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I haven't posted in ages, and maybe I have never posted to my blog here, but I'm so excited!  What you see is my starter that I'm calling Gem Island Truffle because of it's savory not too sour taste and aroma.

I captured it and nursed it along from a feeble beginning.  It finally began to show signs of being strong enough to push up some bread.  What wonderful bread it was!

I bought an enormous amount of hazelnuts last week with the intention of doing a double batch of hazelnut and currant loaves over the weekend. Not long after the nuts went into the oven to toast up, I got a call from my brother, forgot to set the timer, we had a nice leisurely catch up and...well, you know how this story goes. While I do not recommend burning $18 worth of nuts, I do recommend creativity in troubleshooting and using what you have on hand.

I've been buying online Type 85 High Extraction flour from New York Bakers located in the San Diego area. Fair price and prompt delivery. Today I ordered the French flour type 65 for baguettes. Here is link:

https://nybakers.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&zenid=d85fad6c65081b6ef2b3cb9246ff2d24&keyword=type+65&…

Even though I have enough bread in stock to get us through the long weekend, I have been mighty restless with the enforced rest caused by my sprained foot.  I knew that I didn't feel safe with juggling the high temps for loaves while on crutches, but that stunning front page display from isand66 got me wondering about making some rolls...

With that in the back of my mind, I noticed that I had some pumpkin puree hanging out in my freezer for a while, so that image joined in with the rolls idea...

A sad over-proofed loaf - July 18, 2017

Me making cinnamon rolls

https://youtu.be/X5XRL-fQq64

With the forecast for cooler temps and a plan in place for a comfortably paced bake, I naturally had to find some ways to mess with it...

This is how it really works in my kitchen:

LEVAIN:

A couple of days in advance, pull out 10g of 65% hydration rye starter from fridge, feed with 40g / 40g, be concerned that it takes over 10 hours to do anything, and decide to

a) refresh the main rye starter since it obviously is getting low on yeast, and

b) refresh the durum starter just in case it is getting too acidic and low on yeast, too, and

While it's not my husband's favourite, I definitely have a soft spot for a 100% whole "wheat" bread.  I use the loose definition of "wheat" to include spelt, khorasan (Kamut), durum, and the modern hard red and soft white varieties, and like to mix them up for their various flavours and what they bring to the dough.

My "wheat" starter is durum, so I built the levain entirely with fresh milled whole durum, using the really warm days leading up to my planned bake day.  I didn't plan on needing much, since this was to be a smaller loaf, mostly for myself.

With the freezer stock down to a few rolls, a couple of slices of pumpernickel, and some milk bread, I was more than happy to see that the forecast for the 28th was for 21 deg C, with clouds and showers.  We don't have air conditioning, and heating the oven to 240 deg C or higher for multiple hours leaves the main floor unbearable when the outside temps are in the 30's, as they had been for too many days.  With hopes for a day where I could bake semi-comfortably, I pulled out some of my durum and rye main starters and started building some levains.  The plan was for a large p

I have lots of packets of seeds and grains kicking around so I thought it was time to get using them. As usual the ideal recipe was found in a list of blog entries by our own DMSnyder I keep bookmarked. 

http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/16957/5grain-sourdough-rye-sourdough-hamelman039s