Bread Number 82: Patience Saves a Gorgeous Rye
A rye awry?I made the first version of this somewhat-under 20 percent rye bread a few weeks ago and it turned out perfectly. I did not taste it, but gave it away to my younger daughter when I visited...
View ArticleA Bakery in Colorado Worth a Trip
Mountains, yes. Pretty landscapes, check. Hiking and climbing galore. Reasons why people trek thousands of miles to Colorado, a state where the residents have a sense of superiority because they think...
View ArticleBread Number 83: Am I Making Almost the Same Breads Over and Over? Yes
I have never sought out a career that demands travel. A few widely-spaced trips a year, fine. But for several months it felt like I was constantly out of town. I was not quite, but too much in terms of...
View ArticleBread Numbers 84 and 85: Barley, a Nice Nutty Minor Player
Two sour breads with quite long rises and about 20 to 30 percent barley flour, freshly milled. Not sure if the taste is different with freshly milled flour or whether the aroma in the kitchen after I...
View ArticleBread Numbers 86 and 87: Lovely Whole Wheat
Splendid whole wheat breads, each 50 to 60 percent whole wheat. These are impressive in their superiority to any bakery bread. Indeed there's no reasons other than variety or getting out of the house...
View ArticleBread Number 81: A Tasty Variation
The variation on Bread #81 is a stretch on the term variation because I changed quite a bit from the original recipe. This is a delicious whole wheat and requires no sponge phase. I did do an autolyse,...
View ArticleBread Number 88: Lovely Multiple of Four for My Group of Four Peaceable...
It's 8:30 a.m. and I have a challah dough almost ready for braiding, a sponge sitting on the counter - made this morning - and the flour for that dough ground and protected in the freezer in a ziplock...
View ArticlePre-Passover Pause and Spring Cleaning
I will be baking bread, just taking a break from the 108 Bread project. Tradition stands in the way, though only for a few weeks. My personal ritual is to start cleaning the minute that the Jewish...
View ArticleBread Number 89: Whole Wheat, Farro, and Serious Procrastination
Here I am, no closer to actually starting the challah challenge than I was a year ago. All it takes to be ready is get out the ingredients and begin, but my wonderful family is actively opposed to the...
View ArticleBread Number 90: 70 Percent Rye with Spices
This recipe was adopted from a recipe for spiced rye rolls in Daniel Leader's Local Breads. I did 73 percent rye and I also made a rye starter beforehand. A slap on the back for some good planning....
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Bread Numbers 91 and 92: Breads of Affliction and Hope
I am an American who has spent much of the last few weeks in disbelief and sadness at the prospect of having a president who has unabashedly made racist, sexist, and otherwise bigoted statements. So...
View ArticleBread Number 93: Rosemary Is Name of the Game
OMG! I would put one gram of rosemary - about half a handful for my small hands - in every bread after this. What a flavor boost and such a nice aroma. Plus, the stuff grows totally wild even in the...
View ArticleBread Number 94 - Spelt With Spelt Starter
I like spelt and I like it better when the bread is 100 percent spelt rather than partly spelt. I'm not that way with rye or whole wheat. I am flexible with those. So this time, I went all the way and...
View ArticleMiraculous Remake: Bread Number 76 = Tons of Water + Anxiety
Now there are two proofs that a divine presence exists in the universe: (1) I have parallel parked (seldom, but it has happened), and (2) a glob of a dough turned into an amazing bread. I remade bread...
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Bread Number 95: 100% Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread
It is true that I am unable to follow anyone else's recipe except for my sister's challah recipe. Bread #95 bread is roughly the Reinhart recipe of a 100 percent whole wheat sandwich bread, but with...
View ArticleBread Number 96: Yet Another Challah Disaster
I am thinking the core of this disaster is my failure to convert a yeasted challah recipe into a sourdough recipe. I followed two similar recipes and neither went well. I kneaded and kneaded by hand; I...
View ArticleBasic Recipe Better Liberated from Refrigeration
For far too long I remained lazy, having permitted myself to be lulled by a "foolproof" sourdough recipe that I adjusted with different flours, self-righteously ground in my beautiful German mill that...
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Bread Number 97: Not a Challah Disaster
Confession #1: I made a major mistake and put all of the sponge into the dough instead of following the recipe and saving some.Complaint #1: I don't like recipes that try to help me with extra starter...
View ArticleNot About Bread: Race Matters in Brett Kavanaugh Fracas
Tale of Two Young GuysTwo young men, two similar acts of misconduct, two very different life trajectories. Young man #1: We all know about privileged, smart, savvy Brett Kavanaugh, whose high school...
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Bread Number 98: Oatmeal Sandwich Bread
It is two years since I last wrote and I have been making bread almost every week, though not new breads. More on that hiatus in another post.Bread 98 is light on the whole grains at about one third of...
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Long Pause Explained
The hiatus is over and I did a first try at bread #99 yesterday. It was a fun journey of anxiety, like any new bread venture.So why the long pause? In a nutshell, overwhelming work that took up all of...
View ArticleBread Number 99: Grumpiness Lends Itself to Honesty
Maybe I am asking too much, but to me a recipe should have actual amounts. Without amounts or ranges - with advice about how to select within the range - how am I supposed to know if I am on the...
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Bread Number 100: Adapted River Cottage Sourdough
Self-awareness is a good quality and never more so than when realizing that a professional male baker's hands doing 10 minutes of kneading is not the equivalent of 10 minutes of kneading by a woman who...
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Bread Number 102: German Rye with Sauerkraut
You might be wondering why this post is about Bread #102 and where Bread #101 could possibly be. After a year of intermittent attempts at that #101, a very dense rye, I am resolved to try it for a...
View ArticleBread Number 101: Rye, My Mistake
I've made this bread four times and it tastes like a brick. Hamelman, the author, and lead baker at the King Arthur Flour Company (and former owner of a bakery in Vermont), suggests waiting to add the...
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