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To all of you who helped me decide on a new mixer, thank you!  I did purchase the Bosch Universal from PHG, and I feel it was a good decision for my purposes (large amounts of bread/bagel dough).  I added the stainless bowl, a personal preference.  I "broke it in" by mixing a double batch of the ITJB bagel dough, that is for 24 bagels, and the Bosch came through with flying colors.  To be fair, I did increase the hydration to 55% from the 52% in the original recipe (which I used when I was testing the DLX, to be honest and fair).  I used 80% All Trumps, 20% Gold Medal bread flour, with a couple tsp. of VWG.  After shaping, I bagged them with white plastic garbage bags (blowing air into them so they don't stick to the dough) over the baking sheets, which have no sides and are used as peels, then put them in the fridge for an overnight fermentation.  Now for the camera shots (all but the crumb shot--sorry, but I was too busy chewing):

So you can see the new "big mixer" sitting there proudly, next to "little mixer" K/A Pro 6 (still going strong and doing much better with the spiral hook!)  Next is a shot of the prep, in order, R to L:  baking sheet lined with reused parchment, sprinkled with semolina (or rice) flour, boiling bath with barley malt syrup in the filtered water, 2 TBSP to about 3-4 quarts(?), then the ice water bath, which isn't difficult and cools them down quickly; replenished with ice as needed.  I was able to boil and chill 6 bagels at a time (handy when baking 24).  I placed a smooth cotton kitchen towel on a small cooling rack to hold the wet bagels.  Seeds are placed on salad size plates.  Baked on a stone preheated to 460, per ITJB recipe.  Although the pictures are not all in sequence, you can see the shaped bagels on the parchment lined baking sheet (new parchment on that one) and finally the finished bagels.  I usually mix 'em up, some plain, some with sesame, some with poppy and some with my own seed mix (B & W sesame, poppy, fennel, sunflower and flax, plus a little sea salt).  New trick I learned to keep the seeds from falling off:  brushing the tops of the unbaked, just boiled and cooled bagels with an egg-white/1 tsp water wash.  Also, I have learned there's no problem reusing parchment, even several times.   I'm gearing up to baking about 3 dozen bagels for a birthday brunch (mine) later this month!  Next will be the bialys . . .   Once again, thank you, TFL friends!

Joy

I just made a loaf from a cheese starter I had in my freezer, because wikipedia tells me the same micro-beasties that make a cheese starter are also in a sourdough starter. 

It worked!

I thought it was going to be a miserable fail, because the milk I was using as liquid in my loaf separated out to curds and whey. Or at least to whey. The curds were mixed up in the (I cant remember the word for the proofed liquid and yeast.) ~ sponge?~ Anyway, there was yeast in there as well. 

I made a loaf out of it using that method where you roll it out and cut it with scissors bending each spike one way and then the other.

I served it with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and dukkah. 

And it actually worked :)

Oh, I like the solid, very dark, European rye, too, but I kept making stabs at getting a fairly light, hole-filled, rye bread.  Thanks once again to all the information here on TFL, I think I conquered the rye-door-stop demons.  At least for today.

• First, it had to be a yeast bread because I lack the maternal instincts a starter would require of me.   
• Therefore, it needed a good source of acid.  I had whey from a batch of ricotta cheese made with the juice of several lemons and driven over the edge to clear whey with a little powdered citric acid.
• I decided to add a little oil to increase the rise.
• I handled the dough relatively little so as not to destroy the structure of the rye pentosans.
• And then I used a hi-gluten flour to tie everything together.

And it worked.  Here's a pic.  Below the pic are the particulars.  Don't let the shape confuse you.  I was baking in an oddly shaped pan around a large cauldron of beef bones turning into stock.  This is a marble rye using both light and dark rye flours.

• Make two doughs, identical except for the type of rye flour, using a total of 1000 g flour.

Light (dark) dough:

• 400 g hi-gluten bread flour (80%)
• 100 g light (dark) rye flour (20%)
• 25 g caraway seed (5%)
• 8 g salt, scant (1.5%)
• 8 g yeast, scant (1.5%)
• 25 g light tasting oil, e.g. canola oil (5%)
• 375 grams acidic whey (75%)

For each,

1. Place all dry ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk to make sure the rye and white flours are mixed completely.
2. Add the oil and whey and mix with a spoon and/or your hand until all the flour is well incorporated.

Cover the two bowls with a towel and let sit at room temperature 1 hour.  Stretch and fold once and let sit another hour.

Stretch and fold again and cut each dough in half so you have two dark balls of dough and two light balls of dough.

Take one dark ball of dough and one light ball of dough.  Using a rolling pin, roll each ball of dough into a rectangle about 1 cm (3/8") thick.  Place the dark rectangle of dough onto the light rectangle of dough and continue to roll until  you have an oblong rectangle a total of about 1.5 cm (5/8" )thick and as wide as you want your loaf to be long.  Tightly roll the laminated dough into a roll and seal the ends to form a loaf.  Repeat with the other two balls of dough to form a second loaf.

Preheat oven to 375F and let the loaves do a final rise for about 45 minutes.  Bake 1 hour or until the center is 205F.

Hello all,

This is the bread I've been working on for 6 months. I've made it probably about 70-80 times, it tastes amazing, the crust is perfect, and it has a ton of oven spring. However I just can't get that nice open crumb I am searching for. So after many futile attempts I thought someone here might be kind enough to evaluate my technique and recipe and perhaps point me in the right direction.

Ingredients:
400g Bread flour (80%)
100g Rye meal flour: (20%)
360g Water (72%)
1.25 tsp salt

Starter:

1st build (1:4:4): 25g starter + 50g rye flour + 50g water (save all but 40g for next batch)/ 8 hours
2nd build (1:4:4): 40g starter + 80g rye flour + 80g water/8 hours

Starter ends up being 100g rye flour, 100g water

Then, I add the starter to 400g of white bread flour and 260g water. Comes out to 72% hydration.

Then I let rest for 2 minutes, and hand knead for 10 minutes. I let rest for 2 minutes, then knead for another 2 minutes.

One full rise (4 hours), then I stretch and fold, deflating and also redeveloping the gluten, then I put it in the fridge for 16 hours. The following afternoon, I take it out of the fridge, stretch and fold, then let it rise again (4 hours).

Finally, I do another stretch and fold, and then make a sort of package like shape with the dough and do the boule forming trick where you pull it towards yourself and keep repeating while rotating the dough. It gives it good surface tension.

Then I prepare my colander with a couche (heavily floured and oiled cut up cotton shirt) and let it proof for about 2 hours. I've found its better to slightly underproof this bread.

I bake it on a quarry tile at about 500f for about 22 minutes, rotating the boule at 10 minutes into the bake. I give it a good amount of steam for the first 3-4 minutes.

Ideas? Constructive criticism?