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My kids were starting to complain about SD bread. So I made a loaf of My Daily Bread.

I went with a lower hydration on this one as well - in the KA the dough ball was only mildly sticky and the kneading hook certainly worked the dough over. It windowpaned after roughly 10 minutes of kneading.

Interestingly the final loaf was less crusty and slightly firm and springy. Hard to describe, but definitely less crusty than previous loaves.  It was cooked on a pizza stone at 500F for 10 minutes, then 450F for another 10 or so until golden and internal temp 205F.

So I put together a loaf of SJSD last week. Used 1/4 tsp of commercial yeast, kneaded into the dough after the bulk fermentation, as an "assist." Seemed to work well.

I didn't take notes on this one (or the next few as y'all will see) ... sorry. I made the dough slightly sticky - not sure what hydration this corresponds to but IME less than 70% (I used my KA and the dough easily cleared the sides of the mixing bowl).

Oven spring was OK, flavor was good ... crumb was OK.

Ever onward ...

-Dave

I've not made English muffins for years and years. I chose the King Arthurs's recipe here:

http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/sourdough-english-muffins-recipe

They are very good, not quite the crumb texture I was looking for, I wanted it a little more open, so I will try adjusting my fermentation and proofing times. I really don't want to change any of the ingredients because they are so good, especially with Candy Apple home made jelly!

Which by the way can be found here:

When I first caught sight of these pretty rolls in a Mexican bakery, I was totally smitten. But my enthusiasm quickly deflated when I took the first bite - the cute little shells were overly sweet, but other than that: no taste whatsoever! 

Sadly, this was the case with almost all the pastries we had at the Riviera Maya: they looked very appetizing, but tasted only bland and sugary.

 Conchas in Mexican bakery: pretty but bland

Lately my English muffins bake has been a soft crumb and holes is getting smaller. Not sure what I did wrong.

I have finally bought a Pullman pan! two, actually. For bread, my first natural choice was a Rye; my first  Borodinsky  from Andrew’s book: (Bread matters).

After reading "Tartine" I tried out its wholewheat SD with Flaxseeds, I substitute Sunflower seeds with roasted Sesame seeds. 

Everything was going well until the second fold. It said in the books to add the seeds during the second fold. I add them in there an perform the S&F as usual. Issues Happened

The baking bug bit me about six weeks ago.  Started with banana bread, baked two loaves of yeasted bread in my lodge cast iron loaf pans, moved on to making pizzas and then tried my hand at sourdough -- ciabatta, english muffins and english muffin bread and even a "basis sourdough loaf" that I read about in a Jane Harrison's "An EasyGuide to Sourdough" which contains weird volume measurements: 2 cups of flour, 1.5 cups starter, 3/4 tsp of sale.   No added water in the recipe but always needed to add water in order to form a dough.

Well  it's Sunday 12-8-13 and we have freezing rain. My world is cold and covered with ice...except the wood fired oven that is nice and hot.

What a better time to do some baking. Work has been bogging me down so baking was forced on the side lines.  With the onset of winter I should have more time for baking :-)

This is the crumb for the multi-grain sourdough I experimented with recently over three days. The dough was primarily unbleached white and spelt with a touch of whole wheat.  The levain was left for 18 hours, due to cold temperatures, and the dough was refrigerated for almost 36 hours and then set out at room temperature overnight in a banneton.  I will continue to tinker....