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Recently, I read some comments on an old discussion topic here about the length of proofing time required for whole grain sourdough bread. Dabrownman mentioned that it is easy to over-proof whole grain bread because of the high bacterial, yeast and enzymatic activities. I wonder if I was letting my bread to proof for too long sometimes such that the oven spring was minimal at times, so I deliberately cut the proofing period by 20 minutes this time to see what its effect would be.

The holiday is over.  It was an awesome 3 week trip to our South Island incorporating a 7 day adventure of 4WD in back country, catching up with relations and exploring parts of the country I had never seen before. 

Fellow Bakers,

I had the opportunity to get some special flour named Ruchmehl, which is used to make a darker bread in Switzerland. It is some sort of half-half wheat flour that provides a darker color to the crumb and nutty flavor. This flour is widely used in Switzerland for their daily bread.

The process was quite standard.

Levain:

10 g starter

50 g Ruchmhel

50 g water

Matured for about 18 hrs, which produced some sour notes to the bread flavor.

Dough:

All levain

245 g Ruchmehl

One of my favorite books on bread is Lionel Vatinet's A Passion for Bread. Ciabatta is a favorite of mine so it only seemed natural to try my hand at his version. I also wanted to see how well my hands would handle this wet dough.

Just getting back to baking after extended Spring vacation in Hawaii. 

600g bread flour

150g Red Fife

150g Kamut

100g AYW levain built using one time feed of flour to AYW and left in warm oven a couple hours. Was VERY active

100g Rye levain- did several builds over a few hours to get my 10g of stored starter active again. Left in warm oven all night. Stirred down the next morning and fed again and left for a few hours. 

550 g total liquid - 300g AYW + 250 H2O ( additional water on counter for s&f approx 50-100 g)

All Is (not) Lost.. first let me say that I'm referring to this weekend's bake and the movie by a similar name - All is Lost with Robert Redford (100% rotten tomatoes in my book).

Last week I made a Honey Oat Loaf with all purpose, bread and a tiny amount of whole-wheat flour. This week I decided to use Canadian maple syrup as the sap is flowing in these parts and amp'd up the whole wheat flour and hydration as I always find that loaf a bit dry to handle. I also thought I should increase the hydration given the increased whole wheat flour content.

fired up my wood oven yesterday for first time this season. Made my whole dinner in it even desert. Next nice day I’m ready for bread

It was time to start clearing out the fridge of ends and bits of stuff, mostly dried fruit, left over from previous bakes. Unfortunately, I didn’t get through all the bits but a lot of them found themselves into this bread.

Makes 3 loaves

Dough

151 g freshly milled sifted Red Fife flour (170 g Red Fife berries)

152 g freshly milled sifted Kamut flour (170 g Kamut berries)

97 g freshly milled sifted Einkorn flour (115 g Einkorn berries)

552 g unbleached flour

50 g freshly ground flax seeds

Hello Freshloafers!  It's been a while.  I wanted to update a few things.  Mainly me : )   Looks like I could use some practice posting !

Always nice to check in once in a while and see so many of my favorite bakers, baking!

Here's a little helpful hint I came up with for making a fast banneton for your loaves.  Maybe other's have used this idea but I have never seen it.  SIMPLY use the top half of an egg carton...walla, instant banneton.  Just line it with parchment paper.

Based on Katie and Sarah’s recipe for whole wheat sourdough crackers, this is my humble adaptation:

200 grams of ‘discard’ (mine is a dark rye)

60 grams fat (coconut oil, butter, lard). Loving the coconut.

200 grams flour (spelt is great, white bread flour is good, dark rye is fine, white rye too)

1 teaspoon salt