Pre-Spring Baking Inspiration This week's short newsletter will hopefully inspire you to get in the kitchen and whip together some easy bakes. Spring-ish things for me: sandwich bread, easy quick breads (with sourdough discard, of course), and a reminder that challah is great any time of the year 🙂 Read on! In this week's newsletter: Recipes: Pain de mie, discard lemon loaf, challah! Baking Help: Why does my dough tear during bulk fermentation? Sourdough Links: The US ruined bread (??) 🍞 Pain...
13 days ago • 2 min read
Potato focaccia, pane Siciliano, and more This week has had me baking often with durum wheat in focaccia Pugliese (focaccia with potato), pizza, and even sourdough discard biscuits. Durum wheat is one of my favorite grains to work with. This hard, amber-colored wheat brings a beautiful golden hue to your loaves and a slightly sweet, nutty, truly distinctive flavor. The high protein content creates a very strong dough. The final dough can range from chewy (great for large loaves) to crispy...
19 days ago • 4 min read
Rich and Flaky Sourdough Discard Biscuits This past week in Albuquerque (and probably all of New Mexico), it truly was a Max Max situation: crazy winds blowing dust into the air so thick the mountains (and everything else) were obscured. Days like this (or when it's rainy, excessively cold, or even sunny 😎) call for the only thing that'll make it better: baking bread OR baking biscuits. Flaky and buttery layers pretty much make everything better. And what's more, using up any chilling...
26 days ago • 3 min read
Hearty rye & easy scones The tail end of winter is always when I simultaneously can't wait for it to warm up and am still hoping for snow (so I can go snowboarding). During this time of the year, I'm always looking back to recipes that ease the transition, and I almost always dip into the world of rye (sometimes whole spelt, but we'll get there next week). While I've been busy working on new recipes, I broke out my bag of Danko rye and returned to classics with a hearty slant, like my 90%...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
The easiest (and most delicious) focaccia The past week, I've been having fun with focaccia. I know, it feels like everyone makes focaccia these days, but there's a good reason: it's really easy. But! It's also really delicious—that is, when it's done right. Focaccia can trace its roots way back in Italy, primarily Tuscany and Liguria. Of course, then they were baking theirs on heated stones, and the Romans later refined it into what they called "panis focacius"—literally "hearth bread." The...
about 1 month ago • 3 min read
Join me on a baking trip to Italy! Hello Reader, Last year, I led a group of folks to southern Italy to bake bread, eat some of the best produce in the area, and generally have fun hanging out and talking about all things sourdough and fermentation. This year, I have TWO trips planned! This time to northern Italy (where the other half of my family is from), specifically around Bologna and Milan. The first, shorter trip is more of a workshop with lots of dough time, a few "field trips" out to...
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Challah! This week's newsletter is short and sweet (literally): it's all about challah! I've been deep in challah development mode here longer than I care to admit. This is a challenging bread to create because it's at odds with itself. Challah should be soft, fluffy, and light, but when making it, the dough is braided to achieve its striking traditional appearance. So, how do you get a soft final loaf with somewhat firm dough and easy to braid (generally, soft bread means super soft dough)?...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
New: Sourdough Chocolate Chip Cookies! I'm probably going to make your day (or weekend?) because this week's newsletter is all about... Sourdough discard chocolate chip cookies (and a few other cookies!). One of the recipes I receive requests most often for is sourdough discard chocolate chip cookies. Well, they're finally here, and they're delicious. I've been pulling from my starter discard cache in the fridge to make these and have tested them a few different ways: Using both chocolate...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Cold weather, we see you 🥶 This past week it was cold here—like really cold. When it's 5°F (-15°C) outside, stepping out the door takes an extra nudge of motivation. Now I know how my sourdough starter must feel even a few degrees under warm room temp. This week, let's look at some underproofed loaves for once. No one wants to do it, yet it happens to all of us—usually when we're pressed for time or not registering the signs. I hope pointing out a few things and some fixes might help you...
2 months ago • 4 min read