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I've had this book "100 Great Breads" by Paul Hollywood for many years when my friend Grace gave it for my birthday. I've always wanted to try one of the recipes but laziness always got in the way. Until my passion for baking started coming back and thought, why not give it a try? So today at work, I made sure I would make this bread no matter what. So during my spare, short time, I was able to prep the mise en place and just dump them all in the mixer. It was pretty quick, no need to soak the yeast in warm liquid.

Like a number of other Bay Area bakers on TFL, Della Fattoria is one of my favorite bakeries.  I have always loved their Rosemary Meyer Lemon bread, although it can be hard to get from this small local operation. Inspired by onceuponamac on this post http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/23378/rosemary-meyer-lemon-80-hydration, I tried my hand at making something that approaches their bread.  Of course, without a WFO it can never be the same, but this bake came out pretty good.

Mixed Leavens, Mixed Flours; 9th December 2011.

What follows is my attempt at passing on what I've learned from watching a Youtube in a language I do not speak.

Some new toys. Both the dough whisk and the silicone scraper are great. AP and WW, poolish, milk, sugar, butter, and salt.

Here are some sourdough loaves of Mission Fig Almond Anise & Medjool Date Cashew.

These are all rifts of Nancy Silverton's Fig Anise Bread from The Breads of the La Brea Bakery. In the fig bread, I add about 1.5x her quantity of figs and honey-roasted almonds. In the date bread, I add about 1.5x her quantity of medjool dates and roasted cashews. In both, I adjust the hydration as necessary.

1. Ingredients for Mission Fig Almond Anise

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I'm revisiting my Pulled Pork Sourdough Pizza. I toned down the heat a bit -- I still used habenero bbq sauce when I pre-heated the pork, but use a sweeter sauce on the actual dough. And instead of serranos, I used jalapenos for the pico. It still had a kick to it, but didn't leave my wife in tears...

At long last, i've baked a challah, a 100% whole wheat version from Peter Reinhart's Whole grain breads. I have to admit, i'am new to braiding, and daring to braid four strands was a little too much for me, especially with a high hydration dough.

I have made several mistakes:

 1 - I did not mix in more whole wheat flour to reach to the desired consistency for a challah. This lead to a very sticky dough (feels like 80%).

2 - I screwed up the braiding pattern.

3 - I over-browned the crust.