Blog posts

Basic sourdough from the BBA with my starter instead of barm.

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Not a great success, which is frustrating as I did everything by the book - kept dashing back to check at each step. As I mentioned, the dough was great to work with and I had great hopes, but in the end there was practically no oven spring. The bread tasted good and the crust had the pretty "freckles", but there weren't many holes. My only thought is that I overproofed the loaves - I let them sit for 4 hours after coming out of the frig because that is what PR suggested. I had made batards and they rose nicely and didn't collapse when I slashed them.

Cornell Bread

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Hi everyone,

I've been wanting to find a sandwich bread that my son will eat, other than white bread. This week, I made some Cornell bread straight from the Cornell University site. I like the idea of it because it has extra protein in the form of soy flour, dry milk, and wheat germ -- the three ingredients you have to have if you call it Cornell bread. I substituted whole wheat flour for 1/3 of the total amount; otherwise, I followed the recipe.

 

Basic BBA Sourdough

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Hi Katie, my dough was great so I guess I didn't goof too much with the amount of starter. It had doubled in 2 1/2 hours and was so nice to work with. I decided to leave the loaves in the frig overnight and there they sit, snugly held in place with parchment and rolled towels. It will be REALLY hard for me to let them sit for 4 hours before baking but I will try to be patient. I am so thrilled with my near-disaster bread too - it keeps fresh, and I seem to remember reading somewhere that using a preferment is the reason. I'm hooked! Can I mention the Brummie words?

BBA Basic Sourdough

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Katie, I was so anxious to try using my starter instead of the barm - and already I have a question. My 4oz. of starter was less than 2/3cups. Do you think it was because my starter was revved up and more liquid? I sorta kinda split the difference and went ahead anyway - I'll let you know what happens. I am also fretting a bit about "firm French bread dough" because I have never made French bread and don't really know how firm it should be. I see PR says tacky but not sticky. Hmmmmmmmmmm. Thanks for your help, A

poolish

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Weavershouse, you've blown my cover! I was born in a small place outside "Brummagam" and had no idea anyone over here would know about Brummie slang. My mother used to do what we called bread and scrape - she would spread butter VERY THINLY on the cut end of the loaf before slicing it. Guess that came from the butter being rationed during the war. Of course I had to Google the site you mentioned and sat here laughing out loud to the amazement of Boo the one eyed pug. Now she thinks I'm over the edge too like my son in Paso Robles, CA.

Floyd's Daily Bread - poolish

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Last night I lay tossing and turning, doing what my late father-in-law would call "mithering" - thinking about the bread I was going to bake today, (Floyd's Daily Bread), the basic sourdough from the BBA, and wondering whether anyone has tried making ciabatta dough using a food processor. Lots of things to make my brain spin. So I was late getting going this morning and it was probably 10am when I started on the bread.

Pepper Dill Potato Buns

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I wanted to make dill bread so used Floyd’s wonderful recipe for Potato Rosemary Rolls yesterday but replaced the rosemary and sage for a huge pile of fresh baby dill.  Then I added another huge pile of freshly ground black Tellicherry pepper.  We really like things spicy but I was afraid the amount of pepper I used would overpower the dill.  Not having made dill bread before (Tingull's looks so good) I also wanted to try using fresh dill to get a feel for the amount desired.  I ended up using 2 1/2 teaspoons of freshly ground pepper and roughly 4 packed t