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Well it was nearly a complete gong show, but fortunately the bread turned out nicely. I followed Ken Forkish's directions to the T this time with a now healthy and very active levain. I baked this a couple of weeks ago with a pretty new levain and also put the bulk ferment in the fridge overnight. A re-read of the formula revealed no refrigeration of the bulk fermentation. After an overnight on the counter, I had a huge volume of 80% hydration dough -- at least 3.5x grown in volume. 

After shaping I had my doubts the dough would fit into the banneton. My fears were confirmed.

12% rye, 12% whole wheat, around 73% hydration, baked in my enamel pots.

I LOVE this bread!!! I recently made two full batches with onion sliced so fine it disappears in the crumb. This time I followed the recipe to a T, for a change.

One of my best friends had a birthday recently and I thought the best thing I could send him was some New York style deli rye. I sent big Tom a loaf a year ago. Now Tom is well over 300 lbs and said the loaf lasted about two hours. Tom is also the best non commercial chef I have ever known with a gifted natural touch in the kitchen.

I used SAF for this one. (temperature is too low for my yeast to ferment these days)

Herb bread recipe number 5.  This recipe for lemon thyme bread needed a bit of testing before I was happy with it. The final version featured on mybreadandbrot.com is an easy recipe for a lovely soft flavourful bread.  A great way to make use of fresh thyme if you have some growing in your garden.  Lovely and citrussy, fresh and summery, almost worth baking just for the wonderful aroma.

It's freezing in Melbourne so I'm quite content to stay home in the warmth and bake comfort food lol

Sourdough Millers loaf from the Bourke Street Bakery cookbook.

Five Grain Sourdough loaf from The Fundamental Techniques Of Classic Bread Baking, The French Culinary Institute cookbook.

I received my two oval brotform yesterday and decided to bake for my friend. I knew I bought an 8" but they seemed smaller than expected. So, I did the volume test! I put in 3 cups of raw rice in the round brotform and did the same to the oval. I got the answer....they hold the same. My dough tend to proof quite a bit in fridge overnight and my final dough somehow weighed more than the usual, probably due to the bravery that I have nowadays on increasing dough hydration. Eventually, I persuaded myself to split it into two.

Homemade yeast, prepared black beans and barley ahead of time. Tripe B-campagne(black bean, barley and black sesame) it is.

So my Herb garden is thriving and I am so happy to have some lovely fresh herbs just outside my back door that I started a herb-bread blog feature.  Breads 2 and 3 are now posted on mybreadandbrot.com 

Bread 2;  Savoury picnic muffins, with basil, olives, feta and tomato.  These are lovely little muffins, super easy to make and packed with the flavours of greece

Bread 3; Rosemary potato bread.  An artisan whole wheat bread, with fresh rosemary and speckled with chunks of potato.  Really nice!

  I love potatoes in bread and in any other form as well as pecans so I figured it was time to use both of them again in a bread.

I recently milled some fresh whole wheat flour and still had some freshly milled durum and sprouted durum flour left over from a little while ago.  I decided to add some KAF high gluten flour to strengthen the dough a little and a little walnut oil just for good measure.