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Thanks to suggestions from this group, I have been on the "proverbial" quest for the perfect loaf of bread. Remembering that beauty is in the "eye of the beholder", I am happy with the look of this loaf, the time strategy, the equipment used, and the taste. I have the Bosch Universal Mixer. It is efficient, powerful, easy to clean and light weight, they have added an "extended dough hook. This is somewhat subject to the type of recipe. I needed a mixer that could easily be moved around. I finally got bannetons from Lucky Clover - reasonable and well made.

This was one of the most flavorful and nurturing loaves I've baked in a long time. I started with the recipe on page 192 of Tartine Book No 3 but used a flaked 5 grain cereal from a local store in place of the oats. I inoculated a porridge of 250 g water and 250 g grain with 1 T leaven and forgot about it for a week, at the end of which time it had an inviting sweet smell.

Lately I have been messing about with keeping things very simple, and adding lecithin to my doughs to make them softer.

So far it's been a wild and unexpected journey this year. Who would've thought, I'd stray into a different direction: sourdough doughnuts.

I had intended to try baguettes again a few weekends ago, but some cookbook photos of a pain d’épi changed my mind. So much crust on these!

I made a basic baguette following this formula:

-       500 g levain

-       750 g AP flour

-       10 g salt

-       0.5 teaspoon instant yeast

-       430 g water

This is the actually the second attempt.  The first loaves stuck to the bannetons.  Much soul searching ensued.  I have found both times that the dough is quite sticky to work with.  I made several changes this time:

A few years ago, I bought a Hearth Kitchens, HearthKit which has been sitting in my basement unused.  In the past, this was in demand and i'm wondering if anyone on the Fresh Loaf is interested in buying it from me. If so, let me know!  Thanks for your interest!

This is my take on Melon Pan, a Japanese bread. Several TFLers have already posted this here, here and even the admin himself here. It's an interesting bread and suits Japanese/Asian tastes well; a soft enriched dough is wrapped with a cookie (most likely a sugar cookie) dough, rolled in sugar then scored before proofing and baking.

This bread is adapted from Hamelman's formula for 40% Rye Caraway Sourdough. Formula was exactly the same save that I omitted the yeast and method was different.

A swirl of buttery layers that gets fried in a pan. Made with 50% semolina and 50% bread flour. Eat warm when it gets out of the pan. So good on its own that you really don't need anything except iced tea or a glass of wine with it.