i did my first recipe from peter reinharts whole grain bread book and i'm very pleased with it. this is the most oven spring i've gotten on a free form bread to date.  i am not allowing anyone to cut into it until completely cool....this could take a while.

Well, after a bit of a break from baking I'm trying to get the hang of it all over again. I had a few loaves I wasn't happy with so I went back to the first recipes I used, namely the 1984 version of Laurel's. I came up with these, they're the best ones I've made, so obviously I could use some tips! I pretty much make only WW bread, this time with KA.

The 2nd time's a charm!

Partially Proofed Rolls - they started out 1/2 inch apart.

A few extras. These are baked in a 6 1/2" x 10 1/4" sheet.

Interior Crumb

I generally follow guide lines from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book and Tassahara. I make the sponge ala Tassahara, and shape according to Laurel's desem instructions.

When you make this, how much starter do you use, at what hydration? How vigorous is your starter? The first time I tried this, I used way too much starter, I think 80 grams.   In the morning my dough had obviously risen and tanked.  Last night I used 6 grams of 60% hydration starter.  AFter 13 hours it had done very little. Since I don't want to go another day without bread, I just added a bunch more starter and will watch it like a hawk.  At 180 grams I probably used too much!