounced 'poy-kie', or potjiekos.

This is the first time I've used actual Lye, and I'm happy with how they came out. The wheat was freshly-milled Butler's Gold (15.5%) wheat berries from Barton Springs Mill.

Grandpa and my Sourdough Bread Master, Grok.

Grandpa’s Same-Day 75 % Sourdough  
A Real-World Experiment in Speed vs. Perfection  
By “Grandpa” (74-year-old retired home baker) with Grok (his slightly nerdy AI co-pilot)

Weizenmischbrot with 25% wholegrain rye & 15% T997 rye

I wanted to make a Mischbrot that wasn't too heavy and had reasonably open crumb. Initially I planned to make one of my middlings style loaves , but then I realised that nearly all the wholegrain rye was going into the levain, so there wasn't any need to sift middlings. I did sift off some bran for a cold salted soaker though. I had to use a finer mesh sieve (compared to wheat) to get the bran. 

adapted from theryebaker: pinzgauer bauernbrot

I made it 50% whole rye | 10% whole spelt | 40% bread flour 

Finally found some Allinson's strong white and gave Lance's Middlings technique a go.