What are you all baking???

Hi Teresa,

just recently I bought Dan Lepards book 'The Handmade Loaf' which has some very nice recipes in it, which I am currently trying. Very recommendable! And they all seem to work!

Up until then I was only making the German breads I can't get here. Most German breads are a lot heavier than the white breads in other parts of the world. They make you full much quicker. When I was baking a white loaf with grated apple and soaked rolled oats (from Dan Lepard's book) the other day, I noticed, that I could have given in to my gread and finished the whole loaf in one sitting. That would never happen with my favourite German wholegrains - no way I could eat that much.
To give you an idea (I don't use actual recipes for this, it's slightly different everytime). I have a rye sourdough, which only gets fed with rye. Then I add:
- water
- sunflower seeds
- linseeds
- any other grain or seed I might have (for whole, kibbled or rolled grains it pays to cover them with boiling water and let soak over night before using)
- rye flour
- white flour (often wholemeal)
- salt

I make a rather wet dough (don't ask for hydration, I don't know how much I use), which I can't really knead or shape.
Considering that with the little white flour I use there is not much gluten development going on I only, I only let it sit for thirty minutes first fermentation, and you can even skip that.
I then fill it into my loaf tin let it rise for as long at it needs to fill the tin and then bake it. It doesn't rise all that much, because it is quite heavy from the grains and seeds.
If you like a nice strong crust (like us Germans) you can take it out of the tin for the last ten minutes of baking.
The loaf tin has the advantage that I can easily use them for sandwiches to work everyday. People who are not used to heavy breads like this might not want it for sandwiches though ...

Maybe that's giving you some inspiration...? If your kids don't like tell them German kids grow up on that sort of bread. When I do my next one, I'll take a pic and post it here.

cheers, -FlourGirl

Hi Teresa,

to be honest I don't have any actual recipes that I am following. It depends very much on what I can get and have at hand when I bake. Quantities are very much by gut feeling rather than measured.
My scales are currently broken, but I might just measure what I do one of these days, when I got the scales sorted.

You could easily start experimenting with what I wrote yesterday. Maybe try making your breads heavier with grains etc. bit by bit and see how much you like. Keep in mind that German breads have a denser, more even crumb so the hydration is typically a bit lower.

Considering your German heritage, if you still understand some German, try the German sourdough forum, they have a lot of recipes posted and very good instructions on how to feed and maintain your sourdough ([url]http://www.der-sauerteig.de[/url]).

cheers, -FlourGirl