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In the middle of baking these loaves last night, I was rudely interrupted by a skunk who decided that hanging around the pen of our two dogs in the backyard, was a good idea. I had the chinchillas out of their cages for a run and was heating up the oven to bake when I smelled that lovely odour of "Eau de Pepe le Pew". I ran out to grab the dogs, hoping against hope, that our streak of luck of skunks staying out of our yard continued. Well, the luck ran out.

Hi folks!

I have 3 bread books: Hamelman, Forkish and a third... about 3 years ago, when I used to bake bland, dull, straight dough breads and had no idea TFL existed, my sister gave me this book (maybe she got tired of eating my dull bread while having to call it delicious!), which was a rather poorly translated Brazilian edition of a book called "Pains et viennoiseries de l'école Lenôtre".

I'm a morning runner.  I run far.  And I run a lot.  Except on Sunday.  Sunday morning is my turn over and go back to sleep day.  My laze in bed reading day.  My nesting day.  

The last two weeks have been busy for me, but now exams are done! Well, for now at least, one more to go in November. For now, I’m free to bake and post again :)

This weekend, I decided to try a loaf with a mix of seeds, and after seeing CedarMountains beautiful seeded loaf i was quite inspired. 

Here’s the formula:

I was able to get one shot of the crumb from the Oatmeal Porridge loaf. This was sliced 2 days ago, I am really impressed with the moisture. This made the best grilled cheese. oh and we had just made some fresh peach jam and it was wonderful!

I've been incredibly lazy for the past three weeks or so. Beats me why. I'd like to blame the unbearably hot summer we've had but I know myself too well. No excuses. Just lazy.

It's turning cooler and just in time! I'm running out of the 12 loaves I baked a few weeks back to give me the practice and confidence I need in proofing and shaping bread. I've said it before and I'll say it again: practice, Practice, PRACTICE!

The slew of baguettes that I made the other day for my in-laws yielded a set of Hamelman Pain au Levain w/WW that I wasn't really thrilled with.  The crumb was too tight, the baguettes seemed to lack some standard amount of girth that I expect from them and all along the pathway from mix to bake something just didn't feel right.  A nice part about baking is that I get to do a do-over.  These seemed more "right" to me starting at mix time and beyond.

Tried a new recipe from Michael Kalanty. Turned out nice, 3 folds, let ferment over night, warm up, form place in basket, let raise bake 500 in a dutch oven. Turned out very nice. It really helps to have a nice 100% starter, well fed. 

I tried making oatmeal porridge bread. Follow Chad Robertsons Tartine #3 Very high hydration, 4 folds over 3 hours form, basket, overnight in fridge bake 500 right from the oven. Very tasty.