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I wanted to see if James MacGuire's Pain de Tradition procedure would improve my San Francisco Sourdough.  My formula is as follows:

220 g San Francisco starter @75% hydration (ie, 126 g white bread flour and 94 g water)

374 g white bread flour

306 g water

10 g salt

2 g instant dry yeast

(ie, total flour is 500 g and total water is 400 g)

This is my attempt at this lovely bread posted by Shiao-Ping.  I did a long write-up but just deleted it and would like to say..My loaf leaves a lot to be desired...but the 'Flavor is amazingly delicious'  I couldn't believe how lovely, creamy, smooth and flavorful this bread tastes..the flavors that developed over the long fermentation are delicious...my crust did soften somewhat and I don't think as crispy as it should be..  I think my next attempt I may adjust my flour so there is a little less hydration.  My dough stuck on part of the banneton when I was pu

This bread is fast becoming a favorite with us.

As I had such a lovely result from my last [url=http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/12866/james-j-macguire039s-pain-de-tradition/][b]Pain de Tradition[/b][/url] using white flour, I thought I'd give it a try with whole-wheat flour.   James said to make a miche de campagne, substitute 15% whole-wheat or up to 10% medium rye for part of the white flour, so my 100% whole-wheat version isn't conventional. 

Many TFL users would recognise Mr James J. MacGuire's name as he is the technical editor for Prof. Raymond Calvel's "The Taste of Bread."   In a 10 page article entitled,[b] "The Baguette" [/b]in the Winter 2006 issue of Mr Edward Behr's quarterly magazine "The Art of Eating," ie. No 73+74 issue, Mr  MacGuire's message about a good French traditional bread is very clear: slow & gentle mixing with autolyse, long fermentation, and high hydration.  

Hamelman's 40% Caraway Rye without commercial yeast:

I haven't cut into this yet, but I'm so pleased!  I modified the recipe and only used the rye levain.  It looks great.  This bodes well for paying attention to fermentation temperatures.

I cut the recipe down to make a single loaf:

I have read a lot of press about a special baguette called "La Flute Gana" made by Bernard Ganachaud, one of the pioneers of the artisanal bread revival in France during the late 70's. I have tried to follow different interpretations of Ganachaud's recipe available in some  bread books without much success so I decided to experiment and develop my own interpretation of "La Flute Gana".

This poor bread had a tough time of it with me.  It's Pumpernickel Bread from the BBA.  I made the levain version without instant yeast.

Ingredients:

7 oz. starter - 100% hydration

7oz. Giusto's pumpernickel flour

6oz. water

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The San Joaquin Sourdough has been my wife's favorite bread for quite a while now. It's not that she doesn't like other breads. She thought Salome's Potato-Nut bread that I baked yesterday was “amazing.” But, if I had an “everyday bread,” I guess this would be it. The recipe and background on this bread are described in my blog entry for Pain de Campagne.

A Tale of Two Boules