Blog posts

After a few bad batches, decided to go back to basics.  Decided to go with a simple straight white bread and make some focaccia with the left over dough.

I am currently going through Ken Forkish's Flour, Water, Salt, Yeast and am about to start getting into making a starter.  When I first sat down to read the section on getting it going I was taken aback by how wasteful his method seems and took to the forums to find that I'm not the only one.

Pulled the trigger on a new 8x4 Pullman pan after getting comments in this thread.  Came in today and decided to try a quick loaf.  Threw together a quick recipe with the goal of making a soft sandwich bread.

Decided to start with the dough weight the pan is rated for.  I think the bake went really well and am optimistic about the crumb, but not nearly enough dough.  :-)

I've slowed down on the Brown Bread baking, but as part of my grain CSA I still need to work my way through some Chiddam de Blanc Mars. I recently made some Coffee Cake with Proof Bakery's recipe which was complicated but amazing. Unfortunately the center was undercooked because I didn't have a temperature recommendation, just time. So no photos. But yesterday we baked Maurizio's Sourdough Babka with better results.

Using the recipe from the King Arthur Flour 200th Anniversary Cookbook, I recently made teething biscuits for two great-nephews who are each 6 months old:

Peter (I've no idea why the picture refuses to display in the correct orientation.)

Amos

Getting them off to a good start with home-made baking.

I had a friend make this recently. He had trouble with the dough being too slack and this loaf ended up dense. I thought I'd make it to figure out where he might have lost his way. I soon realized it wasn't him. There's a problem with the recipe IMHO. While making the dough I googled and realized many others struggled with this recipe. It calls for seed additions that are excessive and much too much water in the seed soaker. For a 500g loaf it's asking for about 145g of flax that's soaked in water twice that amount. That's a 30% seed addition.

Bake from a couple days ago...

Overall, bake turned out decent.  Made the loaf for a friend and they liked it, so I guess that’s all that matters.  Had to slice and check the crumb before giving it to them. ?

Levain build went well.  Starter was 2 weeks old, but levain was over doubled and very bubbly at 11 hours (72-74 deg).  Dough temp was right on target after mixing (as 75 deg).  However, as usual for me with high white flour recipes, my BF progressed very slowly.

Someone mentioned Joe Ortiz’ book The Village Baker . I remembered I met him I think at the Gilroy Garlic festival 20 yrs ago and had a signed copy ...as I wasn’t interested at the time in bread baking (just bread eating !) it sat on a shelf ..loaned to a friend ,..got it back yesterday and reading through it ..now it all starts to make sense ..it’s  a terrific resource...I just started my bread baking journey this January 1 ..recommended reading 

I’m learning each day ...this is one of the most satisfying adventures 

These 2 loaves started out the same shape, proofed in an oval bannetton but scored differently.