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Semolina Levain with Roasted Garlic, Black pepper and Provolone

Hello everybody!

I have just baked this delicious bread for the third time and I am finally content with the results. I really love the feel of big breads, so I chose to make a 2 kg loaf. Making such a big bread is a joy for me also because it always means that I'm gonna make some other people happy with little tasty presents.

We have been baking with YW, Combo YW / SD and straight SD lately but have not had the chance to compare identical YW and SD recipes to see how they might compare.  We recently made a Joe Ortiz Desem Starter that we really liked so decided to use WW to build each of the starters to the same 90 grams of levain with the same 80% hydration.

For part II of my panaderia series, I bring the recipe for just about the most prevelant of pan dulces (sweet breads) in my old neighborhood; Conchas.  I've been looking for a good conchas recipe for ages, ever since I could no longer walk down the street to get a batch for 30 cents apiece.

This recipe is adapted from a great book (possibly the best one I've found in english) by Diana Kennedy, Regional Cuisines of Mexico.

Starter:
114g Flour
22g Water
50g (1) egg
1/8 tsp yeast

Final Dough:

My latest bake continues my recent obsession with sprouted grains in bread. I've been experimenting with them a lot lately and have found the flavor truly excellent. There is a nice sweetness to the sprouted grain and none of the bitterness that you find in whole wheat flour. Combine this with the great healthy benefits that come from sprouting grain and you have a great addition to many breads.

I wanted to make some good soft tasty rolls using my Cherry Yeast Water starter.   I figured since I can't drink the starter I should use some organic cherry lemonade in place of the water.  In order to get the rolls to be nice and soft and rich I decided to add some cream cheese and butter and used some Durum flour in the levain as well as the final dough.

Forgive the bad photos; they were taken at 5 a.m. with my cell phone. I wanted some pictures before I devoured the stuff. This is a rustic course wheat loaf. It is easy to make, and packed full of great wheaty flavor.

Here is my recipe for anyone who wants to try it:

Bread / all purpose flour: 400 grams

Whole wheat flour: 50 grams

Cracked wheat berries: 30 grams

Our granddaughters, Naomi (6 years old) and Sasha (3 years old), have been staying with us for two weeks. Making bagels was in our contract. We saved this activity until just before their parents return, so they could have them fresh-baked. The parents return late tonight, so we made bagels today to bake for their brunch tomorrow.

Naomi had had an introduction to bagel shaping by her great Great Uncle, Glenn, a few weeks ago. She was a quick learner. Now, little sister wanted to make bagels too.

My wife fried up some fresh plantains as a nice accompaniment to dinner the other night.  Since she made too many I figured I would try adding some to my next bread.  In retrospect I think it would have been better to boil some plantains instead of using fried ones but overall the bread turned out pretty good.  I can say that the plantains are certainly not overpowering and add a ni

The experiment of my blog a month ago failed. So I tried several times and succeed. My old computer broke down some days ago, so I can't post the process here,I used the sourdough starter to make bread. Now I post several photos here.