The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Recent Blog Entries

March 17, 2007 - 12:06pm
Joe Fisher's picture
Joe Fisher

It's a bread-stravaganza!

I ran myself right out of bread flour today :)

First we have some poppyseed "bloomers." Last time I followed the recipe to make one loaf and it was gigantic! This time I broke it in two.

 

To bring to dinner at my brother's house today, I made a pile of grissini. These are super easy to make and very tasty, what with the extra virgin olive oil and rosemary in them.

 

Then, of course, my old stand by. Rheinhart's NY Deli sourdough rye. Always a big favorite with those sautee'd onions and caraway in there. Soft as can be and twice as delicious :)

 

-Joe

 

March 16, 2007 - 9:00pm
mattie405's picture
mattie405

Pizza and bread

My pizza and bread , still in the learning stage but getting better. at least they taste really good.

March 16, 2007 - 6:35pm
pmccool's picture
pmccool

KAF Whole Grain Baking

My Valentine present, which had been back-ordered, showed up while I was out of town last week: the KAF Whole Grain Baking book.  My, oh my, oh my!  There is some serious baking to do!  Since our grandson is staying with us for part of his spring break and since he loves cinnamon toast for breakfast, I decided to start last evening with the honey oatmeal bread recipe, which has a cinnamon swirl option.  It contains honey and oatmeal, natch, as well as whole wheat flour, unbleached AP flour, butter and other good things.  I didn't have any nonfat dry milk on hand, but the bread doesn't seem to have suffered any as a result.  The cinnamon swirl mixture contains egg white, brown sugar, cinnamon (2 tablespoons!) and flour. 

The texture is surprisingly light for a mostly whole grain bread, as well as being moist and tender.  It toasts up wonderfully, with both the honey and the cinnamon flavors being very noticeable.  Here's a picture:

I think that the egg white and flour in the cinnamon mixture kept the layers of the roll from separating or creating pockets, as has often been the case with other recipes that I have made.

This was everything that I anticipated, and more, so I have high hopes for other recipes in the book.  The only downside may be a dent in my pocket to buy spelt and other not-so-common flours, if and when I can find them locally. 

Paul

March 16, 2007 - 5:23pm
Thegreenbaker's picture
Thegreenbaker

I have been away for a while

And I have forgotten how to make bread.

 

Not only has life gotten so much more busy with the onset of school, new friendships to maintain and entertain, but I just cant get it right!

 

My bread is heavy, moist or dry (just depends) and even though it rises when being ferments or proofed, it doesnt do much in the oven. It is crubmly although it has that elastic bread feel.

It is just so dense. *frustrated look*

I cook with wholemeal flour. I wonder if I just got used to eating "Comercial Bakery" bought breads that are light, soft and usually 70% white highly processed bleached flour, and 30wholemeal flour.

I never buy packet off the supermarket shelf bread, but the bakeries around here are few and far between, so I have been buying from a bakery called "bakers delight" Nothing like real bread but closer than plastic bread hey.

 

Anyhoo, I digress somewhat,

I am wondering if anyone had any suggestions as to what the *insert curse word here* is going on. Have I lost my knack? Do I ned more practice? Do I need different flour?

 

I just puirchased some high gluten flour and was thinking of mixing it with my wholemeal flour to give it extra strength incase it is the flour quality.

I know I could search the archives, but please forgive me, time is short ATM.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

I hope you all had a lovely holiday season :)

 

its almost time for the next one isnt it?

 

thefrustratedgreenbaker.

March 16, 2007 - 12:11pm
dickgeneva's picture
dickgeneva

Uneven rising in pan

Quite often,my loaves will rise unevenly in the oan and break open along one side of the loaf.

I've tried changing from dark to light colored pans,adjusted the moisture,adjusted the amount of

yeast,changed the oven temp,etc. but it still happens. Any thoughts from anyone out there? 

March 14, 2007 - 5:19pm
white_poplar's picture
white_poplar

Blueberry Ricotta Sweet Buns

I am new to bread making... But managed to whip up these rolls. The recipe for the dough is from BBA.

 

 

Interior:

 

 

The recipe is here

 

***Edited Link***

 

http://anhsfoodblog.blogspot.com/search?q=Blueberry+Ricotta+Sweet+Buns 

March 13, 2007 - 6:35pm
Joe Fisher's picture
Joe Fisher

Now THAT's dinner! BBA Sourdough

My sourdough techniques have really come a long way. This weekend's loaf was far and away the best I've made. Delicious, sour, great crumb and texture, it had it all. I used about 25% whole wheat flour.

So what's for dinner? Turkey bacon lightly fried in a skillet then put on top of tangy Greek grilling cheese on my fresh sourdough. The whole sandwich goes back on the skillet and a hot cast iron skillet is put on top to press it down. Some green beans lightly sautee'd with garlic and extra virgin olive oil, and some garlic dill pickles to round it out.

Oh, and a pint of English ale. Who's got it better than me? :)

-Joe

March 12, 2007 - 10:28pm
jonty's picture
jonty

Adventures in Pain au Lait

I had one of the nicer Saturdays in a while this past weekend (thanks to a trip to Trader Joe's and the local Farmers' Market), and I followed it up by baking the pain au lait I prepared on Friday night into cream cheese snails and pain aux raisins.

Couple of things:

I have to make sure I work faster next time. I kept on re-rolling the dough for the pain aux raisins because I wasn't happy with my rectangle, and the dough started to get warm and stick like crazy. In the end, the dough was uneven, and some parts were thinner than others, resulting in major tearing. Some of the rolls were more like blobs of dough, raisins, and cinnamon.

I should make less cream cheese filling next time. After measuring out the amount specified in the recipe, I realized I had only a spoonful more of cream cheese left in the package so I threw it in. The snails ended up covered in, rather than filled with, cream cheese. Still tasty, though.

When I finished, I realized I had around 2 dozen pastries (after eating some, of course) that I would never be able to eat before they went bad. So, I ended up bringing them to my rehearsal tonight. All but one cream cheese snail were taken.

Agenda for next week: try the cranberry-chocolate sweet buns. Well, raspberry-chocolate sweet buns (no frozen cranberries at TJ's).

EDIT:  Oh, I forgot! I finally got my own instant yeast (I had been using my roommate's active dry). Amazing stuff.

March 12, 2007 - 9:50am
Floydm's picture
Floydm

Busy busy

Sourdough loaves

I baked three loaves of sourdough yesterday. The dough was lower hydration than I typically do, but they turned out real nice.

I also made pita bread for lunch. The kids loved rolling them out and eating them. I have to remember to make them more often.

The new job at Mercy Corps is keeping me very busy, which is why I am less active here. I'm extremely excited about being there though. It is a great organization full of great people. I couldn't ask for a much better place to work.

March 12, 2007 - 8:27am
Squid's picture
Squid

My Bread-Making Journey

I figured I'd start this blog to track my bread-making and encourage constructive criticism so that I can improve my bread-making skills. Feedback is welcome.

Sorry, I posted this elsewhere before realizing I should start a blog. This is my 5th attempt at bread-making. My first sourdough bread, cultivated a la Nancy Silverton's instructions using grapes. It had a definite sour taste, but I don't have any personal experiece to compare it to (other that what I've bought). My next attempt will be with SourdoLady's starter and I also have an Italian starter to which I can really compare my homemade starters.

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