Blog posts

After the problems of the first attempt, I reread the feedback I received and here is my reworked version. 

First up, the starter.  It was looking good on the first refresh so I decided to stay with an all bread flour starter.  This means that that percentage of white flour in the dough is higher and and there is less whole wheat.   Secondly I started early in the day while the starter was fresh and bubbly. 

I’ve been wanting to make a bread with spent grains for a long time. My good friend Mike has become quite the home brewer and he graciously gave me some spent grains from his latest brew. He’s making a dark Stout type beer and the spent grains were a rich mahogany color full of flavor. They really ended up turning the dough a dark brown color reminicient of a pumpernickel style bread.

One of my plans in bringing my homemade miso down to Fort Lauderdale was to use it in a couple of bakes.  We were out of bread and needing more bread for toast and dinners.  I’ve wanted to bake a bit more lean breads but baked in my Pullman pan since that is what I prefer for sandwiches and toast.  This is what I came up with.  I have to say that dough seems to ferment faster down here.  I’m not sure why, it is my starter from Toronto so the only differences would be the flour or the water.

Down in Florida we are a bit more social than we are at home in Toronto.  We have friends we don’t see often so try to get together a few times each visit.  One of our close friends invited us over for dinner with his new partner so of course I offered to bring rolls to have with their Italian dinner.  Crusty rolls might have been better with Italian but I decided to use up some of my mashed sweet potato I have left over for some soft milk rolls.  

Go Chiefs!

Ahem.  Well.  Yes, that needed to be said.

Tomorrow's Super Bowl festivities will feature pulled pork sandwiches because Kansas City.  A superlative sandwich requires a superlative bun.  For superlative buns, it's hard to improve on Portuguese Sweet Bread (this one compliments of Mark Sinclair.)  Although Ian, bless him, continues to experiment.

These are all suited up and ready to play:

I made several process improvements. Last week's Vermont SD version was to dip my toe in the water giving the couronne a try.

Changes:

Because of relocating to Europe (220V) I will sale my barely used Famag Spiral mixer.The unit is basically brand new (see picture). It comes with the offset bar, the sprocket to increase speed to 312 RPM (high adoration dough) and additional head levers (all of which was never installed and is brand new - I can provide additional pictures of the accessories to those who are interested). A overall package of $ 2,000+. I am asking $1,400 not including shipping. Local pick up is available and preferable given the weight of the unit. 

I just received my new shipment of grains from my favorite place Barton Springs Mill and was dying to try their new grain called Stardust. Its a hard white winter wheat grown in Alva, Oklahoma and it’s certified organic. It is supposed to have a slightly malty, mild wheat flavor and after using it I would agree.

I milled the berries with my Mockmill 200 and was sifted and milled twice with a #30 sieve, and then sifted with a #40. I save the bran to add to my levains which I find give them a nice boost.

I recently baked (and enjoyed!) Benny's Chocolate Olive Oil cake. It reminded me that a while ago I made a very tasty German chocolate cake and I thought I would make it again. Unfortunately I had lost the link to the recipe, but after a lot of searching, I found it again - only to find that the link had broken! Fortunately The Wayback machine came to the rescue.

The recipe is in a sense totally the opposite of Benny's cake, using chocolate, not cocoa and butter, not olive oil. It is very rich, but very tasty.

Don't post much anymore but still breathing & baking.  I was rummaging around the far depths of the kitchen cabinet and came across a Bundt pan.  It was nestled inside of one of those "coffee cake" ring pans, which we may have used twice in a decade or more.  

Several years ago I tried to shape a couronne with just a ring of dough, to somewhat disappointing results.  But yesterday I figured why not try it a more traditional way employing a less than traditional baking pan.