Well, I was craving some SD and figured it was time to use my starter "bob" again. I have been using the tossed starter for waffles and english muffins. So I started a preferment from my starter with a Bass Ale last night and folded in the chedder this morning. One cup of the flour was whole wheat and the rest was white bread flour. The crust has a nice crispness to it. It has a great SD flavor and the ale taste is quite noticeable. Here is the result. I really like the taste of this loaf. Dave

Things have been a bit crazy here for a while so i haven't had much time to post. i hope everybody is well and going to have a happy dad's day.

Here is todays bread and cake a mocha layer and a  Cinnamon raisin challah 

I made a couple loaves of plain white bread from BBA. The loaf pans ended up being a little big, but the bread is still great for a sandwich.

I've been working with Italian "00" flour, milled in Napoli.  I usually only eat pizza on my two days off from work, because I love it, and I'm obsessed with making my best pizza crust/pizza.  I make a batch with the "00" flour, and my usual batch with King Arthur Unbleached Bread Flour.  My usual pizza crust is @75% hydration, but I made my first "00" attempt with @65% hydration.  This was an eye opener!  I have to say, that my pizza crust with the King Arthur flour is better at this point in texture and chew, but it was undeniably noticeable that the Italian flour had a "fragrance", and "flavor" that the King Arthur doesn't.    Blindfolded, I could tell the difference from the scent of the Italian flour.  My next attempt, i went to @70% hydration, and added 1T of olive oil to the Italian flour...this helped...the King Arthur is still winning with texture, bite, and liteness...but the Italian flour is ahead with scent and flavor.....My next attempt, I will make the "00" exactly like I make the King Arthur at @75% hydration with 2T olive oil, which is the same recipe I use for the King Arthur....we shall see.....here are some photos of my evening pizza made with King Arthur flour......

I enjoyed preparing this recipe very much.  It's easy to complete in a single day, I believe it would rise even if you stacked bricks on top of it, the oven spring is generous but not excessive, the compliments are countless.

Click on the thumbnail for larger view.

Well, I have my 1st SD using my own wild yeast starter. The whole journey to the first loaf has been quite a learning curve. Now I know I have a long way to go, but we ate the darker loaf with company tonight and it was pretty darn tasty. Had that SD tang to it. I'm happy, but I really want to do better. I'm thinking that elusive loaf will have me baking for years to come.

Dave

Well, today was a fun day. I did a batch of English muffins using the KA sourdough recipe. These turned out great and we had our own egg mcMuffin's with a hollandaise sauce. A few also got toasted and slathered with jam. I also did 2 loafs of Anadama using PR's recipe in the BBA. I was very happy with the result. We just had a slice with butter. I'm thinking anadama will make a wonderful breakfast toast. The real test will be the 2 SD boules I have retarding in the fridge to bake tomorrow. We'll see how I faired with the BBA starter, sponge, stiff starter progression.

My Favorite Gloves To Wear When Steaming Any Oven!

Sylvia

Today, I made two loaves of SD sesame bread, kefit, tempeh, granola, and a tooth pillow for my son's first loose tooth.  All that work must have put me in overdrive, when I looked at the little stiff SD starter that had been sitting in my fridge for a week, I suddenly wanted to make something out of it.  So I made this one, Sourdough Fred.