Hearth Bread
Baguette Shaping with Ciril Hitz
May 20, 2012On YouTube. Baguette shaping from the bulk fermented dough through to finished bread. Everything except how to load a wood-fired oven—they use modern electric bread ovens. The technique is awesome, and I learn a number of things that I am going to be incorporating into my daily baking. Read More
Slightly Over-Proofed Whole Wheat Olive Boule
May 17, 2012My on-going bread experiments are continuing (and are a lot of fun). One thing I am enjoying about my most recent round of dedicated baking is that the family is really enjoying my whole wheat bread—rather than just tolerating it because it’s healthy. To some degree I think that I because we have all been eating a great deal more whole wheat bread over the past few years and everyone... Read More
Mobile Pizza Oven
May 16, 2012From The Reflector in Battle Ground, MA. I don’t think this is our oven, but I wanted to share this—and wish the owners good luck. Nel bucco del lupo. Read More
10/30/60 Whole Wheat Loaves, and Some Great Bruschetta
May 13, 2012In a way, this was a little bit like leftovers. You know how you always end up with odds and ends of flour in various bags in your cupboard. Today I mixed together three different flours to come with a nice blend of 10% whole wheat, 30% while whole wheat and 60% general purpose (not bread) flour to make a new 1kg (2.2 lb) batch of bread. Because I changed... Read More
Whole wheat bread with olives in the Presto Pizza Oven
May 10, 2012Still having a great time with my Presto oven. As an update, I can confirm that I will be working with a second prototype of the Presto within a few days as the final OK before releasing it to production and making it available for sale. To quote Apple on the latest iOS 5.1.1 software update, we are working on “minor improvements and bug fixes”. haha. More seriously, we are... Read More
Whole Wheat Boules in a Small Pizza Oven
May 09, 2012I am enjoying having a small oven in our side garden for the same reasons as the many people who have who have decided to buy our smaller ovens—the Primavera and Andiamo. They are easy to manage, they fire up really quickly and they are just a blast to use. Don’t let the smaller size deceive you; you can do a lot of serious pizza and bread baking in a... Read More
Bread in a Small Pizza Oven
May 07, 2012I had a lot of fun working with a prototype of the not-yet-released Presto oven (it is coming soon, though) this weekend, and one of the capabilities I wanted to test was bread baking. Baguettes to be more specific. Spoiler alter—it came out great. Here’s a little background information. I wanted to shoot for traditional, light, airy, crusty French baguette, so I choose general purpose flour from Trader Joe’s. For... Read More
Pain Pascale
Apr 24, 2012We are lucky to live within a few miles of the Trader Joe’s in Pacific Grove, CA. I really don’t know what we would do without it, as I often (and only somewhat jokingly) think our local Supermarket (Save Mart) is out to kill its patrons with artificial additives, preservatives and partially hydrogenated oils. Our favorite markets in Florence were the Co-op on Viale Europa, which is a wonderful big... Read More
Olive oil and bread at the San Francisco Ferry Building
Apr 22, 2012We went to the San Francisco Farmers’ Market at the Ferry Building this weekend, and had a good time. It was a balmy, sunny day with the temperature hitting 79ºF (hot weather seems to be following me), and it was nice walking down around the city—we also have fun taking BART across town at one point. The market at the Ferry Building is an interesting cross between a traditional farmers’... Read More
