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This is the first time I’ve eaten an Ichigo Daifuku so I can say it the best I’ve ever eaten ?. This is the second time making mochi and I don’t think I’ve shared the method I found on the net that makes this so easy to prepare.  Normally, the traditional Japanese method is to prepare glutinous rice and then pound it for hours and hours.  OK I do NOT have time for that so there is a shortcut.  Does the shortcut make exactly the same chewy texture we so love about mochi, not quite, but it is good enough for most of us except diehard mochi perfectionists (not me).

April 9, 2021.

This was a SOT-SOT* bake, with nothing measured except stevia, Sucralose, guar gum, and baking powder.  They came out really good, so I wish I had measured.

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My rules of thumb for muffins:  1. use about 1 tsp baking powder per cup of dry ingredients. 2. Hydrate to a thick batter, that spreads out some, but not completely flat on top. 

My latest attempt at the Tartine #3 White Bread (Ode to Bourdon) on page 46 was equally disappointing.

Though in a different way this time: lack of rise.

Two images attached: the flat loaf; the crumb.

This is my try on the "The Approachable Loaf using Commercial Yeast and Poolish" Community Bake from 2020.

Link here: https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62486/community-bake-approachable-loaf-bread-lab

 Notes:

1. Room temperature was 76F the whole time. It is not cool here.

I wanted to push my learning curve a little bit on this bake and used Benny's recent bake as my template.  This one turned into a definite learning curve.

I wanted to post about baking three baguettes at the same time in our home oven and how easy it was to load the doughs onto the baking stone using my DIY dough loader.

Developing the dough went well as did the shaping, proof and moving the dough to the loader. Trouble struck when I scored the dough as my lame was blunt. The lame dragged the dough rather than cutting neatly, resulting in jagged and ugly scoring. My concerns are evident in the baked loaves.

I guess I was due a pancake (almost)! Wanted to keep exploring the sourdough poolish idea after delicious (although ugly) ciabattas.

Decided to make a seeded sourdough with ~40% whole grain and a soaker, and made a preferment with all the whole grain in the recipe: https://fgbc.dk/1h9s

"Ciabatta are like geodes, their true beauty is hidden until you slice them.".  Don, our superb baker MTloaf, provided this wise comment recently.  

I love sesame in bread. These make for very tasty bread.

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves 

Porridge

150 g rolled oats

300 g water

50 g honey

50 g butter

Add-ins

75 g raw Sesame seeds

75 g raw Sunflower seeds

Dough

600 g unbleached flour

200 g freshly milled Red Fife flour 

210 g freshly milled Spelt flour 

75 g flax, freshly ground

700 g water

25 g salt

250 g levain (procedure in recipe)

The afternoon before:

My starters were fed more than usual the amounts of ‘food’ just before my husband and I left for a family emergency in eastern Quebec. This morning I mixed both liquid and stiff discards to make 100% hydration, then recalculated the recipe for a cinnamon raisin swirl loaf recipe from KAB. I’ll probably attempt this again (the hubby loves cinnamon raisin anything!) with ripe sd and some spelt flour.

Dough (all at room temp)