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Well, it is getting closer and I am happy with the crumb. This makes a great sandwich loaf. I started at 80% hydration, thought, but had a mucky mess, so must have screwed up the water weight. I added flour to get the dough to a workable, but wet consistency. I re-read Peter Reinhart's instructions in ABED on working and shaping ciabatta and found I had missed a step. The oven spring was enormous on this loaf. Easily 3.5 - 4x spring. I wish I had a before photo of a proofed loaf perhaps 11/4" high.

Crumb:

Although it was supposed to have been...

While in South Africa this past December, we had the chance to spend a few days in the Stellenbosch area; not far from Cape Town and in the middle of South Africa's winelands.  Stellenbosch is a picturesque town in its own right, replete with many examples of the Cape Dutch arhictectural style.  It is surrounded by vineyards and mountains and olive groves and lavender fields and is so beautiful as to make the flatlander tourist gape in wonder.  You could, for instance, have lunch or dinner at a vineyard's restaurant and enjoy scenery like this:

Now that the season has slowed down and I am not baking for customers anymore, I thought I get myself some rye flour and start experimenting  with rye breads. I lived in Estonia for over 10 years and fell in love with their 'leib' (rye bread). There are hundreds of variants available in almost every shop. I had no idea that I would miss that bread so much. But now on the other side of the world, I feel the need of recreating their beautiful rye breads.

I have been trying to make this loaf for a while but have had difficulties with the formulation. This time it worked. It was the first time since getting the pullman pan that I was happy with the results as far as shape.  A hybrid loaf with both commercial yeast (just a little) and starter it is 50% fresh ground whole grain with enrichments and baked in a 9 X 4 inch pan. The formula is:

     It's been a while since I made English muffins and since I just sprouted some whole wheat berries and ground them into flour I figured why not a sprouted flour version.

Previously I had used a Yeast Water starter in my English Muffins but since I no longer have a YW starter I decided to use my sourdough starter instead.

Some years ago, Dan Lepard published a recipe in The Guardian that contained saffron and ricotta cheese made with yeast. I made it once or twice, but decided I wanted to convert it to a sourdough. I added too much ricotta to the first attempt, but second time round worked really well.

Two big pinches of saffron in 100ml of boiling water. Let it cool and add to the dough. I also chopped the saffron threads, so the loaf has these lovely orange flecks throughout. It makes a beautiful soft and moist loaf.

Finally decided it was time to try something different again.  I've not been in a very good space for a few months and whilst I have continued to bake it has been from necessity rather than pleasure. Slowly the pleasure has returned and I decided to try Jeffrey Hammelman's 5 seeded levain but to leave out the yeast. 

Well, new for me, anyway... Actually, several new things... I'm a sourdough, rye and generally and wholegrain-ish kind of gal, but the Parental Unit requested crusty white French-style bread this week. So of course, I attempted to oblige. With the help of the resources and things I've learnt on here, (and a brain fart along the way) this is what I came up with:

INGREDIENTS

Poolish:

100g white bread flour

100g tepid water

1g dried active yeast

Dough:

Poolish

400g white bread flour

150g durum flour

315g tepid water

This morning I baked Ken Forkish's 40% Whole Wheat Overnight bread in loaf pans, just to try it out. I did this for a couple of reasons - it's a great bread for market because you can bake it right out of the fridge in the morning without warming it, and the oven heats up to 475 much more quickly without the stones or iron pots in it. So I can bake for an early market without getting up at a stupid time of day!

I haven't sliced it yet (it's for the shop), but here is a shot of the crumb of the same bread baked in iron pots.