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I just returned from a trip to Vermont, one of my favorite places. Stocked up on a ton of Vermont cheese and some goodies from King Arthur.

I used a high-content Kerry’s Gold butter in this one. Instead of my usual mix of FMF with durum, I used some fresh-milled Stardust whole wheat and fresh-milled spelt along with some KAF bread flour.

The cheese matched perfectly with the malty flavor of the Guinness, along with a little dark cocoa powder.

2000g +\-. I make the dough a couple days ahead and let it age in the fridge. The tub holds 1 gallon of dough . 

460g active starter 100% hydration 

600g H2O

425g semolina fine 

425g AP

21g salt

40g EVOO

20g Non diastatic malt 

1 pinch ADY

The YW with Apple and fig proved itself a champ. The rise was fantastic and quick. Only a couple hours in my designer proofer. 😊

Everything mixed at once. Bowl folds with a 1 hr rest between x 2 hrs. Patted out on wet counter, a very very wet dough! Folded and plopped into well buttered pan. 

I cook my porridge in a double boiler, omits all the sticking. 

150 g YW levain 100% hydration 

Cooled  cooked porridge -  90g home flaked 

I know our experience is that they are better if frozen right away . Particularly enriched baked goods such as biscuits and our biscotti and cake. My SD breads are always sliced and immediately frozen, just in a freezer quality zip Lock,  no special treatment otherwise. 

I thaw the bread slices out on the soapstone counter while preparing whatever else we are having. Same with all the other items. 

Here’s a discussion from 2012: 

We are working on learning how to make Chinese noodles by hand-pulling the noodles. In that search for the correct components we are trying a bleached Patent flour . 

As an experiment due to its lower protein my husband tried it to make his biscuits. Lo and behold it’s amazing. They are light and flavorful and everything you could want in a biscuit. 

Craggy and light perfect for holding butter and Bumbleberry Jam from Tucson AZ. 

I’ve always envied bakers who can effortlessly throw together a rye loaf—no weighing, no measuring—just by feel, like their moms and grandmas did. I’ll probably never be that type, but I love having a simple rye bread template I can grab anytime—something I can whip up with whatever’s on hand or tweak with different add-ins when I’m in the mood for a change.

The blog title is actually short for "Middlings Levain Bread", but it's a bit of a mouthful - read on....

I'm always on the lookout for ways to add more wholegrain to my loaves without reducing loaf volume and crumb tenderness too much. I have tried sift and scald but never been too happy with the result - the scald seems to make the bran tougher to me. I've also tried sifting and reducing the particle size of the bran fraction the bran fraction in a spice grinder to reduce particle size. This is quite effective, but rather messy.

So about a week ago, I was determined to finalise my lean starter formula for baguette practicing as salted bran starter (24:12:1 bran:water:salt), and put it into test. And since my baguette making skill is beyond awful (lol), I thought let's make something extra difficult for the sake of practicing.

I have starter specific problem. My bran starters (both lean one and buttered one) always acting out whenever making contact with glutinous rice. Dough always turn out sticky and melty. But I like it difficult, hoping it will be much easier later on when I handle easier flours.

Continuing with the French tradition and looking for something more ... fancy than a simple boul, etc, I remembered yesterday that I could also bake a "Bordeaux crown". The last time I baked a Couronne Bordelaise (with fresh yeast) it was 3 years ago.

This time I went for a recipe with lievito madre. Actually it was more a freestyle compilation of 2 yeast base recipes (homebaking.at and marcelpaa.com):

10% low extraction rye flour

A few days ago, I wanted to bake a bread with a higher wheat content, but still with a somewhat more intense flavor. Since I had no better inspiration, I choice fell on a French country bread made with Lievito Madre. Or at least my interpretation of a French country bread.

• 20% whole rye flour
• 80% Ruchmehl (or First Clear in the US)
• 2% salt
• 77% overall hydration
• 25% Lievito Madre
• all fermentation at 25°C
• baked at 230°C, not too dark, just until it gets a nice color and a nice thin crispy crust.