Blog posts

March 19/20, 2020.

Inspired by this conversation, http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/62657/does-whole-wheat-need-long-fermentation  to do just a plain simple instant yeast formula, with overnight bulk ferment.

5:05 pm. Mix 469 g water, 586 g home-milled whole grain flour. 80.0% hydration. (In hindsight should have used 85%.)  1 tsp of caraway seeds.  Flour was a mix of Prairie Gold (Hard white spring),  Hard Red Winter (generic), and Kamut Khorasan.

Being in the higher risk category, age-wise, I decided to put my generally lazy normal life on hold.  Instead I'll remain at home almost all the time, and become even a bit lazier.  Given that, I'll probably be more in the mood for the occasional sandwich.

This is a 1200g rye with caraway, which should make some great sandwich bread and some even finer toast.

25% rye, 73% hydration. 

What a tasty bread! Not sure why, but this definitely has more of a sour tang than most of my breads and I'm loving it. Not the most open crumb, but I think it's solid given that the loaf if 50% whole grains. 

• 20% freshly milled hard red winter wheat
• 25% freshly milled spelt
• 5% rye
• 50% KABF
• 2% salt
• 85% hydration
• 10% starter
• 1 cup roasted carrots chopped
• sprinkling of black sesame seeds 
• 1 tsp turmeric powder 

In February I went to France and I got some organic flour and some starter from my dad that he made with fermented honey. I brought it over to Taiwan where I live using the method I found on the perfect loaf.

Having to work at home for the foreseeable future, I wanted to pick a new-to-me bread project. I remembered that I have around 20 lbs of rye berries (thanks to GrowNYC grains), and decided to make this a period of rye experimentation, having never made very high percent rye breads. I've been looking for recipes that call for whole rye because I don't want to sift my home milled flour.

RECIPE:

50% strong white flour (250g)
50% wholemeal flour (250g)
85% hydration (roughly)
15% starter (roughly)
2% salt

PROCESS:

I was inspired yesterday to make my two loaf sourdough recipe into Beet Sourdough.

I use my same "Classic Sourdough" recipe but added about 150 grams of cooked and mashed beets.

I put the dough in bannetons and proved in the refrigerator over night. They came straight from the frig into the oven this morning. I love this beautiful dark pink bread - it's delicious! If you try making it, let me know how it goes.

I needed to try something different and an old cheddar/jalapeno combo appealed to me. I took my Pain de Campagne recipe and added the cheddar, jalapeños and some chives. Hopefully, it turns out yummy.

Note: Don’t skip the parchment paper lining on this one. You’ll never get the loaves out if you do. 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

Add-Ins

100 g sliced pickled jalapeños 

250 g old cheddar cheese, cut into 1/4 inch cubes

24 g minced chives

Main Dough

"Working from home" obviously isn't panning out for me. I spent all day baking bread instead of working. I did have maybe my most successful round of baking so far though. I made three fougasse, loosely based on Maurizio's SD fougasse recipe. I found that half of his recipe could make me three decently-sized fougasse, provided you make them as thin and holey as I did. They were delicious, my flatmate said it was her favorite bread I've made yet.