There is a Sourdough movement going on in Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.
All The Fresh Loafers should look at "Sourdough Baker" website for different ways of making sourdough.

http://sourdoughbaker.com.au/

I am working my way through some of Warwick's everyday breads. I especially like the convenience of the "old dough method".
The "porridge" method is very successful.
The ideas for beginning and maintaining starters make this easy.
The delayed salt method is of value to all wild yeast bakers.
The story of the formation and demise of the Sourdough Cafe is below.

The translation of the French word “artisanat” to “craft” in English barely does it justice. In French, it refers to the practice of a handmade craft, usually anchored in tradition, like ceramics or woodworking but the word also begins with “Art” giving artisans and artists a common root and a shared passion for what they produce. While bread-making may not technically qualify as art, Warwick Quinton certainly deserves the title of “artisan” and if his beautifully golden sourdough bread wasn’t so tasty, you might even be tempted to frame it and hang it on your wall.

Warwick’s passion for sourdough started with a girl who was yeast intolerant. Armed with John Downe’s “The Natural Tucker Bread Book”, he soon started baking his own naturally fermented sourdough. The girl came and went but the sourdough stayed and evolved into a series of businesses, from Sydney to the Blue Mountains and until recently, in Newcastle, as the popular Sourdough Baker Cafe on Hunter Street, renown for its honest breakfasts, good coffee and of course, the warm and crusty loaves always fresh out of the custom-made oven, affectionately known as “Bertha”.

The cafe was conceived as a “community enterprise”, a business owned, controlled and used by the members of the community. The bakery and cafe, along with Warwick’s blog, his website and a series of regular workshops have built a strong fan base among Novocastrians, on both sides of the counter, as customers and apprentice bakers.

A couple of months ago, the Sourdough Baker Cafe “came up against the perfect storm” as Warwick describes it. “Bertha”, originally built as a prototype started showing signs of fatigue, the shop’s ventilation system broke down and the rent became unmanageable. The absence of financial backing was the undoing of the much-loved cafe which reluctantly closed its doors after just 18 months in business.

“What emerged from that was this incredibly faithful following in Newcastle and we started using that group of people as a sounding board for ideas.” One of those ideas is the “Village Bakery”, Warwick’s latest social enterprise. The concept is simple. People subscribe to a weekly delivery of freshly baked sourdough bread delivered to their homes every Saturday. After only a few weeks, the Village Bakery already has 50 subscribers all over Newcastle.

In addition, Warwick is still running his regular and very popular sourdough workshops from the new kitchen in Newcastle West. In one day, you will “cover all the basics of sourdough breadmaking and ‘sole baking’ techniques for home breadmakers, from beginners to advanced” and take your own bread home.

Whether you like your bread delivered to your door, made with your own hands or have it with coffee and baked beans, you have plenty of options for how to get your sourdough but what you get hasn’t really changed at all, “just sourdough, nothing else and getting as close to perfection as possible using the simplest technology to do it.” Spoken like a true artisan.

Hi,

I recently purchased a small restaurant in Bucharest Romania. I am from Egypt and would like to serve some hot sandwiches we have in my home country. I cannot find suitable bread here in Romania. Bread here usually has a leathery crust and is quite dense or is called baguette and has a crust that is too crunchy. I want to make fluffy soft loaves around 10 inches long and 2 inches white whose crust do not make any resistance when biting. This is very common in Egypt and we are not that famous for baking.

I found two bakeries near my shop who said they would make special recipes for me. I am attaching two pictures of the type pf sandwiches I wish to serve. Can you direct me to which recipes I should try to produce?

Thanks

Ahmed

I am new to this site and would value some guidance, so many recipes and formulations for great tasting breads. My question is are they all protected with patented or intellectual property   preventing enthusiast form producing the recipes on a large scale for manufacturing /retail use. Could I end up with a hefty lawsuit if I were to take the sourdough  or chick pea bread recipe and manufacture it for my local region?

Hope to hear from you shortly.

Hello everyone:

My name is Steven King and like you, I am an amateur bread baker.  I am currently working on a bread baking book (I have purlished before and have written extensivley).  A bread baking book with a twist.  I am looking for yeast bread recipes that reflect the culture, heritage and people of your state.  Additionally, the recipe must include a story - the story behined the recipe.  3 recipes will be selected from each state for publishing and the winners will receive an autographed copy of the book, their picture will be posted along with their submission.  The ingredients must be readily attainable (if obtained online, please furnish the web address).   Recipes will be judged on instruction clarity, appearance, flavor, authenticity and accompanying storyline. 

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you.  My direct email address, should you need it, is itsgoode2bking@gmail.com

Steven King

Does anybody know of a good cookbook in english containing japanese and/or other asian recipes for bread. I have become enthralled with the japanese bread styles!

In response to hearing people ask recipe-related questions I have created a

chart that graphs all baked goods (cookies, cakes, muffins, etc) using three numbers. The chart is easy to understand There is some math behind it so I automated everything with a web application called Caked-Face Menace.

If you have any recipe-related questions; substitutions, conversions, hydrations, spotting bad recipes, what will adding an egg do to my recipe, etc.; the application was design to answer almost everything. It has taken about 3 weeks to complete; and it is still being tinkered with :)

I would like to hear some feedback, I heard from the artisan bakers, but I think someone say the word "cups" and got irked. I think this is a more appropraite forum for this post, but warning this application supports both grams and cups.

I have tried to make this very simple to understand and use. This is definitely a new way to think about baking.

cheers kids,

Michael O.

whatsthesequency.com

I have just started a blog and I am looking for feedback on recipes and other people to try my recipes.  I will have lots of pictures and lots of recipes.  I use baker's percents and scale all of my ingredients.  So, if you are looking for recipes that follow the metric system look no further.  If you also have a blog I will gladly check it out and follow you.  Comments are always appreciated and fun to find.   

milwaukeecooking.blogspot.com

I currently have a wonderful starter that originated from the pineapple juice based starter recipe and would like to find some bread recipes using it in conjunction with sour cream as an ingredient.  I've always liked the texture I get when I use sour cream in recipes.  Anybody have suggestions?  Any kind of bread will do--savory, sweet or plain.  Thanks!

I spent my summers on Cape Cod where there were cranberry bogs in our back yard. After the harvest was over there were often many berries just lying on top of the bog that got missed in the harvest and we would collect them and make muffins, cranberry bread and mix them with apple pie - they add a little tartness to the pie that I really like. 

View my recipe for Cranberry Walnut bread  at

http://turosdolci.wordpress.com