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I love the taste that seeds impart to my sourdough breads both on the inside or outside of a loaf.  I love using black sesame seeds because they are sesame flavour amped up and great inside the loaf for that contrast in colour in the crumb.

Total Dough Weight 900 g

Total Flour 494 g 

Bread Flour 80%

Whole Red Fife 20%

Total Water 377.5 g 76% hydration

Salt 2% 10 g

Mix 

Bread flour 352 g

Whole Wheat 97 g

Water 320 g

Levain 115 g 

Salt 2% 10 g 

Diastatic Malt 0.5% 2.5 g

This is my third time baking semolina sourdough baguettes and I ran a bit short on the Semola rimacinata flour that I usually use for this. I also hadn’t baked a baguette in some time so I felt a bit rusty, but I think overall the bake went well.

These are likely a bit overproofed I’m guessing based on the so so ears. The kitchen was pretty warm and I didn’t account for how fast they would proof on the counter, that and my starter is now creating levains and dough that ferment more quickly. I will need to take this into account in the future.

I want to tell you a story about a special flour.

One day, I spotted a flour on the shelf of a local shop and it was a sparkling moment: an organic flour with 12% protein content with a greyish colour. Of course, I bought the flour, I had to try it right?

Well, I had some other types of bread listed on my TO DO list but I decided to use it to feed my lovely sourdough Maya.

I think I am going to keep doing these bumper bakes while I work out the kinks in my sandwich loaf recipe. In case you were curious, I dubbed this a "bumper bake" in reference to a bumper crop. I am in the kitchen anyway, I have a double oven, why not just bake a second loaf, just for fun.

The Good:

• This loaf looked BEAUTIFUL! Great oven bloom, nice shape, I was excited when I took the top off. Wow!
• The reduced baking temp and/or the parchment paper stopped the loaf from burning.

The Bad:

Here is a sourdough loaf using 100% semola rimacinata by Caputo. It resulted in a mildly flavored and soft crumb, but  a very crisp crust, which is the perfect combination.

This bake went well enough, I think I am ready to move onto the next phase of perfecting this recipe... flavor.

Recap:

The wife has tasked me to come up with a sandwich bread recipe our family can bake at least once a weak to completely replace our regularly purchased box store sandwich bread.

Requirements

Ok, know your skills - bakers percentages and dough handling. Know how to prepare and use leaven.

Hi everyone. I was given an older Omcan proofing cabinet with heat and humidity settings. I am unable to find a manual for using this though and wondered if you pros out there would share you settings that you use for bread, buns, and pastry proofing? 

Thank you so much. 

Snow flying outside, Christmas tree up, and a day off from work. Sounds like the perfect day to bake up some baguettes.

About 55 years ago, my maiden aunt, who had actually lived in Paris, gave me a copy of "Larousse Gastronomique".

Under the entry "Bread" it says: