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  This was supposed to be a high extraction whole wheat loaf but I'm having trouble milling my flour course enough to actually have much bran left to sift out.  So, instead I basically used freshly milled whole wheat and added some fresh whole rye flour along with some whole spelt and a whole bunch of caramelized onions.

My second venture into bread baking, guided by The Fresh Loaf Lessons. With today's loaf I want to try:

1.Using a preferment to use less yeast and lend more flavor to the bread.

2.Venturing from machine mixing by autolyse, so I'm not "kneading the beegeebers" for 10 minutes - kneading is the one reason why I've shied away from bread baking all these years. I'm lazy.

3.Getting a feel for the slap and fold method.

After reading a post by Ian writing about building a bread that calls our own, this idea strikes me and I decided I am up for this challenge. The only requirement for the challenge is following the ingridient listed in his blog 450 g (90%) 550 wheat flour 50 g (10%) rye flour 10 g (2%), salt Yeast and / or yeast Water

The first loaf did get a pretty good oven spring but I wonder if the scoring wasn't deep enough? Because, I feel like it could have been better. The second one, the one with the three scores, I think looks a little prettier. Anyways, I'm proud of myself! My starter is about 2.5 - 3 weeks old, I got the recipe off TFL, and it worked like a charm!

I used a combo cooker similar to the one mentioned in Tartine Breads, suggested by the author and by one of the regulars here on TFL. I followed the recipe to a "T". 

Yesterday, I baked the "Finnish Rye" from the SFBI for the second time. It is a delicious bread, although what makes it Finnish and why it's called a rye, since it has less rye than either white or whole wheat flour, remains mysterious. I described how I made it in my previous post ("Finnish Rye" from the SFBI. 

Now there’s a string of words that usually don’t go together.

For old timers who thought I might have gone the way of Bill Wraith – no, I didn’t just disappear. At the end of December 2013, I officially hung up (sort of) the consultant/road warrior gloves and went into my long planned retirement.

Before I joined this site,  I didn't realize how behind the curve I was as I had never made a Vermont Sourdough. I decided to get with it and make one today.  I have been schooled by the many wonderful bakers on this site and encouraged to try, so I did.  I used David's Hamelman's recipe, but altered it a bit by adding a bit more rye.  I was finishing a bag of bread flour and didn't have quite enough, and I thought the additional rye would add some nice flavor.

Well, in case anybody remembers, about a year ago I posted this. Well, the time of year has come again when the winter is over, and we have tons of left over semolina (we buy it to make porridge). A lot of water (and flour) has passed under the bridge since that naive attempt, and I had 2 other attempts (unpublished) before this, the final result.

Hi everyone!

A few months ago I gave my colleague some rye starter, using which she's been successfully baking 100% rye breads at home. Now some more people have expressed interest in baking a "rustic" white bread. My job was to develop a simple formula that a someone new to bread baking could easily follow, while at the same time yielding a good-looking, crusty loaf with good flavor. I pondered whether to develop a simple formula using sourdough or commercial yeast and finally decided on the later.