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I had loads of starter left over from my loaf this weekend. I'm still getting used to how much starter I need to keep for the amount I bake. My 3 yr old daughter absolutely demolishes anything with chocolate or hazelnuts, or brioche, so i thought this was a good idea. Anybody who has children will not be surprised to learn, that despite the fact she adores every ingredient in these, they're definitely poison and she won't go near them, because I'm the worst person in the world.

This bread is the result of combining the 3 starters that I have been maintaining. I have been feeding it all week to ensure it was nice and lively, and it seems to have paid off. The only problem was that hubby was trying to be helpful and he washed the container before I could remember that I needed some to feed and keep in the fridge. So I need to go back to my 3 original starters and repeat what I did last week. Oh well!

here's a 30% spelt SD bread, leavened with 2% spent rye starter. 70% hydratio. Bulked for 12 hours At RT 27c. Minimal S&F for 1 min then rest 20 mins with 5 folds each time for 3 times. Final proof for 1 hour at RT 30c. Baked in DO.

Feeling refreshed after a day of basic bread making with Dean Brettschneider recently and hopeful for many more times to come!

Today I felt like baking a Rührkuchen (sort of like a pond cake but less butter and less sugar, never enjoyed these super-sweet bakeries that we have here in the US).

Turns out we have no butter in the fridge---oil will do in a pinch! No Milk? Water will do, no electric mixer? 30 min of whisking is not too bad, it's a good exercise.

Wife does not like powdered sugar or sugar glazing? We'll eat the cake alfresco so to speak with a hand-brewed cup of coffee.

It may not be a cake according in compliance with the recipe, but it tastes good, looks ok, I am happy.

With a corned beef; making, soaking and smoking going on for the big day, we don’t have a lot of time to mess around with this week’s sprouted sourdough.  Lucy wanted to do Ballymaloe’s SD brown bread  which would have been perfect and we really like it, but that takes more time than I wanted to spend rounding up all the stuff that goes into it.  Plus, what we need in the freezer is a white bread.

 I saw this recipe at Christmas but decided to make it today to take with to a gathering of friends.

mix together

300 g flour

40 g sugar

1/2 tspn salt

4 gm instant yeast

add 150 ml warm milk. and knead by hand. It was so dry I added probably 10 ml more milk and 10 ml water. then I tried to incorporate 40 gm butter but gave up and used my kenwood until I had windowpane. left to double about an hour and a half. rolled out into oblong, spread 100 g apricot jam over and the following mix leaving border around all edges

The lead picture is NOT Tartine, more on that later.  

Last week's run of the Tartine Baguette formula was a success, but as noted, they were a little thin on flavor profile.  This week I reran the formula with a few changes - why not?  Substituted out 30% of the AP flour, replacing it with rye flour.  And added a foursome of the new loves (loaves?) of my life - these little "batard-ettes".  What a happy family snapshot for the future heirloom photo album.  

I usually sprinkle potenta in the bottom of the pot when I'm baking in a dutch oven, but the other day I was out. What about Kosher salt, I wondered: similar size and shape. I was also tempted by a concern my dough was a bit under salted, as I discovered after the final mix.

Result was excellent. Bread didn't stick and the bottom of the loaf had a nice salty crunch. Will do this again and you should try it too!

Been working steadily on my whole grain bread. 70% of the flour is 100% extraction wheat and rye. 30% is KA white flour. This is the best tasting loaf yet. it is moist and soft and surprisingly light.