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I did my due diligence searching for anyone who had made this bread either without using a mixer or had made this as baguettes.  My search came up empty on both accounts.  So it was high time to take the plunge.  This is my first bake from Mr. Hamelman's book, although I did bake two of his pain au levain breads from formulae posted by someone somewhere on the Web.  This bread has a combination of castelvetrano and kalmata olives.

Just in time for World Bread Day 2016, I received my copy of Stanley Ginsberg's The Rye Baker in the mail.

this started off as a simple 1:2:3 sourdough And I fiddled with the flours and came up with something resembling Forkish's Field blend #2 quite unintentionally. then I started weighing the flours and found I didn't have what I wanted. ended up with

higrade flour 66%

rye  flour 20%

wholewheat flour 5% (all I had)

potato flour 8% 

salt 2%

My iteration of Hamelnan's Sourdough seed.

I used 3 flours (AP, Rye, and Golden buffalo) and four grains (soaked cracked rye , toasted sesame seeds, toasted sunflower seeds and soaked flax).

It is delicious filled w protein and nuttiness and all kinds of goodness.

My quest for “Old-Style” San Francisco Sourdough bread: A tasty digression

October, 2016

This trial builds on what I learned from my first two trials. It is a bit of a detour in that I have made some changes that, I hope, result in a bread more to my current taste, even though it deviates from the breads of the old style in having higher hydration and whole grain flours.

Last weekend I conducted an experiment to test the theory that a larger quantity of sourdough starter produces a more sour tasting bread. On the face of it, this seems obvious, but I thought I'd read an alternative theory. The alternative theory is that less starter means a slower-proofing dough, which means more time for the sour flavours to develop.

About a week ago, I made a bread with Carolina Reaper and Fatali peppers that was well received by my heat-loving friends at Roberto's Mexican restaurant in Sunnyvale. It felt like the theme could be explored little further, so I got another few peppers from the garden down the street. My intention was to make a very spicy chili lime sourdough bread with cilantro and a little bit of corn flour mixed in and using my brother's salty spice 'n seasoning mix in place of the salt. Although this turned out good and spicy, voices just kept asking for more cowbel...I mean "more peppers."

I say we have a challenge bake for this wonderful day which celebrates what we do every week!  Post them here the week of November 17th.  

Happy baking 

Old Shanghai (老上海- lǎo shàng hǎi), the 1930's Shanghai is one of my favorite eras in history just like old Manila. There's no's other era in my opinion where flair and flamboyance meet sophistication and class! It has this certain charm that's difficult to describe and resist. The fusion of East and West just harmonizes with each other; the buildings, the bridges, the alleys, the vehicles, the qipaos/cheongsams, everything! Shanghai was not called Paris of the East for no reason. If time travel will ever come true, it is sure to be one of the eras I will go back to!