Blog posts

There are the dreams of night that are forgotten with the morning coffee; and, there are the dreams that come as one considers the bread one is eating with morning coffee. Thus, one steps forth in the bright morning light, to find the 7 Pillars of Wisdom. (T.E.L. will forgive me because one of the best breakfast breads I ever had was in Hafer Al-Batin.)

Josey Baker Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread

David Snyder

February, 2019

Small Batch equals Small Bread

I thought that the dough was at the 1.75-ish cup point, thus I heated the forge, put it in wet parchment. Took out the heated cast iron, placed it in, poured in a half a cup of water under the parchment and started the usual 450 after 500 for 20 then for 30. Herein is the result, small, unimpressive, with no 'boom' really. 

"You succeed you learn something, you fail you learn something."

I followed Dabrownman's advice to the letter. 

Well friends, my second Forkish effort in as many weeks from "Flour, Water, Salt and Yeast." This is a robust bread. Baking in the Dutch oven really gives a snap to the crust, while the crumb is open soft and shred able. Boy did the loaf ever snap, crackle and pop when I removed from the hot DO to the cooling rack!

A couple of weeks ago I made the Tomato & Nigella seed loaf from Emanuel Hadjiandreou"s book "How to bake bread".  I was drooling over the photos and decided then I would make 2 more of these recipe's next bake.  So yesterday I prepped the levain in the morning and then about 2 pm started mixing dough.  I also did 300 slap and folds instead of 200.  It was about 31 deg C outside here, so I had to watch the dough carefully.  I won't detail method as it was fairly standard with 45 minutes between coil folds.  Bulk ferment until about 70% bigger, 20 minute res

Any help would be appreciated. 

Straight dough

dough temp 77

proofing @ 95 degrees and 75% humidity 30-45 mins

frying @375-380

thank you. 

This is a 76% hydration ciabatta modeled on that of Scott McGee.    Unusual in the low hydration and that he shapes these.

Dinner the other evening with friends for “Sunday macaroni and gravy”, which may be an Americanism for pasta with tomato sauce.  Also includes sausages, meatballs and ribs, all cooked in the “gravy”.  I hadn’t made a ciabatta in a while, so it was off to the races as part of our contribution to dinner.  

I've noticed in the forum posts there are, currently, quite a number of  TFL members concerned about the maintenance and vigor of their sourdough seed starters. Being one that doesn't like debates I generally stay away from commenting on those posts. However, in this moment, having been there myself I've chosen not to comment about anyone's concern; instead the following is a description of the simple way I maintain my sourdough seed starter.

The first step I don't have a picture of and if I did I wouldn't put it here because I know you have all chopped up a large onion.  Red onion goes in guacamole and pico and some salsas but it is always white onion for everything else Mexican - no yellow onions allowed:-)  Put some bacon fat in the bottom of the IP and turn it on saute for 20 minutes at 390 F