Blog posts

Have you ever had the experience of falling asleep in class, only to realize on test day, that the info presented in that class was exactly what you needed to know for the test?!?!   So.... three+ years ago, I was in Puglia... visited Altamura even.  Not only that, but I visited a BREAD BAKERY IN ALTAMURA.... And I was lucky enough to be with someone who KNEW the baker... and we were there early to watch him shape and bake loaves!  

My first bake was soft pull apart dinner rolls and they didn't turn out well. Now I have moved from a kitchen elevation of 4,420 ft above sea level to 2,600 feet. I was not getting the rise with the same amount of levain. Also moving from an electric convection to a non-convection oven gave different results.

I have a profusion of rhubarb (and other things, but that's another story) from the garden right now, so I've been canning and preserving. Yesterday I made a batch of sweet pickle relish and another of rhubarb chutney. I've been thinking of how to use rhubarb in bread, so I decided to do a test loaf of sourdough ('cause, I had, like, nothing else to do, right?) with some of the chutney ingredients.

I started with my go-to formula when I'm testing ingredients rather than technique or formula - a simple 1-2-3 country sourdough.

    |Th

This is a new version of an older formula using a starter instead of yeast.  I also removed the honey that was in the original and used fresh milled rye flour.

I added some crushed caraway seeds that I pulsed in my coffee grinder for some added flavor.

Little T Bakery  t-shirt, Portland Oregon

My mom made some fillo dough yesterday and gave me some to play around with:

The first picture is of traditional nut baklava. I made a paste of walnuts and orange blossom water. 

I don't bake a lot of gluten free bread, but I've got a couple of regular GF customers that I bake for weekly. Usually I bake a nice Olive bread and GF "Not Rye" (sort of a deli rye style). I use recipes from Bread in 5 Minutes a Day (Healthy Bread in 5M and Gluten Free Bread in 5M).

   (Some home baking today - a 90% durum with wheat starter.)

I am thinking about going to the Kneading Conference next week.  Has anyone gone lately or planning to?   Any thoughts or tips?  Thanks!

Well, I have neither baked much nor had time to visit this site for the last couple of months. Moved from Canmore AB to Golden, BC. Moving is a HUGE pain, but I am very satisfied with the result. I love my new home and town!!!

I haven't done any sprouted grain breads lately and Dabrownman's loaf from a few weeks ago inspired me for this loaf. I would cut back on the hydration though because it was hard to shape and I wasn't able to get a really nice tight boule like usual. I also think I overproofed it and the loaves stuck to my baskets. So all in all, I didn't get the oven spring I wanted but the loaves are still delicious.

Recipe:

1. Sprout 30 g of each of the following grains: kamut, spelt, rye, buckwheat, Selkirk wheat, red fife, and einkorn.