Blog posts

Awhile back I was given some starter and made, among other things, a couple pan loaves. They were fine. Yippee posted a link to Susan's easy sourdough loaf recipes here, (recipe here), and I thought I'd try the 63% hydration. First attempt turned out pretty well. I didn't have a razor blade and couldn't drag a knife across the dough because it was inside a bowl, so the slashes aren't deep enough. The dough came out quite wet for 63%.

I found this recipe in the Globe and Mail.  I’ve never been a huge fan of cheesecake, it always seems like a nothingburger to me.  I was hoping that the pumpkin might make it more interesting.  I think this cheesecake would benefit from spices myself.  This is a Basque style cheesecake in that it has a caramelized top, however, it has a cookie crust as a base which Basque cheesecakes don’t usually from what I understand. 

These turned out well. My wife ate them without complaining. 214 cal. 18 g Protein.

It makes a gooey mess of the blade and an awful lot of raisins on the counter.

I made raisin bread in my old Oster 5838-33, just because Yippee has been doing a fair bit of basic Zo baking this week. This machine--at one time, I had three--consistently turns out nice bread. Recipe came from chatbot, with request for 1-1/2lb loaf and all-milk. Recipe was nothing special. Top crust setting was medium. 

I'mI am within 100 g of two perfectly squared loaves.

After a break of 3 weeks, I reactivated my Lievito Madre with 3 warm refreshments (27ºC). As a test, I wanted to bake a bread with Ruchmehl. By mistake, however, I used wholewheat. The packages look very similar. When I noticed it, it was almost too late. Spontaneously I decided to use 80% wholewheat and 20% white flour. During mixing I had the impression, that the dough / gluten structure was (surprisingly) pretty strong and I decided to bump up the hydration. Started with 75% and ended at (almost) 90%. Maybe a bit too optimistic ;) At least when it comes to my bench skills.

The other day, I baked a white loaf in my Zojirushi—the crust browned beautifully on three sides, though the top stayed a bit pale, which was expected. I loved just tossing it in and letting the machine do its thing. That got me thinking: why not try my everyday whole rye in it? So I did—and wow, the results are surprisingly good!

10% rye / 45% whole wheat / 45% bread flour, with toasted caraway and coriander seed -- from Tartine 3.

Crostata di pasta frolla, integral senza zuccero. 

(Italian whole wheat, short pastry tart. No added sugar)

After owning my Zojirushi bread machine (model BBCC-X20) for over sixteen years, I finally baked the basic white bread recipe from its manual—for the very first time—in the bread machine! I converted the recipe from cups to metric, then went with the basic setting and a dark crust.