A really fascinating exercise: wild yeast water. Not sourdough, as I used the water straight up without making a flour-based pre-ferment. I've subsequently read about different applications of the water, basically to strengthen the sour starter, but I was ecstatic to see that it actually leavened the bread on its own. That's magic.
After a long time I decide to experiment with tastes and colors. Right now the elderberry in our vicinity is getting mature and there is abundance of Hokkaido squashes on our home garden. I also decided to coat the bread and dust it with extra flour before scoring it to get some extra effects.
Breaking this bread is tantamount to opening a holiday present. At least, it feels that way when I cut the bread. The abundant good eats: olives, walnuts, sunflower seeds, herbs de Provence, lemon zest, filled the interior to the rim, are what make this bread sing.
So I added some bread flour, reduced the rye flour and left the H2O the same. Net reduction in hydration.
So here I am again- 8 years after the last post. It's great to be back! I see some old familiar names from the last decade. I see more new members who, doubtless, will feel like old friends soon enough.
While I was putting together our "treats" (rolls for the man and rye for me), I still wanted to bake some day-to-day sandwich bread that we both would enjoy. I hadn't done any high-percentage whole durum for a while, so I put together a dough with 55% durum on the Thursday, and it ended up in the fridge to ferment overnight.
I'm mostly down to one crutch or a cane, and moving around better, so thought that it would be a good week to re-stock the freezer with my husband's favourite (the oat kamut rolls from http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/52425/catching-myself-oat-kamut-rolls-july-7), and a variation on my own favourite, which is 100% rye.
Upon request of some friends, I repeated the Cranberry Wild Rice version from a couple of weeks ago but with a few changes. I put in currants instead of raisins and pumpkin seeds instead of Pecans.
We've been away visiting family in Switzerland (with a side trip to Ireland) for. the last couple of months. While there I couldn't resist having a try with Swiss flour etc. So a niece had a rye starter that I was able to use. I just used 30% rye flour and the rest the white bread flour. just a basic 1:2:3 loaf. Funny baking in someone else's kitchen, using an unknown starter, unfamiliar flours and equipment and oven.
So, after baking 75 loaves of bread in the one week since we've been back from holiday, what do I do for a break? Bake bread, of course! :) I was making "What do I do with all these green beans from the garden" minestrone for dinner, and needed some bread to go with it. All I had on hand was multigrain sandwich bread which didn't seem quite right with minestrone, so I figured it was high time I finally tried the most-bookmarked bread on this site - Jason's Quick Cocodrillo Ciabatta.
