Blog posts

Hot on the heels of last week's first attempt and the fantastic welcome I received from everyone I thought I would attempt to make my very first blog post following my second attempt at a sourdough loaf.

The starter used is the same as last week which followed a Paul Hollywood starter recipe using organic grapes to get the natural yeasts flowing, it seems to have survive the week despite my best efforts to ignore it!

Well, I thought I would try out my new oval shaped brotform and I like the result. Like my round form it is made for 500g of dough. I used a half of KF's formula, then divided it for the two small forms.

The dough has just been placed in the brotforms to proof. After 3 hours the dough had risen above the forms comfortable. Each loaf was 612 grams and perhaps the upper limit for these forms.

This week Lucy continues her infatuation with sprouted and whole grains by going big to come up with a 100% whole grain bread that had 50% sprouted grains in it.  The sprouted grains were equal amounts of spelt, rye, Kamut and wheat.  The non sprouted whole grains were wheat making the non wheat sprouted grains in this bread 37% of the total.  It all sounded pretty healthy and tasty to me.

My whole family have voted David's SJ sourdough as the best bread ever! I am so happy I have found my "go to bread recipe". Beautiful flavour, crumb and crust! I followed David's recipe (HERE) the only deviations were,  I use my starter cold from the fridge and I bake my bread in a wet clay Romertopf with a cold oven start. David's recipe and descriptions are fantastic and the dough is a pleasure to work with :-) I have made four loaves in the last few days.

So, I found this recipe on the web called Berkeley Sourdough by Fernando Padilla, Boudin's Master Baker. I fudged on his sourdough starter recipe, which is interesting as it is a stiff starter. I made my seed starter using a little of my 100% starter to make one at 50% hydration. The recipes were in volume measurements, so I did a bit of guessing. 

Not to be confused with the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Gang.
 
Having no experience with rye sour levains, I thought it was high time to get on the stick and rustle me up a dose.  I think the idea came to me after seeing Varda’s recent comment and quest for NY rye.  So off I went.  

Carissimi Amici,

oggi voglio lasciarvi lo spunto per un dolce che ha accompagnato ed accompagna tuttora, molti pranzi familiari ed anche ottime colazioni.

La ricetta non è mia, ma di una straordinaria ed umile Pasticcera conosciuta tanti anni fa, quando durante le vacanze scolastiche andavo dalla zia e lei mi accompagnava sempre in un piccolo negozio, di cui ancora, nonostante gli anni passati, ricordo con struggente emozione ogni cosa.

This gorgeous book could not have come at a better time.

Not only are the photos stunning, the recipes are ones you will make.

Traditional and regional recipes with the odd twist.

I am in heaven!!

I love it!

But today is also about 2 new recipes…..Turkish Pide & Borek…

This bake incorporated a variety of odds and ends, along with some basics, and yielded a sandwich/toast bread loaded with flavor and texture, but soft enough for sandwiches. Based on a 3-2-1 formula, it went sort of like this (I say sort of, for the first few dry ingredients were weighed as they were combined, but the scale was set to ounces) No wonder the numbers looked way off! So, here is as close as I can get:

200g Spelt, Coarse Polenta and Oat Bran (combined weight, roughly similar quantities)

100g WW

150g BF

300g Water

150g SD starter

9g Salt