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Made this for the first time having read txfarmer's extensive post on this bread. It certainly does live up to its reputation of being the softest sandwich loaf ever. The extensive dough kneading required produced a dough so silky smooth that I couldn't help myself but to have a taste of the raw dough. And disturbingly I wanted more of it. Hmm..

Good enough to be eaten as a snack.

Kong

I love the crustiness I get with the Jim Lahey style bread. But if I store in in a plastic bag, it crust goes all soft. How can I keep it out on the counter for 3-5 days? Someone suggested keeping it in a paper bag. Anyone ever had luck with that?

By the way, I'm new to The Fresh Loaf but not new to bread baking. Started 40 years ago with the Tassajara method. Am now quickly become a Laher and Reinhart devotee (but I kind of miss the therapy of all that kneading).

Just thought with all my experimenting I would make a basic Sourdough loaf just so I would not forget what brought me down this road.

Enjoy the coming spring everyone!

Cheers,

Wingnut

After the our take on Ballymaloe’s Brown Bread with Guinness and Biga, turned out so nice for St. Paddy’s Day, we wondered why we haven’t ever seen this bread baked as a sourdough at Ballymaloe?  So we thought we would give it a go with Not Mini's Ancient WW SD Starter that is almost 2 weeks old and nearly tripling after 8 hours now.

This one is inspired by TFL posts, specifically ones by Yuko & Evon Lim, of breads made with red wine.

My raisin yeast water was ready and raring to go. Till now I have always added a bit of instant yeast to my YW breads for luck. This time I decided to take risk and see if the YW could manage on its own. As this was to be a test for my YW,  I decided to stick to few simple ingredients. First I soaked 100 gms chopped dried figs in 100 gms Shiraz and kept overnight.

     As I mentioned in my previous post I recently purchased a Brod and Taylor proofer and I have been experimenting with it to see how it affects the sourness and overall bread.

While cleaning up some of my brewing equipment, I noticed the water getting colder and colder. Out of propane! I called the company, took Monday off to wait for the guy, then decided it'd be a great excuse for some sourdough!

I refreshed my starter with some locally grown and milled whole wheat bread flour. I decided to do the basic Pain au Levain in Bread Alone, with the addition of a bunch of fresh rosemary I had in the fridge.

I make these outside of my home for people and they absolutely love them. Everyone who has tasted them says they taste better than Cinnabon's. Those are not my words.

I made these the other day and they were gone in minutes. I went to a restaurant called Bar Louie and ordered these and said, "I have to make these". I already love pretzels, so why not?