Blog posts

20100217 Chinese New Year Celebrations

Profile picture for user Yippee

This year is the Year of Tiger.  It’s a tradition for Cantonese to make cakes for the Chinese New Year.  The pronunciation of cakes, which is ‘GO’, is the same as the word ‘tall’ in Cantonese.  Seniors in the family like to wish their grandchildren grow tall and healthy (快高長大) in the New Year.  Therefore, cakes are an indispensable part of the Chinese New Year celebrations. 

 

Caraway sourdough loaf

Toast

Hello to everybody,

I would like to share with you guys my todays bread. I used 100% hydriation sourdough and ground caraway.

 

Formula:

 

ingredients

Queen Olive, Rosemary and Oregano Sourdough

Toast

I decided to try making a savory olive bread using my usual sourdough recipe, and just adding herbs and chopped Queen olives.  I would occasionally buy an olive baguette from our nearest supermarket, until they stopped making them.  It was a good thing I only bought them occasionally, they were delicious and somewhat addictive.  Anyway, having enjoyed getting the hang of basic sourdough bread, I decided this would be the perfect base for an olive bread.  Because I have lots of fresh Rosemary growing in the garden, that seemed like an obvious and delicious addition, and w

porteguese sweet bread from ABP book

Toast

Greetings all,
Last week I tried the Portuguese sweet bread from the book titled "Bread and Pastry" by Micheal Suas. All I can say is that it is pretty darn good! I highly recommend it.

Question, I noticed that the dough can double its original size 4 times. However, I baked after the dough doubled in volume from its final shape. Would it be better to wait till the dough doubles its original volume 3.5 times?

The following is the formula.

Preferment

Critique my recipe

Toast

So I'm writing a recipe for everyone. Its intended so that anyone, regardless of experience can try to make bread. So far, I've been told that the recipe reads as a technical document. As yet, I'm not sure if thats a good thing or a bad thing. 

But please read and tell me if its not detailed, too detailed, or in general too wordy.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4.00 Cups Bread Flour
1.00 Cup Water
4.00 Tbsp Water
1.00 Tbsp Instant Yeast
1.00 Tsp Salt
3.00 Tbsp Melted Butter

Goat Milk Sourdough - The Final Word

Toast

I've been working on this one for quite awhile. The original was a variation on the Basic Sourdough in the Bread Baker's Apprentice. Between trying different proportions of the ingredients and consulting the good advice on The Fresh Loaf, I've arrived at this version, which I'll probably stick with for awhile. I've pushed it up over 75% hydration, so I've had to switch from kneading to stretching-and-folding. 

Gérard Rubaud attempt

Toast
I decided to try the Gérard Rubaud bread that so many people around here seem to be enjoying.  I followed [url=http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/15995/g%C3%A9rard-rubaud-pain-au-levain-second-bake]dmsnyder's instructions[/url] using a single levain build.  I had quite a bit of trouble shaping this dough into batards; it was sticking to everything and didn't seem to have much strength at all.  I proofed the loaves in a (improvised) couche but during proofing they seemed to