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hello.. i like to share a sourdough bread baked by my lovely friend HK. i did mentioned and shared one of her loaf she made the last time. proud to say that i shared my starter with her. i can't remember how long ago, 6 months maybe. and she is baking marvelous bread since. one day, she asked me to recommend some bread books to buy. and i mentioned Ken Forkish and Peter Rainheart. i myself did not owned any but would love to one day. i did went through the reviews of the books at Amazon. and i liked both. any opinions or feedback about this bread book by Ken Forkish? 

Another pic of my first real success with the new method. Fresh ground Whole Wheat and Rye starter married with Pain a l'ancienne techniques to make a wonderful and unique loaf.

I've been working on a way to combine the Reinhart "Pain a l'ancienne" technique with a 100% sourdough from a fresh ground whole wheat starter for some time. I'm incredibly proud of this little personal breakthough, and looking forward to cutting into this bad boy! Ah bread... the stuff of life!

Just a short note to share some recent bakes.  We love Hamelman's 5-grain levain - it's flavorful, moist, healthy, and it freezes well.  We always keep a loaf in the freezer, sliced and ready to toast for spreading with (choose your topping: cream cheese, yogurt cheese, jams) for breakfast.  It also makes a great sandwich bread.  I follow the basic recipe from Bread (1st edition - I don't know how it compares to the recent release), with just a few small additions.

Sorry for the duplicate post however I realized I posted this bake accidentally in the forum but wanted it on my blog.

Today I finally had a chance to bake the Tartine loaf with my new baking gear.  This is the second bake with the gear.  I strongly suggest to anyone experiencing the same issues as I had with bakes, GET THESE SIMPLE ITEMS.  It has taken my breads up a few notches and fixed all my problems immediately.

This is a great recipe from a great book.

The recipe is posted here: 

I actually followed the recipe exactly .. which for some reason is rare for me.   The only difference was I baked at 425 vs. 450.   I wanted a little bit softer crust.. and this worked well.    (so I guess I didn't follow it exactly..).

Anyway, I tripled the batch.. these are 1.5lb loaves.

Wowzer....today at church a member brought a huge bag of extra grapes . Hmm...I had a 1/2 batch of semolina pizza dough at home just waiting for something creative to happen. Voila !  This is SO yum !! I can't  even describe how good it is. I used raw sugar and EVOO on top and sprinkled with Herbs de Provence...lots of lavender. Whoa...we have devoured a 1/2 loaf !  Made Conchiglie con Salsiccia e Peperoni as well. Grated parmagiano reggiano ..what a Sunday night feast.

Was it beginner's luck?

In my previous and first post on The Fresh Loaf, I described my experience of baking the introductory loaf from Floyd's handbook.  This was my first attempt at Artisan Bread, and I liked it!

Not being in the Avocado capital of the world but swimming in avocados, I decided to try an experiment using only avos (avocados) for my liquid.  Started with the basics and going from there.  I happened upon some watery thin skinned fruit that I am told are known as "Florida avocados" and thought at first interesting but then reality set in, sure enough... less fat, more carbs and more water.  Hmmm not exactly what I value in an avo but good enough for a cracker experiment and maybe a bread.  

I haven't baked with my starter in a couple of weeks, so Wednesday evening I fed my starter some rye flour and water.  Thursday mid-day I made my dough (1kg bread flour, 20g salt, 730g water, "a bunch" of starter).  It has turned cool again in Vancouver though and my dough was moving slowly, so I bulk retarded it overnight until Friday morning.