Blog posts

GERMAN BROTCHEN

Hey All,

I am on baking hiatus until Fall, or at least until it gets cooler here in NYC...

Until then, happy baking!

Tim

I wanted to share these pictures of the bread being sold in a stand in Dolceaqua, Italy.  It was a small festival displaying the products of Dolceaqua. The size of the bread was amazing. Imagine the size of the ovens. 

Actually just a yeasted multigrain. Pretty much according to the recipe (Reinhart, Crust & Crumb), apart from: two-day old biga instead of one, milk instead of buttermilk, white rice instead of brown rice, added more salt.

Without going through the practice of making bread and everything,  I wouldn't have attempted this. As this delicacy requires techniques as complex as making a baguette,  and patience that is required in making sourdoughs.

Thank goodness for TFL, and good thing I did a search here before making this formula (I always do that with this book, just too many errors). The starter amount is wrong in the book, should be 75g rather than 300g. With that corrected, the process was pretty painless.

So, life has taken me on a charming and busy ride-no blogging time and I am therefore way behind on posting about my recent bakes. Not that there is anything to be missed since some of them did no turn out(and it seems I might not even have taken a picture of one of the breads,oh well).

Bread#1:

Irish Soda Bread

As my baking evolves I am drawn more towards hearty rye sourdough breads in the northern European style.  I also like big and bold flavors that complement the rye and sour nuances of the bread. 

Thus my spur of the moment decision to also add the following to my 2.5lb loaf:

1 tbs fresh ground black pepper

2 tbs red pepper flakes (pizzeria type)

1 tbs fresh diced rosemary

End of the week,  my family who has been away from me for a week are coming back.  That's also an excuse for me to bake for them again.  I wanted to do something that they like,  and for a change,  a sweet dough recipe is good.  Inspiration from Home Happy Baking - a fantastic baker,  with beautiful pics and blogs,  I made these heart shaped tuna buns and blue berry buns.

Today I baked 10 loaves in my simple gas oven, 4 at a time, and I am not displeased with the results.  They are for donation at our church tomorrow; we provide food for those in need once a month.  My motives in baking were also selfish in that the more I bake, the better baker i  become.  6 loaves are from the formula for "White Bread Plus" in Joy of Cooking, and 4 are Sourdough Bread from Sourdough Cookery by Rita Davenport.