Hello,
I am looking for a 100 percent, whole wheat, sourdough formula that involves only flour, water, culture & salt. I realize there are many on this site and I would like to know what folks think is the best option. I'll be baking around 15 loaves in a convection oven for my CSB. (Community Supported Bread)
Thanks,
Smoke Signals
www.smokesignalsbaking.tumblr.com

I have seen organic companies that say 14% protein content, others 12%, but how do you figure that? I currently found an organic wheat with no pesticide use or genetically altered, but it says 6 grams of protein for 1/4 cup.

I have a question about whether you can easily substiute a biga starter  (a starter made by adding a very small amount of yeast to a flour and water mixture) with a liquid sourdough starter.  The reason I am asking is that I have been used to making a lot of breads with Hammellman's formulas that use a sourdough starter. but recently I have started making some sandwich breads out of Amy's Bread (revised edition) that use a biga starter.  I have no problem using the biga for these breads.  They have come out really well- I especially like the oatmeal bread with pecans.  I highly recommend it. It's just that I feed my sourdough regularly (because I don't want to risk losing it!!), and it would actually be easier for me to use that rather than create a biga for the sandwich breads.  I understand how I can exchange a thick starter for a liquid style, so I could adjust the sourdough for a corresponding hydration, but I am wondering if the sourdough would work as well.

Has anyone done this routinely?  I could just perform my own tests, but I am wondering if any of you has done this already. I would appreciate any input on this.  Thank you!

I'm no math whiz, but I'm trying to figure out my overall hydration, and could use some help with the math.

Let's assume I have 1000g of dough
700g (70% of dough) is at 55% hydration
300g (30% of dough) is at 100% hydration (my starter)

What would my total dough hydration be?

I have been a reader and poster (though only sporadically) for years now on this site.  I believe it was here where I learned the secret for creating sourdough starters, that resulted in my complete passion for making artisan breads.  I now make bread most weekends, and still get very excited watching the oven spring as it is happening, and, of course, cutting into the freshly baked loaf!  I realized that although I now have an extensive bread book collection, I find the book I most return to is "Bread"  by Jeffery Hamelman.  Here is why:  Once you learn to make this type of bread (or most any bread), from either the excellent explanations in his book or from another source, he provides a most extensive formulas that seem to work every time.  Perhaps if you are new to this type of bread baking, Peter Reinhart's books (particularly, "The Bread Baker's Apprentice" (BBA) will be best, since he does walk you through many of the basic techniques (That is what I really started with.) And I don't want to diminish the value of that book and many others.  I still use some of the BBA formulas, but I do want to say that once you have learned the basics, Hamelman's book seems to provide the techniques and formulas for some of the best breads, and it will take a really long time to bake through them, should you choose to make the various breads that are included in his book.

So the reason for this post was to express my enthusiasm for the book that I most rely on.  The other thing is that while now I mostly create my doughs without my mixer using the "French fold," (See the info on this site and watch the video by the French baker making sweet dough.), his formulas still work wonderfully for me. 

Today I baked his semolina with sesame seeds, and it looks like another winner, though I have yet to cut into it!

Also, some of the content seems a bit intimidating at first, but I've learned that you can do what works for you, and end of with a lot of wonderful bread.  So if you have the book, try it, if not, it is really worth having.  And no I don't get any kickbacks for this endorsement!!! I just think that if you are interested in making wonderful artisan breads, this book is fabulous!

I have a copy of an old New Yorker cartoon where one woman is speaking to another woman about the speaker's  husband who is cooking in the background. The woman says that "he's a pretty good cook even if he is recipe bound".

I put together an Excel workbook for working with bread formulas. Although there are other similar tools on this site, this one has some nice additional features. Let's say you have a formula for a sourdough bread, but you want to make a couple changes. First, you want to add 10% spelt flour, you want to up the hydration from 65% to 68%, change the salt form 1.8 to 2%, reduce the dough yield from 3.5 pounds to 3.0 pounds, and increase the percent of pre-fermented flour from 15-20%.