Hearth Bread
Pre-Fermentation
Oct 04, 2012Most people who bake bread or read some of the really nice bread cookbooks out there (and there are some really good ones) know how important pre-fermentation is. It extracts more complexity and flavor from you flour and it allows your yeast more time to work on your flour, giving your bread better flavor and better shelf-life. Or, as the good people at Wikipedia (oh, wait. That’s all of us)... Read More
Getting Organized
Sep 28, 2012In baking, there is a strong application of the mise-en-place (everything in place in French) concept. In broad terms, it means knowing where everything is and having easy access to it in an organized manner. If you want to bake every day, or at least 5-6 times a week, and you also want to do other things (like be a parent, work and have a few other hobbies), then it... Read More
Healthy Loaf Bread
Sep 22, 2012My healthy loaf bread experiment is continuing to relative success. It’s interesting that the shape of the loaf and the relative softness of the crust can matter so much to a bread’s appeal to the masses — well, my family. My loaf-shaped bread seems to be working (though I still prefer boules). This loaf has 10% white flour, along with 45% white whole wheat and 45% whole wheat, oat bran... Read More
Bread, Bread Everywhere
Sep 13, 2012Bread Baking Habit Maybe I should start giving away bread to the neighbors. Better yet, I could sell it to help pay for my obvious whole wheat flour abuse habit. haha. The good news is that I am racing on Saturday, and I’m trying to put on a couple of pounds of carbs over the next two days. Read More
But Wait. There’s More.
Sep 12, 2012If you order now, we will also include this nice loaf of banana bread. haha. This posting is about the remarkable heat retention that I am getting with my Strada60 oven, and how little wood it takes to fire the oven. It’s surprising even me. Today I build a typical two-log fire and baked two baguettes and the loaf of toasting bread that I was plotting out earlier today. But... Read More
Plan B
Sep 12, 2012Getting your kids to eat well (and helping them come to understand on their why it is so important) is one of the most important things we do as parents. But it isn’t easy. I’ve been blogging about how to make healthy bread that is good enough so that the family actually eats it. Recently I have been pulling back from my hearty whole grain, seed and nut loaves in... Read More
Over-Proofed Bread in a Pizza Oven
Sep 12, 2012This is what over-proofed bread looks like when you have loaded it in your pizza oven. In case you were wondering. You might think I would have worked it out by now that if you shape your loaves before you fire your oven, things aren’t going to be ready in sync. Firing my Strada60 takes about two hours to light, fire and cool/regulate, so if your dough is lively and... Read More
Half Whole Wheat Ciabatta
Sep 10, 2012One of the advantages of baking a lot of bread is that you get to experiment a lot. You know — mess around. Yesterday I made a non-existent bread (non c’e, or non esiste as you would say in Italian), 50% whole wheat, 50% AP Ciabatta. The funny part of this is that a Ciabatta is a light Italian hearth bread made with a very wet dough and baked in... Read More
You Can Only Get So Far Without a Brick Oven
Sep 08, 2012Sometimes you find yourself in a hurry, or in a really busy day, but you still want nice, fresh baked bread. This is particularly true on Fridays. Busy, dinner with the family — those things. So yesterday I had enough time to mix and shape two baguettes, but not enough time to fire my Strada oven. Or, way it a lack of energy, rather than a lack of time. Hmmm.... Read More
