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Hi everyone,

I've been wanting to find a sandwich bread that my son will eat, other than white bread. This week, I made some Cornell bread straight from the Cornell University site. I like the idea of it because it has extra protein in the form of soy flour, dry milk, and wheat germ -- the three ingredients you have to have if you call it Cornell bread. I substituted whole wheat flour for 1/3 of the total amount; otherwise, I followed the recipe.

The dough remained a bit sticky even after shaping, and it didn't rise to great heights. But it has a mildly sweet flavor from the honey, and a moist texture. My son still won't eat the crusts, though! I've never offered to cut crusts off his bread, so I don't know where he came up with that. I just tell him it's the handle of the bread.

The recipe wants a 400F degree oven, which, midway through, I lowered about 50 degrees. I think you shouldn't have to use a temp. higher than 375F for this bread. All in all, it's pretty nice, and I'll probably make it again...after I make the 172 other breads on my 'to bake' list!

Sue

Hi Katie, my dough was great so I guess I didn't goof too much with the amount of starter. It had doubled in 2 1/2 hours and was so nice to work with. I decided to leave the loaves in the frig overnight and there they sit, snugly held in place with parchment and rolled towels. It will be REALLY hard for me to let them sit for 4 hours before baking but I will try to be patient. I am so thrilled with my near-disaster bread too - it keeps fresh, and I seem to remember reading somewhere that using a preferment is the reason. I'm hooked! Can I mention the Brummie words? My mom was fond of saying that someone "had a bob on themselves" which meant they throught they were hot stuff. She was so determined that we wouldn't get big headed and she said that "all my grandmother's geese were swans" meaning that Nana thought her family could do no wrong. So we were never praised, rather sad. Oh well, many years ago, but it is fun to look up some of the sayings. I will TRY to take pictures if the bread turns out as well as I hope, A

Fresh Labneh +zaatar

Fresh Labneh+Cheddar Cheese

Qashta"fresh cream" +honey

Feta Cheese+dried mint

http://arabicbites.blogspot.com/

Katie, I was so anxious to try using my starter instead of the barm - and already I have a question. My 4oz. of starter was less than 2/3cups. Do you think it was because my starter was revved up and more liquid? I sorta kinda split the difference and went ahead anyway - I'll let you know what happens. I am also fretting a bit about "firm French bread dough" because I have never made French bread and don't really know how firm it should be. I see PR says tacky but not sticky. Hmmmmmmmmmm. Thanks for your help, A

Weavershouse, you've blown my cover! I was born in a small place outside "Brummagam" and had no idea anyone over here would know about Brummie slang. My mother used to do what we called bread and scrape - she would spread butter VERY THINLY on the cut end of the loaf before slicing it. Guess that came from the butter being rationed during the war. Of course I had to Google the site you mentioned and sat here laughing out loud to the amazement of Boo the one eyed pug. Now she thinks I'm over the edge too like my son in Paso Robles, CA. I was relating the tale of the almost disaster to him and he pointed out that it is only bread. He is the one I sent some of my sourdough starter to, and whenever we talk I ask if he has fed it recently. He has had some success but seems to think he has to adopt a tough attitude about it - probably doesn't want to end up as obsessed as his mama. Off to take the recycling, no time to read all of the Brummie sayings. A

Last night I lay tossing and turning, doing what my late father-in-law would call "mithering" - thinking about the bread I was going to bake today, (Floyd's Daily Bread), the basic sourdough from the BBA, and wondering whether anyone has tried making ciabatta dough using a food processor. Lots of things to make my brain spin. So I was late getting going this morning and it was probably 10am when I started on the bread. I had checked on the poolish several times and it looked fine, but when I tipped it onto the flour and water after the autolyse I found to my horror that it had separated and now I had a bowl of stiffish flour and water paste plus lots of liquid. Panic stations! I squished it all together between my fingers - what a mess. Of course I hadn't read all of the comments about the bread to know that it was meant to be wet. I added 1/2 a cup of flour and stirred with my trusty dough hook until there were strands forming, and then I did two quick folds. Believe me, I folded the heck out of it and each time it was a little easier to handle. Folded and went to Curves. Came home, folded it and ran into town to buy a birthday card - you get the picture. Finally after lunch it was time to shape the loaves. By now the dough was risen and full of bubbles, so I cut it very gently and made two strangely shaped loaves using TT's towel supported couche, thank you TT. I really worked on my slashing this time as I figured they weren't going to look great anyway. Baked them on the hot stone with steam and to my utter amazement they were beautiful! The slightly square ends rounded out nicely, the cuts bloomed - and the crumb was full of lovely holes. I pulled the parchment paper out when I turned them. Wish I had baked them for a few more minutes because the crust softened as they cooled. So what I thought was going to be a total disater turned out to be some of the best bread I have made yet. Many thanks for the recipe, Floyd, and for this fine site. Is there a 12 step program for this addiction? A

I wanted to make dill bread so used Floyd’s wonderful recipe for Potato Rosemary Rolls yesterday but replaced the rosemary and sage for a huge pile of fresh baby dill.  Then I added another huge pile of freshly ground black Tellicherry pepper.  We really like things spicy but I was afraid the amount of pepper I used would overpower the dill.  Not having made dill bread before (Tingull's looks so good) I also wanted to try using fresh dill to get a feel for the amount desired.  I ended up using 2 1/2 teaspoons of freshly ground pepper and roughly 4 packed tablespoons of chopped fresh baby dill.  The flavor was outstanding.  My husband loved them!

I really love the way these taste not only because of the potato and potato water, which also helps them keep longer, but just the richness of the dough and texture when you bite into it.  It has a kind of chewiness to the crust but still moist and the crumb is great for juicy hamburgers.  We did have grilled ground sirloin burgers with fresh chopped garlic mixed into the meat and grilled sliced Vidalia onions.  It made a fabulous hamburger. 

Besides adding quite a bit of extra pepper and substituting fresh dill instead of rosemary and sage I didn't make any other change to Floyd's recipe.  I did brush the top of the buns with unsalted butter when they were hot from the oven. 

Inspired by Floyd's, Potato Rosemary Rolls:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/recipes/potatorosemaryrolls

And Tingull's, Country Dill Bread:

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/3298/country-dill

METHOD: The purpose of this test on the sourdough starter is to test how long he takes to rise in a 60% hydration, lean dough.

Time 3:00pm

75.7 degrees F

31.5 and rising barometric pressure

2 oz General Chaos Starter

4 oz AP Walmart Brand Flour

2.25oz Filtered Water (Pur)

3/8 tsp Iodized Salt

Mixed all ingredients together for about 2 minutes until dough formed that pulled away from sides of dough but still stuck to bottom.

Transferred to a large glass measuring cup and covered with plastic wrap and a saucer.

Well Bill and Katie, apparently all that General Chaos aka Sir Stinksalot needed was to be threatened with the arrival of a new kid on the block, "Flat Stanley" (from Katie's parchment experiments)! I used Bill's 1:4:4 for yesterday morning and yesterday night feeds. Each time the little guy doubled in a little under 8 hours!!!! Yippee!!!

So last night I really wanted to drill down on the proper amount of feeding for him every 12 hours (for now) and I tested 3 different formulations and the temp was 75.7 degrees yesterday and last night in the kitchen, with the following results:

1. Test 1 is a 1:4:4 feed using 1oz starter: 4 oz water: 4oz flour and I got a 100% rise at 8 hours.

2. Test 2 is a 1:9:10 feed using 1 tbsp starter: 9 tbsp water: 9 tbsp flour and I got a 30% rise in 8 hours.

3. Test 3 is a 1:1:1 feed using 1/4 cup starter: 1/4 cup water: 1/4 cup flour and I got a 10% rise in 8 hours.

So I know the 1:4:4 makes a happy starter for now... Bill am I looking for a starter that will double in 4hours? Do you think that in test 2 and 3 my sample was too small? Or do you think that the starter is just still building steam? I guess I will go ahead and wait for it to completely peak before feeding again this morning, then refead the 1:4:4 with the same ratio again?

Thanks Katie for your generous offer! It might be fun once I get this guy going to "trade" starters and have a "friends" starter going and do a tasting. To see how two geographically different starters taste side by side! :D

On a side note, General Chaos is really smelling ok these days. He hasn't been stinky in quite awhile even though he did have a pretty strong vinegar smell there for awhile! ;) Now he just smells acidic towards the end of his rise time.

Beautiful bread, kjknits! It hadn't occurred to me to use my own sourdough starter instead of the barm, and now I can't wait to try it. I have the poolish sitting on the counter for Floyd's Daily Bread, and now this! I am getting panicky about running out of flour, and my freezer is getting full - not sure I want the family to know I am baking so much. Luckily my neighbors are always happy to take a loaf off my hands. I don't have a mixer so maybe won't get the great results you did, but I'm going to try, A