Blog posts

After reading about this recipe, I decided to go for it, especially because I had never tried a 100% spelt loaf before and I like black treacle.  For the initial mixing I included sixty-five slap-and-folds because the dough felt reasonably strong, and that seemed to be fine.  Although I did try the letter fold technique for the first S&F, the dough stuck to my counter a lot, and I opted to leave the dough in my 6-quart Cambro tub for the second S&F and did the usual reach-under-and-lift-up.

I have a simple question. Why is it that we are supposed to put the shaped loaf into the banaton with the seam side UP? It seems counterintuitive to me, since the tension is on the TOP of the loaf; not on the bottom. Yet, my bread does turn out pretty good most of the time.

I don't have a round banaton. When I make boules (rarely these days), I never do that. I just put the dough on parchment and place with the top UP in a glass bowl, not with the seam up.

I replicated the method of Loaf 11 because of good result. Fewer S&Fs. 

RECIPE

100% (500g) wholewheat stoneground flour (12.7g protein per 100g)
15% (75g) starter
85% (425g) hydration
2% (10g) salt

METHOD

1 day before, I discarded most of the starter leaving only about 2 tbsp. Refreshed this with 50g water and 50g WW flour.

• 700g wholemeal spelt fl

I managed to bottle 30 bottles of Australian Ale just the other day from my home brew and also kept the dregs from the bottom of the fermenter. I decided to use some of that today to raise my dough, often referred to as a Beer Barm. I quickly worked out a dough formula and was going to make a 1KG dough but then decided that a single 750g loaf would be the go. i shook the bottle up that contained the Barm and weighed off an equal amount of flour and barm combined the two and set aside, i marked the container so that we could see its progress and its time frame.

Yes. It's cheese bread again. You can't have too much of it, can you? :)

Taleggio Hazelnut SD with Einkorn, Red Fife & Sprouted Red Rice

keeping busy, kinda.  My wife wanted something with fruit and nuts for a next bake.

Forkish FWSY Field Blend #2, alfanso style.  This one uses a 100% hydration all AP levain and toned down to 75% overall hydration.  First time adding anything to this wonderful bread, but the match seemed made to order.

Don't get too excited - the spelt is only 20% of the flour - but it makes for a nice loaf!

I have read about why the flour is different, but now need to know how to adjust the recipe in a bread maker. Given there is less protein and/or less gluten in U.S. flour, is there an easy way to compensate for this by adding more or less water? Alternatively, should I buy protein or gluten powder and add some? How much?

I've tasted so many breads and pastries with peanuts but they're all sweet. Peanuts are wonderful savory too so I decided to make a savory peanut bread. Braised peanuts are our favorite which is not so common in where we live. Using the fresh peanuts that my mom bought before quarantine, I made these squares (well, they are not so square-shaped but I will stick with the name. :P) to pass time and have something delicious to eat. These are inspired by the guo kui and other Chinese breads.