Blog posts

Vacuum Pressed Butter Slab for Laminated Dough

Profile picture for user loydb
steps to make slab

I was looking for an easy way to make a slab of butter for laminated dough, and this worked a dream. I used the two sizes of vac bag in the first pic to plan out how big I wanted to roll the dough out. Then I vac sealed the butter (straight out of the fridge, no need to soften), flattened initially by hand, then used the rolling pin to fill all the corners of the bag with butter. 

To remove, put the bag in the freezer for 30-45 mins until it is frozen hard. Cut open and peel away the bag. It is soft enough to work after 10-15 minutes sitting on the dough.

Whole Grain Fresh Milled Laminated Dough - Starting Out

Profile picture for user loydb
Croissant Crumb

It's been awhile... I've started venturing out again beyond my weekly sourdough. This was primarily spurred on by starting to get my whole grain from Barton Springs Mill instead of Azure. I cannot heap enough praises on the flavor and aroma from everything I've got from there. The ryes, in particular, are stunning. More on ryes down the line, I've had some good successes there.

Durum WW Cherry-Raspberry Egg SD

Profile picture for user Isand66
Main  Image Durum WW Cherry-Raspberry EGG  SD

I made a version of this several months ago. This time, I added dried raspberries and used Butler’s Gold whole wheat from Barton Springs Mill.

The durum and the whole wheat were milled in my MockMill 200 and sifted with a #30 drum sieve, re-milled, and then sifted with a #40 drum sieve.

The Butler’s Gold WW is an organic modern Red Winter Wheat with a neutral classic wheat flavor and is considered a relatively high-strength flour. The protein content is 15.5%.

Brioche Burger Buns with LM

Profile picture for user mwilson
Brioche burger buns with sesame seeds

In recent times I have massively improved the performance of my Lievito Madre starter and thought about doing something other than panettone. Off the top of my head I devised a formula, originally without egg but ended up adding one egg as my planned mixture needed more hydration. By the time of shaping and proofing, the dough was perhaps a little too soft but it worked out nonetheless.