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I've been on vacation and not baking for a while.  I have been keeping my starter going, however.  Last week I made the 1/3 whole wheat 1-2-3 sourdough ... again.  I'm caught in a rut :)  

I forgot the salt though, and had to mix it in after 2 or 3 stretch and folds.  Seemed to work ok though.  Bread was good, but I forgot to take pictures.  I made 4 small baguettes.  Those are just hard to shape;  I need practice.  Scoring was good (I did 3 - 4 lengthwise slashes) but the bread was underproofed.

Although blogging has taken a back seat to other activities, I have been baking in the background.  It's just that none of those have made the leap from the kitchen to the Web.  And, frankly, most of them were old favorites and I really didn't have anything new to say about them, except for yum!

Ultimamente le miche di grande pezzatura hanno trovato il mio favore. Un pane tondo, con farina semi-integrale ed impasto tenero, profilo "basso", ben cotto e lievitato naturalmente. In letteratura questo tipo di pane è spesso descritto come "il pane di una volta" tipicamente prodotto nei piccoli paesi o nelle cascine e cotto in forno a legna. In Francia potrebbe assomigliare a quello fatto nei primi del '900 a cui si è ispirato Poilane, in Italia al pane di Genzano/Lariano ed in Canada a quello riportato da James MacGuire come il tipico pane mangiato negli insediamenti europei.

Hey there Freshloafers,
I thought I'd poke my head out of the dough and cloud of flour to update you on the bakery's progress.

A few weeks ago I noticed that we had our two year bakery anniversary.  I think it went like this:
Me:  "Last week was two years for the bakery."
Sharon:  "Really?  When?"
Me:  "I don't know, some time last week, I think."

Flour, water, salt and yeast. How can this simple recipe be so hard to perfect. I have been seriously baking bread for about 8 months now and have attempted baguettes with poolish a dozen or more times. The shaping and scoring videos make it look so easy and many on this forum have absolutely mastered the art. 

Just thought that I would let you all know that at Thermo Works, the Thermapen is on sale at $89 and free shipping.  I have been wanting one for a long time, but did not want to pay $95-$100 and a shipping fee, making it well over $100.  I am excited about getting my new toy.

Duane

I have read so many bread baking books and viewed so many videos on shaping boules, but I didn't really "get it" until I saw our instructor, Miyuki, do it in the SFBI Artisan I workshop I attended a couple weeks ago.

I will attempt to show what I learned in still photos with descriptions. I hope that viewing these and then reviewing some of the excellent videos available might help others who are struggling with this technique.

Mis en place

This past year has been very interesting for me. I made learning rye breads a goal at the years end, and while I now know enough to understand it's going to take a lot longer, I'm making progress. Recently I did an experiment with scalding rye that worked out well. We have had some great threads here on the benefits of autolyse and mixing patterns. I was reminded of a post from Shiao-Ping where she  made a Gerard Rubaud bread and another one from James Macguire that utilized long cool ferment at high hydration.

Almond Milk Bread with Dried Cherries

This recipe was inspired by a friend who gave me some dried cherries to bake something with, my recent success with brioche, and a box of unsweetened almond milk that just doesn’t taste very good to drink straight…

Recipe:

1000g Bread flour (Gold Medal)

600g Liquid (3 eggs + almond milk to make up amount)

200g Liquid levain (100% hydration storage starter from fridge)

150g Granulated sugar

I baked two sourdough loaves yesterday, using my recently acquired, and fed KAF starter (reported to come from starter that began 250 years ago in New England).