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It is one of those days that started with bread and will probably end with bread.  I've got dough in different stages and plenty caked on my hands. I have been experimenting, too, and it's been a bit mad. I have been pushing the limits of cold fermentations and began making one bread and then made another with the same dough!

I recently found a book in the local library - another bread book - Crumb by Ruby Tandoh.

I tried one recipe - perfect result.

The book does have a good section on the why and wherefores of breadmaking and the recipes are easy to follow.

Here is my offering...

Any comment will be gratefully received

Thanks

Chris

So I found the bottom of a DO at the local antique shop ... $25.

I decided to use it immediately, so I made some dough. It's my usual, modified BBA SD recipe, this time to 82% hydration.

Preferment: 13 oz a 100% hydration (it may have been a bit more or less, my scale hiccuped)

Flour:

KAF BF: 4.25 oz

KAF White WW: 5 oz

KAF AP: 5 oz

Rye: 2 oz

Sprouted Wheat Flour: 3 oz

Corn meal: 1 oz

Water: 17.45 oz

Salt: 0.55 oz

...after two months test-baking rye breads, some of whose recipe addled my brain, to just bake my familiar weekly sourdough.

This is essentially Vermont sourdough from Hamelman's Bread with 11 percent less levain, and 15 hours retard at 55°F.

David G

This was sort of a last minute, random idea loaf that turned out really, really well!  Gotta love fermentation...

The formula:

Many loaves for friends this weekend! My most consuming experiments were with 1) loooooong room temperature autolyse, and 2) pate fermentee as all of the leaven in a loaf. Unfortunately, I don't have crumb pictures for all loaves. The plight of the gifted loaf. 

For this dark chocolate chunk levain, I did a 12-hour autolyse of only flour and water, added levain at 5% of the total weight, carried out a 12-hour room-temperature bulk fermentation, retarded for 12 more hours, shaped and proofed in the refrigerator for another 10 hours:

I tried this recipe yesterday which I found on the popular German site Pötzblog (http://www.ploetzblog.de/2014/08/02/leserwunsch-dunkles-bauernbrot-no-knead/),

essentially a sourdough wheat/rye mix. The author says it is one most of the most read recipes.

I made 2 loaves one in the dutch oven the other one a cloche. I was very pleasantly surprised.

My wife and I ate almost half of a loaf this morning for breakfast.

Tom.

Okay you guys, I've done it! It wasn't even three weeks ago that Sourdough was a foreign idea to me. Thanks to everyone on the site for all kinds of lovely information, finally I'm turning out some happy, happy loaves.

My starter has since turned into three little guys. I feed "Bananas" (he smells like bananas) with whole wheat flour, another one (name to be determined) with rye and whole wheat, and "Pablo Le Mon" (he used to live in a Lemonade pitcher) I feed with whole wheat and white flour.

All is well, they produce nice country sourdough loaves together.