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Hi Guys!

I've been MIA from TFL for quite a long time now. Been working on building up my blog www.nothymetowaste.org which is primarily baked goods, and I haven't been making much bread. Especially during the hot summer months! But, it's autumn again so naturally I'm back on the bread train. 

It doesn't get much simpler. The following formula expressed as baker's percents is used to refresh existing sourdough starter:

67% all purpose flour
33% cake flour
160% water

The above combination of flours is approximately 9.6% protein. A 50:50 mix of all purpose and pastry flour is a close alternative, as are several other flour combinations.

Calculate ingredient weights with a particular flour weight

Yesterday was like an early Friday, so I thought pizza would be fun. I improvised on this recipe, but about an hour into the process, I remembered that I had the pizza dough recipe from My Bread! Too late, so I decided, if I wasn't going to use Lahey's dough, I could still use some of his toppings. I decided to make the sweet potato pizza: sweet potatoes, onions, and olive oil. I also put together some pizza marinara with some leftover tomato sauce, some herbs, and some almond-parmesan. Here was the formula for the dough:

400g King Arthur All-Purpose Flour

325g water

My basic pain au levain coming off the grill. With the summer heat I have been working on this method for awhile.

On a recommendation being sent to Yeast Spotting

For Rosh Hashanah, my wife stopped at Chompies Bakery http://chompies.com/  to bring home a fine, non sourdough, snail shaped, raisin challah.  It was a leaner to the left with the inner circles higher than the outer ones – very tall.  Just beautiful, perfectly baked and delicious!  I can’t wait to have it for French toast this morning.

Seemed like a good day to try some challah.

Both leavened with wild yeast. Traditional round baked in a cloche.

5 braid baked on an outdoor grill.  Both delicious.

So I thought I'd try my Home brew beer in this bread taking all your previous comments into account.

English muffins.  I started with Gisslen's formula, but have to avoid milk, so take it out.  I am still using a very similar formula, but not with a straight dough process, rather adapted to sponge and dough.  I'm slowly increasing the hydration until I get a somewhat flat top during proof.  Next time I'll try 75%.  Gisslen includes 2.3% milk solids, which have an absorbancy of some value, maybe about 1:1. This is the second time I've used gypsum, the first time it accelerated yeast growth, replacing the calcium removed by the water filter.