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Hello Freshloafers

<Sorry the orientation of the main picture is a bit off, just tilt your head to the left and it's the right way up again! >

One of the (many) things I enjoy about TFL is you don’t have to look very far to find a recipe to try! This week’s bake was a variation of dabrownman’s jewish deli rye from a couple of weeks back

This loaf is based closely on the recipe from Sam Fromartz's book. It is 70% rye with the balance whole wheat at 80% hydration. I didn't have his mixture of rye flours so substituted high extraction fresh ground rye with the bran resifted and reground twice. The whole wheat is fresh ground Red Fife. I used 120g yeast water replacing some of the water in the final dough. The dough was also retarded after the mix to be formed, warmed and proofed after about ten hours. The dough had swelled a lot during the retard.

2016 Dabrownman’s Blog Index

1/1/2016 - New Year’s Eve Pizza – 2015

1/5/2016 - Westphalian Pumpernickel – 1537

1/8/2016 -  3 Starter Italian Olive Bread with Rosemary and Sun Dried Tomato

For Bread baking Day #83, found here at the KOCKTOPF Blog -  http://www.kochtopf.me/bbd-83-brot-spezialmehl-bread-special-flour Lucy came up with weird bake - even for her.  The theme is a bread that wasn’t just rye, spelt or wheat.  Well, this was not an issue with us since our usual bread has all kinds of sprouted and whole multi-grains from the ancient to the odd.

Thanks A BakER!  I tried your suggestion of lowering the pre ferment to 10% and this was the result.  It did not really do much in the fridge overnight so I let it stand at room temperature this morning for 4 1/2 hours ......... that did the trick!  Then after knock back and shape for an hour into the preheated Dutch Oven.

You were right the hydration was a little wetter than usual however it rose a treat :)  I adjusted the quantities and used 300g strong bread flour.

We went out for a picnic today so I had to take the cooling loaf with me!

Have made an important decision about baking...

It rained...

Wow, this is the biggest rise and oven spring I have EVER had! Now the working part of my peel measures 8"x14" and this loaf filled most of it using 460 grams of flour! Best pulla ever, with a soft almost shreddalble crumb.

Normally, I will do a sponge of liquid levain, sugar, egg, flour and scalded milk infused with cardamom. After this got happy, I would put it in the fridge at bedtime, remove it in the morning and mix  after about an hour of warm up.

I began getting ruthless with my deep freeze a while ago and these are the only things I have baked in three weeks. I found an abundance of breads I baked then froze and have been eating my way through.

I bookmarked this recipe some time ago and finally got around to baking a half batch. this batch I rolled out, shaped a rectangle and cut the biscuits into squares using a butter knife, then baked on a parchment covered pan. Quick, easy and tasty!

My batch:

1 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 TBS sugar

1 C grated sharp cheddar

When you want your comeback to be remembered, you have to come back with a bang! Here it is! Last week I promised to go back to bread baking after an addiction to pastries. Well these are viennoiseries, still a hybrid between pastries and bread but there's yeast in it so I consider it closer to breads. I made croissants and pains au chocolat for this week; it's an ambitious bake for an ambitious baker.

My recent fruit and nut bake garnered the suggestion from a few TFL folks that I should soak the dried Calmyrna figs prior to folding them into the dough.  And so I did.  I wonder if I soaked them too long because they expanded and became a force all of their own with relation to the final product.