For World Bread Day today, I decided to bake up some Ciabatta. I had completely forgotten it was WBD until I saw postings on FaceBook and I thought I had better do something quick. Well, quick doesn’t work too well for sourdough… Continue reading Flaxseed Ciabatta – for World Baking Day 2012
Salish Sea Sourdough
I have been baking Salish Sea Sourdough at Passionate for Pies for two weeks now. Passionate for Pies is owned by two of the nicest people in Eastsound, Wa. Shasha Jean and Marie Bigbee opened Passionate for Pies three years ago. Their pies, tarts, and pot pies are reknown in the San Juan Islands and beyond for being the tastiest, most wholsome pastry treats available.
Continue reading Salish Sea Sourdough and Passionate for Pies
Michael Eggebrecht teaching the Professional Baking class at Kneading Conference West.
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I was lucky enough to attend the first annual Kneading Conference West in Mt. Vernon Wa at the WSU extension center. The conference lasted three wonderful days, Sept 15 – 17 2011. There was so much to see and do that it was hard to pick which classes to attend. The food served was really good and the people were just my kind of people.. obsessed with bread.
This formula is easy to follow and bakes up terrific bread. I used a morphing technique that really brings out the taste in the bread. Morphing sourdough is when you use two different starters to improve the quality of the bread. When I want to morph, I usually will use a white starter and a whole grain starter, either a rye or whole wheat starter. Today I used white and wheat together.
There won’t be a recipe on this post. Instead I want to talk not only about Salt Fermented Sourdough ( I will link once again to my salt fermented dough formula here), but about my book, “Discovering Sourdough” and about some of my baking friends.
I have never seen a football game, that is, not until yesterday. I watched Super Bowl 45 with the Steelers and the Packers.
I love the Northwest. I am so happy to be back home after spending a month in warmer, drier climes. Yes it was fun, but I am back in my own kitchen and the weather is perfect for baking. Cool, humid, definitely wet…. the Northwest.
I would like to let everyone know that my 16 year old son, Wyllis, is back to making the lames again. He finally got enough equipment here in Hawaii to get back to production.
The lames are even more beautiful than before, being made from a Hawaiian wood, Koa. I will be offering one of Wyllis’ lames (which I bought from him) free to one of the people making a comment on this post.
This is to help Continue reading This and That
Using my new Swedish Sourdough Starter, which I feed with Rye flour, I made a Light Swedish Rye Loaf. The flavor is incredibly full bodied and tangy. I used lots of Caraway seeds. I am enjoying the Swedish starter because it is very vigorous and reliable, it always seems full of bubbles just when I need to use it. Here is the recipe which will make 2 – three pound loaves:
I decided to use some Millet grain that I had bought for experimenting with. I ground up a cup of Millet into a meal type consistancy, which I used in the dough and outside of the crust when making this bread. The texture of the crumb was really great, I had wondered if a whole cup of ground Millet would affect the crumb and how, but it turned out nice and the smell was terrific. The crust was crunchy, crispy and making toast out of this bread was a treat. For the first two loaves I brushed the crust with egg glaze and sprinkled the ground Millet on the outside. For the third loaf, I also brushed on the egg glaze but I sprinkled whole Millet seed on the outside. Here are some pictures of the loaves:
Here are the loaves proofing in their couche:
Here are the first two loaves:
Here is a closeup of the crust with the ground Millet on it:
Here is the loaf with the whole Millet seed on the crust:
Here is the crumb:
Millet is an interesting addition to sourdough bread. The grain baked on the outside of the crust was not crunchy hard like cracked wheat, but was softer and more biteable, yet still crunchy.
From the site http://chetday.com/millet.html , I found the following information about Millet:
Millet is highly nutritious, non-glutinous and like buckwheat and quinoa, is not an acid forming food so is soothing and easy to digest. In fact, it is considered to be one of the least allergenic and most digestible grains available and it is a warming grain so will help to heat the body in cold or rainy seasons and climates.
Millet is tasty, with a mildly sweet, nut-like flavor and contains a myriad of beneficial nutrients. It is nearly 15% protein, contains high amounts of fiber, B-complex vitamins including niacin, thiamin, and riboflavin, the essential amino acid methionine, lecithin, and some vitamin E. It is particularly high in the minerals iron, magnesium, phosphorous, and potassium
MIllet seems to go really well with sourdough baking, so you might want to pick up some Millet next time you are in town, and try it out.
Discovering Sourdough
