Blog posts

Another young vs ripe levain comparison for a desem culture maintained at 60 F.  At this time I was feeding 2x daily at roughly 5:3:5. This is a tortoise vs hare race.  The mature levains take an early lead, and the young levain eventually catches up with a sprint at the end. 

• mix 250 g flour at 66% hydration w/ 2% salt
• 90 turns in food processor total
• 20 turns to mix levains
• yellow: pH 4.55; 25:125  2% salt
• blue: pH 3.8; 25:125 2% salt

11:00 start

17:05: blue takes early lead

Occasionally I end up with small portions of the sames starter in various states and thought it would be useful to to document leveaning capability of the levain as a function of pH, given similar maintenance.

I have once again decided to document my bakes. I think I did not do this correctly a few moments ago, so here is a link to my last entry where I added my latest bake and explain what I did.  https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/57785/multigrain-loaf-la-dmsnyder

This is basically a repeat of last week's loaf with 50% wholegrain but with about 30% of the water replaced with sourwort. If your goal of getting an open crumb with sourwort then I would say you might be disappointed. As shown, the crumb is more and less the same with and without sourwort. Fortunately, that is not the reason I like sourwort, I was after it for some additional aromas and flavors and I think it did deliver which obviously not showable here. This is my first official baguette bake with sourwort so it is possible I still have not unlocked its potential.

I’ve made my country sourdough recipe numerous times in the past, but I’m always tinkering with my formulas. This time I employed both a stiff sweet levain (I didn’t want this bread to be sour) and I also added an egg. The addition of the egg is said to improve oven spring and may help with achieving a thinner crispier crust given the additional fat.

English Muffin Toasting Bread

I was asked by a friend...
"How about making an English Muffin Bread?"

"Not sure.  I've never made English Muffins."

"No.  An English Muffin Bread.  It's good for toast."

"Hmmm...  Never heard of it.  Let me do some digging and get back to you."

Same formula. used Danko rye from Barton Springs. Very very happy with all their grains that I have ground so far. . Timing for rise was unfortunately messed up because I fell asleep! Anyway successful as this is a forgiving dough. Fragrance and . Flavor amazing. This rye is very rich. Crumb has a bit of compression. Due to over rising and top catching on it. 

"Can you make those mock cream buns like we used too get at the school canteen" Yes i can: SO i did: And they were, only better: i had hoped the requesters (twins) were going to turn up in their school uniforms for the occasion. they said they would have if they could have squeezed into them. Anyway the whole Fit for Life group enjoyed them with their coffees today. The mock cream was made with 100g of caster sugar 78 grams of water bought to the boil and simmered for 5 minutes stirring the whole time. Then cooled.

Pullman Bread baked today, 4th Feb 2022.

This is Hamelman’s Pullman Bread, a straight dough that can be mixed and baked the same day with no pre-ferments. It is perfect for sandwiches. I mixed a 1 kg dough suitable for my 330-mm (13-inch) pan with the lid. The entire process took about 5 hours. Very happy with the result. I’ll let it cool and slice it later tonight.