I am beginning to hone in on a few recipes that I want to try and nail down. The no-knead sourdough I have done before is one. Additionally, I have begin to attempt a worthy 100% wholemeal sandwich loaf, for the fam to use during the week.

Here's a breakdown of this last weekends recipes:

So far, I have had 2 successful sourdoughs with the no-knead recipe. The first, which I did with white bread flour 2 weeks ago in conjunction with the long-rise sourdough, came out surprisingly well. This last weekend, as you see in the pictures, was with wholemeal flour (save for the starter being all purpose). It came out great just like the first. So the next step this weekend is to try it with my new wholemeal starter, thus making it 100% wholemeal. I have high hopes...

The 100% Wholemeal Sourdough Sandwich Loaf was a first this weekend, and it's part of a master plan to make some breads that are both delicious and practical, in that they can be used not just for eating frenzies on the weekends, but for sandwiches and toast during the week when we are trying to be healthier. Thus the wholemeal approach. After-all, even though I am a trash compacter of terrible (i.e. delicious) food on the weekends, I am still primarily health conscious.

The blog I found the recipe on, called Sourdough Home, is a resource I had stumbled upon a month or so ago when I was searching for advice on how to make my week old stinky, hooch filled starter into a proper, lively bread worthy starter. It is there I learned about the need for the starter to double after every feeding, and how consistently to feed it (at least twice a day), and to feed it equal weight not volume or flour and water, and the other sorts of things to look for. Once I adopted some of the techniques, The Beast came to life, and has been growling ever since.

I also revisited the Amish Friendship Bread, which I had made on the fateful weekend away with the broken oven. This time around I included the oil that the recipe asked for - a whole cup per batch. The bread, as before, was delicious, only a bit more bread-like. Whereas before it was a bit chewy, almost like a mochi cake, now it was more like a moist coffee cake. Equally delicious, but I think the general consensus is leaving out the oil was actually better, and made it more unique. A happy accident indeed.

All in all it was a successful weekend, and somewhat less busy that the previous weekends. Slowly finding ways to dial down the intensity of the baking, and to increase the family QT. Getting there...