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Good result with this recipe, which includes a tangzhong. I used lemon essence instead of the larger volume of limoncello, and this worked well. 

Shaping:  I placed dough as one piece in the molds, rather than the traditional wings and body approach. I did this by laminating dough into a diamond shape and rolling it from left and right into the center. This created a batard-like shape, heavier in the center. When place in the mold, I gently reach underneath to spread the dough somewhat toward the wing edges. 

OMG! These dog treats smell like Amazeballs!

Hello, dog lovers! And sourdough bread people. Today I have some sourdough discard dog treats working.  The formula I referenced is from Food 52 " Sourdough Discard dog treats"

Enjoy the pictorial formula. I went off the reservation after bring the dough together. My process is listed with the photos. Stop back later, we will have Gronky taste test.

Two eggs are missing from the wet ingredients photo.

Last Christmas my wife bought me some wheat berries from Barton Springs Mill. Unfortunately, she started a major allergen elimination diet not long after that because we thought our newborn was sensitive to something she was eating. That turned out not to be the case, and we're all back to eating everything we want, so I was finally able to compare the two hard red wheats that she got me (Yecora Rojo and Rouge de Bordeaux) to the regular hard red wheat I get from the LDS Home Storage Center.

For my second round, I made the adjustments based on round 1, and used a different recipe to see the contrast. I developed the LM for about three days, but it was still very active from the series last week. 

I added some cocoa powder to the glaze, and baked on a stone in the regular static oven using convection for only the first few minutes. 

This time, recipe from Fabrizio Galla, faithfully followed so that I would have a baseline. It is a nice recipe, makes a dough that is easy to work with, and rises well. 

I had a good handful of toasted sweetened shredded coconut leftover from a pie that I made a couple of weeks ago, so I decided to try adding it to a sandwich bread.  I didn’t want the bread to taste too much like dessert so other than the sugar I used for the stiff sweet levain, there were no other sweeteners added to the dough.  I did decide to add some olive oil to this dough to soften it up a bit and keep it fresh longer without having to make a tangzhong.

The second time around. Much better than the last time. 

Hands-on laboratory practice exercise 03/14 - 03/16

Area of improvement

No unsightly burnt crust

Oven spring

Area needs improvement

Scoring 80% hydration dough is a challenge even straight out of the refrigerator

Country Bread EIB Style (Forkish) AKA

Pain de Champagne 

KA Bread flour

Hayden Einkorn Whole grain Wheat 

Hayden Gazal Whole grain Rye

Hayden Purple Barley

Hydration 80%

Prefermented flour 20%

Salt 2.2%

The 100% biga bake was not very successful. 

Got an OK loaf at the end, but was a little too heavy and chewy.

Used 30% wholegrain rye and 70% strong white wheat. 

Used all 400g for the biga, with 40g of liquid SD starter and 180g of water. Added the remainder of the water to the biga after 24h.

Biga smelt nice and looked developed correctly.

Happy π Day 3.14159.   The year of our Lord 2024. 

The tale of the tape.

For the cracker Jack crew at Banner imaging Mesa

1. NY street slice pie

1. Queen Margarita of Savoy

Results of my first round of Colomba testing.

I think that results were satisfactory, but I learned several things:

1. Recipe: Colomba is not the same as panettone. I used my current panettone recipe, and the results were almost too soft and airy; Colomba is a long, flat cake, and so it needs a bit of structural integrity to be physically stable. Make sure your recipe isn't extreme in any direction.

If you think about it, the spicing used in falafels (cumin & coriander, garlic, cardamom...) is like a recipe for a bread spice. The thing is though, how would you put a falafel into a bread. Home made falafel mixture, with freshly minced chickpeas, fava beans or lentils? Even better still why not use a box mix which has already been dehydrated and they've done part of the work for you already!