Blog posts

Hello fellow bakers - I hope the Gods of baking are smiling upon you :) 

I've just made another guess loaf - (which if you don't know me, means I just guess what I put in and wait to see what happens).

It's the best yet, bar maybe one.

I had a failed loaf yesterday, I think I was too cack handed when I moved it after it's second rise and it deflated - 

not sure if this was due to my using plain flour instead of strong flour - but I should have let it rise for longer after I'd moved it.

After sever attempts at rustic breads that were consumed in private without anyone allowed to see them (taste was generally good, but the crumb was more appropriate for a sandwich loaf, and some had excessively chewy crusts), my last bake was improved enough to share.

This was based on TXfarmer's recent ciabatta rolls and 100% WW baguettes.

Today I made Irish Soda Bread to enjoy with our St. Patrick's Day dinner!  I've listed the ingredients and if you would like to see photos of step by step instructions they are on my blog Here.  Making soda bread, takes a little practice.  The list of ingredients are what i used today, I added a little extra flour, while gently mixing the dough and used a heavily floured board to shape the dough.

1. 280 gms All Purpose Flour - low protein         

I hope you see this and respond Pat, I read your tip about the butter frame and want to ask a question.

I made some banana breads tonight. They were delicious – better than ever before with some tweaking the baking temperature. As I was tasting it, I got to thinking about the book from which I got the recipe.

Banana Bread from Crust & Crumb

Banana Bread crumb

I having been baking off and on for a long time, including making bread, but I finally got serious about it last fall.  This blog will chronicle my journey in the world of bread baking.  Warning:  I will be going into baker's percentages and other technical aspects of baking the bread, so this blog may be very boring ;-)

My new go-to loaf is Hamelman's light rye. I leave out the caraway seeds (never aquired a taste) and use whole rye. 

This week, my baking schedule was thrown off, so I had to improvise. Hamelman's recipe calls for an 18-hour sourdough starter, a 1-hour bulk fermentation, and a 1-hour proof before baking. Due to time constraints, I had to put the dough in the fridge overnight after shaping.

Did a 20 loaf batch last month, hand kneaded 10.4 kilograms (23#), lot of fun. Looking for my baker's sheet from that job to post more details.

I have been after a good English Muffin since I started baking breads 2 years ago. I tried the BBA recipe, too bread like, crumb is even and soft, good for a dinner roll, not an English muffin. I tried Alton Brown's recipe. Simple, and gives lots of holes. However the crumb is more like a crumpt. In addition, with a very short rise, AB's EM lacks a little flavor.