Tag: sourdough

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Recipes

Sourdough Baguettes

Learn how to make these crusty, mouth-watering sourdough baguettes.

Their complex flavour and beautiful taste come from the long fermentation and retardation time (time in the fridge), 100% hydration of the sourdough and a little bit of stoneground and fava bean flour.

These baguettes are quite small so that they fit into the domestic oven but they are delicious. Best eaten fresh from the oven. One of the flours in the recipe is fava bean flour but we ended up using fava and garbanzo flour as this was the only one available in our local health-food store.

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Categories
Bread Education

The Bakers Percentage

Making bread isn’t the same as cooking, bread making is a straight forward process but it involves a combination of biochemical and physical processes by living organisms. This means it’s important to have a balanced formula as microorganisms are very sensitive to changes to their environment – in this case – bread dough. It also means ingredients at the right weights. I use the word “formula” for good reason. Most uninitiated in bread baking believe that the word ‘formula’ and ‘recipe’ are really the same. This is not the case in bread baking. There’s a subtle but important difference.

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Bread Education

Storing bread – refrigerate or not?

A question I get asked a lot by home Bakers and consumers is,  what is the best way to store bread during the time it is to be eaten?

Many suggest the fridge but I tell people that the fridge is a bad choice. Some look at me like I’m from another planet. There’s a good reason for not using the fridge.

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Categories
Bread Education

Heigh-ho, Heigh-ho, its Sourdough on the go…

Photo of dough just added to the oven.
Dough just added to the oven.

This is my first post, and unlike Boris, my perspective is from a humble home baker. I’ve been baking now for a few years and in spite of being a professional software engineer, I’ve managed to crack through the ‘bread ceiling’ and come up with some good and consistent results.

This Christmas we (both Boris and my families) decided to visit the Tasmanian highlands for a couple of week’s holiday and I thought it would be a great idea to bring Steve along. Steve is my sourdough starter.

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Categories
Bread Education

Stone in a domestic oven, why?

‘Stones’ are almost indispensable when it comes to home baking, especially bread. Most home bakers have heard this but are not sure exactly why. The complete answer is twofold.

Firstly, to produce ‘naked’ bread – baked without a tin – would mean baking on a tray. The dough has the tendency to ‘flow’ and flatten when baked on a tray unless the water in the recipe is reduced. That’s fine for some bread and rolls but for many it’s a reduction in quality since the water content has an influence on the crumb texture and of course the flavour.

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Categories
Bread Education

Tasmanian Baking

I was recently down in Tasmania for a bamboo fly rod makers weekend – “Cressy Cane” – at the Brumby’s Creek Lodge.

Cressy Cane Weekend 2014 Phote by: Aidan Macnamara
Cressy Cane Weekend 2014
Photo by: Aidan Macnamara

I was surprised to find there were quite a few home bakers amongst the group as well as other anglers who attended.

Two of the blokes presented me with a sourdough starter they had been using in the past. These starters were in the fridge a little too long and a bit neglected. But I was keen to try one of those starters out and see if I could make something that would impress them and the guests.

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