Blog posts

We bought some cheese on a market across the border in France on the weekend. So my girlfriend requested some baguettes to go with them, since all my equipment including the baking steel finally arrived from Edinburgh. I wanted to try Benny's Yorkville baguette formula (sans any seeds this time), but I needed a slightly different schedule than in Benny's recipe, so I prepared the levain overnight and increased the % PFF, and shortened the bulk fermentation time.

A few weeks ago I tried making a new recipe I found from KAF for SD English Muffins that called for toasted corn meal. The English Muffins tasted great and the addition of the freshly milled corn meal really made a difference. I decided to try adding the toasted corn flour to my next SD bake.

This formula included some roasted white sweet potatoes and freshly milled whole wheat. The ricotta was added to soften the crumb along with some olive oil.

Inspiration

Altus... old rye bread... sometimes from a baking fail. Well, I had a bunch of altus from a whole grain pumpernickel I made that got dried out during baking. I was curious about incorporating it into a fluffier loaf... using something very dense and chewy to create something fluffy and creamy. 

Please... don't bin your "fails"!

Recipe

I worked from Floyd's daily bread recipe https://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/mydailybread

Feb. 8, 2022.  85th bake.

This is my 5th bake based on Denisa's 100% rye recipe.
www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67054/100-whole-grain-rye-sourdough-bread

4th submission to the Rye Community bake.
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/69775/community-bake-rye-bread

Sources: Adapted from Roxana Jullapat @ BBGA who adapted it from Clotilde Dusoulier @ Chocolate & Zucchini 

To celebrate St. Valentine's day I made these delicious Sourdough Chocolatines. They have an intense chocolate taste while not being overly sweet. So far they have been a hit and make a nice addition to an espresso or coffee.

Recipe and process are below for those interested.

Very simple and tastes great

Image

There are a number of versions of this bread out there, but I was originally introduced to it by Danni's.  For this bake, I wanted to use only Yeast Water for leavening.  My YW was refreshed a couple weeks ago and has been resting in the refrigerator.  Decided to give it a try without refreshing it.

Inspiration

I made a cranberry lemon kugelhopf two weeks in a row. I was very pleased with it so obviously I needed to blow it up with something crazy. I wondered whether I could make a kugelhopf with a citrus frangipane rolled inside it. And while I was at it, why not make it chocolate with hand-pulled espresso from my home-roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe coffee beans? And why not use lots of little currants instead of large cranberries?

Recipe

The recipe comprises two major parts: making the kugelhopf and making the citrus frangipane.

Dry:

1 cup wholegrain rye flour

1 cup semolina

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1 teaspoon ginger powder 

2 teaspoons baking powder

Pinch of salt

Wet:

⅔ cup orange juice

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon orange extract 

½ cup apple sauce 

½ cup almond butter

Add-ons:

Dried fruit (cranberries,  raisins etc.) Diced, if necessary, up to ¾ cup

Nuts, chopped, up to ¾ cup