Nice to be here

Hello crumbologists and crustophiles. Been at it for about a year trying to make various crowd-pleasing riseables. The tips and techniques shared here are excellent. I hope to learn and contribute. I'm always looking for or thinking up ideas for interesting breads that usually incorporate flavorful ingredients like olives, herbs, spices, etc. This tends to help me please the crowd that I share with since they don't seem to appreciate the merits of technique, crust and crumb, oven spring, etc. Instead they think I'm a bread genius if I chop up some olives from a jar and throw 'em in the bowl with everything else. Plus my wife prefers the texture that comes from quick yeasts, so sometimes my starters get lonely and...sour. 

Here's my latest sourdough creation, a pepperoni rye/spelt with Herb de Provence. No hydration percentages from me as I'm not big on exact measuring, but I tend to push for the wettest dough I can handle and sometimes have some sticking of the proofed boules. It's more exciting that way.

The dough was about one part rye, one part spelt, and three parts bread flour. It autolysed for several hours before the starter, herbs, meat, and salt went in and was lightly kneaded then stretched and folded three times with 45 mins in between. It got an overnight retard before coming out for shaping and proofing until it looked ready. The pepperoni was uncured lunch meat style stuff chopped to tiny bits. It was proofed in a wicker/wood banneton and baked in a preheated cast iron combo Dutch oven starting at 455 and gradually lowering to 350 for the second 20 to 25 minutes of the bake. 

Of all the bread tips I've read, using the preheated Dutch oven has led to the most dramatic improvement in my end results. Thank you Fresh Loaf and Internet at large. My tip is to oil the bottom of the hot dutch oven with a high-temp oil and then sprinkle kosher salt on it for a tasty bottom crust. This bread has an unexpectedly sweet veggish smell from the herb n pepperoni.