Pequod

Spinning a chook.

Desem with 100% Deep Roots Milling Silver AP flour, which is 80% extraction Nueast hard red wheat. Nueast is regional, suited for our mid-Atlantic/southern climate, and also used by Carolina Ground. Nueast has a distinctly nutty flavor.

But does it come with a goat?

Yesterday was market day at Woodson’s Mill, a still functioning 18th century water powered mill here in central VA. Deep Roots Milling mills regional grains once a month and then sells their flours the following weekend. So I hauled my sorry keister down there to bag me some flour. This loaf is 70% Deep Roots Silver Bread Flour (80% extraction) + home milled yecora rojo (15%), spelt (10%) and rye (5%). 80% hydration.

Exhibit A:

Have you tried just straight grits, which happen to make a fine breakfast porridge? Pretty simple: 1 cup grits (stone ground) 4 cups water 3-4 Tablespoons butter 1/2-1 tsp salt 1/4 tsp pepper Cook on low until thickened. Add the butter toward the end. Top with a fried egg, drizzle with honey, use some in bread to make grits bread, or whatever floats your boat. If you can’t stomach basic grits then…yep…they aren’t for you.

Yesterday, I attended the Advanced Sourdough Workshop with Tara Jensen (author of Flour Power). It was very informative and fun, and with only 8 “students,” there was plenty of time to talk turkey (red) and various techniques. Came home with a loaf of grits bread which I baked immediately since it proofed on the drive home. The grits are Anson Mill coarse grits, which you can see are VERY coarse. Her website is https://www.tara-jensen.com and she offers virtual as well as in-person workshops.

Yes, the handles stand straight up once the mat is positioned in the bottom. I just place it on a wood pizza peel, position and score my dough. Then remove the pre-heated Challenger from the oven and slide the breadmat into position using the handle on the front to pull and guide it. You can drop in the ice cubes from there, close the lid, and bake.

I use this in my Challenger: https://rosehillsourdough.com/product/the-breadmat/

100% freshly milled spelt desem. About 80% hydration and 10% desem starter. Pullman loaf.

Nice looking loaf. Bread is definitely a never-ending process of discovery and refinement. I’ve been doing desem for my 100% fresh milled loaves. To me, desem vs. Sourdough is kind of like cocochar vs. Coffeewood lump. Desem is flavor neutral so the flavor profile is only that of the grains. For my 100% fresh milled loaves I’ve been sifting out the bran with a 40-mesh screen, then soaking it overnight and mixing back in. This seems to soften the bran, allowing longer gluten strands to form and giving me more loft. Haven’t messed around too much with dough conditioners other than diastatic malt on occasion.

Another desem loaf. 60% fresh milled hard white wheat + 40% fresh milled yecora rojo + 25% desem. 80’ish percent hydration. This is Alan’s Bread from Flour Power, but at higher than the 75% hydration called for. Yecora rojo is a bit thirsty and I think the low hydrations in Flour Power correspond to the recipes labeled as “beginner.” Apparently beginners require stiff dough 🤔.

After messing around with various steam-making methods, I've decided the Challenger is far simpler and more consistent. There are alternatives to the Challenger. Serious Eats reviewed some of these and found they all work well: The 3 Best Bread Ovens and Cloches of 2024, Tested & Reviewed (seriouseats.com)

We migrated down to Crozet from Fairfax Station four years ago. We chose here partly due to the darker skies and partly (mainly) because NOVA is nuts. Bonkers. We spent 26 years there, and I get the shakes whenever I'm up that way again for a meeting.

35% fresh milled spelt + 35% fresh milled red fife + 30% Cairnspring Trailblazer (T85). Sourdough, not desem.

Here's Maurizio's method at The Perfect Loaf for steaming your home oven. Baking Bread with Steam in Your Home Oven | The Perfect Loaf I'd skip the towel thing since KK is already a moist environment. But a cast iron pan with some lava rocks seems reasonable.

I have a propane Ooni that will have to suffice for now. I had contemplated building a roll-off roof observatory in my backyard, but it would be very expensive, and I'd have to fight the HOA. Renting space in New Mexico is cheaper, and I get about 200 clear nights per year in excellent sky conditions. As I get closer to pulling the trigger on retirement, people are trying to convince me I'd get bored—utter nonsense. If anything, I have too many interests in food-related things, astronomy, etc. And then there's the University of Virginia down the road, which offers free auditing of classes to...<ahem> senior citizens. I don't think I have time for this silly work thing anymore.

It’s really @Syzygies who did the math. All comes down to thermal mass needed in the preheated metal of the pan and discs to rapidly convert a cup of ice to steam. The drip tray doesn’t have much by way of thermal mass, so must add it some other way. That’s the purpose of the heavy metal.

The crumb. Very soft and incredibly flavorful. Not sour at all. Definitely more Desem in my future.

My first loaf of Desem. 100% freshly milled Red Fife. I loosely followed the formula for “Daily Desem” in Tara Jensen’s Flour Power book. Biggest change is hydration. Her formula is about 75% total hydration, but I found that to be almost unworkably low, so kept going until I liked the feel of the dough. I estimate I ended up around 82-85% hydration. The other major change was to sift and scald the bran, which I find helps soften the bran and encourage better gluten formation in freshly-milled loaves. Still cooling. Maybe a crumb shot later.

My gallery is here: https://www.astrobin.com/users/jpridder86/

I’m preparing to ship this telescope to a remote observatory in New Mexico. It’s a Takahashi Banana (AKA Epsilon E-160ED) all tricked out for astrophotography. Just waiting on a new rotating focuser (to better frame my shots) to arrive. Once that’s installed and everything tuned up, off it goes and I fly out to install it. Once deployed I’ll be driving it from my home in Virginia, but it’s mostly automated. One of my images taken with this scope in central VA (Bortle 4 skies). Once it’s in Bortle 1/2 New Mexico (and with better seeing) I’ll be hoovering photons at a ferocious rate. This is the “Ghost of Cassiopeia,” a nebula in…wait for it…Cassiopeia.

Desem has low hydration but is not sourdough. Sourdough has lots of bacteria—lactobacilli—and some yeast. The bacteria makes it sour. Desem is more natural yeast than bacteria and requires freshly milled flour and a cool environment to establish. It is generally used for 100% fresh-milled whole-grain breads. How to Make Desem (Belgian style sourdough starter) – Breadtopia

My desem starter is gaining strength and smelling fruity and floral as it’s supposed to. Should be able to do a 100% fresh milled desem bread this weekend.

Desem starter showing signs of life after one week.