Wordloaf (Newsletter)

1 week ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

Awhile back I spoke to Ian Lowe about his invention and the use of the stiff sweet starter process for sourdough enriched breads:Starting the Sweet StarterAn interview with Ian LoweWith it, I shared a practical guide to using his process, based upon my understanding of at the time. In the interim I have learned a lot more about how to make it work best, so I thought it would be a good idea to update that guide.

2 weeks ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

In my interview with Ian Lowe about his (stiff) sweet starter methods, he mentioned two bakers who were using a variation on it, the liquid sweet starter:One variation on the liquid sweet starter, created and used quite successfully in a real-world bakery production, is a young sweet starter. This permutation still uses 25% sugar to total flour weight. It was first discovered and refined by Maaryasha Werdiger of Zelda Bakery in Melbourne, Australia, and used to leaven her awesome babka.

3 weeks ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

One of the things I have struggled with while working on Breaducation is the choice of flours to use in my doughs. The book is meant to be both an introduction to bread baking of all kinds and an overview of how I make breads at home myself. As a result, I've had to strike a balance between what I'd do and use, and what is easily done or accessible to anyone.

1 month ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

[This is yet another section from the book that might need to get axed, so here it goes for now.]pH is one of those metrics which many bakers never think about, because measuring the pH of doughs and levains requires specialized equipment. But nowadays reasonably-inexpensive bread dough-specific pH meters are available, which makes peeking under the hood pH-wise easier than it used to be.

1 month ago | newsletter.wordloaf.org | Andrew Janjigian

Well I am back from my exile in the flour mines to shape up the front matter for Breaducation. While I haven't quite finished it yet, I've made significant progress: I've tightened it up considerably, shaving off more than 20k words while still retaining most of the content (and even adding some sections that I'd yet to write before now).