To go with our new years eve dinner, I came up with this sourdough using two different starters. A stiffer AP starter , and a whole wheat poolish starter. I used an overnight bulk fermentation, then shaped and proofed them in the morning for a couple of hours.
The main dough was a mix of AP, Bread, Spelt , and a little corn flour. The exact ratios are below. Baked with steam for 10 min then another 20 min and with a vented oven for another 5-8 min.
gm
OZ
Total desired Bread Weight (gm) -->
1045.0
36.8
Desired Bread Hydration %
60.00%
Desired % of Starter you want in the dough
25.00%
261.3
9.2
Does not include pollish
What is the Hydration of the Starter, biga, or poolish you are using
100.00%
Add 250 gm poolish
Your starter hydration contains : Flour
130.6
4.6
Water
130.6
4.6
Total Flour to add at desired % hydration Minus Flour already in Starter
522.5
18.4
Total Water to add at desired % hydration minus Water already in Starter
If you eat as much bread as I do , It better be Whole grain (most of the time :)). Mix any combination of seeds and grains, keep the water content as high as you can . Experiment and have fun !
Long fermentation & high hydration doughs help create chewy and tender whole grain crumb
This bake used "Bobs Red Mill" 5 grain cereal, about 100 gm soaked in 200 gm water. Flour was 80% organic AP ,10% WW and 10% Spelt. I used a stiff sourdough levain which was 25% of the total dough weight. I went for about 70% hydration and used an overnight fermentation .
I made these using about 10% Masa Harina and about 10% Spelt. 25% of the total dough weight was Sourdough. They had a great chew an not a strong corn taste.
Here is a simple spreadsheet for converting the stiffness of your starter. I usually keep a 100% starter ( 50% water,50% flour) cause its easier to feed and maintain. But if I need a biga , preferment or levain that is stiffer, I just use my master starter and use some to convert.
A friend of ours gave us some sauce she made using Malageta peppers . It was so good we used in on everything we could think of . The original recipe is here
We used the left overs on pizza and also with pasta, both were excellent. It is Just the right amount of spiciness without being too hot. But of course you can make it as hot as you want.
Using a couple of bricks helps support the skewers and keep everything lifted just a bit to avoid sticking to the grill.
We have an assign pear in out back yard and have tons of pears this summer. I have made the walnut bread before but I thought I would try the addition of fresh pears about 1.5 cups diced.
This bread is made with a WW sourdough starter made into a sponge based on Nancy Silvertons recipe. The Sponce brews for several hours and then is mixed with the main dough. After needing the main dough a bit with stretch and folds , I folded in the walnuts and pear. In The refrigerator for 24 hours and baked the following night.
A great bread with the sweetness of the pear.
I am always experimenting with flour combinations. This pizza is made using 50% caputo 00 and 50% organic central milling AP. 68% hydration , fermented 24 hours.
I made this bread a long time ago and remember its unique taste of the tumeric and orange essence. Originally, posted on the "fresh loaf"
my version uses my standard sourdough starter. It is ~70% hydration with a slightly stiff starter, juice and zest of one orange and 1 tsp of ground turmeric.
This bread used the Tartine method for a #Porridge bread with one modification. I doubled the amount of levain from 15% to 30%. It was so wet that it I could not really score it.
I am not sure why he suggests soaking the millet overnight and then cooking it ? Maybe it starts some fermentation, but would't cooking it then just kill and cancel out any benefit from the soaking?
Regardless The crunch and taste is excellent. It has almost 2 cups of cooked millet !
For this weeks breakfast bread . I pan toasted some fennel seed and crushed them using my Mortar bowl.
Then I added some ground dried Orange peel and honey. After kneading I folded in about 1/2 cup soaked 8 grain cereal.
My recipe used a Biga at 25% of the total dough weight. I went for a total dough hydration of about 70%
As is often the case, I make from what I have at hand. I had some nice organic red potatoes, feta cheese, and a bell pepper .
Cooked at about 750Deg F. 2 min. 69 % dough hydration with same day mix
I did not want to waste all that oven heat so I cut up some more potatoes and make a potato bake with cheese and an egg Panko & Farina de mandioca crusted topper.
Paseo's , in Seattle is one of those little places people wait 1 hour in line just for a sandwich.
I found an article in the Seattle Times that approximates their recipe for their roast pork sandwich.
It involves marinading the pork in a mix of orange and lime juice, garlic, onion, fresh oregano, and a few other items for 24 hours. I wanted to try it with chicken too, so I threw a couple chicken thigh/leg quarters in with my free range natural Pork shoulder.
A couple other items to prepare include; a big batch of caramelized onions, a garlic Mayo with sweet Relish. Step 1 Make the marinate - I put the pork and chicken in a ziplock bag overnight
Step 2 Make the Bread - Of course you could buy some - But what's the fun in that. After much searching I decided an Italian style bread would work well . I used Peter Reinharts Italian bread recipe except than I used my sourdough to create the Biga. The rolls were cooked in a 500 deg wood fired oven - they only took about 15 min to cook.
Step 3 - Roast the meat . I put both the chicken and pork in the oven when It had cooled down to about 300 deg F. after I baked the bread. I cooked the chicken for about 1 hour, and the Pork for about 3.5 hours - Sorry I don't have a picture of the chicken but it looked equally good
Step 4 - Make the Sandwich - What can I say - fresh made Bread, lightly toasted , spread with garlic/relish mayo , layerd with pickled jalapenos, cilantro, Romain lettuce , a heaping portion of meat and caramelized onions. - One of those tortas you need a bib for, and cannot put down !
Trying different combinations is most of the fun of Bread Baking
I adapted this bread from Peter Reinharts Book - BBA, recipe for "Multigrain bread Extraordinaire"
My variations included:
Using cooked Faro instead of Rice
Using a Soaker of: Millet, Polenta, and Buckwheat
Using a mix of Keifer and Milk
I estimate that the hydration was about 70%
It is a fairly quick bread to make . I did not worry about a complex fermentation or Levain because the soaker, Keifer, honey and Brown Sugar give it a rich sweetness. Makes awesome toast , or a great sandwich bread. The soaked but uncooked millet gives it a nice crunch.
Performance of Selected Guistos and King Arthur flours for simple rolls.
Guistos, from San Francisco makes several type of flours for the baker. I did a little comparison of a few of their flours along with king Arthur Bread flour and Nashes organic hard red wheat.
Flours compared
Guistos organic Bakers choice
Guistos Keith's best unbleached
Guistos artisans malted bread
King Arthur Bread
Nosh's organic hard winter wholewheat
Methods
I mixed up 5 small 250 gram dough balls all under the same environmental conditions and at the same time.
The ambient temp was 70 deg F.
I choose moderate hydration of 65%
2% salt, 1% instant yeast.
I mixed all small dough balls for 5 min each by hand
Fermented them room temp for 3 hours , shaped them into small rounds , and baked them all together at 450 deg F for 10min then 425 for another 15 min
Results
All the flours had a similar feel and look with the exception of the bakers choice which had a more cream color to it
Right off the bat I could tell that Keiths best and the artisan flours were less thirsty , in fact the artisan flour felt to me the way caputo 00 flour mixes. Guistos Bakers choice and the King Arthur were the most similar but King Arthur was more thirsty making a stiffer dough. The most slack dough was with the artisan blend. Of course the stiffest dough was the Nashes whole wheat water hog. Another reason to remember you cannot substitute WW in recipes for regular flour unless you up the Hydration at least 10%
Mixed up ready for kneading
After 5 min of kneading
Kneading response
I had to use slap and fold methods for all except the Whole wheat , and the last couple minutes with the KA flour. I worked each one for five minutes and did a quick check of gluten development
Here is how they looked before baking
Baking
They all baked up about the same , the only noticeable difference was with the Artisan flour which gave the best spring. Even the Brick like 100% Whole wheat at 65% hydration looked pretty good.
Crumb and taste
Well, they were all pretty close. the KA had the tightest crumb and the Artisan the lightest. As you can see from the crumb shots below - there was not much difference.
Taste wise , the KA and the Bakers choice had the most toothieness, the Keith's best had a slight sourdough taste - (expected because it contains ascorbic acid)
Not to waste any fresh bread
I made a pulled pork sandwich choosing the artisan roll, and my wife made a veggie burger with the bakers choice roll. I froze the rest . and the dogs got a little too.
Conclusion
All the guistos performed slightly lighter than the KA and were less thirsty. So you would need to adjust the hydrations if your used to KA for example. I think the Artisan was quite nice but I am not sure it justifies the additional cost of it. for the Keith's best, If I want a flour with ascorbic acid , I will add my own or use a SD starter. Also Keith's best says it has other "enhancements" but does not say exactly what enhancements ?
Next Steps
Use the flours in a couple full complex breads with preferments
Try the Guistos 00 flour in my pizza oven compared to Caputo 00.
Guistos, from San Francisco makes several type of flours for the baker. I did a little comparison of a few of their flours along with king Arthur Bread flour and 
