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I bake infrequently now, but continue to maintain a sweet levain @ 100% hydration. Today was pulla for breakfast in the morning. Second bake, rising is P. Reinhart's soft sandwich bread. It is an bread, enriched by butter, milk and eggs. I modified Mr. Reinhart's recipe to use my sweet levain, which is a sweet version of a sourdough starter. I don't care for the sour taste in my breads.

Beautiful flavour and a nice crumb. A successful Christmas bake! Merry Christmas!!!

yesterday was my first attempt for the tartine style bread - I like how the holes turned and open with apparent gluten. The preshaping / shaping was difficult and couldn’t build much tension: Elements to practice next time! But the taste is the best I had so far sweet crumb and crust. 

Recipe 

300gr bread flour

100gr spelt flour 

60g stiff sourdough starter (50% hydration) 

280g water 

8g salt 

autolyse for two hours ( only flour and water ) 

Here we are, nearly at years end, and the time to reflect on the past, present and future.  Lucy doesn’t do any of that of course, being small minded and down right stupid but the rest of should not use her as a guide in anything we do except maybe bread baking once a week.

We should be thoughtful and truthful with ourselves in all things, especially this time of year as we reflect on the past year, experience the current Holiday Season and project ourselves into the future of next year.

Back when I first started this blog, I was trying out the San Francisco starter from sourdo.com. I was never able to get a flavor I loved from it. Almost six years down the line, I've learned a ton about sourdough in the interim. I was also growing bored with the rye strain I've been baking with for the last few years -- so I'm trying again with it. I've been building the starter for the last week, finally it was active enough to use.

I used to be a very active member on this board.  

Use to be...

Life has a way of mucking with your plans. 

So an update. 

Since 2011. I have added 3 grandchildren.  Moved twice, bought a house in the stix.  Stated,  ran  and closed a small business. Nearly lost my wife to an illness (she is fully recovered)  Built a wood shop.  Raised a bunch of chickens gained some weight.  Lost a lot of weight. 

And stopped baking! 

Earlier this week (I'm 80% sure it was Tuesday), for some reason, I mixed up two full size (~1.5kg) batches of dough. The FWSY country brown, and the Tartine brioche. Last night I started a Westphalian pumpernickel from The Rye Baker.

The brown:

   Wine, Walnuts, Cranberries and Porridge....what's not to like?  I have to say, nothing!  This one is chock full of flavor and good enough to eat by itself, but even better with some cheese.  I gave 2 of these away to some work colleagues.  I think they will enjoy them, I hope.

There is just enough wine in this one to add a nice flavor without overpowering the bread or inhibiting it's fermentation.  The crumb is nice and moist and you get a mouthful of walnuts and cranberries with each bite.

Hi everybody,

I‘m making Stollen for the first time and I noticed that my Kitchen Aid Artisan model electric mixer had the hardest time mixing the dough, so much that I kept holding the head to minimize the shaking.

The recipe called for 4 cups of flour but I‘ve made other breads with that quantity without noticing any strain on the mixer. Has this happened to anybody while making this Christmas bread?

Thanks, I’d  appreciate any ideas or commentaries.

Didn't know making panettone was a challenge until I read a recent article on the New York Times referring to this traditional Italian bread as "the Mount Everest of baking."  I tasted an exceptional piece of panettone made by Jim Lahey. Met him on his book tour in New York city when he spoke about his new book The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook. How difficult could it be to make the panettone armed with a detailed five-page recipe in the cookbook? This is what I've found.

This week I made some sourdough focaccia! One of them was plain with just olive oil, rosemary, and flaked salt, and the other was made into a tart topped with shallots, bird's eye chili, and rosemary, then brushed with jalapeno honey after coming out of the oven.