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I've been taking it easy with the baking lately due to the excessive heat in center city Philadelphia, which has been hovering around 100 for the past few days now. I always feel guilty running the air conditioners and the oven at full tilt simultaneously, half expecting Al Gore to knock on my door and give me a lecture. Regardless, I had the itch to bake, and so I went back to one of my favorite recipes, the Vermont sourdough from 'Bread'.

Levain Build

I've recently stumbled upon the tradition of making Polish bialy. This was my first try at the recipe and I found them to be absolutely amazing. Although I am not Jewish and have never had one before in my life I think I gave it a good effort and made my own variation that is wonderful and tasty. (with my sourdough starter of course!)

uh oh!  this happened again!  As usual, my timing for baking was way off.  I tried to fit breadmaking into a very busy day.  Same batch as usual, 123 sourdough with 1/3 of the flour being whole wheat.  I took the dough from the fridge and divided it into 3 batards.  Let rest 20 minutes and shaped into 3 baguettes.  scored with slashes.  The "porcupine" loaf was cut by my 5-y-o daughter. and that one split up the side;  whoops.  I don't think I sealed them well enough, and the porcupine cuts aren't deep enough.

Hi everybody!

I’ve been following all the wonderful things being baked by the testers for Norm and Stan and decided I need the excitement of a challenge. Over the years I have had more rye bricks than loaves but lately I use Beatrice Ojakangas’ “Whole Grain Breads” and get good results but I wanted the Sour Rye experience.  We used to have a great German deli that carried some but alas they are gone. I picked “Eric’s Fav Rye”.  Got a quick order of First Clear Flour from KAF, and last Friday evening began converting my starter to rye.

These sourdough loaves are from Beth Hensperger's 'The Bread Bible'.  There are two different books titled 'The Bread Bible'.  Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'the bread bible' is one of my favorite books. 

This  sourdough bread recipe was designed to bake in loaf pans.  It makes a very nice tasting basic sourdough bread for everyday use for sandwiches and toast.  It was my first attempt at making it and I changed a few things.... next time I will omit the yeast and give the loaves an  overnight in the frig. 

External Link To Recipe: http://neo-homesteading.blogspot.com/2010/01/dutch-oven-sourdough-bread.html