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I've read/skimmed Richard Bertinet's bread books. It would be fun to take his courses at his school in Bath, England, but I live in the US and the courses are pricey. He's an advocate of the 'slap and fold' technique.

I came upon a newly launched video course web site, Learningwithexperts.com on which he has a course.

It's a four-part course that I bought. The site's pricing is interesting. In the US, the course is US$100. But in the UK, the course is £ 29, which is about US$37.

Ingredients:

• 100g Sourdough Starter (50/50 Hard Red Wheat)
• 286g Whole Red Wheat (Home Milled)
• 376g HEB Bread Flour
• 18g Salt

This recipe was derived from the following King Arthur recipe:
https://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/no-knead-sourdough-bread-recipe

With the following modifications:

I've been experimenting lately with left over starter. I'm creating a stiff Pate Fermentee with it and a few days later adhoc a recipe. The breads are fine but nothing wow yet. This was my recent attempt. I'm posting this for recording keeping more than anything else.

Pate Fementee was 1 part ripe starter, 2.5 part water and 4.5 part AP flour - or 60, 132 and 270 respectively. I left it out for an hour and then put it in the fridge.

Final dough was made two days later:

- 150g pate fermente

- 125g whole wheat flour

- 375g all purpose flour

-12g salt

It has been quite a while since I last baked with spelt. Spelt and emmer are similar in terms of their characteristic in dough. Working with them is always a pleasant experience for they produce a silky (read: not gluing to your hands like rye…) and extensible dough.

Temperature has been hitting 33°C these days, so it wasn’t at all surprising that the levain (1:5.5:5.5) got aerated within 3.5 hours. I didn’t plan very well so it had to go into the fridge for 3 hours before use.

My husband had a hankering for a rye bread....who can say no?

I grabbed my Hamelman, and went in search of a rye that had no commercial yeast and also was wholegrain.  I failed, so I modified his 65 percent sourdough rye to use only freshly milled grain.  I have to say - this is one of the tastiest rye breads I have had since I moved out of New York. 

Prepare sourdough -and then let it sit about 16 hours on the counter at about 20 degrees C

This bake was from a few weeks ago.  The spouted whole wheat and sprouted purple corn flour really added a special flavor and made this an extremely tasty bread.  I added some fresh ricotta cheese which really softens the crumb.

I made one large miche style bread and I was extremely happy with how the crust and crumb came out on this one.

Modern baking with commercial cultivars of wheat, blended flours, thermostat controlled ovens, and particularly commercial yeast is predictable. Yes, it takes skill, and there is always something to learn that will make the product better, but it is predicable. 

I have been grinding my own flour for a few years now, and every time I try new kinds of grain or new blends of grain, I have increased respect for the bakers of 500 or a thousand years ago.

Here, in Romania, we're making some bundles of enriched and fragrant dough filled with goodies - walnut+sugar+cocoa+rum; Turkish delight; raisins - sometimes all of them, and called them "cozonac". Our cozonac is more like a babka that a panettone, more like a brioche stuffed with precious sweet things. 

After years of stopping making cozonac with commercial yeast, I've decided to give it another try with sourdough instead. It took two days (night not counting) from start to finish and it's a joy, a pride, and a treat. A winner. 

A Portuguese classic... 

This turned out great! The pastry really was not hard to make. I ran the oven at 500F with convection, and I baked on 2nd rack from the top, which gave me some nice blistering of the custard. My one 1 improvement for next time: ensure the sugar syrup tastes to cinnamon.

Recipe from Food Wishes: https://foodwishes.blogspot.com/2018/11/portuguese-custard-tarts-hieronymites.html

I wanted to see how far I could push bulk fermentation and with this bake I probably went a bit far.  I’ve baked this bread before which is in total 50% whole grains but I’ve never pushed the hydration to 83% which I did for this bake.  I also used my aliquot jar and shaped once it showed that the dough had risen 50%.  Given the lack of oven spring, I think for my skill set, 83% hydration and 50% rise made the resultant dough a bit too loose to shape tightly and attain better oven spring.  I’ll post photos of the crumb when I slice it tomorrow.