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I killed off both my sweet levain and YW starters after lengthy travel last fall. I thought it would be easy to replicate -- NOT. Two fails with both Deb Wink's pineapple juice solution and dabrownman's YW. I gave up and didn't bake another loaf all winter. Just cookies, buns and muffins.

Well I now have a most active, young levain. There are two things I did to ensure success this time. Okay three if you count the time that I have to tend to things these days.

We had a Game of Thrones party over the weekend, so I geeked out with a theme bread. Semolinas are fun to work with, and I figured anything yellow/gold in color could be called a Lannister bread of some sort. It was about half semolina flour. This was flavored with nutritional yeast powder, garlic powder, white truffle salt, and some chopped green olives from a jar. I also sprinkled in some smoked paprika during the stretch and folds hoping it would show up as red specks in the finished bread to evoke the crimson color the Lannisters like.

This was the weirdest pizza dough we have ever crafted.  We too some of our discard from the 3 day old rye starter and feed it some white flour and then a 1:2:3 SD mix with it for a planned pizza the next day.  Sadly, things got in the way after we punched this dough down after the bulk ferment and put it in the fridge.  It sat there for a full 72 hours before we got around to making pizza - which I do not not recommend - 24 hours is plenty for the retard.

Having heard so much about SFBI, I finally went there for a 5 days sourdough workshop.

Its located up a tiny mountain which offers stunning view to town

Based on the "Sourdough Italian Baguettes" from dmsnyder, I baked two bâtards today. Without durum flour, I used 200g whole wheat flour in the final dough and didn't add sugar during the procedures. My room temperature is about 69 to 73 dF and the dough had been kept in the refrigerator for 20 hours at 40 dF.

Also I have made considerable improvements today. With lots of scoring practice, yes, ears!

Hi friends, this old ski bum had a busy winter baking mostly cookies and muffins and logging 100 ski days for the season in a difficult snow year. YAHOO!

I was going to bake baguettes, got lazy and decided to do a Forkish style proof and bake. Funny, I ate little bread over the winter and suddenly had a hankering for a fresh loaf. Mission accomplished! I also started a pineapple juice solution to get a levain going and in day 5, it looks like I have a successful starter!!!!! I Am also day two on a YW starter that is progressing well according to dabrownman's instructions.

Started baking with levain a few weeks back, and it only took a few loaves to get me started on experiments and new flavors - couple that with chocolate cravings hitting with a passion - well, the rest is pretty self explanatory.

This week is finals (and my graduation!) week at Penn State, so naturally I've hidden from all responsibility in the kitchen. This week I made Po'Boy rolls for buffalo chicken cheesesteaks, oatmeal bread, oatmeal cookies, and pizza. 

Po'Boy Rolls - http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/24960/new-orleans-poboy-bread-it039s-all-eric039s-fault

I made these a little smaller for shareability, maybe a little less crackly, but so delicious.

Hello,

Sourdough Italian Demi-Baguettes: Variations on a Theme 

David M. Snyder

May 3, 2015