Blog posts

If you are new to SD baking and still having problems with high hydration and complicated doughs, don't get your knickers all in a knot.  Instead drop the hydration down and get a solid footing with lower hydration breads first.  Although these are baguettes, the dough can easily be adapted to batards or boules.  So...

Two easy formulas that I recommend for you to get that feeling of accomplishment and dough handling skills are:

This is another recipe from Full Proof Baking.  This is really simple just keep the butter cold and you’re golden.  Don’t throw away your discard, there are so many things to make with your discard.

I had not made Hokkaido-style dough for some time. For the fluffyness of it, I decided to have a run yesterday and was pretty happy with the rise and softness of loaf and buns. The levain was built in two stages throughout a combined 12-hour period, where the first stage was 100% hydration, and the second stage was a stiff 50% version. All ingredients are supermarket off-the-shelf, and I realize now that I am running out of AP flour!

This is for all of the new bakers who want to tackle a Tartine recipe and get a sense of what to expect and look for during the various stages.

The Tartine Bread book begins with the Basic Country Bread, which is 90% all-purpose flour and 10% whole wheat flour.  With a 75% hydration, this can be a challenge for those who have not handled much dough, but the recipe is manageable, and making this bread will give you experience in recognizing the signs for when to move on from step-to-step (and when to be patient too).

This one I baked in a Big Green Egg. I can't say how it tastes, it's still warm.

Recipe here: https://breadtopia.com/whole-grain-sourdough/

This is a comprehensive look at my freezer batch method! Dough formula and sauce recipe included!

Today I made my second attempt at baking the birote salado from Guadalajara, Mexico. It doesn't seem to be particularly well known outside of its home country: there is no English Wikipedia entry about it, for example, nor (to my great surprise) has it been mentioned on this site outside of a recent thread.

I'm working on sourdough tortillas.  To reduce calories  I like the idea of sourdough to soften the tortilla instead of lots of oil.  

So far I'm experimenting, just measuring salt and baking soda, and eyeballing/guessing the rest.

l did remember to weigh the total resulting dough today, about 120 grams, and that was enough for 3 tortillas about 8 to 8.5" in diameter each.

So far I have... per 120 grams of total dough (3 tortillas):

- 1/8 tsp baking soda. (Previously tried 1/4 tsp, which was too much. will try 1/8 next time.)

- 1/8 tsp salt.

What a great day for baking, today was a Lemon Fruit Bread. I upped the lemon juice content to be half lemon juice half water and included the grated peel as the Myer lemons have such a lovely skin. i also used 2 free range eggs from my daughters place in Serpentine where the 3 Hens range over 5 Hectares, the lemons also came from Serpentine

First post here! Started making sourdough about a month ago. I’ve lurked this site and got some really amazing insight from this community. little things you folks have shared that would just take time to understand and get a sense of. I feel that I’ve learned much living vicariously through your documented bakes :-).
I was gifted bread, by Jeffrey hamelman last December by a fellow horticulture classmate. It had sat on a shelf for a while until I got into sourdough. This bread comes from that book and it’s been a great resource for me. I scaled it down to make a loaf.