A North Carolina Perspective

Well, I guess now is as good a time as any to introduce myself! 

I've only been baking bread since this past summer, but I've pretty much fallen in love. I started with flatbreads, moved on to no-knead breads with commercial yeast, discovered preferments...then I embarked on the process of raising two sourdough cultures (one with rye flour, one will all-purpose). It was an emotional rollercoaster, but I now maintain and bake with both. I know that most serious home bakers don't keep two, but I just can't shake the feeling that they're each contributing something unique to my bread-making. I'll probably get over intuition, but it's fun to indulge it for now.

I have so many thoughts and questions about a range of subjects: levain percentage, autolyse, hydration level, retarding, shaping, temperature at various stages...

For this post, I'll just include some photos of recent loaf exploits (although I'm sure I won't upload them correctly the first time and will have to edit...apologies in advance).

I hope to make a first "real" post in the next few days, documenting a controlled experiment in long cold bulk ferment vs. long cold proof (holding all other variables constant). 

Thanks to all of you for maintaining such a great venue for bread talk!