Blog posts

Many years ago I went to a place no longer open called "The Lincoln Del".  I use to buy a loaf of bread called Egg Bread.  It was not sweet, but very yellow in color and was great.  It seemed very moist and elastic.  Does anyone know what this may be or how I could get the recipe.  I have tried to make it at home, but the consistancy of the bread was not correct. 

Stayed home today to nurse my lame dog, so I have time to make some notes for myself for future reference:

Result: gorgeous loaf. crunchy chewy crust. The texture is just a little ... moist, like perhaps just a tad undercooked. I forgot to get a temperature. The taste has a nice sourdough tang, but is a little too, too ... rubbery?

I'm trying no-knead bread for the first time, using the sourdough variation I found at Breadtopia. It sounds so easy (and it is), but I'm one of those bakers who is always wondering if I'm doing it right. My dough has been sitting for about 12 hours now at 70 degrees, and it looks ready to me. Bubbly on top, and nice strand development. Perhaps I should go on to the next step, or perhaps I should follow the 18-hour instructions and ... what ... allow more flavor to develop? more later.

Fired up the oven today for the first time this year, and the first time since late october. I had imagined baking on a wintery January day, but as it happened, we had record highs of nearly 50 degrees (in wisconsin) so it wasn't that much colder than the last time. Today's breads: Ciabatta and the Columbia French bread

I baked an olive levain today.

This was basically like Hamelman's Olive Levain: 10% whole wheat, no yeast, just starter. I loved it:

Wow is right! Mountaindog recommended this bread, and I have to agree it tastes fantastic! I haven't used Glaser's "Artisan Baking" very much, I think like mountaindog, it was a little too advanced for me when I got it, and then I learned from other books and it was left on the shelf. I also get stuck in ruts, and get lazy and ignore recipes with 5 hour rises, etc!