Recently my husband announced that he needed to cut way back on salt in his diet, and after quizzing me about the bread I've been baking, determined that he needed to cut way back on my bread. Given that he's my principal guinea pig (I mean recipient, I mean,... oh forget it) I viewed this as a setback. After some thought though I realized it was an opportunity. And so ... Tuscan bread.
When I first joined TFL over a year ago, I was completely blown away by a post by Shiao Ping. Perhaps you remember it - a Gérard Rubaud miche stenciled with his initials and photographed with Japanese maple leaves floating around in the frame: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/15778/g%C3%A9rard-rubaud-miche. I read the post over several times and just shook my head. Maybe in another life... That other life may be closer but it isn't here yet. A few weeks ago I suddenly remembere
Yesterday I very assertively backed my car into a snowdrift and my long-suffering neighbor came out and helped dig me out, yet again. (My husband came out in the middle of all this and dug too but that's his job so no more about that.) Anyhow, a situation like this calls for bread, and I didn't want to make some pointy-headed thing that only a bread enthusiast would enjoy so I searched through Hamelman and (drum roll please) found his Golden Raisin Bread.
Today was another snowday, so I again canceled a variety of plans to stay home with my son. Amazing how nicely baking bread fits into that routine. I had already planned to bake, but had no idea how I was going to fit it in, since I always manage to be out of the house at the exact moment that some essential step has to happen. No such worries today. I made Hamelman's 5 grain sourdough for the first time, as well as yet another iteration on my own elusive sourdough. Actually I made Hamelman's 5 minus 1 plus replacemen
In trying to digest all the helpful advice I received from this list on managing fermenting, shaping, scoring, proper sourdough culture and so forth, I found myself in areas of Hamelman where I had never wandered before. I looked with some amazement at the instructions for Three stage 90% Sourdough Rye. This uses the Detmolder method of rye bread production. What struck me as altogether improbable, is that you start with a teaspoon - yes that is .1 oz, or less than 3 grams - of ripe starter and build it up to a pound and a half (672g) over t
