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[center][/center] I do love bread! It really is the staff of life, don't you think? As far as I'm concerned, every day is bread day. We invariably have buttered toast each morning for breakfast. Sandwiches are not uncommon for lunch. Bread is often the starch we choose to go with dinner.

Amazingly nice weather here today. Supposed to be rainy all week, but today was definitely a day to be outside. That said, while I was planting bulbs I had a loaf rising. I did a white poolish bread that turned out excellent. I gave this about 10 minutes in the Kitchen Aid and very little yeast. I was very pleased with the crumb. I also made an apple sourdough bread.

World Bread Day is Tuesday, October 16th, a day when the bread baking guilds ask you to appreciate the role of bread and bakers in society.

This is a recipe that Kenneth, a long-time poster to rec.food.sourdough, has posted a few times in response to requests. I made it this weekend and can safely say it's delicious. Tangy, but not overpoweringly so, with a smooth crumb that, though not full of big holes, is nevertheless a moderately light bread. It sprung well in the oven. In fact, it reminded me of some of the better Desem breads I've made. The hydration of this loaf is 68%, so one could go higher, I'm sure, and the salt is higher than usual at 2.5%, but the bread did not taste overly salty.

I found this recipe in my notebook and assume it is from one of TFL bakers - but I didn't make a note of the name. I have to say it is the prettiest loaf I have ever baked and the crust "sang" to me when it came out of the oven. The recipe starts with 1 cup of starter and 1 cup of water and 1 tspn yeast - I used a little less instant yeast. So if you recognize this recipe, many thanks. Oh how I wish I could post a picture! I haven't cut it yet so hope the crumb is as good as the crust, A.

Some time ago I remember reading that someone used just the scrapings from the starter jar and it was enough to refresh ( or whatever the technical term would be). I was very sceptical, but today I found out that it is true! I decided to make Bill's sourdough pagnotta but didn't notice that it needs 400g of starter. That just about cleaned out my SourdoLady's starter plus some of my less vigorous yogurt one. Both of them bounded back quickly, and I'm a believer. I had made a note that the amount of water was too much, but of course that didn't stop me from adding nearly the full 650g.