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Hello everyone,

As most of you know, Chinese New Year is February 19 this year and to celebrate the Year of the Goat, I baked one at my bakery I work part-time at. The quality is a little shoddy on my cellphone camera but I'm still really proud of it considering it's my 3rd decorated bread I've done at work!

Originally, the head baker was going to shape the bread, but he forgot about the spare dough until just before his shift ended. So he entrusted the dough with me and this is what I did:

After making some Mexican influenced bialy’s last year and rightly catching heck from the onion and poppy seed bialy purists that the Mexican creation really can’t be called bialy’s, joyfulbaker came up with a new name for them – bialotta’s since they carry on Lucy’s penchant for mega topping and add ins.  Lucy added the Da in front and now they are called DaBialotta’s.  The original Dabialotta’s can be found here: Herbed Bialy's – Multigrain, Caramelized Oni

As it turns out, the only bread style that could tear me away from my preoccupation with the intricacies of batard shaping and scoring is a style that shines brightest with the least possible handling. The process of guiding the ciabatta from bulk container to baking stone is uniquely challenging and satisfying.

Been adding/improving some of my formulas of late.  I have a most excellent chocolate brownie recipe but have been tinkering with my cocoa brownie for some time.  The most recent bake was my favorite yet so I thought I'd share.  Why bother when I have a great chocolate brownie recipe already?  Well they are quite different and a cocoa brownie is much more affordable to make as good chocolate gets pricey fast.  And maybe that bit of crazy has something to do with it as well.  

This summer we had the occasion to pass by the King Arthur bakery and store in Norwich, VT several times. The cafe is quite good, and we tried to time our visits for lunch or dinner. Of course, we always pick up some bread to scope out too. One of these was a walnut ciabatta that had a remarkably nutty flavor. Couldn't figure out what was in there until I saw a 'walnut raisin ciabatta' in V2 of Hamelman: ah, toasted wheat germ.

I know its February already (where did the time go?) but I just finished typing up my first submission for my Bread-o-lution project.

Its very simple - one loaf a month, something new, something reasonably challenging, something good enough to share with you lovely people.

This month - sourdough cottage loaf - full recipe and pictures on my blog here

Verdict: wonky but tasty 

At the urging of my wife, I recently started breaking out of my weekly bake of FWSY boules in the combo-cooker. My first baguettes were a disaster. One was actually vaguely obscene. While working up the courage to have another go, I tried a couple of batards (http://www.thefreshloaf.com/node/41526/intro-and-todays-bake) which came out pretty well and gave me more confidence in my ability to generate enough steam.

As the winter season is still in full swing up north I thought it'd be appropriate to post an old school pain d' epice or as it's better known gingerbread. This recipe was inspired by Pierre Herme's Alsatian specialty and is quite similar to his creation in format as well as yield. I've adapted some of the proportions and ingredients to better suit a North American product. I would also like to note that spices in the recipe are variable to the baker's taste and should absolutely be adjusted if you see fit.

This Batard i made without any fresh or instant yeast. After an autolyse of half an hour I mixed everything by hand and kneaded it till it was nice and firm. Then I let it rest for two hours during stretchs and folds every half an hour before I two batards and put them in the fridge (ca 10°C) for 18 hours.

590 g Flour
380 g Water

- Autolyse

120 g Sourdough (100% hydration)
14 g Salt

67 % Hydration, 9 % leavening