Been quiet in the bread subforum

Isn't anyone baking bread anymore? Here's one I did today, 50% home ground hard white wheat and 50% KAAP. 5% honey and 70% hydration.

Oh, how perfect, Un!

You live in one of my favorite parts of the country, and you are good at baking BREAD!!

You know what 70% hydration means! ( I don't).

Lee

LOL, it refers to "baker's percentage" which is a method of sharing a formula.

70% hydration means that the liquid ingredients weigh 70% of the weight of the flour. Salt and yeast are close to standards with salt being around 2% and fresh yeast around 1%. If you're using instant yeast, it's .33%. That's why metric is so easy in baking. If I had 500 grams of whole wheat and 500 grams of KAAP, I used 700 grams of water, 20 grams of salt, and 3.3 grams of yeast

Very nice Warren, been to hot to make pies or bread here. Are you using your WFO? Going to make some sour dough (dough) later tonight for pies and one loaf of bread. They never come as nice looking as yours though. BTW I'm using KASL flour for my bread and pies, I like it for this type of bread. I bought some KABF/(Special) flour too but haven't tried it yet.

Unconundrum, it's always nice to see your fresh baked bread....You and JoeV put out some fine lookin bread. Sure wish we saw more more of JoeV. Really do miss his posts and wonderful pics....Seems I can smell the fresh baked aroma when I see both of your bread pics.....Yummy.

Yep, that was in my WFO. When it's hot like this, I try to do all the cooking I can out there. Not great for me, but helps keep the house cooler. I did chickens with the retained heat and a small additional fire.

I was hoping a post or two would draw JoeV out C'mon Joe!

It's too darn hot to be cooking and baking. With temps in the 90's and the humidity right there with it, I bake only what I have to, and we cook light, simple meals with lots of salads from our garden lettuce.

My last baking was subsistence baking just to have bread in the house. I made some Italian bread and Polish Sourdough Rye bread a couple of weeks ago, and this week I made a batch of Honey Whole Wheat for sandwiches. I did make a batch of cinnamon rolls for the kitchen workers at our annual church festival. We all put in at least 40-50 hours of volunteer time in 4 days.







I've also been busy every evening trying to finish our paver patio. It should be mostly finished today, with just a few cuts left for tomorrow. I was thinking of starting to budget for a WFO now that the patio is almost done. Not sure if I want to tackle that big of a job this year, as business is significantly down. Not much in the way of new work or big renovations, just necessary repair work. People sure are hanging onto their money. Our church festival receipts were off by over $40,000 this year. These are truly uncertain times.

Now's the time to build it Joe, when things pick up, which they will eventually, you won't have time to build it Just think, if you had one in the yard, you could still be baking

JoeV, it's so nice to see pictures of your beautiful bread! I love those little cinnamon rolls. I've also been doing "subsistence" baking, even though our temps are also in the 90s, with humidity the same, as well. We are spoiled, and just don't enjoy store-bought bread. Although, we can buy Orowheat bread, baked in Mexico City, I swear I can taste the chemical preservatives. I couldn't figure out what "WFO" was, and googled it. World Food Organization? Western Field Ornithologists? I finally decided that you must mean "wood-fired oven." Kudos to you for the volunteer work you do.

UnConundrum said:

Just think, if you had one in the yard, you could still be baking

Click to expand...

I am going to use this line on my husband, Warren. I would kill for a WFO! Think how much cooler my house would be most of the year if I had one?

JoeV - I sure would love to see pics of your paver patio.......(hint, hint)

Good to see you back Joe !!!

Well, yesterday I busted hump with the fireman who was doing most of the bull work on the patio, and while he put down pavers i did all of the cuts on the wet saw. We wrapped up all the stone work around 1:30, then I figured that since I was already hot and sweaty, I might as well attack the back filling and landscaping. DW went to Lowes and found everything on clearance (all perennials) and we got them in the ground, fed & watered them and mulched it all in. All was cleaned up and put away by 8:30, and God sent the rain to water in everything else.

Here are some progress pictures and the finished job.

Before we started...



Part way into laying down the pavers...





Here's the finished product...

Very nice Joe. Looks like you are ready for a BIG cookout party.
Good pics and good work man!!!!!!

No red tomatoes yet? I'll visit later then...

Really looks nice Joe. You're entitled to a day off

Thanks, Doc & Warren. No, no red tomatoes yet. They seem to have stopped growing after I tied them up and trimmed off a lot of the suckers. Part of it is that we have not had decent rain until this past week, so I'm confident they'll take off again now that they've had a good drink of rain water. City water just doesn't cut it with the garden, although the string beans are coming in with a vengeance. Time to start blanching and freezing once we've given away a bunch. Sharing the bounty always seems to get the crops going. Give, and it shall be given unto you...it always works.

Beautiful job, Joe. What you have left out of the pictures is all the work it took to strip all the sod and prepare your site. I've done it before and know how difficult it is! Your design flows nicely with the house, and congrats on gaining all of that wonderful outdoor living space.

just looking at the pix makes my back hurt . . . [g]