Blog posts

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

What else is there to do in retirement but perfect my baking skills.  Everyone benefits and I'm getting fat!!! Ha Ha

After seeing the recipe in the feed for the Blueberry Cream Cheese Braid I just had to try it.  

Made some adaptations. Subbed the flaxseed with poppy and chia seeds and halved the portion. Because chia is so thirsty, i did not half the water for the soaker instead just cut it about 25%

my preferment looked a bit lethargic so bulk fermented for 3.5 hours and proofed for 5 hours. Although the weather was probably around 29-30C it did not overproof with 5 hours.

the taste was excellent considering it had a total of 92% BF and only 8% rye! Colour of crumb looked as though it has 30% rye....very pleased

Did two bakes this week using the fresh milled einkorn flour I've been experimenting with. One was a spur of the moment thing that used a northern cornbread recipe substituting einkorn for the cornmeal and flour. As with most guickbreads it was highly enriched. The result was better than expected being both light and very tasty. The other was a natural leaven bread using 75% einkorn to 25% whole wheat new flour (not counting the flour in the starter). The loaf was dense like most whole grain breads are but also was good tastewise. The picture is of the latter.

Translated into English it would be  * Butter Braid *

I changed the recipe a bit as it had no sugar in it and we like it sweet.

1kg strong bread flour

500ml full fat milk  * I used 500ml Buttermilk *

1tbsp Salt

200g Sugar * I added it to the recipe *

1tbsp Vanille Essence * I added it to the recipe *

42g fresh yeast OR 14g Instant yeast

150g soft butter

2tbsp oil * I added it the the recipe *

1 egg and one Tbsp milk for the glaze that you apply just before baking.

Busy Busy Busy it has been.  New job in a restaurant while still doing my weekly bake.  But the weekly bake has found a new friend  of whom has built a lovely Wood Fired Oven aimed at bread baking.  It has some steam injection via pressure cooker and a pipe that works better than either of us had expected.  So the past month Forno Giorgio (the oven) has been our "boss".  And he's a great boss.  I thought it would begin with epic fails but it turns out baking is baking and we just learn to adjust to new environments.  

Hello all, 

I wanted to share toady's bake of bialys.

They are plump, airy, soft, with a moist, slightly sweet crust, with a very nice flavor, and a soft yet chewy crust.

The filling is of poppy seeds and caramelized onions, the way may grandmother, who grow in Poland, used to bake them for my mother when she was a child. They used to call them "פלצלעך" - Pletzlach (plural for Pletzel).