Another advantage of vacation time is that I can bake bread again.  While the hands-on time preparing the dough is fairly small, I do need at least a solid day and a half without commitments to attend the various stages of mixing and developing the dough, plus baking time.  I had time this past weekend to do it, and my bread starter (going for at least five years now) was in good shape when I revivified it after it spent three mostly dormant days in the refrigerator during my New York trip.

Each batch of dough makes two good sized loaves, and because I wanted to put currants in some of the bread, I made two batches.  One batch was my favorite whole wheat levain recipe (about 90% whole grain, freshly milled organic flour); the other — with the currants — had a little more King Arthur Bread Flour (~15%) and the rest whole grain.  Following the Ken Forkish method (described in earlier posts), all four loaves came out as pretty and tasty as I had hoped.

The day I was baking, my lunch consisted of some toasted Iggy’s onion ficelle with Barbara’s hummus, Turkish black olives, a beet and micro-greens salad, and a glass of Estate Argyros Assyrtiko wine.

lunch of ficelle, hummus, and beet-micro greens salad

Beet and Micro-Greens Salad

whole wheat levain

Levain with currants inside, slightly elongated vs. a boule

whole wheat levain with currants