Today I had time to "play" and an excess of discarded sourdough starter so I decided to see what I could come up with. I took a cup of starter, a cup of warm water a "dollop" of oil, two teaspoons of kosher salt, four cups of flour (half ap, half bread flour) and a scant 1/2 tspn of instant yeast. Mixed this in the Bosch until the dough came away from the sides, then let it double in an oiled bowl. Shaped it into two short baguettes which proofed for about 40 minutes, then I baked them on a heated sheet pan under the base of an oblong roaster which I removed after 15 minutes. Then I rotated the pan and baked them for another 15 minutes, to 205*. The loaves rose well and the crust was quite crisp. The crumb was very soft and none-holey, and it would make perfect sandwich rolls ( hero?) I live in a retirement community and I think this will be my "gift" bread from now on - that way I won't have to worry about people coping with crusty bread. I did take pictures and hopefully will figure out how to share them one day, A.

Have to start out by saying that I haven't made any type of sweet rolls for many years, so I am hoping that someone with lots of experience will be able to help me. I have been wanting to make several recipes from Beatrice Ojakangas' "The Great Scandinavian Baking Book" and this evening I picked the Cinnamon Ears. I had bought the cardamom some time ago and have to justify the price! My worry is with the dough - the instructions say to mix the yeast, melted butter, sugar, eggs, salt and cardamom and 4 1/2cups ap flour until the dough is smooth. No kneading? I used my dough whisk and then did a modified kneading in the bowl to reach the smooth dough. It seems awfully soft, but it gets to sit in the refrigerator overnight and Beatrice claims the chilled dough is easy to handle. Am I trying to "overthink" this? Any help will be much appreciated, A.

This week I borrowed "From a Baker's Kitchen" from the library. The author is Gail Sher who was the first head baker of Tassajara Bread bakery, and it was first published in 1984. In the ingredients section she mentions bread flour and goes on to describe Spring wheat and Winter wheat and their different features. Then lower down she talks about Bread Flour introduced in 1982, a combination of high gluten flour and barley malt flour with potassium bromate added (a dough conditioner.) She states "This new product causes the dough to rise overly fast so that the true texture and flavor of the wheat do not have sufficient opportunity to develop. Therefore it is not recommended." I'm curious - is she referring to what we now mostly use for bread? Was it such a radical invention? Also, to hark back to my other post about low temperature baking, it seems that most of her breads are baked at 350*. Some, like the fougasse, are started at 400* for 10 minutes then lowered to 350*. Was this the old way, and how and when did we start using the high temperatures to create what I for one consider to be much superior bread? A.

Today I baked a sourdough bread from another book from the library, Prairie Home Breads. It was published in 2001 and has some intersting recipes. The one I chose is called Hit-the-trail sourdough and begins with an overnight sponge. By this morning it was well risen and I added the rest of the flour and the salt. 2 hours later it was ready to shape and instead of 2 boules I used half to make breadsticks. My question is about the suggested baking temperature which was 375*. I did increase it to 400* and I used the stone and stainless steel bowl method. The loaf rose beautifully but is a pale golden color (with freckles) and it did sing when it tested at 204*. As I was daring enough to bake it "my way" does anyone have an opinion on starting at 500* as I usually do? Was the lower temp. an older method? I can't see that the ingredients are different from many of the other breads I have tried. I'm anxious to cut it to see how the crumb looks. Judging by the taste of the breadsticks it could use more salt - I use kosher salt and didn't increase it sufficiently. Next time... A.

I just ordered this book (along with Crust and Crumb) and wonder whether anyone has any comments or has tried any of the recipes? One of the many bed and breakfast owners on the island expressed interest in having me bake bread for her visitors and I figured she would want more breakfast type breads and rolls than plain old sourdough. I found the book in the library and like the sound of many of the breads - so of course I had to add it to my baking shelf. (Any excuse, right?) I would like to hear any comments, good or bad. I would also like to put in a plug for a book I re-read for the umpteenth time, This House of Sky by Ivan Doig, a really good read.

Floyd, I know this is a bit late but is there any way to help TFL to benefit from Amazon orders? A.

I decided to try the Pain a l'Ancienne from the BBA after reading all the latest success stories with this recipe. My Cuisinart isn't big enough for the full amount so I halved it and all was well. I was so scared of overmixing that I probably could have let it go longer but the dough seemed fine and went into the refrigerator overnight. I was totally amazed to find it had more than doubled by this morning - so now what to do? PR says to let it sit out for 2-3 hours to warm up and continue fermenting. I gave it over an hour while the oven heated, and maybe I should have believed Peter. No problems cutting and stretching the dough, and got a fantastic amount of steam from the cast iron skillet I had decided to sacrifice to the cause. The baguettes have a crispy crust and taste good but the crumb isn't very holey, or not as open as I had hoped. Oh well, I'll just have to try again.

On the other hand, the loaf of Almost No Knead bread was really sloppy and hard to shape into a boule. I let it rise for 2 hours and was convinced I would find a pancake when I removed the ss mixing bowl after 30 minutes. In fact it was well risen and had "bloomed" where I had snipped with scissors. Gave it another 20 minutes with the cover off, then 5 more with the door ajar. It "sang" so loundly I could hear it in the next room! I suppose it would be better to be sure of the results each time but I rather like the unexpected, especially when they are good. Now I have to work on my roast spuds, my part of the Easter dinner with the family, along with baguettes and the happy loaf, A.

I walked over to a local thrift store while my car was in for an oil change and was thrilled to find a copy of The Village Baker by Joe Ortiz - for $2! I was able to do a quick scan while waiting for my car and it looks like a keeper. Does anyone have this book? Any comments, favorite recipes, errors? Now if I could only find a used (slightly) DLX mixer... A.

I have been trying to locate the pancake recipe that I copied down recently and used this morning. My grandaughters were here overnight and now expect pancakes as part of the deal. I set the starter, flour and water on the counter overnight, then discarded 1/2 cup and added the rest of the ingredients.I ended up with crepe batter! It started out thick enough but by the time everything was mixed in it was way too liquid. The girls didn't seem to mind and ate a goodly quantity ( and they are both petite, no fair!) but I wonder what went wrong?

My son gave me a couple of bottles of light ale, some that had been brought to a party and he wouldn't drink, so I decided to try the Almost No Knead bread. I used 1/3c of my starter instead of the vinegar, a tip I got from Marie at Breadbasket. Mixed all the ingredients at 9pm last night and by 10am this morning it was pushing up the cover. What a nice dough!

I just took what might be my best loaf ever from the oven - and it sang to me for several minutes!