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Sour dough: leaven refreshment, and ash content

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Hi,

I have moved this over from a discussion on Shiao-Ping's blog  to my Blog, as I was getting lost in some of the detail being covered, and because Shiao-Ping had asked me for more detailed discussion of sour doughs within My Blog page; so, here goes:

I am detailing below the feeding regimes we used to make thousands of Pain de Campagne and Rossisky loaves everyday in the bakery where I worked from 1994 to 2003.

Feeding regimes:   Commercially one feed works fine

New Baguettes and a few buys

Toast

Hi All,

I tried again with the baguettes.  This time I used 1.25 cups of flour and .5 cup of water, 1/4 teaspoon of active dry yeast (i bought the glass jar in spite of some of ya'll's advice so i'll be using it for a while.) and 1/4 teaspoon of salt (i should've used more salt)...

So, does it count as an autolyzing if I've already added the yeast and the salt? Since i've got the active dry stuff i have to soak it first and since i'm using so little water i don't have enough to divide it.

spelt and Pain au Levain bake

Toast

Yesterdays recap.

11 hours since I started my bake n blog day, I finally completed my bake. At first the dough was giving me some trouble, by being stubborn and not wanting to double fast enough, luckily my wife came up with a great solution, I took it into our baby room where we keep it warmer, and with in two hours it popped wright up.

Translucent Crumb

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This subject arose on another blog. As an initial blog post, I offer these photos as illustrations of my idea of a translucent crumb. I hope that the photos adequately show this characteristic.

Crumpets and Muffins

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A while ago Debra Wink asked for information on English Muffins.

I attach details below, mostly from a Practical Class with my Foundation Degree students from last academic year.

The attached video is from very early days, and was prepared entirely by the students.   You can hear me advising other students in the background; that's how I know I wasn't directly involved.

Poolish Rye & Whole Wheat Bread - Barry's Artisan Bread

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A week ago,  I bought my first rye and whole wheat flour, they were imported from Germany.  I could not understand a word on the description,  but I was determined to try my hand on these flour.  Here I am trying my first rye and whole wheat bread.  Honestly,  I have no idea what it is suppose to look like or taste like,  as I'm not a fan of rye bread usually,  I'm a white loaf freak.  Surprisingly,  this recipe is easy, and the taste is really good.  I still need to work on my shaping and proofing timing though.