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I discovered this poem on TFL (in a comment posted by LindyD – thank you, Lindy, for sharing it);
I am re-posting the poem here - I thought it so beautiful, and so fitting, for the winter solstice.

I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December
A magical thing
And sweet to remember.

'We are nearer to Spring
Than we were in September,'
I heard a bird sing
In the dark of December.

• Oliver Herford

The yeast water really makes for some amazing oven spring. For this bake I used 50g YW and 25g sweet levains both at 100% hydration and less than 300g total flour, all AP except for the levains and still got this monster, mutant loaf:

Once again am egg wash and a generous sprinkling of sugar and ground almond. Sadly I was out of slivered almonds.

Happy baking folks! Brian

This bread traces back to the Saami people of the arctic. It is very easy, went quite quickly and I think it's really quite tasty.

An illustrated recipe may be found here:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Sami-Flatread/?ALLSTEPS

I made a double batch, using half all purpose flour, and half whole wheat. I also used lard yet once again, as the recipe said this is what was traditionally used. And although the recipe calls for rolling, I pressed mine like I do tortillas.

This is a slight variation of a spelt dough from the new Tartine no 3 Book. I used less water then recommended and a different mix of flours. It was a tad more sour than I prefer....next time I will only retard the rise for 6 hours instead of 8. Crumb was open,fully gelatinized and super moist, crust was thin and shattered when cut.

      This is another version of the bread I made last week but I subbed out the white rye with durum flour and I added some dried Shallots reconstituted in the liquid first.

All I can say is the smell of the shallots baking in this bread was amazing and filled the entire house with its oniony aroma.  The substitution of the durum changed the flavor profile slightly, and it was hard to really tell the difference without doing a side by side comparison.

We made 3 different kinds of fruit cakes today hoping to appeal to everyone -young or old – traditional or modern. They all basically shared the same basic ingredients.  By varying the amounts and which ones went into the mix the cake changed drastically.

Something is really snockered

I got fascinated by panettone since I tasted my friend's homemade panettone. The aroma and texture is extraording. I decided to make my own panettone this year.  A friend of mine in U.S bought some beautiful panettone molds for me. I started my panettone journey this month. 

2 cups Maseca Instant corn flour

1 teaspoon salt

Mix together

2 cups hot water

Pour water over flour, let it sit until it's cool enough to knead. You will think it's going to be a goopy mess and that you must have used too much water, but keep at it, it will come together into a big soft ball about the consistency of Play-doh.

This Not So Stollen version is once againis based on a modification to a real Dresden Christmas Stollen recipe that was posted by nellapower here:  Refer to it for most of the method with a few exceptions below.

 http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/25407/dresden-christmas-stollen

 Last year’s stollen can be found here:

 Not So Stollen

Warning: This may make no sense at all, and I may be sarcastic and darkly humorous.

I enjoy a dense, tender bread. Why? you may ask. Because it holds my jelly well, and doesn't leak.

This shot features all home made jams and jellies, from left to right: Apple Cinnamon, Highbush Cranberry, Salmonberry, Wild Blueberry, and Crowberry. It forms a wonderful color palette of sweet goodness.

I live in interior Alaska, and many varieties of berry grow wild. I find them, I pick them, I preserve them, I eat them. It's as close as totally organic as I'm ever going to be!