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and still kinda get away with it?  Answer - a lot.  

Background is rooted, but barely, in my recent enjoyment of an 80% PFF biga version.  I was refreshing the regularly neglected 75% mixed flour levain along with the workhorse 100% AP levain when I suddenly had this "brilliant" idea.  Why not change a few things at once so that I won't know what may have worked and what didn't?  

Things that changed, some not necessarily on purpose:

Just wanted to drop a note about how much I enjoyed both making and eating this bread.

This is a quality recipe. Great posts from David and Hans and lots of techniques and tricks in the comments to their posts meant this was like following a well charted path.

This bread surprised me by it's mildness. Was a pleasure to eat. Even the kids got stuck into it!

I was having fun with Borodinsky so I ploughed ahead with a black rye (not bad) and a Franconia and Auvergne from ryebaker.com. I'm pretty bummed by the results, particularly as I spent a lot of time sprouting, drying, milling rye and spelt flour.

I made a few steps that caused me problems:

Benny started an interesting experiment that was right up my alley. He wanted to know the affect that sugar had on a SD starter. I am always looking to enhance the yeast in my starter. So here I go…

Images above and below show calibration before any readings were taken.

This one is a present, so no crumb shots unless the recipient sends me a photo.  Same procedure as my previous bake of this recipe with the only deviation being sprinkling sesame seeds on top of the dough after the second application of the egg wash.

For the detailed recipe click this link.

Just a photo, with no recipe, and for no reason.

Lately I've been making my favourite winter sourdough. Shorter days and cold weather always seems to call for heartier loaves so I laminate mine with tons of crunchy whole hemp, nori flakes and house made rice or oat koji. I shape these into a boule or batard, retard outside overnight and just before baking smear them with tons of good quality EVOO and kosher salt. Then I bastardize them by turning them into smaller shapes I can freeze. This is mainly so we don't devour an entire loaf in one setting. These breads are somewhat addictive ( if I do say so myself)!

I managed to get my starter tripling so I figured it was time to attempt another bake. 

It's looking good but not quite right yet. Good ferment/sour notes in it, but the crumb was not as even as I'd like. I was having to do a lot of adjusting of times on the fly and having to go by feel. We are just coming out of a cold snap where I am and the temperature in the house has not been consistent as well as being pretty cold at night in particular. 

Dec. 8, 2021.  74th bake.

The goal is to make at least 1300 g of dough, of approx 90% whole grain.  1300 to 1350 of WW dough fits nicely in the lid portion of my Lodge 3.2 qt combo cooker.

I want to try out this whole grain rye flour, just to get a taste of it.  And I have this roller milled whole grain durum I need to use up.