Baker.bennett

Put down the lame, Bennett -- and just step away!
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The UFO lame from is what got me started on bread art a year ago. It made scoring really fun... uh...sometimes way too fun... 😂 A collision of early-lockdown anxiety, scoring experimentation, and plain goofiness resulted in a loaf I fondly nicknamed "Forbidden Planet". At that point, .bennett didn't even exist yet, but this remains a personal favorite because it started me thinking creatively about bread. ❤️🙏
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A new flowery bouquet to start off the week. 🌼 🌸 Happy spring!
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Rye and Turkey Red grains from , milled with Mockmill 100 from .
Details scored with (see link in my bio), surgical steel scalpel, and scissors.
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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Another view of the tiled pattern inspired by .shabzi! See previous post for additional photos.
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Full credit for this pattern goes to .shabzi! If you're not already following Nusrat, head over there now and click that Follow button! 👍
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When I first saw Nusrat's post of this pattern in January, I couldn't stop looking at it. 👀She has an incredible knack and patience for creating intricately tiled patterns. We all know bread is unpredictable! So repeating patterns, straight lines and rows can be particularly frustrating because the patterns have a tendency to blow out or not open consistently. They require patience and willingness to try multiple times. (HINT: I always make enough dough for 2 loaves, but I only score and bake one at a time so I can make adjustments on the second loaf if needed. This definitely is a scoring pattern for "Type A" people... 😂 🅰️ 😂 )
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Each loaf teaches its own lesson. This was try #2 on this pattern, and I plan to revisit it for even more schooling. 📓 Thanks again, Nusrat! 😀🙏❤️
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Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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A flower variation of a previous star design. 🌟🌸 Happy Friday!
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Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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A rosy heart boule for your valentine. 🌹❤️
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Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
Details scored with Penblades (see link in my bio).
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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"Cosmos Boule": These cosmos flowers 🌼 were scored with a very light touch to deter design blowouts. A deep vent around most of the perimeter also helped keep the design in tact.
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Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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There's a lesson in every loaf. 🤓 I get plenty of design ideas, but never know how the dough will react until I try it out. For this test of an all-over starburst flower pattern, my blade was dragging a bit on the dough more than usual. I think it was challenging because there were so many long cuts, very close to each other, and going in different directions -- and that made the surface tension unpredictable. For a design like this, the dough needs to be super cold with 30-40+ minutes in the freezer before scoring. Keep the scoring depth light, and work really fast!
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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"Rose Reboot" or "Rose Bouquet #2": 🌹 The last time I scored a rose design, I could only post a partial scoring video because I ran out of video memory card space. I've been meaning to redo the scoring video for a while. You get 3 roses this time. 🌹🌹🌹 Stay tuned! 😀
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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Another offset mandala design with a daisy in the middle. 🌼 Similar to an earlier loaf, the offset design allows the boule to open like a clam. A couple little blowouts here and there resulting from oven spring and inconsistent depth of cuts, but I learn something from every loaf! 😀
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Details scored with PenBlade #10 and #15 craft knives (See link in my bio.)
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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2020 has taught me a lot about myself and my relationships, and has given me an appreciation of many things I had taken for granted. This year, I was amazed to discover bread as a creative canvas, and I am forever grateful to have connected with this baking community. Thank you for your encouragement, kindness, and inspiration! I have learned so much from you. Happy New Year -- I wish you all health, hope, and peace in 2021! ❤️🙏🙂
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In no particular order, here are nine of my favorites from this year.

Gerbera daisies 🌼 -- or you might see owl eyes 🦉👀! Sorry, not too Christmas-y, I know. I'll plan better next year... Happy holidays everyone! 😀
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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The leaf pattern 🍂+✂️ that started this whole thing for me. This is my first time scoring this pattern in 6 months, at the very start of my Instagram posts in June. We've all come a long way, haven't we?
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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Experimenting with a mix of flowers 🌹🌼 A few bursts through the design, but there's a lesson in every loaf.
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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I'm back! After not being able to bake for six weeks, I'm thankful that Thanksgiving 🦃 weekend gave me an opportunity to knock out a few loaves.
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I'm frequently asked how to prevent scoring designs from bursting. Believe me, I've had my share of frustrating design blow-outs! It's best to strategically plan how your bread will vent, and to place expansion scores accordingly. It could be a single slash down the middle, a series of slashes, or a deep cut around the loaf's perimeter.
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For this loaf, I tried shifting a mandala design off-center, then cut deep expansion scores under the leafy edge. I like that it opened like a clam shell and made a nice decorative ear. See third photo for a side view.
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If you haven't made a dried backup of your starter, WHY NOT? My starter Newton was sluggish in October and I suspected something wasn't right. During my hiatus, it turned an ugly pink color -- definitely contaminated and completely unsalvageable. After 8 years of baking with Newton, I'd be sad to lose it. Fortunately, I have a jar of dehydrated starter as a backup 😺. Newton was resurrected and is as strong as ever! There are numerous online resources on how to dehydrate, store, and rehydrate a backup starter. has a nice YouTube video, and on 's blog, there are good written instructions and photos in their archive. We've learned in 2020 that life is unpredictable. Don't put off making a backup!

Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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20% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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Exploring more flower scoring! "Rose Bouquet" is the companion loaf to last week's Paisley boule. Sometimes I get carried away while scoring, so I need more restraint to know when to stop scoring! 😂 I'm still experimenting with hydration with this one on the lower end at 70% instead of my usual 74%.
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VIDEO QUESTION: While I was filming the scoring video 📹, my memory card ran out of space ☹️ but I captured about two-thirds of the process, up through the roses and main leaves. Would you still want to see it anyway? Comment below, and if there's enough interest, I'll put together an abbreviated video. 😀
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I've had numerous inquiries about the aluminum cake stand that I use. 🎂 I have links to it in my bio, as well as the other tools and resources that I use if you're interested.
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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18% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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Paisley has been at the top of my idea list💡for months, but I simply couldn't decide how I'd go about it. Since paisley designs typically include incredible amounts of detail and complexity, I knew I'd need to simplify. Lower hydration at 70% 💧and super cold dough (30 minutes in the freezer before scoring 🥶) would help me preserve more scoring detail. But I knew the biggest challenge would be exercising restraint once I started cutting. 🛑 "Put the lame down, Bennett, and step away from the loaf..." 😂
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There are so many design possibilities with paisley, so here's what I'm calling "Paisley 1.0" in hopes that it will be the first of many.
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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18% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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The response to my last flowery design ("Aloha Loaf") was super enthusiastic -- Thank you! 😀 So I guess y'all like flowers? Here's another!
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I'm experimenting with ways to coax more surface texture and detail in the scoring. So I dropped back my usual hydration💧from 74% to 70%, and kept the dough super cold in the freezer 🥶 for 30+ minutes before scoring. In addition to the 3 big flowers, 🌸🌼🌺 you'll see patches of small flowers along the side and bottom. I wasn't sure if these would hold, but happily, they mostly retained their texture. Unfortunately, the downside to lower hydration is a tighter crumb -- a sacrifice for the sake of art? 😅🎨🌼
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, and suggested the last flower design looked like Cosmos flowers (the runner-up name choice), so this one is named "Cosmos Crust". 🌼🥖 Thanks again, I'll be crediting you in the forthcoming scoring video. 👍
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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18% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 70%
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"Leaves and Laurels" is the companion to the "Swirling Leaves" loaf posted a few of weeks ago. It's another freestyle score--but the main difference is that I cut a big vent on the side instead of the top. The result was a super-spiky, fringed edge along the ear. No crumb shot because this was a gift to a neighbor.
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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18% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% Bread Flour
2% salt
Hydration at 74%
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What? .bennett is posting a boule? A new oblong banetton from has opened up new scoring possibilities. But its 12x5 inch (31x13 cm) size requires a bigger Dutch oven, and an adjusted cooking time so the bâtard doesn't brown too fast.
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This was freestyle scoring, and the first flower design I've posted. But I have no idea what kind of flower I just made up. Instead of me calling it "Random 6-Petal Flowers", can any gardeners out there suggest a more appropriate flower type or design name? I'll be sure to credit you.
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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18% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% King Arthur bread flour
2% salt
Hydration at 74%
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I love when I see an unusual pattern. This score starts off as a swirly fishnet spiral inspired by -- definitely check out Joy's profile! I wondered what would happen if I did a deep score down the middle to avoid bursts? There's only one way to find out. 😀 I like the extra texture. To me it looks like two shell fossils. What does it look like to you?
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Scored with UFO Bread Journey lame from
Rye and Turkey Red grains milled with Mockmill 100 from
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18% levain
20% freshly milled rye
10% freshly milled Turkey Red heritage wheat
70% King Arthur bread flour
2% salt
Hydration at 74%
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