Blog posts

2016 Dabrownman’s Blog Index

1/1/2016 - New Year’s Eve Pizza – 2015

1/5/2016 - Westphalian Pumpernickel – 1537

1/8/2016 -  3 Starter Italian Olive Bread with Rosemary and Sun Dried Tomato

  Yesterday I made a classic mistake by not being patient with a loaf of bread that would've been delicious if I had just given it enough time proofing! 

I just realised that I actually hadn't posted a blog about the delivery of the Rofco oven, so I'll post some quick pics here.

The oven was purchased from an auction house in Sydney, it was brand new, tested by an electrician as working, although it did not come with the stone decks. I think that they had probably smashed to bits during transport and the delivery was rejected by whomever had ordered it so it was an insurance second, even though it was brand new.

It has been a while since we took delivery of the Rofco B40 oven but have yet to put it to good use and get a decent loaf for various reasons. Anyway, in this time my partner and I have attended a certificate course at college on commercial bread baking which was quiet enlightening, informative and educational, maybe that experience will make it into another post sometime, it's amazing what you can do with the machinery a commercial baker has to play with including mixers, shaping machines, a prooving room the size of my kitchen and commercial oven decks!!!

Last night, after I formed the loaf for the Sesame Triple Threat and set it aside to proof, I realized it was still early and decided to make another batch of dough. To this one I added 20g of dried minced onion, which results in more of an aroma of onion than an actual flavor.

I didn't get much rise out of the dough overnight, though. I went ahead and divided the dough into 100g rolls anyway, formed each one up and let them proof on the sheet pan. They didn't proof much either.

I'm a big sesame fan, and I've been wondering lately if I can take that farther than the thick sesame crust I have been using on my bread for a while now. I hit upon the idea of adding sesame oil to the dough. As I googled around for some guidance on the subject, I found an example right here on TFL, and that confirmed my hunch about how much sesame oil to add -- about 1 teaspoon.

I baked this loaf fairly strongly, though in hindsight I think the sesame would benefit from just a little less. 

The No Oven Challenge has enticed us to be creative with ingredients, methods and equipment. Members have shared breads cooked by frying, stove-top and charcoal grilling, make-shift wood fire, and steam. Lessons to be learned all around, but success, none the less!

My entry is a steamed brown bread, similar to those served in Boston and the eastern seaboard. It's whole grain - graham flour and cornmeal, leavened by baking soda, moistened with tangy yogurt, sweetened and deeply colored by molasses and a little brown sugar. Add-ins included dates and fresh cranberries.

These were also done for Xmas dinner tonight.

I really liked how the Triple Kamut loaf turned out so I repeated it and also made up a Triple Spelt loaf. I used fresh ground spelt flour so I am really curious to see what it tastes like. We are having Xmas dinner today so I was busy baking all kinds of bread. Here is the recipe for the Triple Spelt loaf.