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I have been making a ton of whole grain breads lately, breads were the flavor comes entirely from fermentation and the actual flavor of the grain, and while I think that is essentially the only way that great bread should be flavored every once in a while I feel like messing around and experimenting with flavors that would be otherwise impossible to coax out of grain alone.

My very first attempt at making one of these loaves. It's still cooling so I don't know what it will taste like. I thought the dough a little dry and my plaits aren't too even but it looks good.

I decided to go back to Tartine Bread's Country Loaf since I had quite a bit of success the last time I made it. I need some bread for a staff snack this week (working a stretch of 8 days even though I am retired) and wanted something a bit different so I chose the Country Loaf with Sesame.

    I was in the mood for a nice soft flavorful bread, so since I had some fresh milled Kamut flour ready to go, I mixed it with a good amount ricotta cheese, olive oil and some Artisan style flour from KAF.  The end result was a dough that was soft as silk and ended up with a wonderful soft and flavorful crumb, perfect for sandwiches, toast and grilled bread.

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The copycat is back, that would be me.  David Snyder's recent post on his work in progress, Semolina Capriccioso, had my brain already plotting a visit to this bread, especially as he described the taste.  I've already professed my adoration for his Sourdough Italian Baguette bread a few times on TFL.  So the wheels encased inside my cranium were turning and I just had to scratch that itch.

hello all!

Since my last post, my microbakery business was uprooted along with much of my life. It's a blurry spectrum of crisis, growth and rebuilding, but if my returning passion for bread is any indicator, life is much better these days. 

My beau is quite the fermenting aficionado and has a great interest in beer, traditionally prepared food, etc. We've been watching Michael Pollan's Cooked lately, and made it to the bread episode and he was thrilled and wanted to learn the ropes from me.

Had a bunch of errands to run this weekend, and not a lot of time to prep for a bake--- perfect time to make some pita. It's 100% whole grain wheat flour, tastes great.

...there was Lacey. She's about a month old. 

Lacey, the starter, isn't all that strong or robust at the moment. Shes not sick, but a few days ago there was more CO2 production and visible muscle-like tension as the wooden spoon would stir her around.

I used most of her to make a few loaves of bread, then fed her, which was 34 hours ago. I've stirred her every twelve hours since then. Still trying to grow back to potential.

She was captured with 1:1 AP and water, then fed whole wheat and bread flour. She has gone back to AP, then switched back to 50/50 WW&BF.

I made Bag-End Levain for the bread shop yesterday. I did end up with one loaf left (it's in the freezer now) so if no one buys it I will slice it and post photos of the crumb (and comment on the taste). For now though, I'm happy the way it turned out. One never knows with dumping in whatever comes to hand!

This one had a blend of flours: