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These are a couple of the bakes from my ongoing attempt at combining methods from Whole Grain Breads and Tartine Bread into a simple, mostly whole wheat sourdough.  The bread is turning out pretty well - crackled crust, soft, springy crumb, lovely flavor.  It's amazing what even 15% white flour will do for the texture of a whole wheat bread.  The hardest part is just making up my mind about the details!

Hi hi from Vancouver, British Columbia!

My family and I are spending the remainder of summer up here, with me telecommuting back to the office a few days a week.  

There is a ton to see and do here.  Bakeries are, of course, on my hit list.  I've already sampled a fair share.  I visited Siegel's Bagels our first morning here. 

I made this bread yesterday from Hamelman's yeasted prefermets section. I used 50% Strong white Hovis bread flour, and 50% Snowflake Nutty Wheat Flour. As the latter contains too much bran, i adjusted by adding some all purpose flour to the final dough.

I mounted two baking stones on two separate racks. The oven spring was better this way, i think. I used Sylvia's Steaming technique.. (very effective).

You can go nuts trying to find the perfect pizza dough formula. The cookbooks and the web are full of recipes for various types of dough and full of opinions regarding the type of flour to use, the ingredients (beyond flour, water, salt and yeast) and the mixing and fermentation methods that work best.

This sourdough focaccia if based on the excellent post,  for a 'sourdough raisin focaccia' by bwraith.  http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/2581/sourdough-raisin-focaccia

This weekend has been pretty much perfect.  We’re on the North Coast.  The weather is sunny and mild.  The birds and flowers are enjoying Summer.  I’m barbecuing three nights in a row (loin lamb chops, Bulgogi and Tandoori Chicken).  And I baked something new and something familiar; something sour and something sweet.

In front of the store where I sell my breads I saw a bed of lavender in full bloom. The smell was wonderful, recalling memories of glorious summer holidays as a student in the Provence. It also reminded me of a bread recipe with lavender that I always wanted to try, and some lavender cupcakes I had made last year, but wasn't quite satisfied with.

No crazy marathon baking for me this weekend - just one loaf of bread and one apricot frangipane tart.

I love English apricots - a massive box for £2.50, can't complain, can I? I wonder if I can make a recipe for Apricot bread? Hmmm....