The blatant plug and thank you’s first: I got the Brød & Taylor proofer. I love it. My breads are more consistent and predictable now. Yes, I could’a rigged up a homemade proofer but that ‘s not my thing. With zero counter space in the kichen this B&T gets its own little table tucked in a corner of the dinning room.
So if you see this post thank you Eric and Sylvia for bringing it to the attention of TFL and for all your info and insights. And a HUGE thank you to Susan for her original Simple Sourdough formula, I have taken a real liking to it.  A tiny loaf that I find just about perfect.   (Susan’s post found here:)

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/13771/simple-sourdough-909

Here’s a shot of this weeks SSSD:

I convert a tiny portion of the discard from my 80% hydr. starter at its feeding time Friday night to get to Susan’s firm starter so I can mix the loaf Saturday afternoon for a Sunday morning bake. Read Susan’s original post and you’ll see how schedule friendly this is.
Anyway, having just come in from shoveling our 1st 6” snowfall of the season and thinking back fondly to the days of fresh fruit salads with date-nut bread I got an idea...I converted a second batch to firm starter and dug out a box of raisins.  Here’s what I made....

     Dark and Dusky Raisin Sourdough

It’s dark and deep and sweet. Moist and chewy crumb with crunchy crisp crust. A great dessert or late night snacking bread. Wonderful with butter and a teenie sprinkling of demerara sugar, or honey-nut cream cheese, or peanut butter and a glass of milk.
Here’s what I changed:

54g Firm Starter
100 g First Clear Flour (would’ve used high gluten but i was out)
175g KA Bread Flour
25g Medium Rye (Hodgson Mills)
2T Double -Dutch Cocoa Powder
1tsp Espresso Powder
70 g Raisins

I've had higher oven spring and a bit more open crumb than this weeks Simple SD and I attribute that to having fallen asleep
(was that 6" of snow I shoveled or 8? LOL) and the starter was out initially 4 hours instead of 2 and it tripled. So it may have been a bit past it's optimum when I did the mix at about 6p.m. Saturday. I'll watch this next time I bake this Dark and Dusky SD and see if I get it higher and more open.

Here’s a few more shots:

    Dark and Dusky proofing in my new best bread friend.

    Slashed and ready for oven load using a "magic bowl" cover, thanks Susan (I use a disposable extra deep aluminum roasting pan). And with 4 min. microwaved wet towels for oven steam...Thanks SylviaH.

The color in the photos changed...different time of day. I wanted to wait till Monday morning to slice the loaf because it has rye, but I gave in just before midnight.
Well, that's almost morning. And it was a great way to celebrate the birth of my new Grand-Niece, Rylee (Sunday night about 11:30)!

Mmmmmm this loaf's a keeper!
Dosi