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Every June I eagerly await the arrival of John Driver's CandyCot apricots at the farmers' market. The apricots that he grows are unlike any other apricot I have ever eaten including the Blenheim. They are sweet and complex with a very concentrated flavor. According to their website, they measure between 26 and 32 on the Brix (sweetness) scale, while most supermarket varieties of apricots register in the low teens.

"A loaf of bread," the Walrus said,
"Is what we chiefly need:
Pepper and vinegar besides
Are very good indeed--
Now if you're ready, Oysters dear,
We can begin to feed."

 (L.Carroll, The Walrus and the Carpenter).

Two weekends ago, I brought some Portugese Sweet Bread dough home from a class I had taught about sandwich breads.  One weekend ago, I baked the bread.  This weekend, finally, I have an opportunity to post about it.

After reading Varda's post and finally learning what Tzitsel is I figured I might as well give it a whirl.  

Found the recipe from TFL (from JMonkey) using "discarded" starter.

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/handbook/whole-wheat-sourdough-waffles

Changed the melted butter/vegetable oil to coconut oil. Added a bit of vanilla extract as well.

Used a stovetop waffle maker from HappyCall (a Korean brand).

1st time making them. Not too bad. But because of the high humidity here, they turn soft very fast. Enjoyed eating a few pieces off the cooling rack while they're still crispy.

Was on a trip to Scandanavia and had to make a pit stop at the famed Meyers Bageri in Copenhagen, owned by Claus Meyers (one of the owners behind the world's best restaurant Noma).

The bakery is famed for milling their own flour daily and baking a range of Scandanavian favourites like 100% dark rye loaves and crackers. They also have well-loved sweet breads and pastries, the cinnamon rolls usually sell out when they open in the morning.

Here is my interpretation of ciabatta made with sourdough.

As a general rule wetter doughs require less madre. I used 20% instead of normal 25% as per doughs made at 70% hydration.

lievito preparation:

• lievito madre in aqua: 12hrs @ 15C
• bath: 15 minutes in sweetened water @ 38C

formula:

20% - lievito madre
90% - '00' flour
10% - whole emmer flour
85% - water (of flour added)
02% - salt (of total flour)

Is there a better way to celebrate the 4th of July than to highlight the bounty and variety of grain grown in the USA by baking a couple of breads that have 15 different grains in them?  Maybe some smoked ribs and a beer but this bake was close and ribs and beer will happen later :-)

Belated Happy Canada Day to my Canadian friends on TFL and best wishes for a great Fourth of July for my American friends!

On the left and center pulla, which I have covered in other posts and on the right. A 12 grain and seed bread raised successfully from a YW starter. Thanks dabrownman for sharing your starter build tips!

Lately I've been having inconsistencies with the Levain I bake. Sometimes the cell structure is too tight and the taste too acidic, sometimes I get a tight crumb with no acidity whatsoever, indicating a lack of micro-organism activity, and sometimes, I get a beautiful open crumb and just a hint of acidity, which is my ideal pain au levain. This week, I baked my levain (which is always 80% AP, 10% WW, and 10% Rye), with 12% Prefermented flour and using a stiff levain 84-16 (AP:WW) instead of a liquid 50-50 to generate the fermentation.