Blog posts

With the hot weather and no central air conditioning, I needed to be able to bake in the morning when it is still cool. Trevor helped me to work out the timing with his Champlain Sourdough. First day, in the early evening, I mixed the flour, water and salt for the long "autolyze" and popped it in the fridge. Took it out at bedtime and set on counter. In the morning I mixed in the starter and for the next six hours did hourly stretch and folds. Then I pre-shaped and let it rest for an hour.

9 Grain 50 Percent Whole Grain Half Sprouted Sourdough Chacon with Pepitas and Sunflower Seeds

Lucy formulated this bread as an entry for Bread Baking Day #83 here http://www.kochtopf.me/bbd-83-brot-spezialmehl-bread-special-flour where flours other than rye, red wheat and spelt were used.  In this case we added, Pima Club, emmer, einkorn, Buckwheat, oat and white wheat.

Somehow I lost track of the ingredients during mix....and I kept adding water during kneed...so I guess its very wet...Not sure if that is the reason but I have never seen my dough size increased so much....after 1.5 hours in the room (3 folding) then 9 hours in refrigerator

Hopefully the result turns out okay.

We love this time of year.  It is the time the first cherries come out in the stores from CA.  They aren’t the great trasting cherries from the Pacific Northwest that come a bit later but they are perfect for one thing - converting the YW from apple tom cherries.  We just love the cherry color the YW takes on from being fed these little jewels.

Thanks to all the good advise on this site.

Wild yeast sourdough using off the shelve general purpose flour. What's the best place to buy rye flower in the Arlington, TX (DFW metroplex) area?

I don't prefer breads with cream/milk/egg but my friends have Asian tastes so I'm trying this for them. I love rustic breads because they are more healthy and they look really cool and sexy...

I tried this recipe before but in order to kneed it to max (as below pic. I don't know how to say it in English) easily I added more water than original recipe. It worked but it was hard for me to final shape it (especially if I want to braid it with the same dough for my toast) even after I put flour in my hand when dong final shape.

French style milk loaf... If you prefer milk bread that's less fluffy, this one is for you.

French style  milk bread.  Chess table painted by my kids...

Ive just completed 8 days in Poland and I'm headed to Moscow on my second annual European baking tour.  Here are a couple of videos I made during my time in two Polish bakeries.  Enjoy ;)

-Mark

Just when I'm about to give up. God gave me this method to use for baking lean breads without an oven. This is my last attempt for "European style hearth breads" though pretty good, look-wise and taste-wise it still wasn't the same. It had a burnt "muddy" taste with slightly underdone crumb that is tight despite a very wet dough but I'm pretty contented with it.

I had some two-week old dough sitting in the fridge -- enough to make a pizza (maybe 250 grams), and decided that I would add it to my bread dough. It stunk of beer and I was not sure what it would do.  I regretted doing so almost immediately, as I did my first stretch and fold 10 minutes after incorporating it with the levain and salt.  When I went to lift the dough my hand went right through the middle of it.  It was like I created a super weak dough structure.