Blog posts

I made this Pain au Levain, from Hamelman's book, as a gift for my sister who lives in France. My mom went to see her, and she called me next day to tell me that the bread was fantastic, and the kids loved it.

I respected the formula, but I increased the hydration from 65% to 67%. I baked it the same day that the dough was made, as hamelman suggests. Next day my mother flew to my sister, and that evening they had my bread at the dinner table. They told stories, shared memories and probably laughed and had a good time. I miss them.

Ok

About time I started a blog... I struggle a bit with spelling. I blame it on the autistic/ dyslexia; most say I’m just lazy.

I'm so passionate about making bread at the moment... I started with dean Brettschneider book global baker. Have mastered ciabatta, baguettes, fennel dinner rolls, and puff pastry. I'll post picks. But its now time for sourdough.

Sending this to Yeastspotting.

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Chocolate croissants, chocolate soft sandwich loaf, now chocolate baguettes, see a trend?

In my second blog entry,  I wrote that I baked three varieties of bread for my friend;  WW bread (with right amount of salt!), cocoa-flavoured bread with cranberry & walnuts, and the other one. For the first two bread,  I’ve already shared the formulae in my earlier blogs.  So, today I’d like to share the recipe for the last one,  which is actually the favourite of this friend I baked those breads for. 

I have finally found a relatively affordable, reliable source for Bread flour in Dubai! I wanted to test run it by baking Poolish baguettes.  I have sourced the flour from a local mill. They had always stocked this product, though only sold it upon demand, which seems to be non-existant Market wise. I believe, that only high end western style Artisanal cafes spread around Dubai malls such as PAUL, LE Pain Quotidient, BREAD and Co... etc, would order such a premium Product. Now its Me, too  :P

The competition at this year's Leavenworth County Fair bread division was sparse. As I posted a few days ago, I entered a sourdough and a horiatiko psomi loaf. Because place ribbons aren't handed out for the entrants' self-esteem, I'm pleased that both of my loaves won blue ribbons.

Sourdough

Horiatiko Psomi

At our 4th of July family picnic, my spouse's cousin told me the hotel he worked for was looking for a baker.  They needed someone quickly and he thought I'd be able to get in.  He arranged for an interview the next day!  All I had on hand was some lavender rolls that I had just made so I brought two of those along with me.

Hi from Timisoara! This bread is adapted from Hamelman's book, page 172. A couple of weeks ago while making this bread, I posted a question on forum, link here. The dough felt very stiff, even though I increased the hydration a little over 74%. I omited the yeast from the recipe, and I adapted the fermentation time.

I spent some time in the kitchen this weekend. I was baking bread and establishing a separate starter that wouldn't see the inside of the refrigerator until the last loaves were done. There was also a fair amount of cleanup after the flour flew. The first loaf was out of the oven on Friday morning was another attempt at an Anadama Bread that turned out well, just not too open in the crumb.