GSnyde's blog

These days my bloggin' is even more sporadical than my bakin'.  I seem to bake once or so every month these days.  I've made no great breakthroughs.  It's still usually good bread, but not blogworthy.

I have been trying some things from the Della Fattoria book.  And I got one of those fancy proofing boxes for Hannukah, and have been using it.

But the best news is the old news...San Francisco Country Sourdough still makes me (and my number one bread fan) very happy.

Here's some crumb:

Hi, friends.  It's been a while since I posted.

It was almost three years ago that I made Challah using the ITJB formula for Honey Whole Wheat Challah.  That was an excellent bake.  Poofy and Fluffy and Yeasty and Delicious.  At the time, I promised myself to try that formula with Double Knot Rolls.  And this weekend I finally did.  I baked the longest acronym I ever baked…HWWCDKRs. They are very photogenic.  They tasted good, too.

This was a good roll to have with Pastrami-Spiced Barbecued Duck Legs (PSBBQDLs).

Here are the HWWCDKRs

Coming up on four years since I first tried to bake bread.  The history has been kept here in my Fresh Loaf blog.  For the first two years or so, I baked almost weekly (and blogged often weakly).  Then, as my experimentation yielded satisfactory formulas and techniques, the baking became a bit less frequent and the blogging much less frequent.

I haven’t posted a blog for some months.  I have been baking regularly, though not every week.  And not much that’s exciting for a blog post (since when did that stop me, you say?).  Plus life has a way of shifting my familiar patterns every so often.  And bread-blogging has given way to other things.

But this weekend is quiet.  My spouse is on a long business trip around Asia.  I’m spending a quiet evening trying to provide for a kitty who’s used to two laps.  Listening to the rain (a blessed sound in the midst of our long drought).

Howdy TFLers.  Been a while.  I just wanted to check in and say hi.  I continue to bake, though not every week like I used to.  Most of my baking is the tried-and-true standards: a variety of sourdoughs, fruit-nut breads like Reinhart's Cinnamon-Raisin-Walnut, an occasional challah, bagels, pizza.

I haven’t been around TFL much for the last few months.    Work demands, some travelling, and a bum leg conspired to keep me from baking much.  And most of my baking has been ordinary…hardly blog-worthy.

I’ve missed you all, and thought I’d pop in with a report on some recent bakes.

I baked up more of Hamelman’s 5-Grain Levain, this time making one batch into 6 mini-batards.  They freeze nicely and one of these loaves is good for a couple days of hardy yumminess.

This is true in bread baking, of course.  We are all more or less methodical, trying to get everything just right.   But everything is never just right.  Then, something inexplicably wonderful happens and the best bread ever known comes out of your oven.  And it’s either because you’re amazingly skillful, or pixies, leprechauns, angels or karma paid a visit.  In my case, I would bet it’s pixies.

The same is true in photography (that’s why they’re called “pixels”). 

Yesterday was a lucky day both for bread and photography.

Our holiday season was very relaxing, but we had guests visiting and I didn't get a chance to post on TFL much.  So, before we get too far into 2013, here are my last two bakes of 2012.

The first is my San Francisco Country Sourdough, a command performance since the batch from a few days earlier disappeared in a flash of hungry family.

The traditional holiday meal on California’s North Coast consists of Sourdough Bread, Fresh Dungeness Crab and White Wine.  By family demand, I made some San Francisco Country Sourdough for the Crab feast.  It was the best I’ve ever made.