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Yesterday we were looking after three of four grandchildren because my daughter and son in law and the oldest grandson were involved in "International Water Count" of birds which always takes place mid January practically worldwide.

I decided to involve my eleven and half year old granddaughter into baking and she was also very keen on baking. She is an incredible girl playing trumpet and riding horses. We made two loaves of bread and three baguettes. The boules were baked in wood fired oven while baguettes were baked in electric steam oven.

Hi all

Lucy finally got back to her German roots and came up with a rye bread that reminds her of home.  It is 70% whole grain rye and 30 % sprouted red and white wheat.  It had a bit of red malt, some barley malt syrup and some Deschutes Black Butte Porter for some of the liquid to bring out a dark color.

Does rugbrod, or Danish rye bread, rings the bell for you? You might have tasted it in an open-faced Danish sandwich, served with herring, cured salmon, ground liver or smoked cheese. The bread is dense and dark and substantial -- something a piece of our usual smooth white or whole-wheat bread can't hold up against the richly-flavored goodies on top.

Second bake is for a weekend visit to some friends.

This is a sourdough loaf made using Reinhart's BBA recipe as the foundation, this time with KAF BF (15 oz), Gold Medal AP flour (4 oz), and a bit of rye flour (1.25 oz). I used 10 oz of firm starter ... I didn't measure the flour or water, but I'd estimate it was mixed to 70% hydration or so ... also I used the Gold Medal flour to build the starter.

I'm still nurturing my spelt starter in preparation for an all-spelt loaf later this week, so this is another variation on the country loaf, made with spelt starter that would otherwise go to waste.

I'm quite happy with the rise on this loaf, as well as the flavor that the spelt starter seems to impart. Sorry, no crumb shot, I took this loaf to the office where it was promptly devoured by my team during weekly staff.

Recipe is as follows:

I've made this loaf probably more than any other, and yet I still managed to screw up a few things. This is my Standard Sesame Loaf, though in this particular instance I used a little bit of spelt starter that would otherwise have gone to waste, along with some of my regular wheat starter. I wouldn't call this one of the better examples, though -- rise was a little bit less than I would have hoped for. I messed up here and there, both on ingredients and timing.

Recipe as follows:

Well 2017 started off ok... My first bake was early January 2nd after an overnight cold proof. I made my version of Field blend #2 and it came out beautifully

Last weekend figured I should make some more bread as visitors had made quite a dent in the supply in the freezer. So I decided to have another go at Hamelmans 40% rye with caraway, This time with no yeast and an overnight cold retard before baking.

Mixed levain and left over night on bench

556 g rye flour

461 g water

Happy New Year!

First bake of the year, Reinhart Basic SD, with KAF BF, Gold Medal AP, and a touch of rye flour. Starter was fed with only AP flour.

Oven spring wasn't what I'd hoped, I think the AP flour had something to do with it.

I immediately refed the starter and made another loaf (it's in the oven as I type this) ... I used similar flour amounts (quite a bit of AP) but this time I let it autolyze for 20 minutes and I immediately noticed a difference in gluten development when I started kneading it with my Kitchen Aid.