Blog posts

Found the CB page on ciabatta over the weekend, thought the Biga recipe from mwilson looked interesting. In the past my ciabatta was all over the place, the flour I was baking with was inconsistent. Slightly adapted, wanted to see how much water the flour could take, could have probably pushed it slightly more, but this is one of the better ciabatta I have made, definitely the softest. Ended with a very strong dough if I understand correctly this if from the large portion of Biga. 

Could have probably proofed it for an extra hour, but was getting late.

We're (finally) getting settled in our new home, and I have mostly figured out what needs doing for a successful bake at 6,000 ft. My starter had been on (to borrow a medical term) "comfort measures only" for about 4-5 months. It was fed just often enough to prevent death by neglect, but it wasn't exactly thriving. After series of feedings a few weeks ago, it was back to it's robust self. 

We are seeing some friends in our building tonight for dinner and I offered to bring some rolls. We are still here in Florida and without my starter so these were made with IDY. I wanted to bring something that wasn’t just a milk bread so decided to add mashed steamed sweet potato to the dough. I couldn’t find purple sweet potatoes anywhere near me so went with the regular orange ones. I didn’t measure the amount of sweet potato that I added. I added it after the dough was well developed after adding the butter/flour paste.

This is a follow up to my post  in the "Besuschio - The Definitive Panettone" thread, with a bit more detail.

Starter

I decided to make a fresh starter for my LM - probably not necessary, but never mind! I followed the instructions at https://www.homebaking.at/sauerteigansatz-herstellen/ 

using a homegrown organic apple, flour mix of Marriages organic BF and some Italian Manitoba flour (+ a little malt) + spring water.

Nothing different except I frequently swap out my grains so as to get through my inventory. Milled  the grains right before using them they were  still warm. Mixed everything except salt autolyse 30 min. KA mixer 7 min speed 2  adding in the salt and some extra held back water. Cleaned the bowl as usual with a perfect ratio of dry/ wet ingredients. 

I am very pleased with the crumb and crust and amazing wheat flavor. Made great grilled cheese sandos. Don’t recall ever making 3 loaves as identical as these 3! 😊

Inspiration

I was away from my Toronto place for 7 months, living alone, working on projects and losing 55 pounds. When I came back, I was ready to get back into baking!

Hello all. I'm a newbie home-baker. I crave the breads from back home that are not available in NA. So I am trying to create them here. I made these naan breads that are unique to Mumbai city and available in 2-3 bakeries primarily found in one particular Muslim neighborhood. The naans are available in 3-4 sizes (diameter). They are usually eaten with meat dishes having gravy as they soak up all the goodness.

Here's my handiwork:

   I recently purchased a new (old) ancient grain from Barton Springs Mill called Quanha.  You can get more information by pressing on the link if you are interested.  I milled this to a high extraction sifting and milling twice and added this to high extraction freshly milled Durum flour.

Today's bake - Orange & Vanilla Sourdough

This bread is a mix of fresh milled hard winter red wheat and white whole wheat flour and AP flour combined with some orange zest I had in the freezer and vanilla extract. I was going for a mild orange/creamy flavor profile that I think I've achieved.

Tasting Notes

Crumb - Sweet/Dairy with notes of milk, orange, and vanilla

Crust - Resinous with notes of french roast coffee beans and vanilla bean

Grain Character - moderate with a slight taste of cooked oatmeal