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You can always tell what the current everyday bread is around here when the freezer is getting close to being empty. – like it is right now.  We didn’t make a bread last Friday and we have been giving away some of it the past two weeks too.

I watched British Bake-off with my daughter last night. It was Botanicals week, and the bread challenge was Fougasse. Not being one to turn down a challenge...

I find the flour here in the UK to be a bit of a challenge in itself, being used to Canadian bread flour. The dough was very, very sticky and took a long time to develop. I ended up with so much stuck to me and the bench, even after 10-12 minutes of slapping and folding, that there was barely enough left for the bread! Oh well, a challenge is meant to be challenging, after all.

Left to right a tag end of a pulla braid, some soft pull apart dinner rolls and in front NY style deli rye take three. I love the deli rye and this time I used barley malt syrup instead of brown sugar and used more onion and caramelized them down. This has made a wonderful sandwich bread.

On this rye bake, I brushed the excess flour from the banneton from the loaf with a soft brush and applied an egg wash to give the crust gloss. Perhaps my best take yet on Peter Reinhart's great recipe!

Thanks to all of you who offered advice after I lost my starter to mold after a long trip.  As I mentioned, the gluten-free starter was fine, so I stole some and built it up using ww, white and rye flours.  It really perked up quickly, and this is the first loaf I baked using it, a classic sourdough.  Thanks again to all for their suggestions.  I will try them all when I go on my next extended journey.  Best,  Phyllis

Hey! I'm back! I just had a HUGE culinary failure 2 months ago and since then I haven't baked or cooked anything until last week. My failure was so huge and heartbreaking that just talking about it makes me sad. I kept myself busy so I could move on but there are always reasons to celebrate so I made these gifts to give to some significant persons to me.

as we pack up this morning to get out of the way of Hurricane Matthew.  On our way to friends on the Gulf Coast.

SFBI Pain au Levain.  2x350g, 2x605g.

Well, after having spent five days in Prague, sampling their wonderful bread (there is even fresh, home-baked sourdough multi-grain bread in the convenience stores!), I came back to my daughter's house to find no fresh bread. So off we go again. First, some more of the seed bread for toast. This also makes very good toasted egg, ham and cheese sandwiches for breakfast, especially with some of the excellent cheese I got at Neal's Yard in London Borough Market - the best cheese shop in the best market in the world! :)

Well, it's finally happened.  I lost two of my starters during a long trip away in England.  I have an all white flour starter and a mixed starter with white, rye and ww flours and both bit the dust as I was away for five weeks. I fed them right before I left and put them in clean jars.  I'll never do that again!  I've traveled before and they have been fine.  AND in the UK, my starter seems OK, but smells terrible.  My niece feeds it while I am away, so I am not sure why it smells so bad.

Hi Folks just a couple of pics of my new starter at work producing a loaf of dubious pedigree with a whole mix of bits of flours used including country grain mix, wheat meal and some bakers flour. 

My previous culture was lost so the new one was started a short time ago, looking good in its infancy.