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This is my second and third attempts at making this bread.  I really love the sweetness the dates impart to this bread so I've been meaning to make it again for a while.  Version 2 I made last week and I rushed the dough into the oven and it was definitely under-proofed.  It had some nice fissures and the crumb was much tighter than it should have been.  It still tasted good but I had to make it again the right way.

The third time it came out much better and was worth making it again.

A distant relative asked me if I would provide the Challah for the blessing at her Son's wedding.
I would have complete freedom of choice for all the parameters, e.g. amount, shape, formula.
The 200 guests were to be seated at 18 tables.

After some deliberation I decided to bake 1 Challah for each table, and a special one for the head table.
I thought I'd get 4 X 500g into the oven, which would require 5 batches.

My starter seed culture is in Phase 3. I can't wait to start making sourdough. In the meantime, I made a krantz cake with chocolate and pecans. The recipe is from Yotam Ottolenghi's "Jerusalem".

I hadn't baked in a while and hadn't used my AYW in weeks!   Got my odds and ends of partial bags of flour out and voila....lovely bake.   Fed my  100% hydration rye starter with spelt and AWY 2x a few hours apart...it was SO active I had to refrigerate it overnight. Used up 65g Semolina, 42 grams Italian Chestnut flour, 86 grams Kamut, 123 grams sprouted Rye and 458 grams AP KA.  Mixed and autolysed  with  640 g water without salt for 1 hr. Added salt and used speed 2 for 5 min . Very slack dough but responded well to s&f's.

Oh my! Great idea Josh! Any other great ideas like this would be most warmly welcomed.

Best regards, Brian

Four nights in Bangkok, Thailand. 

Accompanied by my business partner, our quest was to find a bulk flour supplier for my sourdough bakery in Siem Reap, Cambodia, called "Bäckerei". Other high priority items included paper bread bags, food-grade lye (sodium hydroxide) for pretzels, and brotformen (dough proofing baskets). 

Of course, I was also on the lookout for bread. Good bread, I mean.

I've been baking for the Arts and crafts market,scheduled next Friday the 14th of March,  and here are 2 bakes out of 3. I plan to bake Tartine's sesame bread last. When i have spare spare time, and effort, i plan to bake Mark Sinclair's Potato rolls that Mr. Mark has so generously shared with us. 

80% Rye with Rye flour soaker from Hamelman's book: BREAD

Whole Wheat Multigrain from Hamelman's book: BREAD

I was pleased with the results.  The beer came through big time.  The crumb was moist and chewy.

1 1/2 cup Whole wheat flour KA

1 1/2 cup bread flour

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 1/2 Guinness beer

1/4 t yeast

1 1/2 t sea salt

-18 hr ferment

-baked in dutch oven at 500 degrees, 20 min lid on, 18 lid off.

My starter seed culture is not ready yet so I'm practicing bread with commercial yeast in the meantime. I read in another TFL post that it's possible to make "artisan" bread using commercial yeast and was pointed to this link for Forkish's white bread with overnight poolish from FWSY.

I have been baking nothing but the basic country loaf now for several months, and my breads have always come out pretty good, though varying considerably in flavor.

I am a weekend baker and have wanted to get my bakes done early Saturday instead of late Saturday night or early Sunday.  So I decided to take another stab at doing things backwards.

Friday morning, I took my starter out of the fridge (last fed, a week earlier), and created the leaven.