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I am living in Kyoto this year (from August 2011 until July 2012) and we have such a tiny kitchen and no oven.  I really miss baking bread.  I had to give my starter to a friend to hopefully keep alive for me.  

Most of the bread here is pretty bad; white sandwich bread, but there are a lot of small bakeries that make french loaves, and we treat ourselves to them from time to time.  And, of course, they have sweets too :)

A few Months ago, I applied to be a product tester for Brod & Taylor who designed a new folding proofer. It was a concept which appealed to me, due to our lack of counter space and my need to find a proper place to ferment and proof my breads. So I filled out the application and forgot about it. A few weeks ago I heard from the company who wanted to know if I was willing to try the folding proofer and let them know how I liked it. I was thrilled to be able to have one and run it through its paces.

Three months ago, I made pizzas using Maggie Glezer's recipe for the dough. (See Pizza Napoletana) It made the best thin, crisp pizza I'd ever had. My blog on that pizza elicited many useful comments and suggestions. I incorporated some of them into the pizza I made this weekend. Thanks to Ross for the prompt to make sourdough pizza dough and to Sylvia for the mention of using a combination of bread flour and durum flour in the dough.

I’ve been experimenting with bagels and pastries and I haven’t made sourdough in San Francisco for over a month, and I’d forgotten to feed my starter.  Then, we replaced our refrigerator and some things were unrefrigerated for a spell one day last week, including my starter.

During the last two weeks I revisited the formula posted earlie in my blog:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23830/german-baking-day

with some modifications in flour composition.

Each time I return to this formula I am amazed about the eae of the mix and bake and the richness and quality of the outcome.

I won't repeat the whole process here, just as a reminder:

1. Preferment with wholegrain or medium rye, 80% hydration, 10% of mature starter, ripe after ca. 12 hours.

Pane Nero di Castelvetrano in the Wood-fired Oven

Greetings. The crazy heat in my kitchen broke for long enough to allow me a few loaves for the holiday, although the heat was so great at times that my dough just died. After a long-awaited vacation coming up next week, I am looking forward to more reasonable conditions for baking when i return.