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This past weekend's bake was a new technique for me and I think it worked out pretty well.  The recipe is Oatmeal Bread from Bread (3rd Ed.).  I've made single loaves of this bread a couple of times, but it was always made straight through from start to finish.  This weekend was busy, so I did the mix on early Sunday morning and then followed Jeffrey Hamelman's recommendation to develop flavor with a straight dough and did a cold retard after 2 hours of room temperature bulk.  The dough had to be punched down numerous times and lesson learned... 

Mar. 7, 2022.   89th bake.

The goal here was to make a small enough boule to bake in my toaster oven, and use 300 grams of flour, not counting what's in the starter.

I was intrigued by Benitos recent bakes with a levain that contains brown sugar and decided to give it a go. It seemed to be a novel approach worth looking into. With many bakers around here pursuing Alt-sourdough lately I am surprised no one else has thrown their hat into the ring. Perhaps it turns away the purist or it's an aversion to sugar in the FWSY equation at least that was my thoughts.

Feb. 23-24, 2022. 88th bake.

This is my 7th bake based on Denisa's 100% rye recipe: 
www.thefreshloaf.com/node/67054/100-whole-grain-rye-sourdough-bread

6th submission to the Rye Community bake: 
https://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/69775/community-bake-rye-bread?page=1#comment-504793

5th time with home-milled rye flour. 

 This last weekend i  did a little trip into the countryside to an area known as the North Eastern Wheat belt here in Western Australia. It was a very good  harvest this year exceeding 20 million tonnes. The purpose of my trip wasn't to admire all the wide open empty spaces but to do a bit of bread baking tuition, Its fairly remote 236 km inland from Perth. I drove up one afternoon stayed at a great old Hotel and had a full days baking and stayed that  2nd night travelling home the following morning.

Having a hard time with pepperoni rolls rising after I fill them..  They come out more sticks than rolls.

If the pepperoni is cold could that be affecting the final proof? 

Also should I press out the first few inches thinner and cover over with the thicker dough?

• reply

Little experiment :

Flatbread with olive oil, hemp seeds, garlic, oregano and creamy cashew sauce 😋

I used Prairie Gold whole wheat white flour and refrigerated, unfed rye starter

400g whole grain white flour

290 g cold water

6g salt

20g old inactive rye starter

I made the dough at 7:30pm, kept something like 12 hours at 65°F, then about 5 hours in my oven with a light on. The dough was extremely soft and stretchy. Next time I plan to use more active starter and shorter fermentation time

The whole wheat was milled and sifted twice using my MockMill 200 and a #30 and #40 drum sifter.

 A date yeast water pizza crust with delayed fermentation from [here]

Mixed up a dough for pizza with 572 g of CM artisan bread flour, 411 g date and apple yeast water, 12 g salt, 20 g EVOO, and 10 g SD (as a hedge).  70 turns in the food processor + some Rubaud then in the fridge.  I'm curious how that will compare to the 3 g of yeast called for in BBA.

Another young vs ripe levain comparison for a desem culture maintained at 60 F.  At this time I was feeding 2x daily at roughly 5:3:5. This is a tortoise vs hare race.  The mature levains take an early lead, and the young levain eventually catches up with a sprint at the end. 

• mix 250 g flour at 66% hydration w/ 2% salt
• 90 turns in food processor total
• 20 turns to mix levains
• yellow: pH 4.55; 25:125  2% salt
• blue: pH 3.8; 25:125 2% salt

11:00 start

17:05: blue takes early lead