Blog posts

My usual sourdough routine has been streamlined and I generally don't have discard. In fact if I want to make pancakes I have to build extra levain when I'm prepping bread so I can make pancakes later. So when Hendrik at The Bread Code  posted a video of this bread, and said it was one of his favorites, I knew I had another bread to try. I slowly built up some discard but the process was very slow and actually took a few months to build up enough to make a tiny loaf of bread.

June 11, 2022.  92nd blogged bake.

This is Liezl Jayne's gluten-free Oats, Nuts, and Seeds bread.  It's also in the "Josey Baker Bread" book, with slightly different proportions, under the name Adventure Bread.

Recipe:
https://liezljayne.com/overnight-oat-nut-seed-bread-gluten-free/

I made a half batch for a mini loaf pan.

I was lucky to get some winter red wheat (RGT Accroc) directly from the farm. I cleaned and stone milled enough berries to bake Debra Wink’s 100% whole-wheat sandwich bread. I had made this before with white wheat and wanted to get a better taste. I made two adjustments for this bake; use the red wheat and replace cold pressed walnut oil with toasted walnut oil. The difference is remarkable, a richer whole-wheat crumb, texture, aroma, and flavour. The crumb is soft for use in sandwiches. The loaf was baked in a 330mm Pulman pan sans lid.

There has been some interest in using pH to help guide fermentation of our dough.  Before purchasing a pH meter I used percent rise to guide fermentation and make decisions, however, there are times when it doesn’t seem to be very accurate.  If you’re interested in learning how to use an Aliquot jar then have a look at this post I made a while ago.  By posting this I am not claiming to be a master at using pH, I am simply sharing what I do now based on trial and error.

A recent blog post about grain mash is awesome if you haven’t read it yet. Reading it motivated me to apply saccharification to the polenta porridge thinking it might enhance the flavour of the polenta. As you know saccharification of the polenta brings out its sweetness that is hidden in the starches in the polenta.

I haven't posted for a while since I've been busy and wasn't baking anything particularly interesting. But there have been a few posts about different carrot rye bread variations recently, and I was curious about this idea. I decided to make a big "experiment" out of it this past long weekend, and combined different techniques and ingredients to see what comes out.

Here is the formula and brief method description: https://fgbc.dk/2h9c

To walk you through it, I had:

This recipe from The Rye Baker surprised me with how complex the flavor was despite the simplicity of the method (i.e., no sourdough). Most of the rye recipes in the book are built on sour culture to provide the acidic environment and flavor; this one uses hard apple cider to accomplish those goals.

The dough is a 71% medium rye and AP blend (both King Arthur) with Blake’s Flannel Mouth hard cider (6.5% ABV and slightly sweet) as the liquid (71% hydration). There is also a bit of sugar and IDY. The recipe was scaled to one can of cider and it yielded one 782-g loaf.

After last weekend's success doing a cold retard during bulk, I decided to try it again, but this time with a whole grain loaf.  It's been quite a while since I made a 100% whole wheat loaf and I have some flour I want to get through.  This one's not quite 100%...  I used my white flour starter refresh again for the inoculation.  I kept the method the same and am happy to say it worked again for me.  My summer schedule gets pretty crazy, so I'm glad I tried out th

Been a while since I had some bagels and have been craving them, so it was clearly time to revisit this wonderful recipe from Peter Reinhart in the Bread Baker's Apprentice. I've done this at least 2 or 3 times in the past always going with the poolish and commercial yeast version. I figured it was time to try the full sourdough version.

RECIPE AND CALCULATIONS HERE

One of the first things I noticed was how much starter/levain I needed. 992 grams! Wait...really....yes really!