Blog posts

In recent times I have been baking exclusively with durum wheat and the results have got progressively better with each bake. I wanted to explore the typical traditional process whereby an old-dough technique is employed although in real terms I applied the method in my own way.

Continuous old-dough process:

Old-dough (sourdough) (60% hydration and 2% salt).
refreshed 1:1 (old-dough:flour) + enough water to make a firm dough.

Make bread using refreshed old dough at 20%, reserve a piece.

I’ve wanted to make a mashed potato bread for some time and just got around to it.  This has 25% butter mashed potatoes, 82% hydration, 9% prefermented flour.  I did an overnight levain build which grew to over 3x and was used young just as the dome started to flatten.  A saltolyse was done also overnight, both starting in the fridge to slow things down.  The mashed potatoes were added to half the dough after Rubaud mixing when the levain was added.  Then was fully mixed with slap and folds on the counter.

Last week I posted about Abel's Semolina with pistachios, and I wasn't all A-Ok with my results, so back to the drawing board for me.  MTloaf correctly pointed out that I had miscalculated the overall hydration at 70%, rather than the 75% it would seem to be.  The correction to the formula sheet was made.  

I'd like to know the difference between a Portuguese roll in a Kaiser roll and when I said Portuguese roll I mean the hotter darker thicker type bread compared to the white lighter Kaiser roll type read in a town in in in a town called Hoboken New Jersey there is a bakery called Dominick's bakery they have the greatest bread you'll ever taste in the world but they don't make like Kaiser  type rolls than a soft and light they make like thicker darker heavier roles that are just fantastic I think it's it's like a Portuguese roll but they also make them long and a Portuguese rolls.

Hello, dear FreshLoafers,

For those of you in Europe, this programme might be interesting to watch;

https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/080545-000-A/de-la-farine-au-four-quel-pain/

Available in French and German, not sure if this will be visible at all in North America.

All the best to all of you,

Carole

It has been a while since I made a loaf of bread.  Covid and health issues have just about made life as horrible and boring as can be among other things.  At least I can still drink a glass of wine a day:-) Lucy has really slowed down since she turned 17.  I had to make a ramp for her to get up on the bed and her hind quarters don't work as well as they used to - but she is hanging in there and a real trouper.

Very hot here. High temp around 110 F, so, to keep the kitchen cooler and reduce electricity use, i cooked a bread on our weber grill. I put a clay baker on to preheat for 15 min before loading the dough and cooking covered for 20 mins and then uncovered for another 20. The grill cover was on for all of it, besides to remove the clay baker cover. 

This bread was inspired by Derek's post from last week here.