Well, you know me - I can't resist a challenge! And thanks so much to @Mini Oven for issuing this one. I had more fun with this than I've had in a long time. :)
Here in Victoria (BC, Canada) we're not quite on the path of totality for the eclipse but will have the best view in Canada (about 90% totality). That's assuming clear skies, of course.
I did not use the quick recipe so highly recommended on this site. I bake in the mornings - have to share an oven - and I needed a recipe/method that work work for me.
I found one that had nearly identical ingredients and proportions, but that involved an over night biga. This was the first bread recipe that I wasn't convinced would demolish my mixer or kitchen.
I need to work on my dough handling to get a more open crumb, but taken as a whole, I count this as a successful experiment.
Below is the crumb shot. I am working on my own flour blend. Fortunately, my sister is with me at the cottage, and she has a sensitive palette. And she loves bread.
This is a mixture of bread flour, whole wheat flour, sprouted buckwheat flour, and whole dark rye flour at 72% hydration. I made an error with the percentages of the different flours because I'm challenged with math, so I aways work with 1000 grams of my base flour (white bread flour), I can duplicate.
It tasted wonderful.
A really fascinating exercise: wild yeast water. Not sourdough, as I used the water straight up without making a flour-based pre-ferment. I've subsequently read about different applications of the water, basically to strengthen the sour starter, but I was ecstatic to see that it actually leavened the bread on its own. That's magic.
After a long time I decide to experiment with tastes and colors. Right now the elderberry in our vicinity is getting mature and there is abundance of Hokkaido squashes on our home garden. I also decided to coat the bread and dust it with extra flour before scoring it to get some extra effects.
Breaking this bread is tantamount to opening a holiday present. At least, it feels that way when I cut the bread. The abundant good eats: olives, walnuts, sunflower seeds, herbs de Provence, lemon zest, filled the interior to the rim, are what make this bread sing.
So I added some bread flour, reduced the rye flour and left the H2O the same. Net reduction in hydration.
So here I am again- 8 years after the last post. It's great to be back! I see some old familiar names from the last decade. I see more new members who, doubtless, will feel like old friends soon enough.
While I was putting together our "treats" (rolls for the man and rye for me), I still wanted to bake some day-to-day sandwich bread that we both would enjoy. I hadn't done any high-percentage whole durum for a while, so I put together a dough with 55% durum on the Thursday, and it ended up in the fridge to ferment overnight.
I'm mostly down to one crutch or a cane, and moving around better, so thought that it would be a good week to re-stock the freezer with my husband's favourite (the oat kamut rolls from http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/52425/catching-myself-oat-kamut-rolls-july-7), and a variation on my own favourite, which is 100% rye.
