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Danish Rye Bread - Ragbrod (Denmark) | The Fresh Loaf
Today's bake: Danish Rye Bread Ragbrod (Denmark)Source: The Rye Baker by Stanley GinsbergNotes: Scaled to 2 loaves @ 1.575kg ea. from 1 loaf at 1.800kg.Substitutions: NoneDiscussion: Another really nice rye bread from 'The Rye Baker'. This is a relatively easy bread to make consisting of a scald and the main dough. I found this delicious bread to be exactly what I've
Panettone#5 Xmas24 | The Fresh Loaf
Probably the best of my Panettone bakes so far this season! Lucky number 5!I have been using the Milanese bound method exclusively to manage the LM this Christmas, in attempt to really get to grips with it and try to develop a deep understanding of what it does and how to use this technique wisely. Except for one occasion weeks ago where I made the over night in water,
Some recent bakes | The Fresh Loaf
First up, Hamelman's Quarkbrot. The formula calls for 60% bread flour, 20% medium rye flour, and 20% rye chops. It also includes quark cheese. Since the medium rye flour and rye chops and quark cheese are scarce as hen's teeth in my corner of northern Michigan, I was forced to adapt. My trusty Komo grain mill does just fine at producing whole rye flour and cracked rye, so I
Cake flour sourdough breads | The Fresh Loaf
At some point I imagined that a sourdough bread make with mostly cake flour would have a delectable soft sweet crumb texture. Or at least a better 'bite' than loaves made with bread flour. Perhaps softer on the tongue, with a good sweet flavour! And without the chew or bounce that I've come to expect with lots of gluten.Alas, these breads, although 'okay' were a learning
Cute and Christmasy | The Fresh Loaf
Let me start by saying I haven't made them yet. But I saw these cute little meringue Christmas trees on America's Test Kitchen over the weekend and thought it a timely way to use up some egg whites left over from holiday panettone baking (I hope to get another bake in soon myself!). Since it was on the show, I think it is a free recipe, but if not, let me know and I'll see
Kiss My Grits Tangzhong SD 2024 | The Fresh Loaf
DecI made a couple different versions of this bread several years ago and decided to change it up a bit using a Tangzhong. Making a Tangzhong is simple and it really helps make a super soft crumb.I used one of my new favorite whole wheat grains from Barton Mill Springs called Stardust along with some fresh milled spelt and a touch of KAF bread flour.I used some left-over
Chocolate Chip Cherry Sourdough Challah | The Fresh Loaf
I made a version of this before but never posted it. It is a pretty wet dough, but not so wet that you couldn’t do a traditional braid. I made one of these plain to use for stuffing, and the other one was a request for one of my friends’ families.Most of the flour used was KAF bread flour and I mixed in some fresh milled Butler’s Gold whole wheat and spelt both from Barton
Panettone this holiday season | The Fresh Loaf
I've been baking more panettone than usual this season, mostly classic candied orange and raisin, but also chocottone and caramel apple flavors.Each one is a bit different, and each bake presents its challenges. It's important to adapt to the context of each bake. Factors like the activity level of the LM, the ambient temperature, the type of ingredients must be considered.
Sourdough Panettone | The Fresh Loaf
I know panettone really does require quite a lot of planning and research as well as knowledge, so my first time doing it and attempting it last minute probably wasn’t going to turn out well for all involved. On top of that, I didn’t use a well-regarded recipe. Also, I didn’t create a LM and didn’t get good panettone flour. So many strikes against this turning out well. I did
Hybrid Sourdough Cruffins with Cinnamon Black Sesame Sugar | The Fresh Loaf
A friend of mine on Instagram was kind enough to share her formula for sourdough and hybrid sourdough cruffins/croissants. My first attempt at making a laminated dough was my Danish loaf. I unfortunately fermented the shaped dough in its pan at slightly too high a temperature so the better melted and was absorbed by the dough. With that in mind, I chose a season with cooler
Wholewheat experiments | The Fresh Loaf
This is a follow-up of the recently concluded rye experiments, where it was established that:1) A straight starter loaf gave a softer texture compared to a levain loaf (PFF 40%, all rye), fermentation time (16 hours) and dough components held constant, but2) A straight starter loaf had less oven spring and was harder to shape than the levain loaf, though the straight starter
Guinness Onion Sour Cream Sourdough Rye | The Fresh Loaf
Dec 14I love adding beer to sourdough bread. I’m not a big beer drinker but the malty flavor it imparts is amazing and Guinness is one of my favorites to use.The sour cream added extra moisture to the crumb, and the caramelized onions imparted a wonderful sweet onion flavor.I used King Arthur high-gluten flour since I didn’t have any first clear flour, along with some
Cinnamon Sugar Coated Blueberry Strawberry Jelly Filled Doughnut Cake | The Fresh Loaf
I believe I found this recipe in Bake From Scratch if I’m not mistaken. I love the idea of emulating a jelly filled dough in a cake. The filling is homemade and although I increased the fruit in the recipe significantly and dropped the sugar by 50%, the filling I think could still be less sweet. I like making extra jam for my morning yoghurt which is why I doubled the amount
Black Sesame Spelt Sourdough Bread. | The Fresh Loaf
I loved my last loaf but when I made it, my started hadn’t been refreshed enough times to rev it up after my time away. I loved the bread but thought it would be better with a more vigorous fermentation. Things went much more as expected with this bake. This took a total of 3 hours less time despite the same temperatures for fermentation. As well, the rise was much greater
Rye madness | The Fresh Loaf
Following the most recently concluded einkorn experiments, I decided to plunge headlong into levain build experiments, but this time with rye.One of my usual rye breads is a 45% dark rye bread, 75% hydration, with all the rye fermented for 11 hours in an overnight levain (thus PFF is also 45%). BF and proof the next day for 4-5 hours, baked on the same day.I decided to bake
Apple Cranberry Holiday Cake with Lemon Icing | The Fresh Loaf
More Christmas baking today, I baked a pair of apple cranberry holiday cakes with lemon icing for more gifting. I had a little extra batter that didn’t fit in the loaf pans so put that in two ramekins so we could taste this cake. IMG_3923.jpeg IMG_3924.jpeg IMG_3925.jpeg IMG_3926.jpeg IMG_3927.jpeg For two loaf pans - 8 x 4” and 9 x 4 x 4” pullman 5 cups ap flour1 ⅔
Wildfarmed rustico | The Fresh Loaf
Before panettone, I tested my new LM starter. I choose to try something of quality... Wildfarmed is a brand in the UK that promotes regenerative farming practices headed up by former DJ and music producer Andy Cato. This bag says its from UK and French wheat, protein is low at 10.x%.This was circa 70% hydration. I don't have any notes to describe what I did...I did a flour
Cinnamon Chinese Five Spice Miso 15% Spelt Sourdough Rolls with Cream Cheese Miso Frosting | The Fresh Loaf
Now that I’ve finished my last locum of the year I finally have time to get some Christmas baking done for the people I like to thank each year. Today’s bake was for the staff in our condo.I’m using my standing sweet roll dough, which doesn’t have any added sugar to the mix other than that in the Stiff Sweet Levain. As usual I use a stiff sweet levain in order to reduce the
Panettone 2024 | The Fresh Loaf
Until recently I was busy working hard making English Sparkling wine for a large UK producer, we collectively processed 2000 tonnes of grapes! Now harvest is over it's time to get baking again and of course it is panettone season...In addition to making wine at scale I have a few vines and make my own. I do spontaneous fermentation and I used this as a source of naturally
Whole Einkorn experiments | The Fresh Loaf
I asked the husband for a bread challenge yesterday and he said why not make an airy and not dense free-form 100% ancient grain loaf?I thought I might as well take the opportunity to conduct some experiments regarding hydration levels of levains, pH levels and resulting crumb/taste. Since I didn't have enough emmer left, I went with einkorn. (Forgot I had an unopened bag of
The Fresh Loaf refresh | The Fresh Loaf
I've mentioned before that for the past few months I've been working on an upgraded version of this site. It is getting close to ready. Ready enough that if anyone wants to see it, you can.The preview version of the new site lives at: https://refresh.thefreshloaf.com/To get past the initial username and password, you'll need to use "freshloaf" and "refresh". This is there to
Another Semola Loaf | The Fresh Loaf
Taking inspration from some very nice looking Semola/Durum loaves recently posted on the forum, I thought it was time to try my hand.I haven't baked with semola rimacinata for a while; I think the last time was based on Maurizio's excellent Pane Siciliano recipe.This time it was to be an homage to pane di Altamura with 100% semola rimacinata including the levain. I already had
Purple Sweet Potato Sourdough Milk Rolls | The Fresh Loaf
I mentioned in my cake post that I was making purple sweet potato sourdough milk rolls, here they are. Utilizing a stiff sweet levain to reduce the sour tang once again and adding a tangzhong to ensure fluffiness and to delay staling. These turned out really well. I love the colour of the soft shreddable crumb along with the small blisters on the crust. For convenience I did a
Gingerbread Layer Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting | The Fresh Loaf
We are hosting some of our friends for dinner tonight. In addition to the purple sweet potato SD milk rolls I have fermenting, I made this gingerbread layer cake with cream cheese frosting. This recipe is care of Bake From Scratch. The cake recipe that follows is for one 8” round cake, so I doubled it for this layer cake. The frosting recipe would be more than enough for a
Christmas Fruitcake - Southern Living | The Fresh Loaf
My first fruitcake was a Bara Brith, this is a fruitcake that Southern Living says is for those who don’t like fruitcake. I like the variety of fruit that it has in it along with the nuts. The recipe calls for apricots, dates, raisins, tart dried cherries, candied cherries, cranberries, apples, candied peel, slivered almonds and pecans. I used extra apricots and cranberries
Triple Sesame Spelt Honey Sourdough Loaf | The Fresh Loaf
My starter was fed only once after returning from our trip to Florida when I made the levain for this bread. As a result the fermentation was much slower than usual. However, this bread baked up just fine. This dough was enriched with the addition of some wildflower honey and toasted sesame oil. I added both black and golden toasted sesame seeds, thus the triple sesame seeds.
Macedonian spinach pie | The Fresh Loaf
I first had these spinach pies (or pita, as it's called there) when hiking near Ljuboten a couple of years back. A very old lady invited us to her hut for a pita made with nettles and cheese. That was the best pie I've ever eaten. Since then, I've tried to replicate it at home with spinach (no success with Belgian nettles - tasted very grassy).The pie uses a dough that is just
A Tip for Home Panettone/Colomba Bakers | The Fresh Loaf
Panettone season is starting up again --- exciting, huh? I know some people bake it year-round, but I think my last one this year was last January and one colomba in the spring. It's a multi-day project, so for me, I need to be able to shoehorn it into my schedule and this year that didn't happen. But this week that finally changed and I tried something new that worked so well
Pumpkinseed Rye Kurbiskernbrot (Germany) | The Fresh Loaf
Today's bake: Pumpkinseed Rye Kurbiskernbrot (Germany)Source: The Rye Baker by Stanley GinsbergNotes: Increased dough to make 3 loaves @ 721gr each.Substitutions: NoneDiscussion: Another nice rye bread from 'The Rye Baker'. This is a relatively easy bread to make consisting of a soaker, a sponge, and main dough. It has a nice mild-sour taste and Stanley describes it best "A
Smoked Salmon, Dill Sour Cream and Cucumber Dutch Baby | The Fresh Loaf
I’ve seen these Dutch Babies before but never had one let alone made one. Most of the ones I have seen are sweet, I decided to make this savory one for us tonight for dinner. It was quite easy and delicious. It is sort of like a pancake but made more like a Yorkshire pudding in a way. IMG_3814.jpeg I do not recall where I found this recipe unfortunately. But here it is.SERVES
Thinking about open crumb | The Fresh Loaf
Every now and then I go after open lacy crumb in my breads. Now, I'll be first to admit that I love my bagels, flat-breads, whole-wheat and all rye breads too! So, a lot of the time I'm not interested in open crumb at all. But, the first time I made a sourdough bread that had a dark, almost-burnt crust, and a light interior that was like a "web of crumb" held up by the crust,
Bigabiga Bread | The Fresh Loaf
Not a misprint, but I thought why not use two bigas? One yeasted for loft, one SD for flavour. Both in the same tub, to save space and washing up. So that's how it went! Both bigas made in the kenwood with K beater. I refreshed my SD starter prior to use at 100% to make mxing it into the biga easier.Overall dough hydration was 69%. Biga 1FYBiga build300 Pizzuti 0 W300 3 fy 150
Hamelman's Five Grain Levain | The Fresh Loaf
I'm beginning to wonder whether I bake better when the weather is cool. This is the second bake in a row to turn out very well.The bread is based on a salted rye levain that matures overnight. It also has a hot soaker that consists of cracked rye, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and oats. For this bake, I subbed bulgur wheat for the cracked rye since I have more on hand than I
The Future of Artificial Intelligence in Business Operations | The Fresh Loaf
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is no longer just a buzzword—it’s becoming integral to business operations. From automating routine tasks to offering deep insights into customer behavior, AI is transforming the way companies operate across industries. But what does the future hold for AI in business? Let’s explore how AI is shaping key areas of business operations and what lies
Bachelor's party bake II | The Fresh Loaf
It might seem somewhat incredulous that there would be yet another bachelor party bake within two weeks of the previous one, but yes - seems many men in our circle are getting married. This was a somewhat small party of 5 men, so I produced but 2 durum semolina matera-type loaves and 2 five-grain five seed/nut loaves. These went down very well, with the semolinas being the
A new standard sourdough recipe | The Fresh Loaf
I've had more than my fair share of experimental failures lately! This is the curse of being an experimental baker. My failures of late have included, amongst others and going through my baking notes, a 90% biga with raisin yeast water that took too long to rise, a sourdough made with a cool and stiff preferment, and a sourdough made at warm temperatures with a very very low
The bachelor's party bake | The Fresh Loaf
This was hectic. Baked 12 loaves (2 of each type) and 3.5kg of granola for the bachelor's party that the husband was organizing. Prepped the levains all in the morning before I left for work (cycled to the train station in record time), and started mixing dough the moment I was home at 8 pm. Was done baking 10 loaves at 3:30 am, and then had to bake the oat loaves at 8 am as
Harvest Grain Soaker Sourdough | The Fresh Loaf
OctI adapted this from my porridge bread formula but used a small % of starter and soaked the grains overnight instead of cooking them as a porridge. I used fresh milled and sifted Butler’s Gold WW and Danko Rye with some KAF bread flour.The Harvest Grain mix from KAF consists of Whole Oat Groats, Rye Flakes, Wheat Flakes, Sunflower Seeds, Sesame Seeds, Flaxseed, Poppy Seeds,
Purple Sweet Potato Cranberry Sourdough | The Fresh Loaf
OctIt almost feels like fall here on Long Island if you don’t count the 70 F-degree days we had this week. Well, anyway, here is a nice pre-Thanksgiving type of bread made with roasted purple sweet potatoes and cranberries along with fresh milled whole wheat, spelt, and KAF bread flour.The sweet potatoes add quite a bit of moisture so the overall hydration came in around 83%.
Whole Wheat Oatmeal Sourdough Hokkaido Milk Bread | The Fresh Loaf
We will be visiting friends tomorrow, and I wanted to bring a loaf of bread. We also ran out of bread, don’t know how that happens 😂, so decided to bake two loaves. I rarely bake more than one loaf. Since one of my Pullman pans is in Fort Lauderdale, I prepared the dough and after bulk fermentation divided it, shaped the one loaf, and cold retarded the other dough overnight to