Blog posts

internal temperature

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I think it was Rosalie who commented on the confusing amounts of information found in all of our baking books. Forgive me if it wasn't you, Rosalie. Since I bought my instant read thermometer I have been careful to bake my loaves to 105*, give or take. I just got Kiko Denzer's book "Build your own earth oven" from the library and I really want to build one. However, in her chapter on sourdough bread his wife says that we should aim for 190* and anything over 200* is overbaked and the bread will stale quickly. So who do I believe? A.

Seeded Whole Grain Sourdough

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This bread is almost 100% whole grain, except for a small amount of white starter. It uses whole wheat and rye flour, and a soaker of flax seeds, sesame seeds, bulgur, and oats.

The recipe, along with a bit about what happens when you overproof it, is here. (These loaves are not overproofed, but the first ones I made were.)

Seeded Whole Grain Bread

Susanfnp

ENGLISH MUFFINS, ASIAGO/PEPPER ROLLS

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I finally made the English muffins, thanks browndog, etc. I made one batch with milk and one batch with buttermilk. I did add 1 TBL. olive oil and used 1/2 cup starter. Neither had open holes but still tasted very good with the buttermilk batch having a little more flavor. The picture shows the crumb (both batches looked the same inside and out). My picture is not very good and I sent my daughter home with all the nicest looking muffins. These were, as everyone who made them said, very easy indeed and very good. No more store ones for us.

my bread habits

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last night i made use of some of a pumpernickel soaker/starter i had going last thursday that was intended for a large batch of what i call my light rye levain, among friends i call it a sourdough but it's not usually very sour, so it really is happier under the umbrella of levain....as i was saying, the intent was to turn the starter into about 20lbs of dough that would become six loaves of bread to be used for bartering with vendors at my local farmer's market, but that didn't happen and i was left with a lot of this pumpernickel stuff.

Labor Day Weekend Bread

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==== "Remember always that a wise man walks with his head bowed; humble like the dust." -Master Kan==

 

 

Labor Day Bread MedleyLabor Day Bread Medley

I got a bit out of control during the Thursday evening through Monday period of the Labor Day weekend here in the States.

Front row:

Chemical Smell

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Help!  I have had my starter in the refrigerator un-toughed for 2 weeks or less.  When I opened it up, it smelled just like lacquer thinner.  It also as some what solidified on top.  When I fed it last it was ovoer 80 in my kitchen.  Should I throw it out and start over?????  I don't want to kill anyone!   Thanks Dorothy

Reinhart's Ciabatta

Today we're having a party and I figured (yesterday), I'd make some ciabatta. I never made it before and decided to make Reinhart's (BBA) recipe based on biga. I did scale it up a little to make slightly more. In the process of doing the calculations, I think I discovered some errors in the percentages and corrected them. I made the bread using the corrected recipe (I'll post on that seperately).

Reinhart's 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Received the book finally 2 days ago. I had pre-ordered from Amazon and they kept claiming it wouldn't ship to me until October. I complained with customer service as others were receiving it, and when I placed a new order, it said it would ship immediately (I cancelled that one of course). That caused them to send it right away.Reinhart's 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread

Reinhart's 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread 

sourdough problem

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I have been merrily plodding along with my version of sourdough starters ( 2 at the moment) but took some time to re-read Bill's posting on maintaining a starter. To my horror it seems I have been doing everything wrong, so I decided to start yet another one from Bill's recipe. I have to admit I had been using what I consider to be inferior flour because our store was out of King Arthur, and my starter didn't look too happy. I measured out the required amount and added KA all purpose flour and spring water and stirred like mad.

Sourdough moving experiment.

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Many many months ago, in Austria far away, a sourdough starter was supplied from a baker, good and qualified. The Austrian starter was dried and traveled to China where part of it mixed and grew nurtured in the presence of Chinese all purpose flour and later with Austrian Rye flour. Sometimes it sat out to grow, sometimes it sat in a refrigerator, one time even froze but it lived long and prospered and provided many a loaf of bread. Then it was dried.