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I have made sourdough breads with tart dried fruit and toasted nuts for many years. Recently, I have been less happy with the ones I have been making. I don't think the breads are any worse. I think my standards are higher. So, this week I tried adding figs and walnuts to my current favorite sourdough just to see how it worked. Well, it is a winner. It's my new favorite fruit/nut sourdough. It is lighter with a better aerated, moister, more tender crumb than others I have made, and the flavor is as good if not better than my previous best. The crust is nice and crunchy.

Lucy and I were talking about robots the other day.  I told her that I was pretty sure pets would be replaced by robots before people would be.  She thought about that and then said something truly profound.  She said I might be right.

Acme in San Francisco makes a lot of different breads.  I often pick up their sourdough cheese rolls, and finally decided to attempt them myself.  Hamelman has a cheese bread with 60% hydration stiff levain.  It got very active and stickier than I expected, never having made a stiff levain before.  The dough itself was 60% hydration, considerably lower than I ever make.

 I promised my wife last month that I would make her a version of a chocolate bread she saw posted from a bakery on-line.  I finally had a chance to bake my version.  I wanted to make a soft moist bread with plenty of flavor and several different types of chocolate.

Nothing fancy but I baked a couple white sourdough loaves this evening. Around 73% hydration, 65% AP flour, 35% bread flour.

It was sunny and beautiful but still cool today, so they rose too slowly to have them ready for suppertime. I'm looking forward to trying one of them in the morning.

Stopped in to share the Focaccia we'll have with tonight's dinner, and send some home with our son and his wife. Hope you all have enjoyed a fine Spring weekend!

Cathy

I really enjoy using multigrain cereal in bread and thought I would combine it with some rye sprouts. So here goes:

1. Sprout 75 g of rye berries. This took 3 days.

2. Toast 75 g of Bob's Red Mill 10 grain cereal and soak overnight in 140 g of boiling water. The next morning, stir in 30 g of kefir and let sit for a few hours.

3. Autolyse all of the above with 650 g water, 550 g no additives unbleached flour, 202 g white whole wheat flour, 100 g fresh milled red fife flour and 100 g Robin Hood Multigrain Best for Bread flour. Let sit for approximately one hour.

Well, all of you evil influences managed to tempt me off of my planned path of simple formulas (with some experiments of percentages and timing just to figure out what works best here), and off in to the crazy territory of the more complex recipes...

I can't say that I am really ready for it, but - well, that's part of the fun! 

EARLY BIRD DEADLINE IS MONDAY APRIL 3rd

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