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Locally sourced, farm fresh seasonal pie bake.

So I decided to try baguettes again having had one previous attempt.  This time I tried the Anis Bouabsa recipe more or less based on what MTloaf and Alfanso posted here.

i only found one online mention of something similar 

here http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28972/cheese-starter-culture-sourdough-starter

but i decided to try and redo/re-approach my experiments that i tried before.

maybe a year ago, i started trying to add cheese cultures to yeast biga and let them sit a while and keep feeding it; (also, with tribasic calcium phosphate Ca3(PO4)2, just in case it helped)

To learn more about concentrated lactic acid sourdough (CLAS), please see here and here. 

Had been attempting sandwich bread since before Christmas- constant fails. After lots of research and questions, finally figured out I’d been doing 2 things wrong- underkneading and overproofing. That, and the crappy yeast packets from the grocery store were the culprits. Use only Saf-Instant yeast now and couldn’t be happier. This morning, I made the honey wheat loaves from Allrecipes. I usually do 1 loaf recipes, but this had 2.

Yes, I've posted this before, but this is a slight mod.  2 changes from my past excursions.  This is a first time combining two distinct olives into one bread.  Okay, minor news.  More importantly, since enduring my Martin Philip Classic Baguette w/IDY marathon, I've changed out the timing on divide and shape.  

Been getting my head round sourdough and this is probably my most successful loaf yet! Can't remember where I read it, but distinguishing dough that has come to the end of its bulk as "whipped cream", vs "just cream" at the start, has made a big difference to aeration. I'm also practicing my slap and folds.

Here in Switzerland we have some great flours. My German and my French is pretty poor. I've stopped trying to follow English recipes stringently and just go by feel instead. This is 100% Ruchmehl, which I think is a whole grain flour. Either way it tastes lovely.

So after much prodding from certain people, you know who you are, I finally tried making baguettes.  I decided to try to keep it as simple as possible and just try an IDY recipe.  I had a look at Peter Reinhart’s recipe and decided to have a go at that.  It didn’t require a poolish nor levain, just IDY.

I have been baking at my parents' home where I have access to one Le Creuset DO and one vintage aluminum DO. Bake after bake, the loaf baked in the aluminum DO has inferior rise and oven spring. Heat retention really does make a difference (at least that's what I have been finding). Both of these loaves are 50% whole grain and followed the exact same fermentation process, but the loaf on the right has superior spring. 

My latest bake Finally found a topping recipe I like. Love tiger bread rolls. Very pleased with the results.