Blog posts

No secret I love barley flour in my bakes.  It's just a flavor I enjoy.  This bake is based on a recipe in The Finnish Cookbook by Beatrice Ojakangas.  I converted from volume to weight as best I could and took a few liberties.

1)  I replace half the rye flour with rye chops
2)  I added a YW pre-ferment that incorporated all the rye flour and half of the barley flour
3)  I used the rye chops, half the barley flour, and crushed fennel seed in a whole milk scald
4)  Eliminated the butter

Day before, afternoon:

2 cups whole grain rye flour, 1 teaspoon of rye starter from the fridge, enough water to form a ball of dough; cover and leave to ferment in a lukewarm spot 

Baking day, late morning:

All preferment,  2 cups whole wheat flour,  2 cups whole rye flour,  enough water to form very soft dough, salt to taste (around 2-2½ teaspoons), favorite seeds (flax, etc.)

Let ferment until nicely expanded 

I'm a cheapskate and an experimentalist so I'm always thinking of ways to cut corners. I wondered how well I could control temperature using a crockpot and a cheap controller.

So, I got the Inkbird C206T controller and used a rubber band to strap its sensor to a quart jar with 500g of water and my floating bluetooth thermometer inside. I filled the crockpot with enough water to match the water level in the jar, covered the whole thing with a "shower cap" and a small blanket. I set the controller for 43.5C. 

I made Fleischmann’s Rye Batter Bread a couple of years ago as I was easing back into bread baking. It was an easy recipe that produced a decent loaf of rye bread. I revisited this recipe a couple of months ago because a shoulder injury limited the amount hand mixing and kneading I could do.

Delicious! I wrapped the finished 13” Pullman loaf in linen towels and left it 24 hrs. Like a tender rich cake. Very cool mouth feel and a lovely crisp  deep toasted crust due to plenty of butter to prevent sticking. This dough was WET! It contained 2 YW levains one white and one Rye . It also contains my trinity of EVOO -honey - yogurt. 

Weet-bix (in South Africa and Australia, or Weetabix in the UK, apparently available in the US too...) is a breakfast cereal of 'biscuits' of wholegrain wheat biscuits. The usual way we eat it in my family is with a sprinkle of sugar on top and then allow it to soak up the milk. It can really soak up the milk. It's quite a comfort food, and would be a great way to increase dietary fibre and be fairly healthy too (if it wasn't for the aforementioned sugar).

To learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS), please see here and here. 

I decided last month to try and revisit making baguettes again. I had not made any in quite some time and my shaping and scoring skills were not up to snuff.

I decided to follow David Snyder’s famous recipe from The Fresh Loaf.com and baked them several times with a few modifications (because I just can’t help myself :)). I’m still not happy with my shaping and scoring so no pictures here…but the crumb came out excellent just like you want with a nice open honeycomb and crispy light crust.

Inspired by a picture of Derek's (Yozzause) recent Chelsea bun bake and also by some Fitzbillies of Cambridge UK buns that our daughter sent us, I thought it was time to try my hand at them.

Similarities to cinammon buns of course, but a surprisingly steep learning curve to get them right. I will need a couple more bakes to get them nearer how I think they should be. But I'm happy enough for a first attempt.

Tried a cold oven start today...Interestingly I baked for 30min on stone, covered with a pot, when I removed the lid, there was hardly any oven spring. But after another 25min, it came out not too  bad I suppose. :)

Crust was crispy and interior soft and moist. I suppose I could have proofed the loaf a little longer. Anyone uses the cold oven start method? Have a great sunday!