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Hi everybody,

I‘m making Stollen for the first time and I noticed that my Kitchen Aid Artisan model electric mixer had the hardest time mixing the dough, so much that I kept holding the head to minimize the shaking.

The recipe called for 4 cups of flour but I‘ve made other breads with that quantity without noticing any strain on the mixer. Has this happened to anybody while making this Christmas bread?

Thanks, I’d  appreciate any ideas or commentaries.

Didn't know making panettone was a challenge until I read a recent article on the New York Times referring to this traditional Italian bread as "the Mount Everest of baking."  I tasted an exceptional piece of panettone made by Jim Lahey. Met him on his book tour in New York city when he spoke about his new book The Sullivan Street Bakery Cookbook. How difficult could it be to make the panettone armed with a detailed five-page recipe in the cookbook? This is what I've found.

This week I made some sourdough focaccia! One of them was plain with just olive oil, rosemary, and flaked salt, and the other was made into a tart topped with shallots, bird's eye chili, and rosemary, then brushed with jalapeno honey after coming out of the oven. 

Sorry for the subversive reference but it had to said as I am convinced the sourdough heads are kinda hooked on the stuff ;) <- little wink to soften the blow ... Shoot! And theres another one ... Eek ! 

Ok, moving on, so here's a little sourdough batard accompanied by the usual 'yeasted' bake but, done with a twist and wondering if I have broken any cardinal rules.

have been looking for the perfect loaf to go with the many cheeses I always have in my fridge and I believe I am on to something. :) I have prepared this though on a weekend and baked it straight from the fridge on a Monday morning - it definitely chased away my Monday morning blues. 

I love how the buttery and nutty taste of the kamut and spelt compliment the sweetness of the figs and the rolled oats that cover the loaf make the crust extra crunchy. 

There it goes:

1. Prepare your starter in advance.

2. Leave to rest for 8-12 hours.

After Abel posted his 90% Biga @45% hydration (70% overall) a few heads were turned and some fast commitments made to reproduce this bread.  Mine too.  Some questions were left unanswered, i.e. the optional levain hydration, baking temp and time.  So some jeri-rigging was needed. 

Biga hand mixed, not "crumbly" as advised.

Final dough ingredients incorporated.

These 3 miniloaves, approximately 300 grams each, were made from the same dough, kneaded and bulk fermented all together. It is 75% hydration whole wheat (all red spring wheat) plus 2% salt- simple lean dough. About 4.5 hr bulk fermented at room temp, about 23 C/74 F. Divided, preshape, shape, put on floured towel. Final proof was 1 hr for right one, 1.5 hr for middle, 2 hrs for left. Middle and left look about the same and a bit better than right. But not sure it wasn’t just better shaping and scoring. 

Will find out later what the inside looks like. 

I took the Tartine Country Rye recipe and added whole wheat.

Ingredients:

• 300g bread flour
• 115g whole wheat
• 85g rye flour
• 400g water
• 100g mature levain 
• 10g salt

After combining (yesterday afternoon) and a few turns in the bucket, that dough sat in the fridge overnight. This morning I went to shape it and had a hard time working with it. Just that little bit of Rye really made it sticky. But the good news is that my starter did just fine!