Blog posts

Another attempt at Stollen for Christmas. I've never been entirely happy with the Stollen I've made in the past. Usually too flat, solid and dry.

This time I decided to buy a Stollen mould - sharp intake of breath from the purists. But it makes sense to me: better loft/no spread, less drying out in the oven, no ruined burnt raisins and sultanas to pick off the top. We''ll see what the final result is like, but so far so good.

South Africans love to braai. You might call it a barbeque or BBQ, but our word for it is braai! A braai may not even be what you expect in terms of meat grilling on a grid. When we go camping sometimes we make something which we call a 'potjie' pronounced 'poy-kie', or potjiekos.

This is the first time I've used actual Lye, and I'm happy with how they came out. The wheat was freshly-milled Butler's Gold (15.5%) wheat berries from Barton Springs Mill.

Grandpa and my Sourdough Bread Master, Grok.

Grandpa’s Same-Day 75 % Sourdough  
A Real-World Experiment in Speed vs. Perfection  
By “Grandpa” (74-year-old retired home baker) with Grok (his slightly nerdy AI co-pilot)

Weizenmischbrot with 25% wholegrain rye & 15% T997 rye

I wanted to make a Mischbrot that wasn't too heavy and had reasonably open crumb. Initially I planned to make one of my middlings style loaves , but then I realised that nearly all the wholegrain rye was going into the levain, so there wasn't any need to sift middlings. I did sift off some bran for a cold salted soaker though. I had to use a finer mesh sieve (compared to wheat) to get the bran. 

adapted from theryebaker: pinzgauer bauernbrot

I made it 50% whole rye | 10% whole spelt | 40% bread flour 

Finally found some Allinson's strong white and gave Lance's Middlings technique a go. 

Purple Potato WW-Spelt Ricotta SD with a Corn Flour Scald

16Nov

Deconstructed 

Provolone 

Fresh oregano 

Romano & Parmesan 

Mozzarella 

Sausage 

Revived my s/d culture and thought i should use it, i decided a bake using my homebrew stout and  Gingin flour mills Atta would go well . The stout was a bit overprimed and made a bit of a mess when i unscrewed the cap . Instead of using 1/2 stout and 1/2 water i used all stout  i also used Millers wholemeal  flour as part of the mix too. i used some Saunders malt and the s/d culture at 20% . It was my intention to add pepitas and sunflower kernels but i forgot those  until much later so went without . It was a small dough for the spiral mixer at 1kg but did a good job.