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It must be spring - I have garlic scapes in the garden! Of course, that inspired this week's test loaf - Roasted garlic scape and Asiago cheese levain. The scapes were chopped and roasted with a little EVOO for about 15 minutes in a covered dish at 400F. I baked demi-loaves (scaled around 400 grams) because this is a specialty bread, not an everyday kind of bread. Each loaf had about 2 Tbsp each of chopped, roasted scapes and shredded cheese.

A slow sourdough with wheat and rye starters as well as a soaker made with dry bread, water and salt. It is then made with wheat and rye flours, semolina and ground hazelnuts. Great depth of taste. Lutz just called it dinner. Dinner it is.

Recipe here: https://www.ploetzblog.de/2015/07/25/abend-brot/

I have been so boring in my baking and sorry I haven't posted in so long.  I keep making the same recipe and trying to eliminate steps as I go, to make it as easy as possible, including the clean-up.

For this loaf, I don't accurately measure the ingredients...I sort of do it by feel.  I use about one cup of really active starter (still on the rise); 1-1/2 cup of water; 1 cup whole wheat flour and 2 cups of bread flour. I generally use King Arthur Flour or Bob's Red Mill; you can't beat high quality flour.  

This was my second try at this classic Italian bread and finally a success! 

Formula is 350 g total flour @75% hydration. I used 50g liquid levain, 35g durham semolina, 240g BF, 1 tsp salt and 225g H2). I developed the dough as I would normally do then finished it as Mr. Reinhart suggests: a couple of letter folds with 30 minutes rest, then a thorough docking with fingertips and a drenching of herb oil. Lots of fresh basil, dried rosemary and all the Italian regular herbs into the oil.

I really had luck when I finally raised my own sourdough starter. It was God's gift. Now I can bake my own bread that can't be really copied by anyone else. This is really a major leap in my baking. A bread made with primitive leaven baked with primitive methods back when there are still no ovens, this is some real primitive bread made with love.

Two of my favorite breads

David Snyder

30 May, 2016

Last weekend's bakes were two of my favorite breads.  One is Hamelman's Pain au Levain with Whole Wheat Flour. I have blogged on my bakes of this delicious bread several times over several years.

I recently had to revive my starter.  I had attempted dabrownman's stiff, sour rye build method, and I must have screwed it up somehow, because it wasn't activating well.  I also was putting it straight into levains, which I had done before with decent results, but I now prefer to do at least one build prior to making the levain.  So I resorted to rebuilding it with 2-1-1 feeds, 1-1-1 feeds, and 1-2-2 feeds until it was very active, before allowing it back in its cave (the fridge).

I have not had time to post anything lately but finally this 3 day Memorial weekend has give me the chance to post.

Yesterday I made some smoked Baby Back ribs to bring to our friends Memorial Day party and I wanted to bring some nice rolls to go with them.  I have not made a Tangzhong style dough in a while and really wanted to make a dough that was nice and soft without adding butter or cheese.

I decided I also wanted the nice nutty flavor of Buckwheat which I thought would go well with Durum flour and some nice mashed red skinned potatoes.

There is a sweetness to it.

I rise in the dark and head out in the coolness of early morning. I drive on a freeway mercifully devoid of Massachusetts drivers and round a turn to see a giant moon glowing brightly as it sets in the barely broken dawn.

Meet Zhou Clementine, my sourdough starter! 

Exactly a fortnight ago I made "it" and documented my sourdough journey and success. I hope you enjoy it! Come along!

For years, I tried to raise my own starter to no avail. All of my attempts were futile despite my best effort to stick to the recipe as closely as possible. I don't know what was going wrong so after each attempt I go through a long period of reclaiming the broken pieces of myself before trying again.