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This is my second attempt at a similar bread.  I wanted to use my new Apple/Orange Yeast Water to make a Levain for this bread and not use any other sour dough levain.  When I did this a few weeks ago I didn't let the levain ripen long enough and the dough didn't develop correctly.  This time I let the levain go for a good 12 hours and then refrigerated and used it the next day.  No problem this time with developing the dough correctly.

I loved the taste of this bread so decided to make it the way it was originally written by Hamelman as much as possible (except for the addition of yogurt) since I am doing this by hand and he used a mixer. I also used some vital wheat gluten to replace his high gluten flour which I am guessing is around 15% protein. To do this, I found the niftiest online calculator. 

http://flourmath.bradfordrobertson.com

With my brother and sister-in-law in town I baked a few semolina-fennel seed-golden raisin-toasted pine nut baguettes (that's a mouthful - in more ways than one) and then followed that up with a batch of Vermont SDs.

This bread should be my first post. I don’t know how I could post any other recipes before this one is even shared.

Though I enjoy a stack of pancakes for breakfast from time to time, I’m not one with a sweet tooth and would almost always go the savory route for my bread. The combo of sesame and cheese is a match in heaven and is undoubtedly my all-time-favourite. If you’ve ever had sesame crackers or breadsticks with your cheese board before, you know what I mean.

A couple more of my current favorite multi-grain sourdough breads. These were baked in cast iron Dutch ovens.

Happy baking!

David

I have been exploring the delicious world of porridge breads lately but today I decided to venture away from that...sort of.  When I first started baking bread, apart from the therapeutic value of the process, my motivation was primarily nutritional.

A Johannesburg filling station keeps passing motorists entertained with its daily ration of aphorisms.  I think this one is worth repeating, even if it's not new!

just spent 30 min trying to lose amazon ad. Keeps popping up and won’t close. Anoying

It's been a while since I've been here, but not since I've made bread. I've got a pumpernickel on the counter, a sourdough slow fermenting in the fridge, and a soaker/biga combo for a whole wheat sesame sandwich loaf I'll make tomorrow. With nothing to do I'm considering making a partial whole wheat hokkaido milk roll...

In any case, I'm realizing that I'm just not the sort of person to faithfully keep a baking log. But perhaps I can give an impressionistic account of the current state of my bread baking journey.

Another in Abel's ongoing postings of embarrassingly wonderful bakes:  His Ziggy stoneground loaf from mid-January caught my fancy, and I was sure that when the time was appropriate, I'd try my hand at his scoring technique here.  Well, the time is appropriate.  With neighbors coming over for some wine, bread and cheese this afternoon, I figured, why not now?