Blog posts

Felila posted a link to an article in the Washington Post newspaper on baking with a newly developed flour, Kernza.  During the summer I visited with a friend in Vermont who was gifted a small bag of Kernza flour, apparently promotional as the one pound bag has no markings on it other than the Land Institute logo and "Kernza Perennial Grain Flour".  Not even the weight of the contents.  And handed it over to me.

Ok, so it took me WAY too long to make this after salivating over all of Benny's iterations of his lovely Hokkaido loaves, but I finally did it.  Thanks to Benny's very detailed and clear instructions, my first Hokkaido loaf was a success (though I need to get some of his super yeast so I can replicate the explosive rise he gets!)

We had some voracious bread eaters staying over Christmas (always nice to see your bread consumed enthusiastically!), so I needed to replenish supplies rapidly.

I decided upon a variation of Gavin's 100% freshly ground WW loaf, for which he kindly provided the recipe here.

Inspiration

My wife asked for a bostock dessert for the holidays. A bostock seems to be slices of day-old brioche, brushed with simple syrup, spread with frangipane and almond slices, and baked again. A frangipane is almond meal with sugar, eggs and butter. 

My final bake of 2021, a bit overproofed I’d say based on the bit of spreading. We’ll see when it is sliced, it could also have more hydration than the flours could take, that is another possibility to explain the spread. Without the porridge the hydration is 80% with the porridge the hydration is over 100%.
Unfortunately I didn’t weigh the grains, black sesame seeds with the water and milk in the pot prior to cooking them, so I don’t know what the final weight was since I had to add quite a bit more milk to compensate for the water cooking off.

 Hello, bread club members and guests. Today (New Years' Eve 2022) I will endeavor a two-part project.

First, I shall bake a semolina Italian bread, typical of what can be found on the Island of Sicily. The inspiration for this bake comes from Inumeridieri's recent bake of Mafalda bread.

Hi TFLers! I hope you are all doing fine. Work has multiplied exponentially that is why I have posted and even baked and cooked less and less. I baked this quite some time ago but only managed to post it now. This is inspired by another baked sushi flavor that I make for the family.

Dec. 29-30, 2021.

Goals:

• About 1200 g of mostly whole grain dough to fill an 8" inner diameter banneton which matches well with the pot of the 3.2 quart Lodge Combo-cooker.  This is also the maximum size that fits in a 1-gallon zipper seal plastic bag. After the loaf cools (2 hrs), I like to keep it in a plastic bag to soften the crust.
• 25% Malsena brand (Lithuanian) whole rye, 55% BRM stone-ground whole wheat, 5% whole grain durum (roller milled, Sher Brar Fiber Wala), 15% white flour (AP + bread).

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Dec. 29, 2021. Wednesday.

No bread today (sorry, Benny, didn't get to the Hokkaido bread today), but still had some fun with flour......  I feel like I've got my pasta dough down pretty pat at this point......

400g Caputo Antimo 00

3 large eggs

Tomato paste (to make the liquid equal 230g)