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I've really been enjoying reducing my levain to 10% and doing a longer bulk ferment this winter. I wanted to make some loaves to give away and to serve at a party, so I tried mixing dough for 6 loaves at once. Boy, that was a mistake! My scale couldn't handle the weight so all of my measurement were thrown off, but somehow the breads may be my best ever (at least visually).

This is my first time attempting the couronne Bordelaise. I followed the instructions given by Susan at Wild Yeast Blog, using her Norwich Sourdough recipe as well, though I scaled the recipe down by 25% to produce two (roughly) 750 gram loaves. I did a test run two days ago, which turned out pretty well, though I had some problems with execution. I rolled the center disk out too much, and that piece didn't separate to produce the "crown" effect. The first of the two I baked this morning similarly failed to crown thoroughly.

Same as last year's, the only differences are I used the best butter I found and I already got hold of the traditional Edam Cheese (Queso de Bola) used for a Filipino Ensaymada. Of course, I served it with traditional Filipino hot chocolate.

12/29/2019.  Goal:  1200 g boule, all WW except for what's in starter.  Overnight bulk ferment in cold (71 F falling to 67 F) kitchen.

9:00 pm. Mix: 500 g home-milled Prairie Gold hard white spring wheat, 100 g home-milled Kamut, 11.7 g salt, 56 g levain of 125% hydration ( 25 g flour, 31 g water), 472 g bottled spring water.

11.7 / 625 = 1.87% salt.

25 / 625 = 4.0% prefermented flour.

9:19 pm. Mix in 26 g additional water, 2 heaping tsp of ground  chia seed, 1 tsp caraway seed. (I'm guessing  add-ins are 3 gr.)

When I was a little kid, when parents want to show off how good their kids were in spelling (it's a double-edged sword actually for it is also often used when you want to give someone a hard time :D), they will make them spell "Czechoslovakia." Being so foreign sounding and with a peculiar arrangement of consonants for our eyes and ears, it was really difficult for kids in this side of the world to spell and really shows how good they were in actually "memorizing" letters for the correct spelling.

It’s been so long since I made this bread that I forgot how delightful it is.  My initial go-to instinct was to build a 125% AP levain and then run a most reliable Hamelman Vermont SD.  This, after waltzing with Maurizio’s Cinnamon Raisin SD baguettes and my Sesame Semolina baguettes.  Intermixed with learning the tricks of the trade re: croissants, pain au chocolate, pain aux raisins and some cinnamon buns with raisins and walnuts.  Still work to be done on all fronts there.

No. You didn’t read that wrong. This bake was inspired by the delicate, melt-in-your-mouth biscuits from Macau. I had no intention to put almonds or seaweed in the dough at first. Yet when the grains were being milled, the aroma of roasted nuts filled the kitchen. It totally blew my mind! Ahem, I came so close to adding pork floss to the dough. 

Macau Almond Cookie SD

I just wanted a convenient searchable reference for this figure.  How much sodium per gram of salt?

393.4 mg of sodium in 1 g (gram) salt.

according to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_chloride

Well, it sure has.  Thanksgiving has come and gone and so has Christmas.  The photo above is a very white SD Chacon of 7% rye and the rest KA bread flour at 78% hydration using 15 g of long stored Rye NMNF starter  -that was lurking at least 4 months in the bottom of the fridge.

Well after thinking about this for a while, and finally getting a grain mill for Christmas, I am going to jump into a new adventure in bread.  I am going to start playing around with some ancient grains.  I am going to start with a whole wheat and Spelt Pan Levain formula I found on Perfect Loaf, then an Einkorn Miche on the same site.  Then we go full into the darkside with Amaranth, sprouted grains and Freekah.  Will do my best to write about the trials and tribulations as I encounter them.

This should be fun and frustrating all at the same time.