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(Reblogged from http://wildeconomies.wordpress.com/2014/04/28/interview-with-olivier-part-1/)

As any of my loyal dear readers and followers know, I have been in a wonderful rut of baking the Tartine Basic Country Loaf.  The vast majority of my loaves have been, dare I say, excellent.

My experiments continued this morning, as I baked another dough I had frozen very recently.  This was a variation of Khalid's recipe that I have made a couple of times.  I really enjoy this bread as it has lots of different grains in the soaker, and it is ready to go so quickly.  I defrosted the loaf yesterday in the fridge and took it out at 6 a.m.

Five years ago (April 25) I discovered The Fresh Loaf, and started this journey. Prior to then I’d frequently baked yeasted breads, and a modest spectrum of other baked goods. I’d bought a bread-maker—A Zo—and soon after quit, for the most part, buying supermarket bread. I continued to purchase loaves from local bakers, Deli Rye most frequently; and, while still working, loaded up with airport sourdough every time I passed through San Francisco.

I was content—well, almost content.

I've baked a few more loaves recently. I'm still having a bit of trouble deciding when they're properly proofed. All of these are from Hamelman's 'Bread'. I used a Dutch Oven for all the boules.

My previous bake was a straight dough using 00 Caputo flour and a little Kamut flour.  For this bake I wanted to make a sourdough version and also add some rye and bread flour.

I am starting to like the characteristics of combining the 00 style flour with other flours a lot.  It helps create a lighter crumb which sometimes is a nice change of pace.

The final bread came out great with a nice dark crust and open and light crumb.  The Kamut adds a nice nutty flavor along with a yellow complexion to the dough.

Some of you may remember the new flour I picked up from the local mill last month, and didn't have the chance to try it in some bread; I’m now glad I did. Since the flour is French style, I decided to use it to make a Miche.  

RECIPE:

INSTRUCTIONS

30 weeks since I started this now tradition. I've had this idea on my mind a while.  I've eaten this bread at a few bakeries and they vary from sweet levain style to slightly enriched pan breads.  I thought I'd start with a light rye sour as the base.  The end results are pretty tasty.  The 30 percent of Whole Rye brings a great sweetness to the loaf but since 22% is prefermented for 15 hours it also brings a lovely sour flavor to the loaf.  The toasted sunflower pairs as it does in Volkornbrots.

-recreating the Sourdough Red Wine Bread by Yuko

Finally decided to take the plunge and used the cherished red wine at home for this recipe and am glad, I was well rewarded! the taste and flavour is amazing, perfect for me (just like Yuko, a big fan of both wine and bread.) started off on Friday evening and had the bread baked in time for brunch on Sunday. (12 hour autolyse, 6 hour bulk ferment, 18 hour retard)

 A few days ago my wife decided to make her delicious meat sauce and I volunteered to make a bread to go with it.  I didn't have time to create a starter so I made a straight dough based on the German Style rolls I have made before which I posted about here.

I of course had to change it up a little since that's kind of what I like to do.  I added some freshly ground whole Kamut flour and used honey instead of sugar.