2019-07-07 – Another look at the delicate matter…. Or, Everything you know is STILL wrong! Somehow last week I never clarified what the delicate matter we discussed then, and continue to discuss this week, is. Many people have strong ideas about what is in their sourdough starters, and many really don’t like looking at other […]
2019-07-07 – Another look at the delicate matter…. Read More »
2019-06-23 – The Detmolder Three Step! No, not the Texas Two Step, that’s something else again The week before last we talked about starter rehabilitation, using the Five Percent Solution, or the Five Percent Kick. It is a very workable way to jump start a slow starter. However, the five percent kick isn’t very sophisticated.
2019-06-23 The Detmolder Three Step Read More »
2018-06-12 Summertime and the Bakin’ Is Easy! Baking in the summer – AND a contest! It’s summer above the equator. And the higher heats that come with that present baking challenges to us. The easy answer is to use air conditioning to control the temperature. However, that’s not an option all of us have. If
2018-06-12 Summertime and the Bakin’ is Easy! Read More »
2019-06-11 – The Five Percent Solution From Mike’s (More or Less) Weekly Baking Tips My dad has been in a physical rehabilitation center to try to get him in better shape. And that made me think of other rehabilitations…. of course, I mean rehabilitating an ailing starter. My view is that if you take care
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2019-05-19 – The Epi Dysfunction – is it water? Or is it not? Can I stay, or should I go now? Two weeks ago, I did the unthinkable. I left the newsletter at a cliffhanger. And then I compounded that sin by posting an unrelated article the next week. Let’s see if we can bring
2019-05-19 – The Cliff Hanger (Epi Dysfunction?) Read More »
2019-05-12 – An apology and a long post about bagels! A quick apology – I hated leaving you with a cliff hanger last week, but the newsletter was already too long. Worse, I won’t be resolving it this week. Sadly, my dad went back into the hospital (we think he’ll be fine, but there could
2019-05-12 Long Post About Bagels Read More »
2019-05-05 – In Which Mike Battles Classic Epi Dysfunction When we moved from Colorado to Texas, my bread making success ratio plummeted. I’d knead the dough, I’d shape the dough, and instead of standing tall and proud, it slumped. The only real option for many breads was to make them in bread pans. While I
2019-05-05 Epi Disfunction Read More »
2019-04-26 Where Does Bread Flavor Come From? Peter Reinhart tells us that the oven only contributes about 10% of the bread’s flavor. There are some issues with that idea. First, how you measure flavor? And, we sure spend a lot of time obsessing over ovens if it only adds 10% of the final flavor! My
2019-04-26 Where Does Bread Flavor Come From? Read More »
Little Tricks It ain’t who you know, it’s what you know… or something like that. Before we get into the main article, a quick attempt to drum up sales and pay the rent. We’re coming up on our last class of the year. On November 10th, we’re having a class on Montreal Bagels. These are
2018-10-16 Little Tricks Read More »
2018-10-06 A tale of forgetfulness, carelessness, death, and in the end redemption. Death is not always forever! I was going to send another story based on my experiences at the Mockmill “Grain to Bread” class, But I’m on the road, and the notes for those emails are on my computer at home. And, really, this
2018-10-06 A tale of forgetfulness, carelessness, death, and in the end redemption. Read More »
2018-10-02 Milling Around A Trip To The Wilds Of San Francisco, and Beyond! Last week I went to the Bay Area for a baking seminar at Central Milling’s Artisan Baking Center sponsored by Mockmill on “Grain to Bread.” A chess playing friend told me you don’t get better by playing people at your own level,
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September 3, 2018 – The Road From Rote To Mastery or, a frustrating night of BarBeQue. tl;dr And worse, philosophical. But not “scientific” (Thanks to Blind Dog Cooley!) Sometimes I get frustrated with new bread bakers. They want all the answers handed to them on a silver platter. And calibrated. “How can I use whole
2018-09-03 The Road From Rote To Mastery Read More »
