Hello everyone,
Franko very kindly told me about a baking textbook that was available for sale online: On Baking
(authors Sarah Labensky, Priscilla Martel, Klaus Tenbergen and Eddie Van Damme).
Not drawing as long a titular bow as you might think! These two master craftsmen have much in common.
I've been wanting to try my hand at making Phil's 100% Whole Wheat Desem bread since it sounded so simple but yet so good. I had started preparing the Desem starter a while ago but had to abandon it when I went away for business. I was not thrilled with the way it was turning out anyway so it wasn't a great loss.
We were inspired by Varda’s recent Priests Hat Altamura Style Bread Revisited here: http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/28663/altamura-style-bread-revisited
For about two months, I had had my sourdough starter sitting on the kitchen counter covered with a kitchen towel. Last week, when I finally found time to look at it again, it looked like a dry cracker cookie.
I had no idea if I could still restore the starter or not, but I decided to give it a try.
Here are 3 calculation tables for Nancy Silverton's 145% White Starter from her book "Breads from the La Brea Bakery."
I created these for anyone who wants to convert one of Nancy's formulas to baker's percentages. It's no more difficult than any other conversion until you realize her starter is a 145% hydration that's refreshed as 52.21% starter : 28.32% water : 19.47% flour.
Using these tables, you can determine the amount (in grams) of flour and water required when one of her recipes, like the Olive Bread, calls for 12 1/2 ounces of white starter.
For breakfast we had a nice YW Buckwheat Apple Pecan Pancake loose based on sweetbird's bread but using YW as leaven and milk to thin it out to pancake consistency. Very nice!
