Baguettes are the fast food of baking. They are not serious breads – you don’t expect them to develop with age. They’re about the only bread that can be served warm from the oven because that’s as good as they’re going to get. Having said that, now there’s only two of us to bake for, […]

In the mid noughties Dan Lepard had a huge influence on home bread baking in the UK and beyond. The forum on his website was a lively collection of learning bakers sharing ideas, and his 2005 book, The Handmade Loaf, could fairly be described as “the book that started a baking revolution” as it is […]

Burger King are right. So I made some. Maybe they could do the same … Formula

Life is pretty easy when you have no judges but yourself and you know how to recover from mistakes. This dough was supposed to be Mixed Wheat Roman Style pizza which goes:Wholemeal Wheat 70%, Spelt 20%, Rye 10%. Liquids in the mixing bowl followed by the flours. But, mistook the Rye box for the Wholemeal […]

Top to bottom: Guacamole, Pork/Onion Braise, Rice & Chickpeas, Enchilada Sauce, Texas Wheat Tortillas, Lettuce, Pickled Red Onions, Jalepeños Pickle, Grated Cheese, Soured Cream. Glad I wasn’t washing up as well …

So, last post we concluded that what I had been calling 85% extraction was actually 72.4%. Doesn’t make any difference to anyone else but I like to know what I’m doing. It is not easy learning about grain and milling. For a start, I’ve decided I should stick with Adam Leonti’s Flour Lab book so […]

Still trying to get my head round milling definitions. I’ve been milling grain, then putting it through two sieves (three in this case because there’s some chaff in the mix) which leaves me the chaff, the bran, the middlings and the sifted flour. To achieve the blend I want I’ve been adding 15% (of the […]

Following on from “Another Fine Mesh” and “Crossed Wires“, let’s go the whole hog and bake with the stuff. As I said, my blend of preference is 85% Extraction, that is sifted flour with 15% bran added. To be honest, I don’t know if this is the correct use of the phrase “85% Extraction” but […]

Monday morning – new week. Step boldly forward to test sieves in light of new information – see previous post. Ignore the diameters, that’s just a red herring. The sieve on the left is 60 mesh, the one on the right is 80 – we now know that 60 mesh has bigger holes than the […]

I must have been off school when they did mesh in maths class. I didn’t even know that mesh, as a measurement existed. I’m trying, in my old age, to learn about grain and home milling and sieving flour. I’ve been baking, both amateur and for sale, for 30 years but when you get into […]