I began browsing the fresh loaf mid 2009, when I was trying to learn how to bake proper bread. Over the years the suggestions, advice, support and references have taught me much about baking bread. I enjoy the breads I bake.
Perhaps the best early advice I adopted was from a poster who suggested that if you can buy your flour from your local artisan baker do so. I have done so ever since, in Canmore and now in Golden where I just bought my second bag of bread flour from our local bakery.
Now I bake pulla about every 10 days to two weeks, but the starter loaf I mixed Tuesday with the new batch of flour resulted in more oven spring than I have ever seen. Mind you the pulla loaf I baked 2 weeks ago was with 5 month old flour, but holy cow I have never seen such oven spring before!

The result was a nice loose crumb, great flavour and eat ablility! The dark on the crust is from the granulated sugar I generously sprinkled on the egg wash coating prior to baking. There is much to be said for an active, well fed starter, but I think the real hero here is the flour. the owner and head baker of this 50 year old family run bakery has been buying flour from the same southern Alberta mill near Lethbridge since the bakery opened. I feel blessed to be able to bake with such a good flour and have been loving the results!
Happy baking! Ski
PS anyone wants the recipe, please just ask and I will post it in the comments.