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After some discussion in recent threads, I decided that it's high time I tried out shorter bulk ferments. My guiding principle has been that the longer the flour is hydrated, and the longer it's fermented, the better the flavor. So I usually let bulk ferment go on to more than double, sometimes triple, the original size.  This usually gives me a fine, fairly uniform crumb, which may have large pores or smaller ones depending on hydration, grains, all these sorts of things.

Following on from some posts on the Big(a) controversy thread, here are a couple more recent wholegrain wheat loaves I baked with a 50% 'shaggy' SD biga.

The first was a very simple control bake with nothing else apart from 100% UK wholemeal wheat bread flour.

I’m enjoying making Fougasse for dinner parties.  I wanted to try different flavours in the Fougasse than I have already made to chose to try pecorino cheese, oregano and black pepper.  Overall I was really pleased with this bake, but I let the baking get away from me and it got even darker than I usually like.  Fortunately brushing EVOO on the crust right before serving really helped avoid the crust being too crispy.

We had another dinner party last night so I wanted to bake another pie for dessert and wanted something different from those I had bake before.  Pineapples aren’t that common a filling flavour for pies so decided to try this one.  I have to say it was delicious, I reduced the sugar from the original recipe especially the meringue which I also prepared as a Swiss meringue instead of the French meringue in the original recipe since I find them a bit more stable.

I am loving the newest grain from Barton Springs Mill called Stardust. It’s a hard white winter wheat variety grown in Oklahoma with a slightly malty and mild wheat flavor. I used some a few weeks ago in a bake and wanted to try upping the amount in the bake.

I ended up using 69% of the total flour with Stardust which I milled using my my Mockmill 200. I sifted and milled twice with a #30 sieve, and then sifted with a #40.

can anyone offer advice on mixing a recipe written for hand mixing in a home spiral mixer?  An example would be the Basic Country Bread from the Tartine book. It’s a great bread and always comes out good. I would lIke to know how I could get similar results if the dough was mixed in a tabletop spiral mixer?

A few months ago, I was given a one-pound package of einkorn grain.  While I've been interested in einkorn and other primitive wheats, the high cost (relative to modern wheats) has put me off.  I don't have any compelling health issues that would militate against using modern wheats, so my curiosity hasn't been enough to override the high price point.

Sourdough Bread baked the same day as mixed versus baked after overnight cold retardation.

David Snyder

February, 2024

I enjoy making Key Lime pies when we’re down here in Florida.  I do love chocolate and decided to try an Oreo cookie crust with the lime coconut filling.  I’ve not made an Oreo cookie crust before, in the past when I’m home if I want to have a chocolate crust I have a recipe that I have developed for a Pate Sucrée pastry, but without my food processor I do not make it.

Time for another dinner party at our place.  So for last night’s main course I decided to make chicken sliders and made a batch of miso sweet potato sourdough milk rolls topped with sesame seeds.  I eliminated the salt and just used miso for the salt.  I looked at my salt content of my miso again and believe I had previously miscalculated the salt in it.  I made the mistake of not accounting for the water that the soybeans are hydrated with during the soak.