Lately, I have been fiddling with a new sourdough. I finally got the ingredients and amounts fixed around a month ago, but still wasn't entirely satisfied. Then I made a little tweak and kazam! Suddenly it all fell together. The tweak wasn't either ingredients or amounts, as those have stayed constant.
A Natural Bloom is where the bread unfolds during the oven spring giving a unique and natural rise. No need to cut, and so far, always Blooms.
This style of folding has worked very well for higher hydration and mixed grain breads.
The bread in the picture is a part Khorasan with added Khorasan porridge.
Kurt
I had some leftover wild rice (which also had red rice and brown rice in the blend) so not wanting it to go to waste I decided to add it to a dough. I don’t think I’ve added rice in this way in a long long time. I’m quite pleased with how it turned out. I also had a bit of whole kamut left so decided to use it up in this bread as well.
These are the best baguettes I’ve made to date - light, crispy, very good flavor, crust and texture. The recipe is based on Ian Lowe’s Baguettes with Old Dough (Pate Fermentee), with my own modifications.
Years ago, I took the Baguette class as KAF, but I never quite achieved their quality. It was an excellent class, taught by Jeffrey Hamelman, but I was new to more serious baking, and the concepts were foreign to me. Over the years, I tried to improve on my results, but usually produced somewhat heavy baguettes that didn’t rise well.
2026 - Cream pie challenge
Notes: while I am head over heals happy with this outcome. I am disappointed that I made an inexperienced amateur mistake. The glaze is too thick! Other than that, my bride said it was delicious!
Smile...
The finished product
This is my first bake of 2026 and is my go-to dough. I have made this bread well over a hundred times, and it is popular with many people who receive loaves from me. This bread is Jeff Hamelman's Vermont Sourdough with Increased Whole Grains (from the second edition of Bread).
My first two bakes of pretzels were yummy, however, the dough was hard to deal with. In doing some research it seems that the hydration of that original recipe was too high. So I’ve adjusted the hydration down to 65% which I believe is the upper end of the scale for soft pretzels. The dough was much easier to deal with especially transferring them into the simmering baking soda bath and out again. I’m quite happy with these and they are now already all gone.
Ok we'll start with the most obvious difference: QUANTITY
I’ve been feeling uneasy these days, and, perhaps in solidarity, my starter has, too. For a few months now, it’s been highly acidic which has cut down on its ability to promote yeast growth. For my usual deli rye – 45% whole rye/10% whole spelt/45% bread flour -- I mixed the levain and, after 12 hours on the counter, it was clear that it had not progressed in the right direction. It felt and looked dead -- just a non-responsive grey lump.
