What’s not to like about naturally leavened bread? It uses naturally-occurring yeast in the air and flour, lasts much longer than commercially-yeasted bread, gives a better and more complex flavor, and reduces the number of ingredients. With just water, flour,…
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Oh Yeah…Bread
Sometimes I think I’ve figured out a technique for making bread. This is the right way, I say with confidence. Then I slap myself upside the head because I’m obviously wrong. I used to create steam in my oven with…
New Bread! New Bread!
I’ve been hemming, hawing, and chawing about whether to reveal my secret San Diego sourdough recipe for the Handmade audience. Then I remembered the “audience” is made up of a few people who stumbled onto the site looking for something…
Terrible Two-and-a-Half
It is upon us, the dark time. Biting, kicking, screaming, hair-pulling, willful disobedience. Our beautiful little daughter can transform, with no warning, into a wild animal. Ten seconds later she’s back to normal. Believe me, this see-sawing from cuteness to…
Monday Stew: A Little of This, A Little of That
Weekends always seem longer than they are on the calendar. I think back to what I did this weekend: gardening, baking, farmer’s market, park visitor’s center, constructing compost pile fencing, garden festival/fair, and it doesn’t seem possible it fit into…
Close But Never There
Still I’m working on the sourdough crust. Still. Now I’m thinking that my baking stone is impeding heat flow to the center of the loaf, which is why I get an ear on either end and less oven spring in…
Sourdough and Whole Wheat: Strange Bedfellows?
Last night I put together a batch of 40% whole wheat sourdough rolls and one batard. Because I’m a nincompoop I forget to get parchment paper so I had to lay down a carpet of flour to proof the bread. …
Ahhhhh…
My test is over. Last Friday was arguably the most difficult of the seven professional licensing exams I’ve had to take. I won’t find out if I passed for 6-8 weeks, but for now I am out of study/stress mode…
My Daughter’s Social Calendar
This was a busy three days for Little Miss Social. I mean me, of course. But Toddler Harbat was also quite the social butterfly, hitting two parties this weekend, the farmer’s market, competing in her school’s Olympics, going to a…
The Promised Land
I made it! After a long journey, missteps, desperation, and exploration, I made it. Here is a loaf of sourdough bread that is evenly baked with fully-formed ears. Picture 1180 I’m almost embarrassed how simple it was. I emptied the…
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