My first Preferment - YAY!

So, after spending hours and hours on this site, I decided to try my hand at pre-fermenting. I have a couple of tried-and-true sandwich bread recipes but I decided to be adventurous and converted a French bread recipe from Laurel's Kitchen Bread Book. I even tried shaping a batard!!!

The results of my efforts: crusty-chewy crust, robust flavor and a passable crumb in not-too-badly shaped football. :-) I couldn't be more thrilled! There is no way but up from here.

Next experiment: Rustic Bread.

Thanks to all you folks for your posts and the information on this site. I now have a whole new world of adventures ahead of me!!! And, I couldn't have done it without you.

p.s. I promise pics of my next experiment. Now I have to find the darn computer-camera cable. :-)