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As I am on a long holiday vacation now and school starts again just after the New Year, I decided to use this opportunity to make some viennoiseries before the year ends.

I made some sourdough pains au chocolat in my new oven to celebrate 2018 and the New Year. We are just minutes away from 2019 here! I have received so many blessings this year: from passing the board exam, becoming a licensed professional teacher, having a highly rewarding profession in many aspects, to having a new oven; I have so much to thank for and words are not enough to thank the Lord!

I've made bread with cider before and always like the sweet flavor it imparts.  I decided to add some roasted white sweet potato to this one and it really helped create a super moist crumb.  I was actually pleasantly surprised at how moist this crumb turned out.  The flavor was fantastic and this bread is the perfect sandwich bread for some pastrami or any deli meat.

Please note, white sweet potato is not as sweet as the orange type and the water content is less so if you use them instead, you need to adjust your hydration accordingly.

My wife complains that I never make her simple white bread so to be nice a few weeks ago I made my version of a "simple" white sandwich bread.  I had to sneak in some whole wheat of course and added Ricotta Cheese to help make it nice and soft like she prefers.

I used 1085 grams of the dough for the loaf pan and make a couple of rolls with the left-over dough.  Probably could have used all of it in the pan and it would have worked out fine.

The temperature for bread baking seems to vary greatly.

Some recipes recall for 230º C others 250º, some for 225º C some 220ºC, some recall for two different temperatures. A higher one on the first 10min and later lower temperature for the rest of the bake.

https://www.landwatch.com/default.aspx?ct=D&pid=333007320&mltmid=23111

Cedar Mountain’s Grass Roots Bread - Mixer Version

For this bake, I followed the Modernist Bread recipe for chocolate cherry sourdough, with my only modification being leaving out the instant yeast. (https://modernistcuisine.com/recipes/chocolate-and-cherry-sourdough/)

I wasn't sure how it would turn out, but the bread was a big hit.

Just happened to grab a picture that gives a pretty good feel for the oven spring I tend to get from a cloche. And, it also shows the cloche. That seemed like enough reason to post it.

I have not posted anything for ages. It has been a busy year full of life changes, gardening and travelling. I mainly stuck to my usual recipes. But I received the recipe for this interesting cake in West Australian Yoke Mardewi's December newsletter. Just had to try it and it is delicious. Next year should be more settled with lots more experiments in baking, roll on 2019!

Recipe here: http://wildsourdough.com.au/recipe/wild-sourdough-spelt-khorasan-christmas-cake/

Woo! This week has been busy! From baking naturally leavened panettone to focaccia to cookies for Christmas, I've been scrambling around and hoping that everything will turn out well. I was actually able to settle down and make a nice sourdough loaf (which I'm still a newbie at), and I think it turned out pretty well! I followed the pain de campagne recipe from FWYS and was pretty happy with the result!