Blog posts

Over the last few days I took my first crack at sprouting grains. It was a resounding success that I feel has probably opened the door to more experimentation and exciting flavors in my bread. This one is primarily sprouted rye flour, sprouted rye berries and seeds. It's a great loaf of dense hearty bread. It smells super malty and sweet and the flavor of the seeds come through nicely.

Here's how I made it

192g Sifted fresh ground hard red (34%)

I've been taking books from the local library to see if any are worth spending money on.  Since there is a wealth of information on this site and the internet in general, I hesitate to spend money until I know whether or not it will be a useful reference.  One of my recently borrowed books is Flour Water Salt Yeast by Ken Forkish...which will also probably be a keeper.  The Pain Au Bacon recipe caught my eye so I decided to bake it the Wendy way...meaning take a recipe for a guide, and adapt it to my way of baking and hope for the best!

Finding myself with starter that needed to be used and not enough hours to create a loaf that I would be happy with, I decided to take a  different route. Using both wheat and rye starters I threw together a fougasse that disappeared almost a little too quickly

I have really enjoyed making David's baguettes recently (link to recipe below), both in the UK and back in the U.S. in California.  I use a baguette tray for proofing and baking and that has worked well for me.  I tried the couche cloth to start, but found that it was harder for me in handling a wet dough.

I keep trying to improve my gluten-free bakes.  It is so hard to achieve anything close to my gluten loaves, but I did have some improvement on this one.  I altered the recipe slightly (see below).  The dough is difficult to work with and doesn't hang together too well, so you have to stick with it. It is also a very heavy loaf...very filling.

Intrigued by the idea of grape skin flour (purple bread!?) I took the bait and ordered a flour made from cabernet sauvignon grapes. Looks like cocoa powder...          

Hope you made the ones yesterday!!

Warning!: This report contains graphic images of misshapen loaves and loaves subjected to extreme thermal trauma. Young children and those easily upset by pictures of charred crust are advised to immediately go on to the next blog.

The first month of bread has been refreshing, and tasty :)  Many mistakes and trial and error, fun stuff.

I really wanted to get to sourdough and I'm having success with my starter.  I'm reading books, but TFL is an amazing translation tool for application.

One more video for the Freshloafians.  Yesterday was a great day at the market and I made a video about it!  Enjoy :)

-Mark