Dill, bacon, olive oil, roasted garlic sourdough bread.

The fam's favorite bread so far.  All gone already.

I saw Floyd's posting on this recipe.  Wanted to try out.  I also saw some seeded recipes,  and wanted to add in the seeds. I need some advice here,  as the the bread turned out a little dense - see the crumb below.

Ingredients:

A year or two ago I spent a week in Marche, Italy, and at two separate bakeries - one in Ancona and one just South - I bought a flat bread / cracker, 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, loaded with olive oil & sesame & sunflower seeds. It was thick & crunchy but not dry tasting (because of all the olive oil). I could see the sunflower seeds & taste the sesame. It looked like it had been a really wet dough, cooked in a rectangular pan. The second place I got it said it was called "Pizza Seca." I can't find anything like it, either in my books or on the web. Anyone know? I found it slightly addictive. 

I have a problem. Admitting that you have a problem is the first step to recovery, right?

So here I am, 7 weeks after giving birth to a wonderful baby boy...and I have 12 loaves of bread in various stages of becoming tasty, crusty goodness.

I am not a professional. I do not have one of those nice ovens that will fit all this bread. I have no couche for the insanely wet rosemary potato bread other than the piece of thin natural linen that I picked up at the fabric store for half off. I have to bake loaves 3 at a time, part of the time on a half sheet pan, so that they all get done at the right times.

The smell wafting through my house, though...heaven. Really. The smell of bread baking makes up for the hours of hard work I've put in over the last 24 hours.

Really, the hardest part was making the dough last night. My husband works second shift, meaning he's gone from about 2:30 until about midnight, so during the time I was mixing up doughs I had both kids to take care of, some laundry to do, dishes to keep up with, and dinner to make for Rinoa and I. Not only did I get everything done, but I figured I'd have time to do not only the baked potato and rosemary potato breads that I planned to take to Christmas as gifts, but also a loaf or two of real gingerbread to have with lightly sweetened whipped cream.

I think I've renewed my confidence in my ability to successfully multitask. I quit baking while I was pregnant because I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to spend enough time with my daughter after having the new baby and that she'd be forever scarred by my inability to play with her constantly. I can't believe I thought that now, but pregnancy does strange things to you. I now know that I can do my baking, which is something I do for myself as much as to provide my family with the best food possible, and still not neglect my family.

I have to admit that this crazy baking spree was most likely not the best way to reacquiant myself with my rational mind.

I'll share pictures when I'm done. Just thought I'd share my brain today. :)

This is my first post, so before I get into the details, here's a little bit about me. I live in the Pacific Northwest, and I took up breadbaking a few years ago when I moved here from the Southeast. The first breads I made were Challahs, and I got pretty good at making them. I'd make pizza, too, but that doesn't really count. After a while, I decided to start my own sourdough starter earlier this year, and after baking every week (except during Passover when I wasn't supposed to), I was starting to get a little annoyed that my breads wouldn't turn out how I wanted them.

Yesterday afternoon, i decided to do some calculations and create a bread that is about 65% hydration. I also knew that I needed to adjust my flour. I like using Bob's Red Mill because it's local, but it only has about an 11.7% gluten content. I adjusted my flour by adding vital wheat gluten to the the flour I used.

So, here are the results: The holes are just right, the crumb is nice and open, and the crust is nice and crusty (duh - it's a crust, right?!). Here are some pictures, and below the pictures are the instructions.

Evening before bake:

Ingredients:

• 300g Bread flour (13% gluten content)
• 225 grams lukewarm water
• 50g highly active firm starter

1. In a medium-sized ceramic bowl, mix the starter into the water, then add the flour.
2. Mix until even consistency is achieved (a couple minutes)
3. Leave mixture in bowl and cover with plastice wrap.
4. Let sit in kitchen for ~10 hours (overnight)

The Day of the Bake:

Ingredients:

• 450g Bread flour (13% gluten content)
• 262g water
• Starter mixture from previous evening.
• 20g kosher salt
• 30g olive oil

1. Mix flour and water in a large bowl.
2. Separate 50g of starter mixture and store in a jar for a future bake. Add all of the rest of it to the flour and water mixture.
3. Mix just a little bit, then add oil and salt. Mix again until fairly incorperated.
4. Turn out onto a clean surface (no flour or oil)
5. Knead for 10 minutes, until gluten is well-formed.
6. Form the dough into a ball and roll it in a little flour (to prevent it from sticking to the bowl while fermenting).
7. Put the dough in a large ceramic bowl and cover with a damp cloth.]
8. After ~2 hours of fermentation, take the dough out and form it into loaves, The dough probably has not changed much in size at this point.
9. Put semolina flour into two bannetons to prevent loaves from sticking.
10. Place formed loaves in bannetons and let proof for 5 hours (until dough doesn't spring back when poked)
11. While dough is proofing, put baking stone on the second-to-top shelf in oven and heat oven to 550 degrees. Put a metal cookie sheet on the bottom shelf in the oven for steam-creation.
12. Just before baking, lower temperature to 425 degrees.
13. Turn loaves out onto a peel, slash them, and put on bread stone.
14. Pour ~1 cup boiling water into the cake pan to create steam.
15. Bake for 45 minutes, turning loaves at the half-way mark.
16. Cool loaves uncovered on wire racks.

Okay, so that's it. If you try the recipe out, let me know how it goes :-)

-Matt

I use a recipe similar to Dan Lepard's for focaccia.

• 100% flour (obviously)
• 35% sour starter (100% hydration)
• 0.74% yeast
• 2.5% salt
• 65% water
• 5% extra virgin olive oil 

When it cools, it's extremely light and fluffy, with HUGE holes in it. The closest you'll ever get to eating clouds. But for some reason, it goes tough and hard within 24h despite being kept in an airtight plastic box.

WTF?! Should I store it differently?

When I make 'dry' bread (i.e. without oil) it stays nice for days on end... sometimes up to a week.  But this is no doubt because it's already dry, so it doesn't matter so much that it's getting drier every day...

My friends are complaining that my breads are too dry.  I am using 3 tablespoons of olive oil for each 4 chup of flour and between 1 1/4 and 1 1/3 cups of water.

Will a different type of oil be better, or should I jsut add more oil?  Also, for more percentages of Whole Wheat, should I add more oil generally?

Thanks

I've recently jumped on the "down to basics" bandwagon. I stopped using spray oils like Pam, and bought a Misto, and loaded it with olive oil. Like everyone else, just trying to save money wherever we can! (the Misto was only $9.99 at Bed, Bath & Beyond, and think about the cost of a can of Pam -- $3 or so? Would pay for itself in a few months...)

I had used my trusty Pyrex loaf pans without a single problem for all kinds of yeast and quick breads as long as I used Pam. But now that I've stopped using Pam, the bread sticks LIKE CRAZY. I almost cried on Sunday when after all that work, my white white loaves stuck in the Pyrex. Half of each loaf was left in the bottom, even after I ran an offset spatula all the way around, and even up under the bottom, just to get the bread to unglue itself from the pan.

Any ideas? I guess I could go back to Pam, but I hated the way it left that gluey residue on everything (what is that??? it doesn't seem like it could be good for you...).

Is the the olive oil the problem? What about Canola, or just buttering or using (blech) shortening?

Thanks!

My sweet bread-loving best friend suffered a heart attack last year, and since then I've been searching for and experimenting with lower-fat, healthy versions of his favourite recipes.  This incredibly easy moist, delicious loaf, adapted from Bonnie Stern's Best of HeartSmart Cooking is not only lower in fat, but what fat it contains is mono or polyunsaturated, which boosts HDL (good) cholesterol. 

This is Rosemary Olive Oil Sourdough from Nancy Silverton's book. I used the starter that I have been growing since Feb - my first one (not Nancy's formula) and I have to say I am proud of this little starter! Oven spring!