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I have known for a while now that I would have to face my fear of wet doughs. Yes, fear. Absolute fear.

I am very good at breads that are relatively dry, and the only doughs that I've worked with that are wet weren't nearly as wet as the recipe I found here - Floydm's Daily Bread.

To be honest, I had a vague idea - at best - at what I was doing. I made a whole wheat poolish, and the rest of the flour was organic spelt. For good measure and texture, I added 1/4 cup flax seeds. I baked on a stone as directed.

I wanted a quick reference list for dough ball sizes for common items I bake: breads, rolls, pizza. I haven't found one on TFL, maybe it's here, but no luck yet. So I figured I'd share what I have so far.

Pizzas

12" pizza, personal (plate-sized): 175g (thin) - 250g (thicker)
14" pizza, thin crust, NYC style: 450g
14" pizza, medium "american" crust style: 540g
16" pizza, thin crust, NYC style: 567g

Sourdough and Rustic Loaves

Hi  all, jus wanted to share with you my recent sticky bun baking. I am really addicted to home made sweet rolls and buns, and these couldn't be easier to make as they're made from a no knead dough. happy to post recipe (not that i actually follow one) if anyones interested :)

Reading all the entries from the members baking the Japanese Sandwich loaf, I became very inspired and promptly set out to make my raisin water.  I had only a few raisens so I used dried cranberries and after a few days, I wasn't thrilled with the fermentation process.  I added a handful of grapes and wowie.......it took off and within a few days it was bubbling away. 

Yesterday I decided that it was time for my adventure into yeast water.  So with jar in hand, set out to make the levain to proof.

After reading Mebakes excellent post here with the suggestion using a finely ground sea salt, for easier dissolving on dough.  I decided to make a batch.  I should have done this a long time ago..what a great suggestion!  Thanks Mebake for the post!  

In my last croissant post(see here), I said I am practicing once or twice every week to perfect my lamination skill. It's been more than a month, and my croissant fever is getting hotter -- sadly, what's heating up faster is TX temperature. If you look up "mission impossible" or "self punishment" in the dictionary, you might see the following picture (28C is about 82F):

Continuing on my croissant project, to practice making croissants, this week I turned them into almond croissants.

 "my fifth time making croissants, getting more comfortable with them, but still more practices to do:)"

Almond croissant is my most favorite pastry item. It is buttery, crisp, moist, sweet and nutty, what is not to love in this little pasty of indulgence?

I made another loaf of my orange-raisin bread and refined my working recipe a bit, adding weights and some specifics on the marmalade step.

My working recipe is now as follows:

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Challah and I have a history.

When I was 15, I tried making my first bread. Having watched my mother (but never having helped her) since I was little, making bread (particularly oatmeal brown bread) from scratch, I figured it would be a snap. After all, I was able to pick up my mother's cookies and cake recipes with no problem, so what's so different about bread?

I was about to find out.

In honor of National Pretzel Day in the US (yesterday):