Blog posts

After getting back from Houston where it rained cats and dogs, I had to bring it back to Phoenix since we have been dry for a year.  It has rained just about every day since returning.   It is monsoon but yesterday, we had to get nearly 1.5" of rain at home where we only get 7" a year.  The clouds were ominous.

Then they got orange in a pinkish way as the sun set.

Just captured a new sourdough starter culture in Prague, Czech Republic.  The first loaf was a lovely wheat with solid rise for a baby, and now, I'm feeding the culture whole rye and buttermilk to make a classic Eastern European Pumpernickle loaf.  This sourdough starter from Prague is going to be a great wild culture for home baking!

For the first time in a few months, I baked some Tartine Basic Country Bread.   It remains among my favorite breads for crumb texture—it hits the perfect point for me between light/pillowy and chewy.  

We are back home (as of last weekend) from a week with 18 Snyder family relatives in Ft Bragg, a few days in Prague and 4 days  with 62 of Susan's family members, coming from 7 countries, in Warsaw, Poland.

I just had to share: Brother Glenn teaching granddaughter, Naomi, to shape bagels.

David

I have some left over brisket and pulled pork in the freezer I defrosted to for this weekend so I wanted to make some rolls that would be good for sandwiches.  I have been experimenting with my Wild Yeast Water Starter over the last month or so with some mixed results.  My last experiment to convert a recipe for New England style hot dog buns to WYW ended up with bread sticks so th

My Bread & Buns.

This is my best bread I have ever made.

This is what you would need to make it.

One large bowl one jug.

Ingredients

1 ½ Lbs white bread flour

1 Tablespoon vital wheat flour

1 teaspoon Xanthan gum

1 ½ teaspoon quick yeast

2 teaspoons of sugar

1 ½ oz butter

4 cups of milk

Every other weekend we have friends come over to our house for a little socialization and we take turns providing food. Last week was our turn and I wanted to get away from ordering take-out like we have been doing lately. I wanted to put some effort into the meal instead of being lazy so we decided on burgers and BBQ chicken. I took this opportunity to make the rolls for burgers. This is the second time making the Kaiser rolls from Peter Reinhart’s The Bread Baker’s Apprentice and I was hoping these would turn out better than my first attempt. Turns out I was right!

Hello all.
I have written a dough calculator, in the hope to create a useful tool, but also to get some practice with javascript/HTML. It is a table-based calculator, but includes a feature I have not found in other calculators: a graphical interface for calculating starter feedings.

You can find it here.

Living in San Diego for school, I gained a love for the little rolls brought from the local panaderia down the street.  Like little mini batards, pulled from the oven and placed in bins alongside racks of pan dulces.  Alas, here in the oakland hills the closest panaderia is a 15-20 minute drive away, and the bolillos just aren't quite like the ones I used to get in San Diego.