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getting home to Seattle from his one on one, exclusive, Holiday SD Bread Making Lesson in Arizona with Lucy!  He gets it now!

A Thing of Beauty it is!

I have been looking at bread and pastry recipes since the days when Louis Diat was still chef at the Ritz -  call it 60+ years. I see progressively more detailed and pedantic recipes.  I think some of that is an effort to sell the newest edition of the latest cookbook.

Jan 2, 2020.

Close to #14.  625 g total flour,  87.8 % total hydration.  Mostly HWSW, a little Kamut, a little quinoa flour, a tablespoon of BRM GF flour. A little molasses in the soaker.  Used 1/4 vit C tablet, 125 mg ,  and 2 tsp vital wheat gluten in soaker too.  Added 2 tsp dried malt extract when added levain.   Got good oven spring.  Nice light springy crumb, but not too open.

For a very long time, I have been fascinated by “pain de campagne”. In the cookbooks, it is made with mostly white bread flour, to which some (20%) whole wheat flour is added. Sometimes it is made with yeast, and sometimes sourdough and sometimes something in between. I have tried a bunch of these recipes and variations on them.  Then, there are stories and rumors about great breads made of fresh ground high extraction flours (e.g., https://breadtopia.com/whole-grain-sourdough/ ).

Or something like that...

To be honest, I'm just starting out as a baker. I've made a few loaves of bread, some cookies, and some dinner rolls.

I originally tried out baking as a way to relax on my days off. Something about the mindfulness associated with the whole process - mixing, kneading, waiting, working, baking, enjoying - really appeals to me. I don't have a lot of time or money, and so my baking is done "by appointment". I block out time, find some recipes or plan my day in advance, and do most everything by hand. No mixers, no scales. 

• Prepped 130g of levain (100% hydration, 70F in the microwave with the light on). At the same time, autolysed roughly 650g of flour (255g Central Milling ABC+, 70g hard white, 70g semolina) with 520g room-temp water.

• 5 hours later, added all the levain (rose about 2.3x) to the autolysed dough and mixed

• 45 mins later, added 16g Maldon salt

• 1 hour later, divided dough (at this point, 650g each)

• 1.5 hour later, coil fold

• 1 hour later, coil fold

For handy reference. Courtesy of Duckduckgo.

Celsius Fahrenheit

• 180   356
• 185   365
• 190   374
• 195   383
• 200   392
• 205   401
• 210   410
• 215   419
• 220   428
• 225   437
• 230   446
• 235   455
• 240   464
• 245   473
• 250   482
• 255   491
• 260   500

C x 1.8 + 32 = F

I've really been enjoying reducing my levain to 10% and doing a longer bulk ferment this winter. I wanted to make some loaves to give away and to serve at a party, so I tried mixing dough for 6 loaves at once. Boy, that was a mistake! My scale couldn't handle the weight so all of my measurement were thrown off, but somehow the breads may be my best ever (at least visually).

This is my first time attempting the couronne Bordelaise. I followed the instructions given by Susan at Wild Yeast Blog, using her Norwich Sourdough recipe as well, though I scaled the recipe down by 25% to produce two (roughly) 750 gram loaves. I did a test run two days ago, which turned out pretty well, though I had some problems with execution. I rolled the center disk out too much, and that piece didn't separate to produce the "crown" effect. The first of the two I baked this morning similarly failed to crown thoroughly.