Lazy Loafer's blog

This is one of my favourite simple loaves - Ale & Yeast Poolish from Richard Bertinet's "Crust". The flour is 85% bread flour and 15% whole wheat, and the pre-ferment is a 100% hydration poolish made with ale (in this case, my husband's home made light hoppy ale). The dough is a dream to handle and it always behaves so well! The crumb tends to be fairly open and creamy, though the bread tastes quite different from a naturally leavened (i.e. 'sourdough') bread with similar blend of flour and same hydration.

This is one of my favourite breads at this time of year. It smells just like stuffing and makes the best leftover turkey sandwiches! It's also great with turkey soup. This is a naturally leavened bread made with fresh, ripe sourdough starter so you can only imagine the smell permeating my kitchen when this bakes - sourdough bread with sage and onions! I usually bake the bread in the Italian bread pans in long loaves, but wanted to see how it turned out baked in the cast iron pots. In a word, it turned out good!

We're getting ready for Christmas dinner #2 here; the first one was with the DH's family at the sister-in-law's house so we're hosting my family today with the second one. Busy making turkey dinner with all the trimmings but I thought it was time to post the Stollen (I baked for both Christmas dinners!).