Monday, May 4, 2009

Baking bread

As mentioned earlier, I suddenly developed an interest in baking bread. I have no idea how that happened or why but Ron and Jason seem to be enjoying it!

I have been experimenting with different techniques. Using either a biga or poolish starter, autolyse, envelope fold, no knead, proofing at room temp or in an oven, steam or no steam during baking... there is so much to learn.

One of the first loaves I made. A white and whole wheat boule.


Friendship bread is a fantastic cinnamon cake/loaf made from wild yeast. It is made by the Amish and tastes amazing. Make it sweet, chocolate or pistachio flavor, dryish loaf or super moist cake. The process takes 10 days to ferment with a feeding on day 5.


I thought the friendship bread starter would be similar to sourdough starter since they both involve fermentation and wild yeast. It turned out pretty tasty... although with a hint of sweetness instead of tang. Jason said it reminded him of Hawaiian bread. The sugar and milk in the starter gave the crust a beautiful shine and caramel almost burnt in places color.


This was made using a biga starter. The starter was made ahead of time and placed in the fridge for 1 week. This was Ron's favorite bread so far. Nice thin crust, decent air holes, soft crumb.

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