Blog posts

After a visit to Linas Stores in London yesterday my son kept saying that I really must try to bake Focaccia bread...

so I was inspired by a formula in Tartine1 where Chad Robertson basically describes that they grabbed a proofed loaf and added in his case sliced potato to the dough and it turned into a focaccia....

So, as I had too much starter this morning I made a quick basic white 1:4:5 dough and let the bulk go quite far and proofy...then just poured it into an oiled baking tin and let it proof for an hour until it looked like this...

I am really loving adding rice to my doughs and this bake was no exception.

I wanted some nice soft rolls especially so I could freeze some of them to have for burgers and sandwiches as needed

I added mashed potatoes  with the skins on, some cottage cheese and a little maple syrup for a bit of sweetness.

When I was ready to bake them I used an egg wash and sprinkled black sesame seeds, garlic sesame seeds and smoked Gouda cheese on some of the rolls.

All I can say is these were not only nice and soft but full of flavor and perfect for any use.

True: it looks embarrassingly ugly. 

Also true: it tastes phenomenally good.

30% Sprouted Quinoa Almonds Sourdough

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

150g      50%       Whole spelt flour

Been keeping a low profile around here, minding my own business - mostly.

I finally got around to baking this bread after promising Lechem (Abe) that I would.  My grain selection was bulgur, steel cut oats and flax & sunflower seeds.  Indeed, all the crowing around TFL for this bread is well deserved and it is quite delicious.

and baked another Semolina durum loaf, WW loaf with white...based on 1:4:5 ratio and it works so well.....

I think I try next time a version with Khorasan and Durum....what an autumn colour feast that will be!

Although inoculation was 20% I pushed the bulk at a temp of 74F to 6 hours and shaping was tricky.....no pre-shape and straight into the basket for 15 min ambient proofing and then into fridge overnight...

Great colour and flavour...

I've had a good few discussions lately about domestic oven steaming, notably with DanAyo and Doc.Dough.

I've tried various in-oven solutions over the last year or two with good, but not great results. It was also getting to the point where it was taking longer to set the oven up than it was to do the actual baking!

I became convinced that the best way forward was to generate steam externally and introduce it into the oven. This blog post gives some details of the practicalities of how I achieved this.

I thought I would more seriously document my bread-making on this site, so I have a history that I and others can learn from. Today I baked a formula that dmsnyder posted in August http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/57042/multigrain-sourdough-bread-made-homemilled-flours-august-8-2018 using using the technique that is used in Myhrvold’s bread encyclopedia.

There really was enough bread in the freezer for most of a week, but I had an irresistible urge to bake bread, and I had promised to make a 75% whole wheat sourdough with home-milled flour, and last week's SJSD baguettes were so good and so gone ... ?

75% Whole Wheat Levain from FWSY, made with MockMilled whole wheat (and some rye)

Some of you might have seen a post recently by user/morb1lee (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/57650/bulk-grain-free-samples) offering samples of his wheat grain.