TinGull's blog

Well, I've been MIA in the bread baking world for a loooong time, as I've been busy with my other passion, baking dog biscuits (Barkwheats).

I decided to make these baguettes following the simple...so simple recipe.  Holy.......smokes!  These were the BEST baguettes I have ever made in my entire life!  I've NEVER before been able to get a crust that crackled when I bit into it and a chewy crumb that was nice an open.  OH....this makes me want to do this every day now.

Pictures:

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Click for full size

I used KA AP flour with Maine sea salt and SAF instant yeast and my well water.  yummmmmmmmmzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

When I was living back on the coast of Maine, this was one of my favorite breads I would get.  The recipe is simple, just a regular ol' white bread with some oil added to it and then TONS of dill.

Also made some strawberry jam yesterday from strawberries we picked yesterday morning.  The first jam I'd ever made and I loved it!

 Just strawberries, sugar and agar-agar and lemon juice.

Having some friends over for a cookout tonight and made some hamburger buns and hot dog rolls....and marshmallows for our s'mores!  I hate to have to buy the garbage marshmallows at the store, so I love making my own.

And got a nice bit of baking out of the way since Monday. I re-activated my starter on Sunday afternoon and started making some doughs on Monday morning. The boules I had done on Tuesday, but wanted to see for myself if a longer fermentation really did result in blistering of the loaf. So..I retarded the doughs for the olive and pepper/cheese loaves in the fridge from Monday until this morning (wednesday) and cooked em off after forming them last night. AWESOME! Totally got the blistering I love so much. Here's a little chronicle.

The starter activated

Gloppy dough before I kneaded...

After the kneading...

The top and crumb...

and the proofing and cooked loaves of the olive and pepper/cheese bread

Those were the words she said, and when the lady speaks, she gets :) HAHA! Made some honey whole wheat with flax in it. We got this awesome cranberry/vanila peanut butter last week and needed something hearty to slather it on. YUM!

Have some sourdough ciabatta cooling now. Gosh...I soooo love the smell of sourdough!

 After about 2 1/2 weeks of love and care, my starter is officially alive and kickin'! I made a couple olive sourdough loaves today, since this is my girlfriends favorite, and wanted to use my sourdough starter. It looks delish! It just came out of the oven (still crackling as I took this picture) so I haven't cut into it yet. One of the reasons I LOVE making bread is to fill the entire house up with that aroma of wild yeast and flour. Mmmmmmmmm.....

I'll put up some pics after I cut into it. I heard on one of those Julia Child PBS videos that it's illegal in Italy to even sell bread when it's warm....how intense!

And the crumb

Made some pizza a few nights ago and am now just getting to posting the pic. Was tasty, but I still can't get the dough thin enough to where it can be a "thin crust"....I guess I'll just have to try again, shucks! It wasn't anything but a regular ol' pizza dough and some tomato sauce,sliced tomatoes, mozz and basil. Simple ingredients.

Last night I decided I wanted to bake again today (starting to become an every day affair now) and I wanted to ciabatta. My shaping is awful with these slack doughs. I got 1 out of 4 looking good, but I bet they'll taste fabulous anyways. Here's a picture of the gluten developement on one that just came out of the oven about 10 minutes ago...

and the dough as it rose overnight...

Again, a simple recipe that included my starter (about a cup worth), maybe 1 3/4C water and a couple cups of KAAP flour and a slight bit of SAF yeast and some salt. Totally guestimates on the amounts, as I dont measure much.

The crumb...amazing! This is the most delicate bread I've made yet, which is cool. I did an autolyse for about 40 minutes, and this was the first time I'd ever done that process. You can bet I'll be doing that every time now!

 And the much needed "ciabatta dipped in oil" shot:

And I *might* have eaten almost half the pan full of them already (baked about 12 hours ago now)..these were the best things I've had in soooo long and I was TOTALLY craving Cinnabon rolls, so found a recipe online and WOW!  Amazing. 

Then a little sourdough bread roll action

This is the starter I've been working on the past 2 weeks now, and it's starting to come into it's own.   

Made this over the past couple days and was delightful. Very soft crumb and flavorful too. I used Floydm's recipe which was just lovely. I will start the poolish again tonight to bake off tomorrow afternoon. I want to have this one all the time!

This bread was from a starter that was tickled with a little molasses (a question from a previous comment...and got me thinkin' it might taste nice) and it was tastyyyyy!  The bread didn't spring like I would have wanted it to, but none the less made for some tasty bits to slop up pasta sauce :)

I just used KA bread flour, water, salt and some molasses.