Blog posts

I want to pose a number of questions that I hope will stir up some discussion.  I have ideas about some of them but no real facts.  Here's the first.

I have measured the volume of a starter as it rose after feeding.  I've done this several times with various starters and a poolish. The general pattern was the same.  The starter would, after a delay, start rising and build up to a roughly constant rate, then start to taper off.

Today's bake: Laminated Honey Rye

Source: Living Bread by Daniel Leader

Notes: Doubled original recipe of TDW 1.055kg.

Substitutions:  AP flour for Type 55, Used plant-based butter.

I’ve been making our favourite sourdough weekly for years and have not varied the process at all (don’t fix something that’s not broken). Same flours, same temperatures, same hydration, same process and same kneading technique, which is hand stretch and folds for 15 minutes, quite an effort towards the end. Recently, I broke four ribs and punctured a lung and therefore haven’t baked in four weeks. With the help of painkillers, I got back into the kitchen today. While convalescing I read that I can achieve good dough strength by kneading for 5 minutes and then rest for 15 minutes.

I've had Daniel Leader's Living Bread book for a couple of years now but have baked scarcely any (one?) of the breads that it features.  One reason for not having dived into it enthusiastically is that I am, admittedly, a rather pedestrian baker whereas many of the breads in the book exemplify a high degree of the baker's craft.  Another reason is that some of the breads are in the "That's cool but it isn't what I want" category.  And, a number of the breads call for ingredients that, here in northern Michigan, range between exotic and Unobtanium.  Since I'm cheap

Hi friends!

Last time, I shared how I bake lean bread in my beloved Walmart toaster oven. Today, I will show you how I use it to bake enriched bread. The loaves you see are sesame milk bread, made with 60% milk, 8% butter, and 8% sugar. I bake them "naked" — without the graniteware roaster — in a black tin and a light-colored tin, respectively. Each dough weighs around 500g for the 9x4x4 tin.

Here’s my process:

Sorry to anyone who received weird emails notifications today. I was doing a bit of housecleaning, which triggered comment notifications that I was not expecting.

This is worthwhile opportunity for me to share that I am finally working on upgrading migrating this site from the current software it is running on. 

This is Maurizio Leos best sourdough recipe but with 80%-ish water instead of 85%. My flour actually probably could’ve taken the 85%

Mix 822g flour, 64g ww flour, and 650g water and let autolyse 1 hour.

Add 151g levain, 17g salt, 85g waterish - I didn't measure, just added reserved water by feel.

Fold every 15 minutes 3 times then every 30 minutes 3 times. Total bulk 4 hours. Shape (no preshape) and proof in fridge overnight.

Things have cooled down just a bit the last few days, enough to make cooking more pleasant. This loaf is based on Trailrunner/Caroline's WW YW Pullman 13" bread. As Caroline mentions, this is a spin off of Danayo's 1-rise only bread. I scaled Caroline's recipe down a bit for use in my 9 in Pullman pan, and made just a few substitutions:

235 gm AP (Bob's Red Mill organic)

235 fresh milled Central Milling hard red spring wheat

I doubled and baked the 8 small loaves and an 8x4 pan not quite full. 

2 T soft butter

1/2 c white sugar 

1 large egg

1/2 c light brown sugar 

2 c fresh milled Purple Straw soft red wheat

1/2 t baking soda 

1tsp baking powder 

3/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp mixed spices - I ground cinnamon. Allspice, clove and nutmeg

1 c sliced pre moistened dates

zest of one orange

3/4 c oj

Haven’t made this since 2018. What was I waiting on ???? This was originally posted by the prolific poster/ baker Shiao-Ping. It’s the most flavorful rich incredible bread. I made my own adaptations so will write it up below. 

It’s very easy to inoculate your current YW with banana slices. There’s also info online to start a YW with banana from scratch. I just add a new fruit to some of my current active YW I don’t start from scratch.