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I was quite a bit more patient this time, letting the dough tell me when it was ready and this is the best pulla I have ever baked! I topped it with the egg wash, sprinkled liberally with sugar, ground almond and slivered almonds. I totally forgot I was going to bake this as a chacon and went in to auto pilot and divided the dough into 2 balls then one ball into 3 for braids . . . Next time I will try a chacon pulla! A skibum moment!

Hello! 

My name is Aaron and I am a brand new bread enthusiast  Sure, I have enjoyed eating delicious bread my whole life, 31 years, but never baking! Until now.  i have been reading so many books and sites regarding bread making I finally gave it a try. Three nights ago I made my first brick, I mean loaf of bread. Tasteless, dense and downright terrible. So last night I tried again. Slightly more success but still the wrong density and no flavor. 

   This past weekend I decided to make 2 different styles of bread, with one being a classic Pain au Levain and the other a new higher percentage Jewish Rye.  I will post on the rye separately shortly.

I have made different versions of Pain au Levain in the past with moderate success so I wanted to change-up the flour a little and also add some barley flakes to hopefully add another layer of flavor.

Mmmm. English muffins.

So I used [url=http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/englishmuffins]floydm's recipe[/url] with commercial yeast and a glob (about 200grams) of leftover old fermented dough (I saved it after it overproofed). I made an overnight sponge with the yeast and also let the majority of the flour autolyse overnight before combining all into the final dough. I let it bulk ferment overnight and cooked them in the morning.

Its getting close, only a few more puddings left to review and then we will have a winner - five more reviews, including a Duchy Original, by Prince Charles - full review here

My kids were starting to complain about SD bread. So I made a loaf of My Daily Bread.

I went with a lower hydration on this one as well - in the KA the dough ball was only mildly sticky and the kneading hook certainly worked the dough over. It windowpaned after roughly 10 minutes of kneading.

Interestingly the final loaf was less crusty and slightly firm and springy. Hard to describe, but definitely less crusty than previous loaves.  It was cooked on a pizza stone at 500F for 10 minutes, then 450F for another 10 or so until golden and internal temp 205F.

So I put together a loaf of SJSD last week. Used 1/4 tsp of commercial yeast, kneaded into the dough after the bulk fermentation, as an "assist." Seemed to work well.

I didn't take notes on this one (or the next few as y'all will see) ... sorry. I made the dough slightly sticky - not sure what hydration this corresponds to but IME less than 70% (I used my KA and the dough easily cleared the sides of the mixing bowl).

Oven spring was OK, flavor was good ... crumb was OK.

Ever onward ...

-Dave

I've not made English muffins for years and years. I chose the King Arthurs's recipe here:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-english-muffins-recipe

They are very good, not quite the crumb texture I was looking for, I wanted it a little more open, so I will try adjusting my fermentation and proofing times. I really don't want to change any of the ingredients because they are so good, especially with Candy Apple home made jelly!

Which by the way can be found here:

When I first caught sight of these pretty rolls in a Mexican bakery, I was totally smitten. But my enthusiasm quickly deflated when I took the first bite - the cute little shells were overly sweet, but other than that: no taste whatsoever! 

Sadly, this was the case with almost all the pastries we had at the Riviera Maya: they looked very appetizing, but tasted only bland and sugary.

 Conchas in Mexican bakery: pretty but bland

Lately my English muffins bake has been a soft crumb and holes is getting smaller. Not sure what I did wrong.