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When on the breath of autumn breeze,

From pastures dry and brown,

Goes floating like an idle thought

The fair white thistle-down,

Oh then what joy to walk at will

Upon the golden harvest hill!

What joy in dreamy ease to lie

Amid a field new shorn,

And see all round on sun-lit slopes

The pil’d-up stacks of corn;

And send the fancy wandering o’er

All pleasant harvest-fields of yore.

This is a exciting time for me because there is so much to learn about making bread.

I am learning about The Fresh Loaf after I found a book by Richard Bertinet.

The handbook is helping as well. I have made a few loaves and pizzas, and just starting my first sourdough experiments. My plan is to have some lessons as soon as I can.

Is your site able to direct me to other home bakers in Melbourne, because there are so many variables I am looking for some experience. Is there a book works well in Australia ie brands and grams?

Last weekend I had the pleasure of attending the 2014 Grain Gathering in Mt Vernon, Washington.

Formerly known as the Kneading Conference West, the Grain Gathering is the preeminent gathering of bakers, millers, farmers, malters, and breeders in the Pacific Northwest.

Odd as it may sound, I did not decide yet what my “go to bread” recipe is , and to rectify that I searched all bread books that I own to sort out the favorite recipe, and came across one I haven’t tried: Whole Wheat Bread from Tartine. I followed the recipe, including cold overnight fermentation of the shaped loaves.  The loaves spent their night in a floured couche in the fridge, but ended up sticking so I had to pry them out the next morning (Note to self: do not underestimate the importance of rice flour while dusting your couche).

Quick post showing this mornings croissants freshly baked.

My SD starter lievito madre responsible for raising these delights.

egg washed

As a number of you know, I have experimented with freezing dough and baking it later.  I have had some recent mixed results, and I thought I would share it to see if there are some things to learn from my experience. Recently, I made a wonderful Tartine sourdough with olives, herbes de provence and lemon zest, recipe link below.  I froze the second loaf to bake later, and I baked it in the last few days.  It was terrible--a flat, gummy disk.

This week Lucy came up with a combination method; part no knead, part slap and fold and part stretch and fold to go along with her recent sprouted flour fetish..  the whole grain sprouts this week were; spelt,  rye, barley and wheat and made up the 34%  whole grains in the mix.

I just wanted to share my first starter and see if anyone can provide me with hints and tips.

I first started it 2 weeks ago with white flour at 100% hydration and some white wine vinegar. It started making shy bubbles after day 2 but not until I fed it whole wheat flour on the 5th day did it rise and over flooded its container.

I kept adding whole wheat till now except one addition of rye which did not react and 24 hours passed with no bubbles visible. 

Now I am planning on using this starter at night for my preferment and will keep photos and posts updated

It’s time to be honest; so I’ll lay it all out right here. I’m into my third year of my 5-year plan to learn how to bake good bread, and somewhere around March this year, I lost my baking mojo! Every loaf that came out of the oven fell into two categories: brick or curling stone!

"I say, my friends," pursues Mr. Chadband, utterly rejecting and obliterating Mr. Snagsby's suggestion, "why can we not fly? Is it because we are calculated to walk? It is. Could we walk, my friends, without strength? We could not. What should we do without strength, my friends? Our legs would refuse to bear us, our knees would double up, our ankles would turn over, and we should come to the ground. Then from whence, my friends, in a human point of view, do we derive the strength that is necessary to our limbs?