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I loved the bread from last week so I decided to redo it taking out the olives, sun dried tomatoes and rosemary and do a simple loaf with black sesame seeds. This was also my opportunity to try to improve the oven spring. To do this, I halved the prefermented flour in the levain and also shortened the bulk and retardation times. 

Recipe

Makes 3 loaves

632 g of unbleached flour

194 g of durum semolina 

60 g of soft wheat berries

This is a simple bread to make and for rising involves only instant dry yeast (i.e., no sourdough starter).  My reasons for posting this in such detail are threefold.  First, perhaps a new baker might like to see what each step looks like.  (My bias I suppose -- photos helped me see whether I was on track when I was new to this craft.)  Second, experienced bakers who want a break from sourdough starter breads might be interested.  Third, this is a tasty bread and is very fast to make.  (For those used to long periods of waiting for sourdough stages to pass, thi

Dear Bakers, Dear Bread lovers,

I have created a Bread Recipes App on Android that computes automatically all parameters to bake the perfect loaf, sourdough and fresh starter.

The App will help you define the recipe you are after for most of the required cases of Bread Making: poolish, sourdough, french baguette. The method is supported by timer for each step of the artisan bread baking.

Visit the Google Play Store:

http://www.breadwerx.com/how-to-get-open-crumb-from-stiff-dough-video/

436g Bread Flour
24g Whole Wheat Flour
290g Water
10g Salt

Haven't baked in forever.

House temp 74F

All water from fridge 66F

Flours:KAF Bread and KAF WWW

 Finished weight 695g approx 24oz

Refriderated starter refreshed four times using KAF AP. Final build KAF Bread.

9pm-premix into fridge

Here is the combo black rice ground into flour

Image

Fantastic oven spring. Followed my 1-2-3 tripled it so 300-600-900. Added some extra water along the way to enhance the feel of the dough. There is 100g of apple yeast water as part of the liquid. I had some barley grains so I used 50g of those and 100g of fresh  milled rye with 150g Red Fife and the rest Arrowhead Mills Unbleached. Dough was laminated 3x and I only let it room temp proof till it was about 50%. Same as last time I shortened the bulk proof due to the YW.

The looming deadline of a blog event, hosted by my blogging buddy Anna Antonia, gave me the much needed kick in the  energy to overcome my dog days' laziness and write a new post.

What to do with stale bread? For me a no-brainer: baguette or brioche leftovers usually end up as bread pudding. But for sourdough or other hearty breads there's only one option: grind, toast, and re-bake!

If I hadn't just read about Tangzhong, what would I have thought about the bulgur that I cooked and pureed? I had to keep adding more and more water, until I had 4x the weight of the bulgur in there, and the consistency of wallpaper paste. I kept adding more because I hadn't realized what I had been making. You probably already know this, but bulgur is already cooked, a.k.a. already gelatinized. I'm not sure why anyone would want an overly complicated way of creating a tangzhong with a wheaty taste.

rye @ 63% hydration salty rye rolls.

The Roadside Pie King

Before attempting “true” baguettes, I made these sophisticated looking yet in fact easy to make Epi de Blé baguettes. 

Epi de Blé Baguettes with a Japanese Twist ( makes 6 baguettes)

Dough flour (all freshly milled):

210g      70%     Whole white wheat flour