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So far it's been a wild and unexpected journey this year. Who would've thought, I'd stray into a different direction: sourdough doughnuts.

I had intended to try baguettes again a few weekends ago, but some cookbook photos of a pain d’épi changed my mind. So much crust on these!

I made a basic baguette following this formula:

-       500 g levain

-       750 g AP flour

-       10 g salt

-       0.5 teaspoon instant yeast

-       430 g water

This is the actually the second attempt.  The first loaves stuck to the bannetons.  Much soul searching ensued.  I have found both times that the dough is quite sticky to work with.  I made several changes this time:

A few years ago, I bought a Hearth Kitchens, HearthKit which has been sitting in my basement unused.  In the past, this was in demand and i'm wondering if anyone on the Fresh Loaf is interested in buying it from me. If so, let me know!  Thanks for your interest!

This is my take on Melon Pan, a Japanese bread. Several TFLers have already posted this here, here and even the admin himself here. It's an interesting bread and suits Japanese/Asian tastes well; a soft enriched dough is wrapped with a cookie (most likely a sugar cookie) dough, rolled in sugar then scored before proofing and baking.

This bread is adapted from Hamelman's formula for 40% Rye Caraway Sourdough. Formula was exactly the same save that I omitted the yeast and method was different.

A swirl of buttery layers that gets fried in a pan. Made with 50% semolina and 50% bread flour. Eat warm when it gets out of the pan. So good on its own that you really don't need anything except iced tea or a glass of wine with it.

Previous ones did not rise enough for my liking, but this is the first success. With grass fed butter = ZOMG!!!! 

The two on the left are sourdough and the two on the right are Hamelman's Roasted Potato and Onion loaf. 

I tried a different blend of flours with the sourdough this time. Had much better results. 

400 g AP

400 g Bread

75 g WW

Two bakes of note this week. One was a pleasant surprise the other a reminder of what I don't want to do. The loaf started with what was supposed to be a leaven build but got interrupted by events and had to be refrigerated instead of taking it to the point of mixing the dough.  I should have just started over but instead took it out of cold storage and carried on as if no pause happened. A porridge was made with freshly coarse ground spelt, home ground corn and steel cut oats cooked in half milk half water and cooled.