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After many months of making french bread, I have finally achieved the results I have been striving for! Delicious open crumb,and crunchy crust. All my practice has finally paid off. For me, shaping has been one of my biggest weaknesses. Now hopeully I can achieve this again. WOOOHOOOO!!!!! =)

Monday... Tuesday... Wednesday... Thursday...

My Ciabatta (sung to the tune of "My Sharona")


Oooh my little crusty one, my crunchy one.
Making you was awf'ly fun, My Ciabatta!
Your crumb is my fav'rite one, my fav'rite one.
When you gonna be done, My Ciabatta!


Ready to munch, don't want to wait
for you to cool. Cooling on the rack, wire rack,
Time to eat. My my my i yi woo! M M M My Ciabatta...

I made a boule today that was one of my better efforts. It tasted very good, but I think I can go wetter. I'm also looking for more of a blistery crust- one that crackles a bit more.

I'm determined to make the Whole Wheat recipe in the Bread Baker's Apprentice work. This will be my 3rd try. Got started last night. I put together the soaker with stone ground rye flour. It was 4.25oz flour to 6oz water. Covered, left on the counter. Then I put together the poolish. I used KA whole wheat flour. 6.75oz flour, and 6oz water. The directions say to "mix the flour and yeast, and add the water until it forms a thick paste. Stir only enough to hydrate the flour." First problem: 6oz of water was not even enough to pick up all the flour.

Just a few days ago, i decided to try Pete Reinhart's Pane Siciliano. It's been a long time since i've wanted to try this.. Wished i'd shape it better though. But the semolina adds something nice to it :)! Anybody tried Pane di Altamura before? Is it 100% durum flour bread?

It's still easy to cut yourself while slicing bread. Yesterday, when halving one of my Pane a l'Ancienne from TBBA, I put my hand on top of the loaf, and sliced along the side, like I always do. It removes the possibility of getting the knife in the palm of my hand. Instead, the knife skipped on the (beautiful) crust and right into the pad of my middle finger. I managed to keep the blood off the bread! :) And boy, was there a lot of blood. I served it at a friend's party, and it was the talk of the room. Nothing trumps fresh bread! -Joe

I started out on Saturday morning creating a fresh starter using 75% water to flour. I moved on to a lunch loaf and a couple of baguettes.

Today is Saturday, a bread baking day: I've made a batch of Low Fat Bran Muffins with apples, raisins, oat bran and All Bran cereal and later today I will be making a whole wheat recipe as a tester for author, Peter Reinhart. Perhaps I will start Floyd's Pain Sur Poolish later today and finish it up tomorrow. So many breads....so little time. Recently I received a copy of Elizabeth David's English Bread and Yeast Cookery. This is a book that I have wanted for a long time, but it may now be out of print.

Just to update my blog, I recently made 2 kinds of breads. First was a barley stout bread (malt syrup, rye, wheat, barley grains and ...Stout! :) ). Nice aroma with a slightly taste.