Finally I am finding (or rather taking) the time to post about my recent baking activities. And since I am still on vacation, but the semester starts next week, I'd better not rely on having more leisure then...

I have baked quite a bit with my sourdough starter (which is now about 4 months old, but has already spent five weeks straight in the fridge when I was in Switzerland - seems to have survived it well) and we all love the resulting breads. Here are some examples:

The classic Vermont Sourdough (Hamelman):

Susan from San Diego's "Original Sourdough":

Sourdough Walnut and Sultana Bread (recipe by Shiao-Ping):

This bread was absolutely delightful. I put all kinds of dried fruit (the big black spots you see are prunes). The only change I will make next time is to include a tiny amount of sweetness, a spoon or two of honey probably.

Pain de Provence (Floyd's recipe; herb bread, no sourdough):

Delicious! I made it with all sorts of fresh herbs from the garden, chopped very finely.

King Arthur's Monkey Bread (no sourdough):

By the time I got the camera, the kids with the visiting neighbour kids had already torn into it ...

And for good measure, two desserts.

Blueberry Pie with fresh Michigan berries:

And finally, Eclairs filled with Vanilla Pudding and fresh strawberries. They certainly didn't last long!

As I said in my introduction, I LOVE a certain Swiss bread and have been trying to recreate some kind of copy of the patented original. I'll do a separate post on how that is coming along.

I started the poolish for the Pain de Provence this morning, and was hoping to use it for dinner tonight.  (Meant to start it last night, but forgot).  What is the earliest I can use it?  The recipe says 8 - 16hrs, but I just dont know if I have that kind of time.  Any advice?

Here are the batards I did this morning. They were proofed 15 hours in the refrigerator last night and removed at 8:00 AM. Rise took about 4 hours. Considering they refused to release the couche they turned out really okay. REALLY SOUR, too!

My Pain De Provence- Turned out okay but I should have used more herbs. However, the crust crackled and hissed after taking it out of the oven. Then once it started to cool the crust crackled, little crackles all over as if it had been squished. Any thoughts on this one? What would have caused the crackling? I misted with water before baking and just after slashing. Did I mist too much?

Thanks,

Eli

Crumb Sourdough Batard

Pain de Provence

Batards