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In the summer I live in the Chicago area but I spend seven months of the year in Fort Myers, FL. Down here I greatly miss the great Asiago bread made by Panera (formerly St Louis bread company.) Nobody makes it in this area, so I thought I would give it a try. I was sort of on my own, because I couldn't find a recipe.

I chopped up 2 1/2 oz. of the cheese in a mini blender. I used three cups of flour and followed exactly Floyd's lesson number five for making french bread. I used 1/2 tsp. of dry yeast (bulk from Costco which I keep in the freezer) in the starter and 1/2 tsp. more in the mix. I made the wettest batch I have tried so far. It almost poured like a cake batter.

I didn't put the cheese in the mixer, I incorporated it by spreading some over the surfaces during folding. I put the loaf in a long french bread pan like the one sold by King Arthur for $20.00, but which I bought at a kitchen store in a Tanger outlet mall for $3.00.

When I shaped the roll it was about 2" in diameter. After a 60 min. rise and with the jump, it was over 5" in diameter. With a 500 start, then 450 oven it was done in 15 minutes. It was very light with large holes and a thin crisp crust. Perfect.

The flavor was very good. Next time I will use perhaps another ounce of the cheese to get a little sharper flavor.

So last night I was thinking to myself, "I'd like to make some sourdough this weekend. Tomorrow morning I'll take out some of my ripe chef and make a starter with it. It can activate while I'm at work."
This morning, I went into the fridge, grabbed my tub of chef. Grabbed the scale and a spatula, took out the stone ground rye.
Then I walked over to the garbage can and dumped half of the chef.
Then I stared at the chef I had just discarded.
*sigh* Stupid auto-pilot.

-Joe

My 2nd attempt at a 100% sourdough rye bread. :)Finally turned out better!!
Made with wholemeal rye and chopped rye grains. Aromatic and sour..

Would increase the hydration next time to obtain a more open crumb...if possible.

I was searching for some information relating to my bakers course when I stumbled upon the Bread and Breadmaking book. I could only find it available on the Internet Archive.

It has been a very busy month. Work, class, guests, birthdays, etc. I've baked fairly regularly, but I haven't had time to take pictures, post recipes here, or experiment.

Today I used my sourdough starter. I've been feeding it once a week, but I hadn't baked with it in a while. I just made some little buns:

They weren't bad. I served them with a pot of homemade split pea soup.

The real star of the meal were the homemade croutons. I used cheap leftover Safeway french bread that I cubed up and fried in a pan with about half a stick of butter, some salt, garlic powder, and onion powder. They were amazing on top of the soup! I'll have to try making them with some of my bread some time.

Here's my try at rye and pumpernickel bagels. I adapted the sourdough rye and sourdough pumpernickel recipes in Bread Alone to make bagels. I used high-gluten flour instead of the AP/bread flour in the 20% bran mix. I also made the dough stiffer than for normal bread.

The rye ones worked out great. They passed the 'float test' within 20 minutes of proofing. The pumpernickels are much denser, and haven't floated yet after almost an hour. Once they do, it's off to the frige for an overnight ferment.

Tomorrow, I bake! I'll post the pictures then.

-Joe

I think my neighbors are starting to feel overwhelmed by all the loaves of bread that keep appearing at their houses :)

Like most of us here, I find little more satisfying than pulling a couple of gorgeous loaves off my stone. I don't have room in my freezer, and I'm way too impatient to wait until I finish one loaf to bake another :)

So what do you all do with your spare loaves? I was thinking of finding a homeless shelter, or the like, in the area to donate them to.

-Joe

Well, I was surprised to see a big, flat package on my doorstep today. It was my SuperPeel, sent to me by Gary.

I ran inside to unpack it, and was pleasantly surprised at the professional packaging and instructions. I'm waiting for the belt to go through the wash once before I assemble it, but I was immediately struck by what a well-designed and executed product it is. I can't wait to play with it! It definately looks like its worth what he's asking on the website. I'll be sure to take some pictures once I get it all together.

Thanks again, Gary.

Oh, and you were right. My wife picked up the 'fake superpeel' piece of junk at Sur le Table. Besides having a cloth belt instead of a parchment paper one, the real SuperPeel just feels more solidly built, and looks like it's made from a better wood, or at least better cuts of wood.

-Joe

Well, I leave the baking of breads to Floyd (my husband, and the webmaster of this site), but I figured I'd post this in my baking blog here because, well, maybe someone would find it fun (and besides, I suspect Floyd won't mind). Our son turned 4 on Sunday, and for his birthday he wanted to have a Pirate Party. So, I made him a Pirate Ship Cake!

read more to see how it was done!

My boy wanted a strawberry cake, and I was a bit surprised at how pink the thing turned out to be. A few calculated slices and some picks to keep the pieces from falling, and we'd turn this into the scariest strawberry cake on the seven seas!

There's the pirate ship! I left the mast off until we arrived at the pizza parlor where we planned to have the party.

The ship was named after the birthday boy, with sugar skulls and a grape fruit-roll flag, pirouline cookie cannons, and chocolate malt-ball cannon balls

which turned out to be quite popular with the kids.

Arr there be a treasure chest filled with gems and dubloons by the cap'n too!

There she is, all assembled. The ice-cream cone crows nest was supported by a straw nestled inside of more pirouine cookies. The only part that wasn't edible (aside from the picks that held the shape of the ship and the straw, was the pirate flag hanging from the top of the mast. Oh, and the pirates of course.

The kids loved it!

Don't make bread when you're sleep deprived! Mix everything but the yeast and salt into the dough before letting it autolyse!

I'm making potato rosemary rolls again (thank you for the clarification, Floydm) but incorporating the autolyse and cool rise techniques. I was half asleep at the time and thought it was a good idea to mix in the potatoes and proofed yeast while I knead. Mixing the yeast into the autolysed dough wasn't a problem but the potatoes didn't do so well - the kneaded dough has chunks of potatoes, spices, and whatnot randomly dispersed throughout but not blended. The dough is now rising in my fridge (or so I hope; I can never tell whether the dough has risen by eye) and it will be shaped and baked in the morning. I'll try to apply some gentle CPR to break up the potatoes then.