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One of my favorite stores in Portland is Micucci's, an Italian whole and retail grocery. They don't only have Südtiroler Speck and the best Fontina, they also carry nice wines at reasonable prices (I'm too cheap to spend more than 7 - 10 dollars for a bottle - and choosing European wine is easy because of the standardized labeling).  There I purchase Italian 00 flour and spices in bulk, and such items as Marzano tomatoes, cooked chestnuts and gooseberry jam.

I had a busy weekend and did not bake this weekend.  First time in quite some time, actually.

I don't think I ever posted the BBQ Chicken Pizza I made during the Super Bowl.

The crust is Peter's Neo-Neapolitan recipe that is my standard.  Cheap store-brand BBQ sauce as the sauce, chicken breast, cilantro, red onions, and a mixture of chedder and mozarella. Super simple and the kids loved it.

I'm relatively new to sourdough and am trying various formulas in search of a basic white sourdough.  Here are my latest attempts:

Hammelmans Vermont Sourdough:

And here is the associated crumb shot:

BBA Basic Sourdough:

I adapted this recipe from Hamelman's Bread, page 113. I followed his timings closley, and just changed the size of the recipe to what I feel works best with my mixer (Cuisinart 5 quart). I also changed the overall hydration from 68% to 65%. Loaves came out with a thin & crispy crust and light & nutty crumb - would certainly make great baguette dough.

Preferment

270 grams flour

165 grams water

1/8 teaspoon yeast

5 grams salt

Hi

Just wanted to crow a little today. I've been a member of this wonderful group for quite a long time and have always made bread but in the normal way most people do, not really understanding what's going on and making the same mistakes. I'm still stuck when I see a recipe I want to make but it starts out with "200g starter" - I would like to figure out how to make that a "yeast, water, flour" portion since I don't make starter (at this point, I'm not a sour dough fan).

Hi, I'm Craig

I'm new to this site but I LOVE making bread! Love it, Love it, Love it! 

Last night I made an attempt at a heart shaped loaf of bread, to give to my partner on Valentine's Day: I was up all night cutting out little hearts that I'd stuck in the cooked bread :D 

This week’s baking—and cooking-- were inspired by Fresh Loaf masters proth5, Wally, SylviaH, Hansjoakim, and AW.   There was duck confit, whole wheat bread, sandwich buns, and Pat’s “Getting the Bear” baguettes (aka “Bear-Gets”), including a Margueritte-shaped thing—"Le Fleur d’Ours".

My first baguettes are in their second rise under a canopy of dusted linen and plastic. I'm glad they're under wraps. They are undeniably ugly. Instead of rolling out slender columns of dough, I created things that look like squat electric eels, large cucumbers, chubby rolling pins. I hadn't allowed the dough to rest long enough after pre-shaping. Darn.

Well, we'll see what I end up with in two hours.

Sylvia

Bronx-to-Barn Baker