Friday, August 22, 2008

Baking Bread

In case you're wondering what I've been up to lately (other than recovering from cooking camp), I've been working on breads. Namely sourdoughs and no-knead rustic breads. Here are some pictures. Please note that I've got a long way to go, but I'm pretty happy with my progress.


Biscuits
No-Knead Bread (3-day version)


Polish Rye (Daniel Leader version)
French Sourdough (Daniel Leader)

More Sourdough (all white, as opposed to my usual 20% whole wheat)
Still More Sourdough (best rise)

Chocolate Sourdough (better than you can imagine!)
And lastly, from today, sourdough loaves and baguettes

8 comments:

LoriAlbrecht said...

YUMMY!!!! I LOVE SOURDOUGH!!!! They all sound so good...the chocolate one sounds interesting i have to admit! :)

Anonymous said...

The chocolate sourdough is better than you can imagine. But it's not better than I can imagine--'cuz I've had it, and I know just how good it is. By the way, when are you making it again?

Rachel said...

Lori - I'll have to make you a loaf sometime when I'm coming to visit. White, wheat, rye, or chocolate?

Mark - when you request it.

The Luke Family said...

Oh Rachel,

You should open a bakery! I'd shop there. Yum- Oh....

Heidi said...

Your breads are beautiful! What did you do different to get such a good rise on the one sour dough bread??? The chocolate one, well, I have to have the recipe!

Rachel said...

Karyn - terrific idea! I'll have to think about it. :)

Heidi - I improved the height by have a longer fermentation stage (1st rise) and more steam in the oven during the first 10 minutes of baking. The chocolate sourdough is easy. Take a good sourdough recipe and fold in lots of bittersweet chocolate chunks when forming the loaf. It will need to proof longer than regular loaves before baking, since this will remove most or all of the gas in the loaf by kneading the chocolate in, which I typically avoid in shaping the loaves.

Rachel said...

oops - "by having" not "by have" - sorry!

Alaskan Dave Down Under said...

Your kitchen must've smelled devine for the whole week!