Sourdough Cornmeal-Flour, Raisin & Saffron Boules. My continuing adventures in

Thank you so much for sharing your recipe with us.

I've wanted to work on yeast breads for a long time - in fact, I was ready to offer to work for free in a local bakery just to get the feel of a good yeast bread when it suddenly closed. I'm on my Spring break now and between a couple of trips, I wanted to get back into my kitchen. Do you prefer the sourdough starter from Breadtopia over the one from King Arthur Flour? I was ready to order one yesterday and was glad that I read this post. Thank you for your help!

 
Just placed my order at breadtopia and my SASE is ready to send to Carl's.

Hoping that one of the starters arrive during my 2 week vacation. I have a batch of whole wheat pizza dough and a loaf of cinnamon raisin bread on my agenda today. I'm going to figure out these yeasty beasties yet. Thanks for your tips - I really appreciate it!

 
The breadtopia comes quickly, the Carl's can take awhile. If you're in a hurry to get the carls,

just let me know and I could probably put some active starter in a little zip-lock for you and ship sooner.

 
By the way, when you start making sourdough, I've found that the one grain that doesn't lend itself

flavor-wise to sour, is whole-wheat. I put SOME in certain breads but a full sourdough whole-wheat loaf just doesn't taste "right" to me.

 
How very kind of you!! Maybe I should start with the breadtopia's starter

to see if I can keep it alive. (I'm not good with plants! But, I did keep a carnival fish alive for 4 years!) I read the information about reviving the Carl's starter - I'll probably be sending you an SOS when I get it. (How great of them to keep his legacy going after he passed - I was so inspired that I made donations and filled out envelopes for several friends of mine. I guess the real reason would be one of us should be able to revive it!) Thanks for the offer!

 
I will definitely file this information away in my notebook under "Good to Know"

Steve, I really appreciate you sharing your wealth of information and experiences with us. I missed that after I lost track of Gail's Swap.

 
Have you seen Amy Scherber's version of Chocolate Cherry Rolls?

Spent some time in a corner of Borders and was flipping through Amy Scherber's book. She uses a cup of brewed coffee in her chocolate cherry bread. She also puts a cast iron skillet on the floor of her oven plus a small mini loaf pan. 5 to 10 minutes before putting in the rolls (she splits the dough into 12 rolls), she puts 3 ice cubes into the mini loaf pan. After placing the rolls into the oven, she pours a cup of boiling water into the skillet. 2 minutes later, she adds a 1/2 of water to the skillet. She reduces the heat after 10 minutes and continues baking for another 10 - 12 minutes. Interesting technique. I've found that coffee does enhance the flavor of chocolate in baked goods.
Now, just trying to decide if I want to go back tonight and get the book - she's very detailed in her directions and techniques. She may be a good resource to taming the yeasty beasties.

 
Coffee and chocolate go really well together and I thought I'd try that another time however, the

finished bread tasted really chocolaty.

Amy's method of using a cast iron pan to infuse steam into her oven is classic and I've done it myself however, when using the "no-knead" method, the dough is intrinsically very wet so cooking it in a covered cast iron casserole achieves the same effect as steaming a traditional dough on an open pan in the oven.

After years of hand-kneading bread-dough until my fingers cramped, the no-knead method has rocked my world. Not only is the finished product as good as any I've made the traditional way but frequently better.

I've always been happy to share my recipes with this community. After all, isn't that why we came here in the first place?

 
And to think that I was going to be able to skip the gym on the days I kneaded bread.

One of my brunch friends dropped off an early Easter present for me... The Bread Baker's Apprentice. (He saw me flip through the book at Borders yesterday.) Its quite a resource for Bread Bakers, but if your no knead method proves to be as successful for me, it may just earn a place on my bookshelf with all of my other cookbooks.

 
I started out with Ed Wood's "World Sourdoughs of Antiquity" then, BBA. Moved on to

Reinhart's "Brother Juniper's" (don't waste your time) and finished off with Nancy Silverton's "La Brea Bakery" book.

I'm going to check out Leahy's No Knead book from the library then, I'll continue on my own. As it is, the last few versions (Saffron-Raisin, Chocolate-Cherry and Fig-Fennel Rye) have been of my own design. The Fig & Fennel is truly outstanding.

 
I have to admit that BBA is a bit intimidating for me at this time.

Have you heard of or checked out Artisan Breads in 5 Minutes? My neighbor laughed when he saw that I reading my dusted off copy of La Brea Bakery by the pool today. Just waiting for the starter from breadtopia to arrive!

 
Don't let it intimidate you. Use it for research rather than instructions. While I haven't

read the Artisan Breads in 5 minutes, it seems entirely possible. Of course, as soon as you add natural levains, you add days to the process. Not to say you work at it much longer but reviving, then activating a starter can take a bit of time. It's not difficult, you just have to be patient.

I'm sure you'll do just fine. Initially, you'll take some missteps but not to worry, if I can do it, anyone can.

 
I have the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes book, and have been making the basic bread.

I've made several batches, and it sure is easy and so far foolproof. You mix the bread with a wooden spoon in a 5 quart ice cream pail, put the pail in the refrigerator, and the next day you have the makings of 4 small artisan loaves. The mix keeps 2 weeks. Perfect for 2 people. I haven't tried the variations yet.

 
KC, I have been baking that same recipe and sometimes

I just make 1/3 of the batch the night before, let it rise overnight on the counter, and then bake it in the morning for breakfast.

 
Thanks for the very premature vote of confidence.

Breadtopia sent me a message that my starter has been shipped, so I will be waiting for my postman to show up daily. (Hopefully, the delivery won't be on a cancelled Saturday!) I am making a loaf of the Whole Wheat Cranberry Walnut bread that I posted - not in a bread machine, so we'll see how this bakes up in another couple of hours. I've done the tapping the bottom and listening for a hollow sound, but may just invest in an instant read thermometer soon.

 
I made that walnut cranberry bread in the bread machine the other day. it is delicous, but

it's a very big loaf and it raised up to the top and stuck to the lid and did not bake right on the very top. So, I took the bread out of the pan and put it in the oven for about 15 minutes. I should have wrapped the bottom half in foil because that part that baked well in the machine got too brown, but, it is still delicious. Next time I would either take out some of the dough and make a small loaf in the oven while the rest baked in the machine, or just make the dough and bake 2 loaves in the oven, or reduce the recipe to make a smaller loaf. I would also add a T or so of orange zest. I will be making it again.

 
Now I'm going to have to show my complete ignorance...

Is the E sized Le Creuset the 5 1/2 qt.??
I just want to be ready to roll when my starter arrives. (Will I need to give it a few days to recuperate from its journey?)

 
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