Blog posts

 (Apologies to Jimmy Buffett)

One of the many objectives of the formula development project is to gain understanding of the baking process.  I have found that nothing beats working with the same general dough over and over, with very minor variations to understand the impact of various elements of the baking process.

So when comments on my last entry wound around to "intensive mix" vs. "improved mix" and the somewhat weak crumb of my last loaf, I really wanted to give them full consideration.

It's been half term holiday week here; where has it all gone I'm asking, as I go back to work tomorrow.

I s to have spent much of the week working hard to tackle all the complex issues I have to deal with ready for next year.

A brief reflection on our trip to Bolton on Friday 18th February is quite calming and re-assuring that my job is a good one.   Unfortunately Faye was not in the "prize money" on this occasion, but we both had a great day out, and were very well treated by our hosts.

Hello,

Recalling Larry's wonderful cheese bread that we liked so much, I wanted to make [color=orange]cheddar cheese[/color] bagels (my husband's favorite bagel). We enjoyed these for breakfast today...so nice to have these warm treats on a cold, snowy day!

I followed Mr. Reinhart's Bagel formula in BBA, but added 172g of grated sharp cheddar to the flour mixture when mixing the dough.
I kneaded the dough by hand, and the some of the grated cheddar was still visible in the dough before baking.

I finally tried this recipe and I certainly was happy with the result. Thanks to Eric for the recipe.  It one of those that are on my repeat list certainly.  

www.foodforthoughts.jlohcook.com

I'm back to making my favorite green tea bread bun again. Having a mentality like a Japanese (trying to as I'm making something sort of Japanese) that food appearance is as important as its taste. I am thinking to make a nice looking bread roll instead of simple bread bun.

I also got lots of green tea powder I bought during my trip to Japan late last year that is asking to be used. And again, I'm on to my favorite food pair, green tea and red bean, a food pair that is made for each other. A match made in heaven!

My son has been begging for banana bread.  I have been obsessed with sourdough boules.  So I found the recipe for Cranberry Chocolate Sourdough on SourdoughHome.  As you can already guess, I decided to make it, adding the bananas.  It was a mixing nightmare, super elastic dough, smushy bananas & boiled cranberries refusing to be mixed in.  So I just kind of squished it together and over 3 hours attempted some S&F's.  After 3 hours it finally relaxed & I was able to shape it into a kind of boule and bake it.  Pictured are the results.  I th

I generally follow trends slavishly, but I can’t get into the nine-pound-miche thing that seems to have taken TFL by storm.  In fact my one and only complaint about miches is they are too large for my small (albeit voracious) family of only two carbovores.  I know they can be divided and a piece frozen, but they’re never as good thawed as fresh.

After two years following the directions and/or advice of Dan DiMuzio, J. Hamelman, a bit of Reinhart, and a lot of TFLers, e.g., dmsnyder, SylviaH, Susan, Debra Wink, proth5, hansjoakim, ehanner, ananda, and a host of others, I'm comfortable that I can consistently bake satisfactory sourdough loaves, reminiscent of Vermont, Norwich, San Jouquin, etc., while at the same time, feel they are subtly my own.