Blog posts

I received a 2 kg bag of Anita’s Organic Mill sprouted whole spelt last week and was excited to try working with more spelt than I have in the past. I haven’t had the best of results with spelt. As you know The gliadin/glutenin ratio is significantly higher in spelt at 3.5, than in wheat at 2. As a result spelt’s gluten is more extensible and less elastic. This typically results in spelt loaves spreading and not achieving good oven spring. That has been my experience with whole spelt.

I'll preface this blog post with a big THANK YOU for the input, insights, and recommendations from my prior thread about needing to find my way back to the right timing for my regular loaves.  I think I've got it (pending a look at the crumb, but I'm pretty confident from the exterior and the heft (or lack thereof)) of my most recent bake.

430g AP

430g Bread

116g WW

116g Durum

58g Rye

240g levain

794g water

26g salt

The breakdown on the process this time was.......

I had some leftover chocolate babka slices in the freezer that needed to be used up. When deciding what to do with it, I found this recipe:

https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/7177/bread-pudding-ii/

I decided to make my own version and used that as the base. 😉

Take 1 - Following(?) the recipe

This did not end up being the greatest example of following a recipe as written, but that was the guiding intent.

Changes to formula:

- Reduce sugar to 15.%
- Increase salt from 1.0% to 1.5%

- Use non-osmotolerant yeast (SAF instant red) and reduce to 1.0%

- Replace 5.0% instant potato flakes with 4.0% potato starch
- Substitute 50.% milk for 5.0% dry milk, omitting water
- Replace citrus extracts with citrus zest
- Replace vanilla extract with vanilla sugar

Dec 23 - 24, 2021.

Goals:  500 g final dough flour, 60 % BRM WW, 20% whole rye, 20% AP/bread flour.  7% direct starter (not a levain), 3 days since fed. Bulk ferment at room temp. Overnight proof in fridge.

--

12/23/2021.

12:45 pm:  Start soak/autolyse of flour/water/salt.

We are visiting my in-laws for Christmas, it has been so long since we’ve done this, and we have to bring bread right? A baker cannot arrive empty handed. So with my sister in law’s taste in mind I had to bake a sandwich bread. She practically lives on buttered toast. To try to make a variation on my other whole wheat Hokkaido loaves I decided to add my favourite seeds to this loaf, black and white sesame seeds. I realized it has been ages since I’ve added seeds to my breads so it was long overdue. I reduce the dough weight a bit to compensate for the addition of the seeds.

Made a basic loaf. I was probably aiming for 78%? 2 sets of stretch and fold with 1 hr intervals in between, and then an overnight rest in the fridge. The dough was very agreeable this time. Easy to Rubaud, when shaping it was stretchy, and when proofed it was airy. It lost some of its pockets when I tried scoring it with a knife 🥲 Did not check for windowpane tho....

It's chewy inside 😍😍 I think if I toast it the exterior will be crunchy and nicer~~ Goes so well with salted butter 🤤🤤 Gonna try with a wholegrain flour mix next~~

245g bread flour

So, it has been several years since I was baking ‘Grandi lievitati’ regularly. Getting back into the swing of things, and to some degree relearning what I once had figured out, or was at the very least working with more successfully…

Mastering Lievito Madre is no joke and is perhaps the most difficult accomplishment for any sourdough baker that wishes to really understand and control the many intricate nuances of fermentation and manipulate the biological and chemical processes which can ultimately make or break one’s endeavours.

I’ve never had Bara Brith before, it is a traditional Welsh bread, however, it can be made more like a cake using baking powder.  A baker from the UK posted her recipe which seemed so simple so I decided to try baking it.  As I kid I hated Christmas cake, but as with so many things as I’ve gotten older I’ve grown to like more things I used to dislike.