Skip to main content

 Yoshi's Log Stardate -299515.97 or July 17th 2024


23'C 95% humidity outside

27'C 65% humidity inside


    Week 2 is a great success so far. The bakes have been amazing from start to finish. We have better communications with the oven entity. They seem to enjoy the sacrifice of corn meal we add to the bottom of all of our loves. It stops the random burns we were getting from the hot spots. Today a new piece of refrigeration equipment arrived and we hope it will soon find a place amongst our band of misfit toys.


    I read yesterdays (B)log and Rusty got technical with temperatures and humidity levels and how they react to the bread process. I will only add that changing the temperature of the ingredients is another way that we can encourage the bread to do what we want it to do. If we need a longer Knead time but the room is very hot I recommend putting some, if not all of your ingredients in the fridge as to not encourage the fermentation process as much while mixing. There are formulas that can help calculate your recommended temperatures but honestly just try to make bread and see what works. It can get complicated, so if you have any reservations about this level of bread manipulation remember we have tried asking nicely in the past but that seems not to work. Let me know if that has worked for you. 


    My biggest take away from our first week is that not in my wildest dreams did i expect this level of support. And I do mean my wildest dreams. I have dreamed about bread for years. I have dreamed of shaping a fougasse with Richard Bertinet, sharing a simple buttered loaf with Anthony Bourdain, Kneading pizza dough by hand seemingly for hours in the Italian countryside. But never, truly never did I dream people would love my bread. I overheard a friend while they were in another room say she "f**ing love this bread, it's the best i have ever had". My bread? Surely she isn't talking about my bread. I mean she regularly makes her own sourdough. She is a professional braker, she can't be serious. Right? My wife loves it too but we are married she is just encouraging me I'm sure. Are the lineups at 7am real or just FOMO? It doesn't seem real. I'm a mechanic for flour's sake. People like my bread? People are lined up for Rusty's bread, I get that, he is a professional. He knows food. He is a talented culinary artist, and I am regularly in awe of what he can do. But my bread? No i don't believe you. This isn't real. This was a dream, a hobby I did to feed my friends. Nobody paid me for it but now its my job?! Am I in a coma? Is this the reality i have constructed to keep myself sane? How did I convince Rusty, a pro, to take a chance on making bread with me? Did he loose a bet? 


    I truly don't feel worthy of the praise that we are getting. All jokes aside we are just 2 friends looking to feed our community with good, affordable bread. And people love it i guess. Thank you.

 

Tired as ever. Be Good.

Yoshi

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

5 Day Sourdough Recipe, Extended Edition

 5 Day Sourdough Recipe Extended Edition Hello my fellow bakers. This post is made to provide more detail to a basic recipe we provide to customers who purchase Bannetons (also known as Proofing Baskets) from our bakery. With that purchase we include Carl Jr, our active sourdough starter, so that you can save yourself the time and effort of bringing a starter to life from scratch. This recipe Makes 2 Loaves, so try different proofing, shaping and baking methods if you like, you can also bake one off and save the rest of the dough for the next day to see the difference. However you use, have fun and happy baking! Day One :   Feed Starter: 76g  This Sourdough Stater should be fed at a ratio of 1:1 Water : Flour The Quantity of this ratio is based on the recipe you are using. This the recipe calls for 76g of Starter so you will mix 38g of flour with 38g of cold water in a bowl, then add your starter (Carl jr.) and mix again. Place in a container large enough for the newly ...
1 comment
Read more

July 18, 2024

 Rusty Log Stardate -299546.26 Perth Ontario: temperature 24.5 humidity 54% Basic kneads : temperature 29.4 humidity 71% Another sold out day. It has only been 9 days since the official launch and we are exceeding expectations. The people of Perth have welcomed us with such enthusiasm and positivity that all the doubts I harboured over the past few months in preparation and planning seem to have faded away. We knew the town needed a bread bakery, but I didn’t know how bad it really was. We are close to producing twice my original forcast, what we called a Full Run during testing. Each day we have increased the amount of loaves baked and the quality of those loaves and batches are improving as well with fewer burnt bottoms and better proofs and springs prior to and during the bake. Our rolling is also getting faster and we have started to settle into a rhythm of Yoshi concentrating on the ovens as I hammer through the rolling and proofing. That is not to say we have reached my ideal...
Post a Comment
Read more

July 16, 2024

 Stardate: -299540.7 Perth Ontario: temp 25.5 C humidity 87% Basic Kneads Bakery: temp 29.3 humidity 72% Hot and humid. It’s summer in the Ottawa valley. What does this mean for kneads bakery? And why do our posts start with a weather report? Well I’m glad you asked fellow bread enthusiast. It’s important to remember that bread is alive, or was alive before it became bread to be more exact. In dough form, prior to baking, it was a living organism, eating, breathing, growing and getting hungry as all living things do in one form or another. Bread is an amazing example of the cycle of life. The flour was once wheat, growing in a field, hungry for sunlight and thirsty for water and nutrients from the soil. Then it was harvested and died(1d6 slashing damage). Ground into flour it then sat, lifeless until it became food for another life form: Yeast.  For Yoshi and I yeast is an extremely important component of our business. It is a living thing, but it needs to be controlled, nurtu...
Post a Comment
Read more