Artisan Breads

here's how I create great sourdough loaves without kneading

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My recipe for sourdough wheat bread

4 cups unbleached bread flour
1/2 cup of unbleached full-flavor (dark) whole wheat flour
2 tspns fine sea salt
2 tbspns safflower or other good quality, flavorless oil
4 tbspns good local honey
2 cups wheat sourdough starter
3 - 4 cups icewater

My starter is flour and water only. It doesn't matter if you
use a firm or slack starter. Just make sure it is a good
lively starter that smells good.

In this recipe, I make my dough in a food processor in two batches
because home food processors can't handle the full amount of
dough in one batch. I have tested this with the classic Cuisinart

Struan Bread

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General Discussion and Recipe Exchange

Just made my first loaves of Struan. The taste is great but it seems the texture is a bit coarse. Does anyone know of any reason that might be? Thanks

Rappin'

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Artisan Baking

Not an important question, but I was wondering why when checking to see if
a loaf is done, we rap the bottom of the loaf as opposed to the top, for
the hollow sound? I have done both and can't discern any difference.

The recycle loaf

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Introductions and Ideas

Well someone has gone and done it, given me half a loaf I can't eat but too good to give away. I hate to look a gift horse in the mouth so I'm off to bake a recycle loaf. It is an Austrian Rye (at least 70% rye) loaf rather flat, dense, lots of molasses flavor and way too much salt. The only way to enjoy eating it is to delute it. It is the only rye within a 100 mile radius, I'm sure, with the exception to the other loaf half. Will report back later.... All comments welcome. :) Mini Oven

US Bread Festivals

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Misc.

Know of bread festivals in your area or anywhere in US? Would appreciate dates and locations, websites if available. Thanks.

Sylvia

July 18, 2006 - 8:08am

longlivegoku

Wood fired brick oven....soon

I have been on a quest for several months now to build a brick oven. I bought Alan Scott's book and also ordered some building CD's from a guy in Australia named Rado. While Alan's book was amazing (I will be re-reading it here soon) I ended up going with Rado's plans for what he calls a Masterly Tail oven. He gives amazingly detailed pictures of each step along with instructions for the mixtures needed. I think in all, I received 1000 photos of him building an MTO. Anyhow, I'm less than a month away (hopefully) from finally being able to bake and thought I would post some pics of the progress so far. It's been fun and a challenge to build. Fireclay was the only ingredient I've had trouble finding locally. I ended up running out yesterday while building the arches or there would be more done at this point. So it goes!

Hearth

Hearth with wall

One arch

Read more about Wood fired brick oven....soon
longlivegoku's blog
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BBA ciabatta question

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Artisan Baking

I just baked several loaves of ciabatta using the BBA's poolish version and found I had to use nearly twice as much water as the recipe called for (the day was very hot, but also humid). Anyone else have this experiece? I also baked three loaves using the BBA's biga version and found the percentages in keeping with the recipe.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.

Sylvia
in search of the perfect crust and crumb

Biga vs. straight dough Whole-Wheat Buttermilk Bread experiment

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General

I'm still not ready to write a review, but from my first hands-on experience with their work, I can confidently say that Laurel Robertson and her compatriots know a thing or two about whole wheat bread.

I started my foray into the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book with their Buttermilk Bread, a loaf that they say "keeps well (when hidden)." It's true. These loaves are moist and delicious days later, but they're so deliciously sweet and light, they won't likely stick around that long.

I made two different loaves. For the first loaf, the night before, I took 30% of the flour and mixed it with the appropriate amount of water from the recipe and a bit of yeast to make a biga. The next morning, the biga was nice and ripe, so I took the remainder of the recipe, reduced the yeast from 1 tsp to 3/4 tsp, mixed it up and started to knead.

French bread (large Boule) sponge-like crumb

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Artisan Baking

I have attempted to make a large French boule, but the crumb always turns out like a sponge. I have tried higher and lower hydration levels. I want a fluffy, cottonball-like crumb, but consistently end up with an unusually heavy, spongy loaf and I'm tired of this!!!!

Here's the recipe that I tried...

Poolish

1- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2/3 cup water
1/8 tsp instant yeast

Final dough

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp instant yeast
2 tsp salt
poolish
2/3 cup water

I added enough flour to make a sticky dough that almost completely pulled off of the kneading surface and let it proof in the refrigerator for about 15 hours.

Whole wheat, Laurel's Kitchen and a pre-ferment question

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Artisan Baking

I finally picked up the Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book, and I'm really enjoying it. It's so well written, and written with such enthusiasm -- really infectuous.

I have noticed a few places where the advice is not the best. For instance, they recommend storing whole wheat sourdough bread (she calls it "Desem" -- Flemish for sourdough. They got the recipe from a Belgian baker) tightly wrapped in the fridge. Stale city!

The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Artisan Breads

here's how I create great sourdough loaves without kneading

Struan Bread

Rappin'

The recycle loaf

US Bread Festivals

Wood fired brick oven....soon

BBA ciabatta question

Biga vs. straight dough Whole-Wheat Buttermilk Bread experiment

French bread (large Boule) sponge-like crumb

Whole wheat, Laurel's Kitchen and a pre-ferment question

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