OK ... if you insist! <grin>
QansasjayhawQ said:
My wife's a commercial bakery manager and I'll tell you this;
There's NOTHING in that store that looks as yummy as this!!
How did it taste? Can you provide a review of your own bread?
Thanks for posting this! I have been considering baking bread in the smoker . . .
Peace!
/Brother Dave
----------------------------------------
Thanks for your positive comment and question !
This bread (all credit to Thom Leonard's great formula) is our runaway favorite .... mainly because it seems to combine so many good features of white and wheat bread (without ever having the 'sawdust' characteristic of many wheat breads. While it is mostly white (bread) flour (26.5 oz), it has coarsely ground wheat flour (12 oz), dark rye flour (1 oz), spring water (24 oz), grey salt (0.8 oz), fermented levain .. [my sourdough starter = 50/50 water/flour] ... (10.6 oz). Another great characteristic is that it is very hard to really do anything to ruin it .... worst case is undercooking.
It does quite well anywhere between 450*F and 500*F .... trying to achieve internal temp of ~205*F. It's almost impossible to overcook it and even when accidentally burned, a slight bit of trimming and the bread is still great. I had a difficult time getting this cook temp down, once I let the fire get too hot, and it cooked for 45 minutes at almost 500*F.
Since my wife and I are normally the only 'consumers', the fact that this bread freezes exceptionally well is a great benefit. Whether we cut this large loaf in half, wrap and freeze ..... or .... make the formula into 2 loaves and freeze one, it is darn close to the same when we thaw and eat it weeks later.
Maggie Glezer's 'Artisan Baking Across America' has this formula and Thom's calamata olive version as well. If I could have only one breadbaking reference, that would be it. Peter Reinhart's 'The Breadbaker's Apprentice' is my alternate 'textbook' resource.
This bread has literally ruined our tolerance for most store-bought loaves and we bake it at least twice each month. Sorry to be a bit verbose, but I hope this responds to your comment.
<<
Hi Curt ! >> This does make great
'SANDWICHES' !!