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This was festive around here this week.  Our daughter turned 23 yesterday so a more festive bread was in order.  We decided to go back to baking two smaller loaves instead of one larger one.  That way we could get two different breads, one plain and one festive, out of the same dough and one bake.  The festive one would be packed with fruit and seeds which Lucy says is way more festive than a plain loaf…. even if neither was a pumpernickel

I have been thinking about making baguettes for some time, and I finally did it, using David's recipe.  I made SO many mistakes and learned a lot. I will do my best to do a better job next time.  I watched videos over and over to do the proper shaping and still did a pretty poor job.  I think I understand the error of my ways, so I can improve on my next attempt!

 I learned a lot going through the process. It was the first time for my using a French couche cloth.

As stated by Jan Hedh in his book Swedish Breads and Pastries ‘The advantages of scalding include better kneading abilities, a strong aroma and flavor…making the bread more durable.’

I would load more pics but I'm stuck at how to add more

 I experimented with some levain bread variations this past weekend, inspired by Maurizio's beautiful blog (Food,Travel, Thought -- so well done).  I made a double batch of Tartine-esque dough, adding walnuts and various dried berries to one half, and mixed olives and lemon zest to the other. 

Glenn mentioned that the San Francisco country sourdough formula was a variation on a variation of Hamelman's Vermont sourdough. So of course I had to try it. Although, since I am in SF I guess this makes my VT Sourdough a SF sourdough. The husband and I both agreed with Hamleman's assessment that this is an excellent everyday bread.

I live in New York, and I have a pretty good selection of fine pizzerias from which I can get pizza.  The same can pretty much be said for having a good selection of fine breads.  In fact, every day, I walk through Grand Central Station and pass by a market that has some very good loaves at reasonable prices (unlike everything else in that market.)

I made this tasty bread again after baking my first flax seed soaker loaf.  I had frozen half the dough from my first bake as it was too much for us, and I was really interested to see how this dough would respond to being frozen and defrosted.   I am always fooled by the consistency of this dough (very stiff), and I was concerned because it didn't seem to rise enough.  In the end, I got good oven spring and was pleased with the result .

Posted below is the recipe I use for my Portuguese sweet bread. I am interested in suggestions from the collective audience that may result in improvements in taste, texture, oven spring, etc.

In my last bake I used about 50g of leftover levain ... not sure it made any difference and it might be interesting to experiment with adding even more to assess its affects on the final product.

Regards-
Dave

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PORTUGUESE SWEET BREAD