Blog posts

Edited to change the photo to 'Fiona ii' with an improved plait and glaze.

My 10-yr-old neighbor came over today to learn to bake bread.  I was very surprised at her kneading skills, developed by making 'slime' at home. We made a sandwich loaf, an enriched plaited loaf, and a crusty batard.

This is the plaited loaf,  which she christened Fiona. It is the Laurels Kitchen Loaf For Learning made with fresh-milled spelt.

This one was inspired by the Cheeseboard Collective’s delicious Hobrot, but has been adapted to be more similar to my usual sourdough loaves (eg the original recipe called for an egg and this has none). Love a worker-owned co-op <3

Ingredients:

• 95% T85 flour (I used cairnspring mills trailblazer)
• 5% whole dark rye
• 80% hydration
• 20% levain
• 15% coarsely grated cheese (I had cheddar and pecorino Romano on hand)
• 15% diced onion
• 3% neutral oil
• 3% curry powder
• 2.5% salt

Method:

I felt like baking baguettes this week and decided to do something just a bit different, so I present sourdough baguette noir.  So the colour and flavour of these baguettes do not come from charcoal like baguette au charbon vegetal.  No the colour comes from ground toasted black sesame powder that is added to the well developed dough at the end of mixing. This brings an interesting colour to both the crust and the crumb.  The fat from the sesame seeds also cause the crumb to be softer and the crust to be thinner and super crisp compared to my usual SD baguettes.

Please see here and here to learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS). 

Please see here and here to learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS). 

I believe in the rewards of helping others. When someone on the forum needed a nostalgic bread recipe, I experimented with one. While it may not be their perfect match, it's become a tasty alternative to my family's beloved cranberry walnut daily bread.

Here is the latest in the 100% spelt Laurels Loaf For Learning series. It's the 2nd one I made with a scald. 

The first I tried (not pictured) used the original recipe hydration of 73%, which gave me a dough remarkably lacking in extesibility. The final bread tasted good but didn't rise well and had a bit of a claggy crumb.

A few days ago I posted about a loaf of bread that included cooked oatmeal and graham flour (see https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/73391/oatmeal-graham-flour-sourdough-pullman-bread). I wanted to try it with buckwheat, and I found a box of Wolff kasha, which are toasted buckwheat groats.  Perfect!

I gave up doing bran scalds in my whole wheat bread a while back, as it didn't make much difference in my bread and I didn't enjoy all the fiddly sifting and messing about with it.  These days I just mix the dough and let it sit for half an hour to hydrate before I start kneading.

Hi everyone,  I'm happy to be back after a year of having a young person with celiac sharing my home.  They have moved on and I can mill and bake again without worrying.

To celebrate, I brought out my barely-used Nutrimill Artiste mixer and started really digging in to try and learn exactly how a fully kneaded,  fully developed 100% WW dough looks and feels.  And since spelt is my favorite-est  most delicious wheat, I've extended the project to 100% spelt.