Baking marathon - about 200 dozen cookies (25 pounds) - by the numbers

Today was our annual baking marathon... By the numbers: About 5 pounds of flour, 1 dozen eggs, 3 pounds of butter, 7 pounds of sugar, 3 pounds of Brazil nuts, 2 pounds of chocolate and 1/2 pound coconut, 1 pound of rolled oats. 6 cookie sheets about 100 sheets of parchment paper and 6 hours of baking at 350 degrees. We used 25 one gallon ziplock bags to store the 25 pounds of cookies. Beneficiaries include: + The patients in the high risk pregnancy (HRP) ward at our local hospital
+ My friend Gary
+ Our church
+ My coworkers Oh, we baked some bread too :)

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Cupcakes - before & after

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Bread - before and after

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Bread - before and after (2)

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Weekend batch of bread

Cookie season has started, pictures soon!

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Bread: Happy Saturday

90 minute proof with 1/8tsp of bakers yeast (and 45g sourdough starter)

Cookies coming soon!

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Two more good bread pics :)

Have a great weekend!

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Bread!

It's fun to travel, but I love being home on Saturdays!

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Saturday should be called Breadday... Or would it be Bread day? Maybe Breaday?

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Hurricane Pecan Pie and Oatmeal Cookies!

We are baking like crazy to use up our perishables before we loose power!

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What would Saturday be like without fresh bread?

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Mmmmm, Pie. My wife has baked her first Apple Pie. I'm excited :)

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Bread: Transformation

Happy Saturday :)

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Saturday bread

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Saturday bread!

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Bread - a mixed batch

Two boules (by popular demand) + three baguettes = happy weekend :)

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Bread: Perfect Crust - boules

Baguettes are nice, but sometimes boules are better :)

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Over and under proofed.

Getting the proofing time right isn't easy when you can't control temperature and humidity.

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Blueberry muffins!

Now with 100% less egg!
These are entirely vegan and I dare you to taste a difference :)

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Bread - great crust and crumb

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Fresh Bread warms a rainy day :)

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Fresh bread

First fresh batch in two weeks. I'm working too much....

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Bread: A good crust & crumb

I am still experimenting with different ratios of sourdough yeast to bakers yeast. So far the results are promising.

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Experimentation

I am experimenting with 20, 35 & 50 grams of sourdough starter an a 1/2 tsp of bakers yeast to see what the best combination is.

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9 more loaves

This weekend I'm experimenting with combining sourdough and traditional yeast in several ratios.

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Weekend experiment

We ran out of Bread Flour, so I tried self-rising flour. I don't think I will try that again :)

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A yeast experiment

So I decided to try traditional "ActiveDry" yeast this weekend to compare to my standard sourdough yeast culture. The first photo shows the traditional yeast with great crumb development and good air pockets. The taste is fairly "standard" and nothing too remarkable. The crust is unremarkable. The second photo shows my local yeast culture. The yeast itself can't produce the great crumb structure with large air pockets, but the taste is intense. But you will just have to take my word for it. Also notice the crust is better formed than the regular yeast. I did not expect that. Cheers,
-Matt

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Experimenting

Adding a few more grams of water didn't help my proofing.

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Fresh out of the oven

:)

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Saturday bread crackling and birds chirping

Happy weekend

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Getting ready for a vacation!

Enjoy some bread this week :)

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Bread: 20 hour proof

Proofing really long has some added benefits for taste. Yum. :)

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Warm fresh bread

It's good to be home and baking again. I'm experimenting with 60g starter and 260g of mineral water for 320g total liquid (with 450g flour).

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Bread: Kneading

The importance of kneading illustrated: the loaves on the left were kneaded and shaped properly. The ones in the middle were minimally kneaded. The ones on the right were not kneaded at all. Kneading helps form and build the gluten bonds that trap the carbon dioxide and steam to form the crumb (internal structure) of the bread.

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