San Francisco Baking Institute
Baking off large Ryes
Baking off large Ryes
Originally uploaded by madbaker66
When we are working with dough we always make extra so that we’re sure everyone has enough to practice with. This means that there are always leftovers, which we make into really large loaves and bake off at the end of the day.
The rye bread in the picture [...]
Happiness is Sourdough Bread
Happiness is Sourdough Bread
Originally uploaded by madbaker66
Man am I tired. It’s been a long week so far but a pike of fun too. The loaves in the picture were made on Tuesday, for Day 2 of the Artisan 2 course. It was an interesting exercise since each shape contains a different sourdough [...]
Artisan 2: It’s Wild, Man!
My Artisan 2 course started on Monday. This course is 95% dedicated to wild yeast bread, aka sourdough. Sourdough breads take longer to develop and rise, and there’s more effort involved in keeping our wild yeast cultures healthy. That’s why I’m a little behind in my posting — I get back from school, eat some [...]
Della Fattoria at Ferry Station Market
Della Fattoria at Ferry Station Market
Ahhh… one day this will be me. One day soon…
To Market, To Market
Ferry Station Market, San Francisco
Saturday was a day off from Baking School so a group of us toured around San Francisco for the day. It was a brilliant day, warm and sunny, with a gentle breeze coming off the bay. Lots of opportunity for sunburns!
We spent several hours touring around the Ferry Station [...]
SFBI Day 5: Back to the Baguette
[Sorry, no pics today -- I forgot the camera in my room!]
Today we wrapped up the Artisan 1 course by experimenting with three different baguette formulas, each featuring a different pre-ferment. The preferments are designed to add structure and depth of flavour to the standard baguette formula and, depending on the preferment, adjusting the level [...]
SFBI Day 4: Time for some variety!
What a day! Whereas we’ve been making several subtle changes to our baguette formula for the past three days, today we branched out! Five very different varieties with only one thing in common — each contained a healthy amount of pre-ferment. We used an old dough preferment which is also known as [...]
SFBI Day 3: All Flour All The Time
It was Flour Day today, where we learned everything we possibly could about the main ingredient in your bread. Everything from the different types of wheat and their properties to the different type of flours that can be milled and their properties. I’ve been doing a lot of reading on this topic (Maggie [...]
SFBI Day 2: Four Ingredients, Three Different Loaves
Short Mix Baguettes
Originally uploaded by mdstamps
Another great learning day at the San Francisco Baking Institute. Today we focused on how to manipulate one factor, mixing method, to create three completely different baguettes. The story behind these three baguettes is as interesting as the loaves themselves:
- The first dough was called a ’short mix’ [...]
SFBI Day 1: Heaven on Earth!
The first day was fantastic! I’ll post more detail as the week goes on but suffice to say that this is a really special place. We’re learning a ton of theory, our hands on work is being scrutinized in great detail, and the equipment is top notch. I’ve already met some incredibly interesting people, from [...]