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Following on from the visit by Ross and Janice to Challenger Institute for an evening "Introduction to Sourdough" i had asked Ross to bring me a sample of his sour dough culture  so that i might give it a run.

The dough was a 5O% Wholemeal dough that i mixed and allowed a bulk ferment in the cool room overnight and took around 24 hours after mixing,  No stretch and folds  were administered any way it felt good to  quite good to handle although a little sticky but a bit of semolina and flour took care of those problems.

Winds of Change

Things haven’t been changing much for me in the last couple of years, and it seemed at some point that I was stuck in an unfulfilling clerical/office Job for the rest of my life. Lately, I’ve been witnessing changes in my life; the winds of change have finally blown. Pondering for over a year now on how to change my career, I decided to join an amateur course on Pastry in a culinary institute in Dubai.

Here are some more photos of my 2Kg loaf:

Details of the challenge are here:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/34915/challenge-all-multigrain-breads-fans

and my formula and process description are here:

I've wanted to make an olive fougasse for a long, long time, but never got around to it until today. Served it for dinner along with a white bean soup that's a lot like the well-known U.S. Senate Bean Soup recipe.

Here's how I made it.

Preferment:

• 150 grams all-purpose flour
• 3 grams salt
• 97 grams water
• A pinch of instant yeast

Final dough

CAKE

-----------------dry stuff--------------------

240 / 2 C AP-Flour

85 / 1 C Coco Powder

8 / 1-1/2 tsp Baking Soda

2 / 1/2 tsp Salt

-----------------wet stuff---------------------

353 / 1-1/2 C Buttermilk

8 / 1 tsp vanilla

-----------------creamy stuff---------------

115 / 1 stick Butter, unsalted

305 / 1-1/2 C Sugar

----------------eggie stuff-----------------

150 / 3 Lg eggs

---------------technical stuff-------------

Combine dry in its own bowl

I guess I should begin with a disclaimer:  I’m not usually one to put chunks of fresh fruit in my breads.  Nuts, seeds, grains, even a bit of dried fruit, sure.  But something about having all those mushy bits in the bread has made me wary of the whole concept.  Plus, the sandwich possibilities can be limited.

A couple of recent bakes here... The first a 50% whole wheat sourdough.

My loaves were a bit small for the brotforms I used so they didn't come out too impressive looking, but they tasted really nice, nutty and tart.  I used Nunweiller's Red Fife Flour, which contributed significantly to the flavour.

I also made Hamelman's Golden Raisin Loaf.

We love pecan sticky buns. We nibble at them for breakfast, lunch, mid-afternoon snacks, and dinner dessert--not all on the same day, mind you.

Until today I've baked sticky buns in 9" x 13" pans, or 9" x 9" pans. Regardless of which I chose the center bun or bun(s) would remain incompletely baked and doughy when the perimeter bun's were perfectly done.

With dabrownman's assistance I was able to successfully start my YW. I used organic raisins and organic  apple with spring water. I did a small test batch of levain using 50 g YW and 50 g AP flour. Growth was evident  in an hour and it tripled in 6 hrs. For this first test batch of SD I simply subbed all YW for the water in the formula. There is a lot of info on TFL about YW. RonRay has cataloged it in one post. He uses all YW for some of his breads in place of regular water. Other folks use only a TBsp or so with flour to make a levain. It is all good as far as I can tell .